Sustainable Hibernation

November 27, 2007

Graham Robb wrote an editorial for the New York Times that should get the "Most Curious Editoral" award. It is on the subject of human hibernation. Apparently French president Nicolas Sarkozy wants to roll back the 35 hour work week.. which he deems "madness". Robb counters with a discussion of the way French peasants once slept through the winter, and he cites a 19th century witness:

These vigorous men will now spend their days in bed, packing their bodies tightly together in order to stay warm and to eat less food.

And I think I know the feeling. When it gets chilly I seem to sleep more deeply..

Robb appears to be making a silly point, tweaking the French for historical laziness. What is one to make of the call in the final paragraph to introduce tax incentives for hibernation? But there is an important point underlying this bluff: is annual economic growth really compatible with a sustainable future for humanity?

Last year I gave a talk on the representation of the Nile in al-Maqrizi's Khitat. The Nile throughout the medieval period was not controlled in a defined bed but allowed to drift, and that drifting opened up new space for building. The notion that nature was something to be "controlled" was absent from discussions. There was a complicated system of canals and dikes, so it was not the case that human beings were uninventive.. but on the macro-level they designed a life that worked around the necessities of their natural environment. This is a long way from the philosophy of maximizing nature that led to the High Dam at Aswan.. and the newer dams in China that we have been reading about.

Medieval Cairo had its recurrent problems, but it is possible to imagine that world being extended for centuries. Robb is making a similar point for French peasants who slept away the winter. They had a lifestyle which worked for their environmental context. In contrast, the modern world that we inhabit is a glutton for resources. It is not at all clear that human beings can live this way for the next two centuries.. let alone that economic growth can continue indefinitely at this pace.

With his reference to hibernating French peasants Robb reminds us that ecological sustainability may mean genuine changes in lifestyle. Here in Wisconsin we have another winter coming on and it is interesting to watch energy prices continue to nose their way upwards. There must come a time when energy prices cut into this lifestyle we have built for ourselves. It may well be that the cognitive resources we need for dealing with these new economic demands will be found in the past. Perhaps we will someday grow more medieval?