Work Less -- Save the Earth...?

Here's an interesting angle that might be worth some thought...or action...

I'll be the first on my block to try it!

Besides summer vacation is coming up...I'll try to "work" on it then!

http://grist.org/

"Now here's a theory we can get behind: workaholism is ruining the earth. "We are proudly breaking our backs to decrease the carrying capacity of the planet," says Conrad Schmidt, proponent of the 32-hour work week, who declares that overwork leads to overconsumption, pollution, and less fulfilling life experience.

If there's anyone who needs to take the message to heart, it's Americans, who work more hours than anyone else in the industrialized world -- a full 500 hours more per year than Germans. Not coincidentally, the U.S. is also the world's largest polluter and produces half the world's solid waste, and a paper issued by the Center for Economic and Policy Research finds that Europeans would consume up to 30 percent more energy by 2050 if they worked like Americans. Says CEPR co-director Mark Weisbrot, "Because there's no limit to what we can consume, a change of values has to take place if the planet stands a chance of survival."

http://www.alternet.org/environment/52077/

Comments

[delan]

Here' some philosophical support:
Critics say modern philosophy is a useless waste of time. They are wrong. At its best, modern philosophy tells us how to waste time usefully. Philosophy's great recent achievement, in this respect and perhaps overall, is the theory of structured procrastination.

In a 1995 paper, Structured Procrastination, John Perry, a professor of philosophy at Stanford University, explains: "I have been intending to write this essay for months. Why am I finally doing it? Because I finally found some uncommitted time? Wrong. I have papers to grade, textbook orders to fill out, a National Science Foundation proposal to referee, dissertation drafts to read. I am working on this essay as a way of not doing all of those things. This is the essence of what I call structured procrastination, an amazing strategy I have discovered that converts procrastinators into effective human beings, respected and admired for all that they can accomplish, and the good use they make of time." from the BBC

[Fitz]

Good post! I'm practicing it right now!

I love Bob Lanes post. Can we get him a blog?

[Janet]

here you go...my Uncle Bob...

http://vibccanada.blogspot.com/