We talk about it as though it’s a princess in a tower that needs defending. The poor environment—it needs help! We must protect it from the big evil corporation! Let us chain ourselves to trees to save it!

I’m poking fun at some very dedicated people here, and I don’t mean to show them disrespect. But the idea of the environment as something to be shielded from the evil impulses of humankind is both antiquated and completely inaccurate.

Where is this “environment” of which we speak? Where would you draw a line between it and anything else? Put in a bit of thought and the environment soon reveals itself to be literally everything—by definition there is nothing separate from it. From strip-mining to socializing, every thing and every action is part of it. Business, culture, nature are all fused into one reality. We breathe it, eat it, are actually made out of it. There are no outlines to be drawn.

(photo by alykat via flickr)

Seen from this point of view, we can begin to understand that our debtors’ economy, social issues, and even the wars we fight are all environmental problems. They are signals that the way we interact with capital, with the physical world, and with each other are all in need of sorting out. The same limited thinking that causes environmental devastation also causes social injustice, economic confusion, and widespread isolation. (These destructive thought patterns and how they are changing will be a hot topic here on The Sunny Way in the weeks to come.)

Our saving grace is this: a problem with many facets also offers many solutions, and every small change has an impact on the health of the whole. In this way, improving your relationships and saying “good morning” to your neighbor are eco-friendly choices, which pile up and eventually reveal themselves to be building blocks of a cleaner, friendlier future.

Thinking about the environment in this way, I’ve come to feel that we need a better term to get all this across. Maybe we could replace “the environment” with “everything” ... As in, What are your plans for making “everything” better when you are president, Mr/Ms Candidate? I suppose it works okay, but it lacks a poetic ring.

Could we try “the totality”? In a sample sentence: Wow, rampant consumerism sure has screwed up “the totality.” I do like how it sounds all sci-fi, but people who support “the totality” might have to be called “totalitarians,” and that is not at all what we are going for.

The simplest term—“life”—might turn out to be the best. “Life" must be supported in everything we do.

Can you get behind that slogan? Let us know in the comments.