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Global Warning - Jun 5, 2005 - Printable Version
- American Idle
by Robin Buckallew
I want you to do something for me before you read this column. First, go into the bathroom or bedroom, and stand in front of your mirror. Look yourself straight in the eyes, and say, three times, "It's all about me, everything revolves around me". If after doing that, you have no problem with that, and find yourself agreeing with it, then leave at once. Go away, get out of here. This column is not for you. If, on the other hand, like most people, you feel even a tinge of discomfort with that idea, then read on. There's still hope for you. Last week, I wrote a column about the alleged failure of the environmental movement. Perhaps I was hoping to spark a little debate. Perhaps I was shouting in the wilderness. Perhaps I was spitting in the wind. I can't exactly say what I expected, but I must say, I'm not particularly surprised at the response. The silence has, for the most part, been deafening. A small whisper, the sound of one hand clapping, and the realization that I apparently have at least done something right in the way I raised my son. Meanwhile, all around me, the party rages on. The news contains increasingly urgent news about Michael Jackson and the runaway bride. Congress defeats a resolution to require higher mileage standards in American automobiles, and the public ignores it. The President's budget continues to allot huge sums for fossil fuel energy, and paltry figures for renewables, and no outrage is expressed. The American mind continues to amuse itself by building temples to banality, which have the dubious distinction of serving double duty as mausoleums for ideas. Meanwhile, we continue to express little wonder or concern about who is paying for the party. We never even ask to look at the tab. Don't you ever stop to wonder who is paying the piper?
The United States of America contains 4.75% of the world's people. In spite of this, we consume 25% of the world's fossil fuel energy. We consume 25% of the world's resources in food, clothing and all other perishable and durable items. We produce 50% of the world's garbage. We eat, we drink, we make merry, and throw away whatever we decide we don't want anymore. We look around for the easiest way to live, including disposable everything. We drive the biggest cars (not to mention the most cars), we live in the biggest houses, we have the biggest wardrobes, the biggest playgrounds, and the biggest egos. Instead of the old, tried and true, we want the new and improved. And we get it. We rarely stop to question where it comes from, how it got here, or what was consumed in the production of it. Want a hamburger? Just stop in to the local McDonald's or Wendy's, you will be served up a burger and fries without any questions asked, without anyone telling you where it comes from. Want a tank of gas? The gas pump doesn't contain a detailed description of just what is involved in bringing that gas to the station. Perhaps it should. Because we, here in America, are dancing with reckless abandon, but it is everyone else that is paying the piper. Perhaps it's time we invited them to the party. Or, better yet, perhaps it's time we go home, sober up, and begin dealing with the hangover.
Perhaps you are old enough to remember back when the news contained items of serious import from around the world. In the 1970s, we saw pictures of boat people, refugees from the political devastation that had been wrought in their country. We saw Sally Struthers, a tearful and emotional wreck as she described for us the plight of the hungry children in far away lands that could get a better life if we'd only send $5 a week to feed them. We heard about people fleeing persecution and torture, seeking asylum from horrors unimaginable to the freedom loving Americans. But there is another category of refugee, one you rarely hear about. If you get your news chiefly from television, it is probably safe to say you never hear about them. I'm talking about environmental refugees. Émigrés fleeing the environmental, ecological devastation that has made their own country unlivable, unable to sustain agriculture to the extent that they can eke out a living from the land they always counted on to provide for their needs. As long ago as 1996, the number of environmental refugees reached a proportion that exceeded that of political or war refugees. Environmental refugees are fleeing from all sorts of natural and man-made ecological disasters. These refugees often face an even more difficult plight than the political and war refugees we hear much more about. A category largely ignored in diplomatic circles, they must find a new way in a new country far from anywhere familiar. Strange languages, strange customs, strange habits, and often little or no opportunity to acquire land or find a job. In addition, while geopolitical conditions can and do change, leaving at least a slim hope that a political refugee might eventually return to his home, the environmental devastation is unlikely to be repaired for decades or centuries, leaving refugees with little hope outside of the hope that they can build a new life somewhere else. While it is true that some of these refugees are fleeing from natural disasters that would have occurred with or without the policies being imposed on them by industrialized nations, an increasingly large number are fleeing devastation wrought by the consumptive habits of the developed world, particularly the United States. Currently, it is estimated that 25 million people are environmental refugees; by 2050, that number is expected to reach 150 million, a full 1.5% of the projected population.
