Saturday, July 27, 2013

How are hospitality and environmentalism related?

A recent blog post I read on climate change sparked a bunch of thoughts about the nature of hospitality, which I’d like to share here. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “hospitable” as “given to generous and cordial reception of guests; promising or suggesting generous and cordial welcome; offering a pleasant or sustaining environment.” While we typically associate hospitality with generosity and provision, it also implies protection.

The crucial component of protection in hospitality was well-established in ancient Middle-Eastern cultures. Travelers passing through (who did not have land, status, or a means of protecting themselves) were completely dependent on codes of hospitality for their survival. Hospitality wasn’t solely about providing food, water and shelter. Hospitality implied physical protection. Travelers would not be mugged, beaten, or raped when passing through a hospitable community.

In modern times, we continue to recognize that hospitality and protection remain a fundamental moral value. For example, if I invite you into my apartment as a guest, I will take full responsibility for your safety and protection while you are here. I will do everything possible to prevent harm from coming to you, even if that means I am harmed myself.

But what does hospitality have to do with the environment? In my thinking, a crucial question facing the earth’s present residents is: “What moral responsibilities do we have to ensure that earth is a hospitable place?”

I would argue that, prior to the 1900’s, the earth seemed to have unlimited resources. We could cut down forests, burn petroleum, and hunt wildlife as much as we needed. Once we completely tapped a certain location/stash of resources, we could easily move onto the next area to get what we need.

When the earth’s population was smaller, it seemed very reasonable to dump pollution into our local environment. Ecosystems were able to effectively absorb a certain amount of pollution. Once a community polluted a certain region so much that it became uncomfortable to live there, they simply moved on to a fresh, unpolluted area.

Now, things are different. We have 7 billion people living on earth. We’ve pulled a significant amount of the earth’s petroleum out of the ground. We’ve burned that petroleum, converting it into carbon dioxide. That extra CO2 is now floating around in the atmosphere. These facts are undeniable – you might not like it, but this is reality.

A question I have going forward, is “what exactly will be the long term effects of increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere?” I don’t think anyone can say for sure what will be the exact outcome of this. There are definitely a significant number of scientists who predict that this change will have a major impact on how humans experience life on earth. If I end up living another 4 or 5 decades, I am very curious to see how these scientists’ predictions pan out.

In the meantime, we need to be honest about our fundamental moral responsibility of providing hospitality and protection. In my opinion, this responsibility goes beyond simply welcoming people into our homes as guests. It means that we are also responsible for how we impact the environment around us. If our actions produce an environment which becomes inhospitable to the point where earth can no longer sustain 7 or 8 billion people, we will be held accountable for that outcome.

We brought nothing into this world, and we can take nothing out of it. We are guests on earth. Our children and grandchildren will also be guests on earth. We owe them hospitality.

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