The Result of Not Living Simply

While this blog focuses on the world through the eyes of philosophical Taoism, it would be incorrect to write that ONLY Taoists urge us to live simply. Many native religions, pagans, Buddhism, Zen Buddhism and even some aspects of the Abrahamic religions stress this same motif too. As the saying goes, when we lead simpler lives, we allow others to simply live!

This point is underscored by the release of a report by the World Wildlife Fund.

The latest Living Planet report, published today by the conservation group, also reveals the extent to which modern Western lifestyles are plundering natural resources from the tropics at record levels.

The report shows the impact of living off the planet's "savings": in the last 40 years human consumption has doubled, while the Living Planet index - measuring the decline and increase of thousands of species on land, in rivers and at sea - has declined by 30% overall, and by a massive 60% in the tropics...

These findings represent another ugly reality that, those of us in the industrialized world, are stealing from those in the unindustrialized world. In order to maintain our high pie-in-the-sky lifestyles, we must appropriate that needed by others to sustain a minimal lifestyle.

If we led more simpler lives, there would be more than enough to go around. The fact that we are each so greedy and selfish is a damning commentary onto itself.