In addition to environmental refugees, people who stay home in the Third World are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the changes that have come about as a result of rapacious practices by colonial powers and currently by neo-liberal economic policies that force whole nations into privation and bankruptcy. Deforestation in the South American rainforests proceeds rapidly, with most of the land being turned into agricultural land to feed the hungry beast to the north. In spite of the famous lushness of the rainforest vegetation, the soils in this area are extremely poor, able to support that diversity of vegetation only because of the rapid recycling of nutrients that occurs in the natural rainforest. When cleared of the canopy cover and farmed, the soils are unable to support conventional agriculture for more than a few years. Heavy applications of pesticides and fertilizers are necessary to make even this level of agricultural production feasible. The amounts of pesticides and fertilizers that are being applied in the Third World have led to increased health issues for these already impoverished individuals. In addition, many South American residents don't own their own land anymore, as large multinational corporations have managed to persuade their governments that it is in the best interests of everyone (especially the large multinational corporations) to sell the land to them for a surprisingly paltry sum. They then move in and promote their large agribusiness techniques that have wrecked such havoc in the American Midwest, and hire the local peasantry for starvation wages to work the fields. Native customs, native ways of life disappear in the push to modernize the country, and move into the realm of global capital.
In addition, other environmental catastrophes befall the rest of the world while we are partying. In India, countless landslides have taken hundreds, even thousands of lives. Most of these landslides occurred as the result of extensive clear cutting on mountainsides that was done under the colonial powers. These trees were removed from the slopes by all manner of modern technology, often being sent traveling downhill via the streams and rivers, to make transport of the logs easier. Much of this wood was, of course, destined for a singularly useful purpose - it went for the construction of sports equipment and railroad cars in the industrialized nations. In fact, it was not unusual, before independence in India, for the local farmers to be denied access to wood to construct their plows and yokes, because the wood had already been sold to a sports equipment company. It is, of course, important to have your priorities straight, and letting farmers waste such an economically valuable crop just to grow food wouldn't be cricket, now would it? Cricket bats, baseball bats - that's what really matters. Although Indira Gandhi decreed that clear cutting was to cease on slopes, much deforestation in India still continues to this day, the result of forestry practices that have become embedded in the modern Indian culture through their contact with western methods. This particular pattern is not unique to India, but can be seen in many other countries throughout the developing world.
Another problem that has arisen from American consumptiveness is the problem of sharing of limited resources. Who has a God-given right to the resources of any given region? Who has the money (and the might) to guarantee the exercise of that right? Who is going to be first in line when there is "stuff" to be had? If you answered "US", you should go to the head of the class. We move through the world in a whirlwind of acquisition, taking what we want, paying for it if we absolutely have to, and transferring vast amounts of the world's resources here, to satisfy the growing appetites of an increasingly hedonistic society. In many of the world's poorest countries, adequate firewood is no longer available, leading to the increased use of dried dung for cooking and heating. In addition to the obvious disadvantages of smell and health issues, this has the unfortunate effect of depriving the soil of valuable nutrients that in the past would have leached out of the animal droppings and been returned to the soil to be taken up by the plants, eventually cycling back through the system and providing food for fish and fowl, not to mention human consumption. Now, the soils are poorer, they erode faster, and it is much more difficult to obtain the same amount of nutrition from the same amount of land. Meanwhile, we bitch and moan about the price we have to pay for heating, cooling and transportation. Poor us. How we've suffered. We should relax, have a party, and forget our cares.
By the way, do you ever think about water? It takes a lot of water to make all that beer, all that soda, all that Evian. It takes a lot of water to harvest the fossil fuels that run our society, to run our appliances, to keep us in ice, to allow us to take long showers after a hard day at the office. The average American uses 100 gallons of water per day (all bets are off if you live in Dallas where they use 263 gallons on average per day - Utah and Arizona are the highest water users of all). Meanwhile, worldwide over 1 billion people do not have ready access to safe, clean drinking water. In some areas, people get as little as a teaspoon of water per day, while we have our sprinklers on to make sure our lawns are just the perfect shade of green. How do you imagine these people would feel if they were to visit Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the middle of a desert, where "the world's largest fountain" shoots a stream of water 560 feet into the air? Where, of course, most of it no doubt evaporates in the hot desert air. The damming of the Colorado River has provided large amounts of water for many desert cities in the American West, but has led to environmental disaster in the fertile farming region south of the border in northern Mexico. You see, the diversion of the water from the river has resulted in little water reaching Mexico, and what does reach them has been highly salinized. This has led to the salinization of the once fertile farming region, making the land no longer habitable for crops. It has also led to diplomatic problems between the United States and its neighbor to the south, who has felt (reasonably or unreasonably, you decide) that they should be entitled to at least the amount of Colorado River water that was promised them by treaty. They also feel this water should be drinkable. We did eventually build a desalinization plant on the Mexican border, which can be utilized where needed, but perhaps our best response might have been to send a little more water southward, so that the Colorado River would once again flow all the way to the sea. Water is the single most important resource in the world, and it is not equitably distributed. We have a great wealth in this country in our water resources, and we squander it. In the future, it has been predicted, wars will be fought not over land, not over religion, not over oil, but over water. Think that's ridiculous? Keep this in mind - in the early part of the 20th century, the governor of Arizona called out the National Guard, and threatened to wage war against California over the Colorado River water. This incident was resolved only through action by the federal government. If it could happen here, just think what could happen in another country where the water is even scarcer.
