I recently had to write a paper for a sustainable design class that I'm taking. The assignment was to watch Wall-E and write a paper using the prompt "Is this the direction of our planet is taking? Is it a world problem or individual? Or… does the development of machines threaten humanity itself?" I'd like to share my paper with you:
The movie Wall-E portrays an eerie picture of where humanity is headed. It depicts a future in which the earth is so covered in garbage and toxic waste that it is no longer able to support life of any kind, and humans have fled to live in starships in the hope that specially designed robots who have been left on the planet can clean it up in 5 years so that humans can return to a newly habitable planet. Unfortunately, the earth is so badly contaminated, that it becomes impossible to return for the foreseeable future, and humankind ends up adrift in space in a big-box-store existence that emphasizes constant consumption and little personal responsibility, the traits that presumably led to the mess in the first place.
Unfortunately, the movie is not just a crazy fairy tale, but a representation of a real possibility, aside from the fact that we don't currently have the technology to evacuate the entire population onto space-going cruise ships. One of the big points of the movie is the amount of garbage that must be dealt with once the planet has been emptied of life, and that reflects the current state of affairs quite well. When we throw something away, where does it go? Where is “away”? And where are the resources coming from to replace all of the items that are disposed of? What happens when those resources are depleted? How are toxic wastes managed?
This problem is a world problem. When one person or company puts toxic waste in a waterway, that waterway becomes contaminated for all downstream users. When a rich country depletes more than its share of resources, poor countries have to go without, meaning the inhabitants of those countries are often lacking the basic necessities of life, such as food and clean water. They often turn to unsustainable practices just to earn enough to survive, polluting the air, water, and land around them so it will be unusable for future generations.
The development of machines does not threaten humanity directly. Despite the fact that in the movie, humans are shown as being dependent on machines for every possible action they might take in a day, from brushing their teeth to moving around to eating and drinking, that type of society is far too energy-intensive to happen any time soon. At the moment, almost any American can choose that lifestyle anyway – we can get into our cars, parked just steps away from our couches and beds, and drive to work, stopping by the drive-through on the way to pick up breakfast and coffee. We can park right outside the door to where we work and spend the rest of the day sitting at a desk, with a break for lunch – either a trip through the drive-through or maybe having something delivered. We can then drive home, take a few steps to the couch, and spend the evening watching TV, getting up only when dinner is delivered. Most people choose not to follow that lifestyle, so replacing cars and couches with machines wouldn't make a huge difference, as the majority of people would still not choose that lifestyle.
More importantly, we need to concentrate on the more urgent matter at hand – the depletion of resources and the contamination of the resources that are left. Americans continue with consumption, contamination, and disposal of resources without giving it a second thought. Something must be done to change these patterns if the planet earth is to continue being capable of sustaining life. To quote Umbra Fisk of Slate magazine, “disposable” is a dirty word.