Conservation

Conservation is not a new word in our evolving society. It’s a recycled word. Over and over again we have all endured momentary shortages of various things that make life more pleasant. Whenever that happens we bring back the word conservation in the hopes that we will not suffer a permanent loss of what we now consider a necessity of life.

Trying not to panic, we drag out the latest data to see how much of this resource still exists, and how long it will be before we run out completely given our present rate of consumption. I have noticed that for the most part it is almost always our children or grandchildren who will suffer from our over-indulgences. We always fondly refer to them as the next generation when we include other peoples children in our analysis.

I don’t mind the scare tactics too much, but the guilt they attempt to lay at my feet is sometimes more than I can bear. In an attempt to understand, I stop for a moment and try to recall what I am responsible for using up in my lifetime so the next guy got none. The first thought that came to mind was the last cookie in the cookie jar, or that time when I got the last doughnut off the plate and refused to cut it in half and leave it as sacrificial lamb for the conservation god. It’s amazing how often that last half of a doughnut goes into the trash the next day.

Although that makes it easier to understand, I still haven’t discovered any nonrenewable resources that I can claim to have helped wipe out. I guess the next generation doesn’t have too much to fear from me for after all. Still, conservation must have some value or we wouldn’t keep bringing it up. There are times when there is a real fuss about something, and I get a glimpse of a preservationist hiding in conservationist clothing. These “all or nothing” extremes can sometimes give the conservation movement a black eye.

In the real world the business community and the consumers they respond to seem to have been the final word on conservation for quite awhile now. We have a great phrase we use for this. We call it “supply and demand.” It has been controlling our nonrenewable natural resources for thousands of years now. The lower the supply levels and the greater the demand always raises the price. If the price gets too high we stop using it, buying it, and wasting it. Presto; we have conservation.

Given all these built-in controls we wonder why conservation still comes up whenever there is a shortage with another effort to curb our excesses. This is probably the true motivation for the conservationists movement in their efforts to get us to get control of our urge to consume everything in our path like a planetary lawnmower (save the rainforest) or any other well-oiled machine (we are running out of crude oil) we might be using to plunder the planet. They are doing it for our own good. That last cookie in the cookie jar is usually old and stale anyway. I will let them have it.