Asking questions is an underutilized and essential art in creating a humane world. There's so much that we assume, take for granted, and don't know. Spurring ourselves to ask questions can help ensure that our choices are aligned with our deepest values for nurturing a just, compassionate, healthy world.One set of questions we can ask involves exploring the impact of our product choices. Before we buy something we can ask: Is it a want or a need? How was it produced/how did it get to be here, and what will happen to it when I’m done with it? Who was helped or harmed in its creation? How can I get my need/desire met in a way that does the most good and least harm?
One of the activities we have all our students do is to take an inventory of items in their kitchens, bathrooms, and closets and ask themselves questions about the foods, cleaning products, personal care items, electronic gadgets, furnishings, clothes and other stuff they find. We ask them to consider what they know about how the items were produced and about the effects of their production, use, and disposal on people, animals, and the environment. We ask them to consider what they know about the resources used in their production, and about any potential health consequences (positive and negative) and/or suffering they caused to people and/or animals.
We also ask them to choose one item and to fully trace its impacts – from raw materials to use to disposal – examining its effects throughout its lifecycle on themselves, other people, animals, and the environment. To do all this requires asking a lot of questions.
One of the activities we have all our students do is to take an inventory of items in their kitchens, bathrooms, and closets and ask themselves questions about the foods, cleaning products, personal care items, electronic gadgets, furnishings, clothes and other stuff they find. We ask them to consider what they know about how the items were produced and about the effects of their production, use, and disposal on people, animals, and the environment. We ask them to consider what they know about the resources used in their production, and about any potential health consequences (positive and negative) and/or suffering they caused to people and/or animals.
We also ask them to choose one item and to fully trace its impacts – from raw materials to use to disposal – examining its effects throughout its lifecycle on themselves, other people, animals, and the environment. To do all this requires asking a lot of questions.
Give inventorying your home a try, and start asking questions about your stuff and its impacts. The more you learn, the more you'll become aware of those impacts and how they align with your values.
For a little inspiration, check out WorldWatch's selection of life-cycle studies on a whole slew of products. Although their analyses mainly focus on environmental impacts, these brief overviews give you an idea of how our toothpaste, candy, palm oil, and even how we bury our dead impacts the planet.
You might also want to check out the compact but mighty book Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things by John Ryan and Alan Durning. It explores the impacts of some of our daily choices. For those of you who are teachers, there's also a downloadable curriculum (pdf) that explores the concepts introduced in Stuff.
~ Marsha
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