Finally, think about global warming. The United States produces over 25% of the greenhouse gases that enter the atmosphere. We have dragged our feet for years over emissions reductions, and have totally refused to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol (a treaty that is much too little, much too late, thanks to American obstructionism). The vast amount of the global warming problem is generated right here at home. The vast amount of the suffering will occur elsewhere. The projections and models cannot predict with any precision exactly who will suffer what, but it is a safe bet that those countries that will suffer the most are those that lack adequate economic and social resources to allow smooth transition to a warmer world. Even in the event that the projections showing harsher climate changes for the tropical nations prove to be somewhat overestimated, the adjustments required to adapt will in many cases be beyond the capacity of their already overburdened economies, which have been laid waste by the official policies of austerity and neo-liberal globalization that have been pushed by so many in this country.
The events I have described above are merely a smattering of incidents that are occurring around the world. In addition, we could include the environmental devastation that has befallen Iraq and Afghanistan in our pursuit of "revenge" and "oil" to fuel our party. We could include Nigeria, where the government executed protestors who were attempting to save their environment from the devastation of the international oil companies (the oil company has stated that, while it is not a party to these executions, it will not request that the government quit executing protestors on its behalf). There are also numerous instances that could be cited from right within our own borders, with our trash dumps and hazardous waste management facilities routinely sited in the poorest neighborhoods, often minority neighborhoods; Native Americans suffering unprecedented high rates of cancer and birth defects from our mining activities; blue babies in Michigan from pregnant women eating the fish from the contaminated Great Lakes; destruction of homes and property by callous corporations in pursuit of profits; etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Most of these events are essentially unnoticed by the American public. It has been decided by the powers that be in the corporate media that such things don't put the public in the right mood for Desperate Housewives and American Idol. The situation that is brewing outside our borders is a recipe for disaster. To use an age-old phrase, America has got "the consumption". We are being destroyed by it, and we are destroying everyone else. In addition, we are proudly beaming our television shows overseas to the very people that are paying for our party. We are sending them our movies, our music, our commercials. We are inviting them to join the party - not because our giant megacorporations have any real concern about their standard of living, but because it seems like good business to try to sell your products to the 95% of the human population that doesn't live in the United States. They may not have much money, but why let what little they do have get away? So, we show them the party. We tease them with it. We attempt to infect them with our consumptive disease. What we never attempt to do is restrain the party, to think about tomorrow and how much we might regret the hangover. We are having fun. We don't mind if they have fun, too, as long as they can pay for it. Some day, the bill for the party will come due. We are running up the largest bar tab in the history of man, and someday, someone will have to pay. We're using up all our credit.
So, for those of you who have invited me to join the party, who have asked me to relax with you, I'm afraid I can't accept. Not now. Right now, I have work to do. When the work is done, then we can have a victory party, and I will join you gladly. But I must insist on one thing - we must all pay our own way.
Addendum: A recent study done by Yale and Columbia Universities comparing the environmental stewardship of the countries around the world has ranked the United States number 45, just behind Armenia. But take heart, we are just in front of Myanmar. So, the "mightiest" country in the world, the "richest" country in the world, the "greatest" country in the world, is able to beat out Myanmar. Oh, and North Korea, which is dead last, but then, most of the dictatorships tend to be somewhat low on the list. This study compares data based on 21 factors. These include population density (we should do fairly well on that one), sufficient natural resources (we do have some of the most abundant natural resources in the world), and commitment to respond to environmental challenges (can anyone say "Hummer"?). It seems our lowest scores are in global leadership on environmental challenges and also on greenhouse gas emissions. To see the full report, go to www.yale.edu/esi.
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