|
|
| Back to the Table of Contents |
Cooperating for the
Future
|
Commentary
|
by Ruth Ann Smalley
|
This morning I looked at an
online photograph of an Inupiaq house, dangling on a sea bank as the
ice melts in western Alaska. This evening I came home to find my
neighbors paddling canoes and kayaks in the newly formed lake at the
end of my street. This afternoon’s storm had rapidly deposited an
unprecedented amount of water in that low area, and homeowners walked
about in shock, asking each other about their basements.
As news of drastic climate events accumulates, all but those in deep
denial are beginning to connect the dots. In case there was any doubt,
the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London
recently determined that we’ve left the Holocene period, and entered
the “Anthropocene” epoch. This, according to journalist Mark Davis, is
“an Earth epoch defined by the emergence of urban-industrial society as
a geological force.” We’re beginning to see the destructive effects of
this force — not just on the news, but in our own daily lives. We’re
examining many of our past decisions and practices, and wondering how
to prepare to meet the unknown challenges of the Anthropocene future.
It seems to me that there’s never been a better time to belong to a
cooperative.
A look at our definition and values gives a good explanation of why
this is so:
Definition: A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons
united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural
needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically
controlled enterprise.
Values: Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help,
self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the
tradition of their founders, cooperative members believe in the ethical
values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for
others.
As we enter a time of potential chaos, we may come to rely for our very
survival on organizations like cooperatives, based on authentic
relationships with a common goal of meeting our needs and caring about
one another. This model stands as a counterpoint, and remedy to,
corporate-dominated capitalism. I don’t think it is grandiose to assert
that, as forward-looking cooperative members, we can play an important
role in laying the groundwork for positive economic, social and
environmental transformation.
It has been argued that “when 5 percent of society accepts a positive
social change idea, it becomes ‘embedded.’ After this, it will still
take a lot of networking and educating before 20 percent of the
population comes to embrace the idea; beyond this point, the idea
generally becomes unstoppable” (Uhl). With the store itself as the
embodiment of the change we wish to create, and with the cooperative
principles informing our efforts at networking and educating, we can
act as an Anthropocene force for good. Twenty percent doesn’t seem
beyond our reach, especially if we’re acting in concert with other
cooperatives.
I’d like to underscore this as we continue our planning and fundraising
for the new store. We have a chance to create a building that will
allow us to carry on with business and carry forward our values, while
having a lighter ecological footprint than a conventional grocery
store. This building has the potential to be an educational force, as
well. Environmental design professor David Orr has written passionately
about the role of ecological design in public life:
There is little sense in only selling greener products to a consumer
whose mind is pre-ecological. Sooner or later that person will find
environmentalism inconvenient, or incomprehensible, or too costly and
will opt out. The goal is to calibrate human behavior with ecology,
which requires a public that understands ecological possibilities and
limits. To that end we must begin to see our houses, buildings, farms,
businesses, energy technologies, transportation, landscapes, and
communities in much the same way that we regard classrooms. In fact,
they instruct in more fundamental ways because they structure what we
see, how we move, what we eat, our sense of time and space, how we
relate to each other, our sense of security, and how we experience the
particular places in which we live. More important, by their scale and
power, they structure how we think, often limiting our ability to
imagine better alternatives.
In Orr’s view, we can have an impact on our ability to think about
better alternatives, simply by the choices we make about the building
that will house our cooperative. That’s an opportunity we can’t afford
to miss. And how we contribute as shareholders can make a huge
difference.
With this in mind, I encourage you to consider what you can offer to
the ongoing membership drive. You may not be able to do much,
personally, to prevent the many buildings destined to sink or be
inundated in the coming global storms. But you can be part of a local
construction process that instructs in, and holds out hope for, a
regenerative future.
|
| Sources: |
Davis, Mike. 2008. “Living
on the Ice Shelf: Humanity’s Meltdown” (June 26). http://www.truthout.org/article/living-ice-shelf-humanitys-melt-down.
Orr, David. 2002. The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Human
Invention.
Uhl, Christopher. 2004. Developing Ecological Consciousness. Excerpted
in “Discussion Course on Choices for Sustainable Living,” Northwest
Earth Institute, 2005.
|
| Back to the Table of Contents |
|
|
|
