The Loss of Quiet Places
For the past few years, I’ve been spending my summers in a village in the southernmost part of Bavaria, Germany.
One of my favorite things to do there is hiking through the forested mountains that surround the village. There are many reasons for that—the beauty of the landscape, the joy of reconnecting with nature, the adventure of discovering new places—but here I want to focus on another: silence.
While walking along the mountain trails, everything feels quiet. Yes, the bees buzz, the leaves rustle in the wind, and the clouds drift across the blue sky, yet the world feels serene and peaceful. There are no engines humming in the distance, only calm and stillness.
During one of my hikes last summer, I found myself wondering, “How many people in this world have never experienced true silence? How many have lived, from the very first day of their lives, surrounded by noise—by crowded streets, blaring horns, and constant commotion?”
There may be billions of them.
And then I asked myself, “Is it any wonder that the world has gone crazy?”
Of course, the lack of silence is not the only reason why the world has gone crazy, but it must be one of them. Growing up in a loud, restless, disturbing world—away from the natural environment in which humans evolved over hundreds of thousands of years—is bound to shape loud, restless, disturbed minds.
As I write this, I can hear the loud engines of motorcycles passing by my home in Crete, Greece. (Note: I began writing this piece a couple of months ago; now I’m back in Germany.) And I live in a relatively small city. When I compare these sounds to those I encountered during my trip to Delhi, India—one of the loudest places in the world—they feel insignificant by comparison. Yet my city is still quite loud, and I can feel its negative impact on my mind and body. For example, my quality of sleep is significantly worse here than in Germany, as is my ability to concentrate.
The negative effects of noise pollution on our well-being (as shown by numerous scientific studies) are deeply concerning: chronic stress, anxiety, irritability, depression, disrupted emotional regulation, helplessness, impaired concentration and attention, reduced task performance, cognitive decline, sleep fragmentation, daytime fatigue, cardiovascular disease, aggression, and the list goes on.
But why are cities so loud, exactly? And do they have to be this way?
If you ask people, most would likely tell you that it’s due to the sheer number of humans living in cities. Humans in small numbers tend to be quiet, but concentrate hundreds of thousands of them in one place, and noise is inevitable. Some would perhaps add to that the lack of functional public transportation systems. Significantly limit a population’s access to public transit, and almost everyone will be forced to own a noise-producing automobile. Yet I would argue that, although these are indeed important factors, the underlying cause of this pervasive noise is economic: people commuting to and from work.
Cities are concentrated employment zones. Companies and workers cluster in cities because the former can draw from a deep, specialized labor pool, while the latter can more easily find and switch jobs. In other words, the economy compels people to move to cities; otherwise, they would have a hard time making a living. Were that not the case, many would choose to live in quieter, more peaceful places, closer to nature and away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Due to the high demand for housing in and around city centers, the cost of living tends to be very high, pushing most people far from their workplaces. As a result, they spend much of their time—sometimes even hours each day—commuting, which significantly contributes to overall noise levels. (It is worth noting that more affordable housing can often be found near highways, airports, and industrial zones—that is, in some of the noisiest areas. Consequently, noise pollution disproportionately affects lower-income communities.) Add to that the noise generated by factories, construction sites, delivery logistics, and countless other economic activities, and it becomes clear why cities are so loud.
In an economic environment that requires the constant movement of people and goods, even if public transportation were significantly improved, there would still be tremendous noise generated by trains, buses, stations, passenger activity, freight transport, deliveries, and the many businesses and workers that continue to rely on private automobiles. In addition, major sources of noise other than transportation would remain, including construction, factories, aircraft, mechanical equipment, and the everyday activity of large numbers of people living and working in close proximity. That’s not to say we shouldn’t strive for more efficient and accessible public transportation systems—we should, as they would make cities more livable and environmentally sustainable—but we can’t expect them alone to provide the calm the human psyche needs, especially in big, densely populated cities.
To address noise pollution at its roots, we must look beyond its immediate sources—automobiles, aircraft, machinery, and so on—and examine the economic conditions that necessitate them on such a large scale. Our economic system—call it capitalism, market economics, or whatever you like—depends on endless growth and consumption. Without these, businesses would go bankrupt, people would lose their jobs, and consumers would be unable to spend, eventually resulting in economic collapse (for a more detailed explanation, read this article). In this grow-or-die system, businesses compete to expand markets, sell more goods, and maximize profits. (They achieve this in various ways, including cutting costs by manufacturing lower-quality products, reducing wages, or aggressively advertising their products to consumers.) This economic imperative for constant turnover and growth has created a cycle of continuous and ever-increasing production, construction, transportation, commuting, and consumption, generating the high levels of noise pollution (as well as waste, environmental destruction, and cultural neurosis) that exist today.
To effectively deal with noise pollution, therefore, we need to redesign our economic system so it doesn’t require constant growth and consumption. Imagine that we designed an economy that is organized around genuinely meeting human needs instead of maximizing profit. An economy organized around efficiency, public health, and sustainability. Such an economy would focus on providing everyone with the resources they need to live healthily and happily (rather than only those with enough financial resources, as our current economy does), while making sure that it doesn’t harm the planet. It would seek to minimize the production of goods by maximizing their quality and lifespan, as well as by creating libraries of goods that people freely share (think of tool libraries, for example—an idea that has already been implemented in communities around the world), instead of everyone having to own every single item they use. In addition, it would leave no space for advertising, except insofar as it informs people of the actual qualities or purposes of a product. These changes would result in a significant reduction in consumption, industrial output, freight traffic, and construction—and hence in the noise they produce. (Note: To see how we could transition to such a system, read this article.)
Moreover, many of the occupations that exist today would be obsolete (think of advertising executives, sales representatives, telemarketers, investment bankers, loan officers, debt collectors, currency traders, and corporate lawyers, to name a few). And considering that people’s survival would no longer depend on labor-for-income, they would no longer need to be employed (and hence exploited for profit). They would still, however, need to work in order to contribute to a healthy and functional society (on which their survival and well-being would, of course, depend). But most would not have to move or commute to cities. They could work locally, whether in villages or small towns, tending the land or serving their communities, which would result in a significant reduction in traffic noise.
In such a system, noise pollution would be a thing of the past. Yes, there would still be some noise generated by automobiles, aircraft, trains, machinery, and so on, but only a fraction of what we experience today. In most places, most of the time, the loudest sounds would be children laughing, neighbors chatting, and birds singing. Can you imagine how much more serene and beautiful the world would be?
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Reading your article, i was reminded of 'The Little Prince', where commuting was also an observation, as far as i remember, the Little Prince really wondered why and where all these people went to (in trains i believe).