Becoming an Energy-Saving Human Without Force is the Key to Happiness

To live sustainably, I believe the key lies in how each of us can become an energy-saving human. Simply put, it's about living a life where you can achieve maximum results with minimal energy. This applies not only to food and air, but to hobbies and lifestyles as well. However, this doesn't mean forcing yourself to conserve something. It's about becoming the kind of person who finds joy in that way of living.

What becomes important is, after all, a matter of the heart. Trying to understand intellectually what is important and what is not, what is necessary and what is not, is meaningless. It's necessary to experience, not just intellectually grasp, your connection to the natural world in a broader sense. This is a physical, physiological experience, not a conceptual one. Urban lifestyles tend to disconnect us from this.

But there's no need to view this negatively; you can gain such experiences even in Tokyo. I often travel by bicycle in the city, and riding in the car lanes isn't as dangerous as most people think. I only realized this through experience. In fact, by continuing to ride, you become more sensitive to the presence of cars. Through experience, your five senses sharpen, and your sixth sense becomes more acute.

The Feeling of Being Alive

The reason I'm not pessimistic is that each of us is a part of the Earth's system, and the fact that we are kept alive is undeniable. Why? Because even while we're busy with work and burdened by serious worries, we all breathe oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Breathing is so natural that we don't consciously think about it, but it's actually an extraordinary thing.

Oxygen makes up about 21 percent of the Earth's atmosphere, a level that has remained stable for approximately 300 million years. However, this level isn't a condition accidentally granted to the Earth; it's something created through the interaction of plants, animals, rocks, water, and soil. Curiously, if oxygen levels rose to 25 percent, we wouldn't necessarily feel more comfortable, and forests would become so flammable that fires couldn't be extinguished. Conversely, at 15 percent, humanity would struggle to breathe. Why it's precisely 21 percent remains scientifically unexplained. The mechanisms that maintain this balance are by no means thanks to humans. Considering this, sustainability can also be seen as the stability of cycles.

On the other hand, seeking convenience is also a human characteristic. Some argue that altering nature for human convenience is wrong, but it is precisely because we are human that we alter it. However, what's important is how we perceive the order of nature at that time. By learning from nature and effectively supporting its processes, we can maintain and coexist with it, much like Japan's traditional satoyama landscapes. Being conscious of the balance between being alive and being sustained is, I believe, essential for humans and necessary for sustainability.

Feeling Nature's Beauty, 'Emotion' is the Keyword

I'll repeat myself, but in modern society, everyone has simply forgotten that they are being sustained. Therefore, the key is to create pathways to remember this. The very act of finding nature beautiful is proof that we are part of the natural world. To experience this, I believe 'emotion' is the keyword – feeling happy just because the sun is rising, or finding a flower beautiful. It's not actually that difficult.

Once we regain the feeling of being sustained, our choices in life, such as what we buy and what we eat, will change. While a sustainable lifestyle and happiness might seem contradictory, they are fundamentally the same. Furthermore, artificial and convenient things like skyscrapers are born from human characteristics and are part of our inherent human activities. What's important is to strike a balance.

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