Tipping points - environment and global issues

It is another year of global forest fires. There are massive fires in British Columbia, Europe, the US, Central Africa, Eastern Russia, which comes to millions of acres burning. In Italy over one-third of their forests are burning. I think folks see forest fires in different ways. Some see loss of marketable timber, or loss of pretty trees, or maybe just destruction. I see the loss of lives. Certainly, the loss of the arboreal life and the intelligence that it represents, but also I see families trapped in burning homes. Birds of all description; racoons and possums and squirrels; deer and elk and bear; cougars and coyotes and wolves; insects of all descriptions, and fish in the streams as fire heats the water above a survivable level. [You can access the global map at Goddard Space Flight Center]

Have you ever heard a deer scream in pain? I have, and the sound haunts me, as beyond the pictures of raging flames I see scorched and burning creatures who can no longer run. And I feel tremendous loss and tremendous guilt. Why guilt? Because I know that as a human being living in the US I am constantly contributing to the conditions that has the world ablaze. Yes I am talking about global warming. Certainly we are seeing it in the last two years, and confirming many of our suspicions it is happening much quicker than predicted (Global Warming May Be Speeding Up, Fears Scientist Vidal, Guardian/UK, 8/6/03).

The glaciers are melting (Alaskan Warming is Disturbing Preview of What's to Come, Scientists Say (Borenstein, Knight-Ridder, 7/31/03) in Alaska along with the thawing of the permafrost. Both the Arctic and Antarctic are melting and collapsing into the sea. A record heat wave is sweeping Europe (104 F in Sweden for example). I look at our garden which force ripened in June and has done nothing since.

I have long thought the predictions of gradual warming over the next hundred years was bunk. It presumes there is no balancing mechanism ? not a delicate equilibrium. The earth struggles to correct imbalances - throwing resources into the fray until those resources are depleted and the balancing mechanisms exhausted. We reach a "tipping point." Many of you may have tried balancing in the middle of a teeter-totter as a child. There is a range to either side of the balance point where (if you are careful) you can keep both ends off the ground though not balanced. Move your weight a fraction, and down comes the teeter-totter - all balance and all possibility of recovery lost. That is how I view the earth?s various balances. I believe that we are near, if not past, the balance point in a number of areas.

Meanwhile, our climatologists (you know, those weather forecasters on the news) talk about heat waves, and cold spells; storms moving in and droughts. Hardly ever do they even mention the topic of global warming, or that what we are seeing is a manifestation of it - at least not on US "weather" reports. Therefore, folks can go blithely along not knowing - or not wanting to know - that what we are experiencing are symptoms of climatological collapse. It can be written off as "just the weather."

I truly believe that the climate and the forests ablaze are also linked to other human activities. While the earth blazes, so do the peoples of the world. There is fighting all over Africa and Latin America, the Middle East and Southern Asia. I read an article a while back (which of course I can't find) that the US had dropped more bombs on Iraq than all the bombs dropped in WWII. We bombed Afghanistan in a similar fashion. We used both "Daisy Cutter" and "MOABs" in both countries. These are massive incendiary bombs with total kill zones in excess of 600 yards. All this bombing releases tremendous amounts of heat, smoke, and dust (not to mention heat and smoke from whatever burns due to the bombs). All of this gets absorbed into the atmosphere and travels the globe. You think that might not affect the balance?

I know there are those of you who feel that both invasions were justified. But it seems that we have used a profligate amount of fire power on forces that are significantly inferior to us. Why? "Shock and Awe?"

Meanwhile, we spend trillions on defense and on new weapons. As the world burns (and freezes and drowns) the US Navy tests and deploys active sonar devices which blast around the seas - killing, deafening, and driving to shore whales and dolphins who use sonar to navigate and communicate. Global fisheries virtually exhausted.

On TV we hear that 2000 Liberians died in the last two months. Thousands are dead in the Congo; almost 8000 in Iraq; who knows how many in Afghanistan. Pictures of Liberian children on the news - bellies distended with starvation. Orphaned children all over Africa due to the AIDS epidemic. Yet we build for war -- billions for projects (such as Star Wars) which are most likely not going to work, and will be outdated by the time implemented. Billions more to monitor our own population. Billions more to buy nations to "our side" in our "war on terrorism." Hundreds of billions in tax relief to the wealthiest citizens, while corporations receive an estimated $167 billion corporate welfare package.

