Reification

Sustainability is complex. In one way, it's an action (to recycle, to not pollute, etc), in other it's a lifestyle choice, and in another it's a state of mind. Should we really need to be asking ourselves how to save the earth? Should we not, as the "omniscient" human, have realized that our interference with nature, our taming of the untamed, our controlling of the wild is the problem? It's that frame of mind, thinking that "humans have the answer", that we are in this mess. Sustainability is our best human answer to this problem. Sustainability is our way of trying to fix what we cannot undo. But this is our problem. Everyone turns to sustainability, but no one knows what this is exactly. The term reification comes to mind which is the attempt to define an abstract concept in concrete terms. I'm going to agree with Jack Turner in that one of the main problems is "the majority of Americans no longer know this experience of the wild" (Abstract Wild). How can we save and connect with that which we don't understand? Unfortunately, I do not have any of the answers and have no idea how to find them, but that doesn't mean we stop looking.