This questionnaire was first published in Worldview Connections: A Meditation on Our Worldviews and their Impacts. There you will also find a brief summary of the history that brought us to this current point, and solutions to harmful connections.
©
Rua Lupa.
Condition: Provide Credit to this original source
Finding The Impacts of Your Resource Connections
To learn the impacts of your resource connections, start by going through what you are using and doing from the beginning to the end of a regular day. As you go through your day ask the following questions:
For each question consider if there is
toxins, worker’s rights, living wage, sustainability, and biodiversity?
1) What is it?
Find out each ingredient be it plant, animal, mineral or something else.
2) Where is it originally from?
Where did each ingredient to make it come from? Do the people and the land have legal protection and are those laws followed through with?
3) How was it cultivated and/or harvested?
Are the management practices sustainable and the ecosystem diverse?
4) Are the ingredients finite, endless, or replenishable?
Finite: Usable only once
Endless: Reusable/100% recyclable/cannot be used up
Replenishable: A bit of both – it can be used up or be reused/remain if used sustainably
5) How did it reach its final form I found it in when I got it?
Where and how did it come together for manufacturing and packaging? Are there any manufacturing by-products? What are they and what is done with them?
6) How did it get to the location it did before I got hold of it?
Who and what transported it? What are the effects of that form of transportation and its route? Was it nearby/long distance, efficient, or through sensitive areas?
7) Where was it purchased from?
Was it from a big box store or local store – where is the money going? Where is the store’s location? Was it near/far? Is it occupying sensitive land? What are the effects of the store’s operation?
8) How is it used and what is its end of life like?
How long does it last? Is it disposable, recyclable, reused? Heirloom quality/lifetime/years/months/days/hours/minutes? Where does it go when you’re done with it or die?
Disposable: Can only downgrade, not recyclable – such as petroleum based plastics. All petroleum based plastics eventually end up being disposed as small particulate pollutants that can’t be recycled back into the ecosystem.
Recyclable: Can be completely recycled into the same product again and again – such as aluminum or glass. Or it can become recycled nutrient for life – true compost.
NOTE: Biodegradable includes things that are only downgradable – breaking down as to no longer be seen but not able to be recycled in the ecosystem
9) Why do I have it? Would I be better off without it?
Is it something I actually need or do I barely even use it?
A general guideline is if you don’t do anything with it within a year its something you can do without, including sentimental items. Sentimental items can be altered into something that will be used such as a quilt of shirts you no longer wear but can’t give away because of what is on it.
Having less stuff can bring about a more interactive, engaging lifestyle where you go out and do more things with others rather than work more to have more things you don’t even need or really ever use.
By the time you reach the end of your typical day you’d likely accumulate a large list of things you don’t know much about. Then there are the less frequent activities and items you use to consider. By now it can be pretty overwhelming, but it can be satisfying to put the pieces together and see where you stand with your impacts. Just through these things, it is pretty amazing how much of an influence you have on the world.
After having your impacts fleshed out, take an outside perspective; from your current impacts what can you infer on what your worldview is? Studying these impacts can sometimes reveal some uncomfortable realizations, particularly what we believe to be our worldview may not be what is expressed in our actions, and may instead be expressing an entirely different worldview from what we had believed. But it is by looking at how to obtain our resources in a way that conveys a healthy planetary worldview that you can change the outcome from oblivious exploitation to symbiotic interaction.
For related history of how we came to this point and solutions for the future, read the original completed work here.
For each question consider if there is
toxins, worker’s rights, living wage, sustainability, and biodiversity?
1) What is it?
Find out each ingredient be it plant, animal, mineral or something else.
2) Where is it originally from?
Where did each ingredient to make it come from? Do the people and the land have legal protection and are those laws followed through with?
3) How was it cultivated and/or harvested?
Are the management practices sustainable and the ecosystem diverse?
4) Are the ingredients finite, endless, or replenishable?
Finite: Usable only once
Endless: Reusable/100% recyclable/cannot be used up
Replenishable: A bit of both – it can be used up or be reused/remain if used sustainably
5) How did it reach its final form I found it in when I got it?
Where and how did it come together for manufacturing and packaging? Are there any manufacturing by-products? What are they and what is done with them?
6) How did it get to the location it did before I got hold of it?
Who and what transported it? What are the effects of that form of transportation and its route? Was it nearby/long distance, efficient, or through sensitive areas?
7) Where was it purchased from?
Was it from a big box store or local store – where is the money going? Where is the store’s location? Was it near/far? Is it occupying sensitive land? What are the effects of the store’s operation?
8) How is it used and what is its end of life like?
How long does it last? Is it disposable, recyclable, reused? Heirloom quality/lifetime/years/months/days/hours/minutes? Where does it go when you’re done with it or die?
Disposable: Can only downgrade, not recyclable – such as petroleum based plastics. All petroleum based plastics eventually end up being disposed as small particulate pollutants that can’t be recycled back into the ecosystem.
Recyclable: Can be completely recycled into the same product again and again – such as aluminum or glass. Or it can become recycled nutrient for life – true compost.
NOTE: Biodegradable includes things that are only downgradable – breaking down as to no longer be seen but not able to be recycled in the ecosystem
9) Why do I have it? Would I be better off without it?
Is it something I actually need or do I barely even use it?
A general guideline is if you don’t do anything with it within a year its something you can do without, including sentimental items. Sentimental items can be altered into something that will be used such as a quilt of shirts you no longer wear but can’t give away because of what is on it.
Having less stuff can bring about a more interactive, engaging lifestyle where you go out and do more things with others rather than work more to have more things you don’t even need or really ever use.
By the time you reach the end of your typical day you’d likely accumulate a large list of things you don’t know much about. Then there are the less frequent activities and items you use to consider. By now it can be pretty overwhelming, but it can be satisfying to put the pieces together and see where you stand with your impacts. Just through these things, it is pretty amazing how much of an influence you have on the world.
After having your impacts fleshed out, take an outside perspective; from your current impacts what can you infer on what your worldview is? Studying these impacts can sometimes reveal some uncomfortable realizations, particularly what we believe to be our worldview may not be what is expressed in our actions, and may instead be expressing an entirely different worldview from what we had believed. But it is by looking at how to obtain our resources in a way that conveys a healthy planetary worldview that you can change the outcome from oblivious exploitation to symbiotic interaction.
For related history of how we came to this point and solutions for the future, read the original completed work here.
©
Rua Lupa.
Condition: Provide Credit to this original source