Global warming. Yeah what about global warming? While climatological and earthly destruction is everywhere, Bush increases the tax cuts for SUVs; manufacturers give out zero interest loans and gas cards for driving hogs; customers flock to buy huge trucks, SUVs and Hummers that get 12 mpg or less. Of course they are selling "escape" from the problems and "denial" of the effects of this increasing use of dwindling petroleum supplies. We are past the global peak with petroleum so let's "accelerate" our consumption. Of course, Bush and Co. Don't "believe" in global warming so let's pass a "clear skies act" that actually increases the levels of pollutants - including those directly linked to global warming.

I've heard folks say that global warming is a good thing. "I like warmer weather." "We now have a shorter northern shipping route because the pole is melting." "Things grow better when it's hot." "So buy an air conditioner." "So the seas rise a bit; so what? We'll just build sea walls." But what about populations living on islands? How much of the global coasts will be lost? What about all those folks clustered at the coasts (most major cities of the world are coastal cities you know). Where, exactly, are all those people going to relocate to?

And then there is the unfortunate fact that it is not just temperatures that change, but weather patterns. The combined effect of these is to change regional, as well as global, ecologies. What happens when the "bread basket" of the US moves to Quebec? What happens as the forests and prairies transition to different eco-systems? What happens as the weather goes "wacky" with wild storms and droughts, heat waves and arctic storms in the Napa Valley? No problem of course. We'll just turn up the heat, or turn up the air conditioner, or pump more water for heating, cooling, irrigating... We have it all under control.

But guess what? All of that takes water, and most of it is potable water, and that resource is also disappearing at a phenomenal rate. Globally we have lost over 50% of our fresh water supplies over the last fifty years. It is estimated that in the next twenty years we will lose at least another 50% of what remains. Most of the water has been lost due to agricultural and industrial pollution. How much would you pay for a glass of water? Monsanto (and other mega-corps) think they know - a whole lot. That is why the big push is on, supported by the US government, to extend privatization (corporatization) of clean water supplies.

And the dams? You know the dams to control the free flowing water for power use, irrigation, diversion, etc. Here in the Pacific Northwest we already know that the dams are destroying the wild salmon runs. But there is another problem with all these dams and reservoirs. They are redistributing the water resources of the planet. Of course, you say, that is their purpose. But do you know that this blocking and redistribution is actually shifting the rotation of the earth? Imagine that! What does that do to climate? What does that do to seasons? Another "tipping point."

The wars, the death, climate change, environmental destruction, legislation and "incentives" all interact with each other. Imagine what we could do with the economic resources spent on war and war technology (both in the US and globally). Imagine what we could do if we decided to take global warming very seriously. Imagine what we could do if we treated water as a precious resource, rather than a flushable commodity.

But we don't want to think about that. And we don?t want to think about the screaming deer burning under the old growth pine; or the starving child with empty eyes crying for parents who are dead, or the family crouching together in fear as bullets rip through the walls of their house. After all, there is "nothing we can do." Certainly as long as we lie to ourselves and deny our response-ability that is true - and that will be the end of us.

SO WHAT CAN WE DO?
We can stop making war and make peace.
We can create incentives for wise resource use (for example tax cuts for renewable energy sources, high efficiency vehicles, paying for mass transit or for biking or walking)
We can redistribute wealth more equally and wisely.
We can demand the government(s) make environment a top priority
We can quit over-consuming (and encouraging and subsidizing massive over-consumption)
We can build (globally) local economies that are environmentally sound
We can ban toxins (including poisons and genetically modified products)
We can refuse to buy, and support legislation to enforce, over packaging
We can demand that the environment is "commons" and not up for sale or ownership
We can picket, strike, elect different representatives
We can quit denying what is going on and not let the lies of denial continue
We can educate ourselves and others
We can create alternatives
We can work together
We can see ourselves as a global community rather than as competing forces and factions
We can demand fairness and equity
We can refuse to participate in or support exploitation
We can eat lower on the food chain (in the US)
We can end poverty and dependency
We can create re-manufacture

There are thousands of things that we can do if we have the will to do it. There are thousands of things we can do if we don't allow power interests to operate or prevail.

Posted by rowan at August 7, 2003 10:14 AM | [eMail this article!] |