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Global Warning - Dec 28, 2009 - Printable Version
- Next Time, Don't Sell the Car to Buy Gas*
by Robin Buckallew
The Copenhagen Summit is history, and we got…something. What? Gosh, I don’t really know. From what I can tell from here, it looks like we got procrastination, half-measures, soothing and baffling expedients, and delays. Now, all we’re waiting for, ala Winston Churchill, is the consequences. Those won’t be long in coming, I’m afraid. In fact, for some, it may be too late. Ask the Maldive Islands – a small, island nation, it is the lowest on the planet, a mere 1.5 meters above sea level. Rising sea levels are threatening the immediate future of this small country, and they came up with a novel way to draw attention to this in advance of the Copenhagen summit: hold a cabinet meeting underwater, complete with scuba gear and waterproofed documents. The government of the Maldives has been looking for land to buy a new homeland, so that the 300,000 citizens can be relocated before the islands go totally underwater, as they will if the sea level rises to the levels predicted by the models. So, what happened in Copenhagen? Lots of noise, bickering, moments of breathtaking inanity…such as when James Inhofe (R-OK) showed up in his black snakeskin cowboy boots to make a bewilderingly uninformed speech to almost nobody, since he apparently didn’t properly adjust for the time change, and showed up so early in the morning that a couple of reporters had to be rounded up in order for him to pontificate before he got back into the plane and whirled back to Washington so he could vote against health care. This was, however, in my humble opinion, the high point of the summit, as one of the reporters, baffled by his presence, unsure of exactly who he was, dismissed him with the deeply insightful comment of “ridiculous”. For that one moment, I was happy to have my tax dollars go to subsidize his trip to Denmark, since reporters in this country are too obsequious to call him what he really is – ridiculous.
Meanwhile, back to climate change. The US continued to be obstructionist, but at least this time we had a president who could make soaring speeches while accomplishing almost nothing. China joined in, and did all they could to prevent anything meaningful from coming out of the summit. Canada continued to throw roadblocks in the way of actual meaningful change, and, of course, the Middle East (remember them? That’s where most of our oil comes from) remains committed to a fossil-fuel driven global economy. The actual agreement that came out of the summit was a watered down version of a watered down version of a watered down treaty – in short, the homeopathic answer to global warming. If you’re not familiar with homeopathy, it’s the idea that if you take something with some possible strength to it, dilute it thousands of times until there isn’t even a single molecule of the original substance remaining in the water, and then drink the water, you’ll get well. The water, it’s said, will remember the medicine, and will have all the properties of the substance, and you can get better. It’s…sort of like…magic. Homeopathy works rather well on diseases that would have gotten better without any treatment, and that is probably what we could say about this treaty. It will work great on that which will improve without us improving it.
Of course, even if we had reached an agreement with some teeth, and set legally binding, strict emissions goals and solid timetables for meeting them, we would most likely still not succeed. Many of the countries who signed on to Kyoto haven’t managed to meet the goals of that treaty, and carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise around the world. In 2007, we discovered that we had already passed the level of the “worst case” scenario in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fourth report. That news should have served as a clarion call for action, alerting us that we need to be doing just a bit more than we’re doing (which is essentially nothing…business as usual….with a little green PR added in). There are several reasons why we aren’t succeeding at solving this problem. One of the biggest reasons is a fatal apathy. People simply don’t consider it as important as other things right now (or ever). Even those of my friends who believe something needs to be done tend to brush off the need for immediate action. Don’t forget, they tell me, we’re trying to stop a war. Don’t forget, we’re trying to keep the economy from imploding. Don’t forget, we’re trying to get a healthcare bill passed. Don’t forget, we’re trying to get Michael Jackson buried. So many problems, so many issues, all seen as the most important issue. Meanwhile, we take for granted that the planet will wait around patiently until we have time, money, and inclination to do something about the problems that plague the air, the water, the ecosystems, and the living organisms that support our very life and well being.
Stop and look around you. Make a mental list of the world around you…not the human built world, like buildings, cars, etc, but the other world, the world that exists both within and without human societies. Include living organisms. Include air, water, sunshine, rain, lakes, rivers, prairies, oceans…anything and everything that exists without us having to build it. Think backward in time, however many years, however many decades you can remember back (you don’t have to tell…I would never ask you your age, and I ask the same consideration from you…). What was different 10 years ago? 20 years ago? 30 years ago? Were there more parks, more prairies, more unpaved areas? Has the city you live in or near spread to eat up the surrounding land? Is there more concrete, more buildings, more malls (or shopping centers….most of the big box stores, I realize, have become mall-killers). Can you hear the birds or the crickets where you live? How many stars can you see at night? What does the air smell like when you breathe it in deeply? Is there any spot around you quiet enough that you can hear yourself think, or is it all beeping, buzzing, whirring noises from cars, lawnmowers, snow blowers, or other fun and expensive power tools? Make a list of those places where you can still see living things that aren’t in cages or kennels, or on leashes. This is what we stand to lose if we don’t act now.
If we had gotten a good agreement out of Copenhagen, and if we had committed to reduce our emissions by enough to actually make a difference, it still wouldn’t be enough. We would still need to actually implement the necessary changes. One of the sticking points of the agreement was, of course, the economy. Not just the US economy, but the global economy. Whenever we attempt to make a substantive difference to protect the environment, we put ourselves on a collision course with “economic growth”….the true God that most of our governments worship and vow total allegiance to. The European countries, almost alone at the current time in their commitment to change things, are feeling very grieved that the lack of action in other parts of the world have left them economically less competitive in the world market. The Third World is concerned that if we implement these agreements, they won’t be able to develop the way the US did (and they won’t – it’s simply impossible to have infinite growth in a finite world for an infinite number of people over an infinite period). The US doesn’t wish to be put in the spot of finding themselves helping to pay to make sure the Third World can develop a decent life for its citizens and still protect the remaining fragments of the environment, even though it seems only fair that we should foot at least a portion of the bill to cover the damage our endless party had caused, so that the rest of the people can look forward to a healthy, happy future without creating additional ecosystem havoc. Everybody wants change…but everybody wants the change to come in some other backyard.
The time for talk is over. The time for action is now. As we continue to focus all our energies, all our attention, on fixing the economy, we are making the most idiotic mistake that any teenager could dream up when faced with a problem….we are selling the car to buy gas. Everything we are, everything we do, everything we make and sell and buy and eat and wear and breath and live and think and feel and play and are, is wrapped up in this one small blue ball that we call Earth…this small sphere hurtling through space at a breakneck speed, rapidly circling a nuclear reactor safely stationed about 93 million miles away, out here in our remote little corner of the universe. This is all we have, in spite of inspiring visions of terraforming Mars, or moving to the moon. At this point, that is unbelievably out of reach, and certainly substantially more expensive than making the changes needed to protect the fragile atmosphere that has for so long protected us. It’s time to quit whining. It’s time to take action. It’s time to write your Senators, to write your representatives, to write your President, and insist that action be taken. It’s time to quit waiting for someone else to lead, and to blaze the paths ourselves. It’s time we quit selling the car to buy gas.
**Sam Glenn, author of Who Put a Lizard in my Lasagna?
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