Well, I got through the weekend without leaving town. I could hear those damn cars from three miles away, but I stuck it out, because I had work to do around the house. And I know, I know – the Grand Prix brings in revenue for the city, so nevermind the polluting, nevermind the rising gas prices and the resulting economic strain on working people, of which we make a mockery when we applaud recreational petroleum consumption. Nevermind that the oil economy is unsustainable, and that auto accidents kill more Americans in one month than terrorism has in forever. We love our fast cars, and we need the money, so shut-up!
Okay, I will, but might I first suggest that there are other events – if we are imaginative – that could bring in a revenue stream and actually contribute to the long term health of our city and this planet? Particularly a few days before Earth Day, the sight and sound of internal combustion engines revved to the limit and the excited screams they arouse in my peers is perverse to say the least. Can’t we do better than this?
So here comes Earth Day. Whoops, there it went. Did you catch it? Are we saved yet? Is everything okay and beautiful here on our little blue planet? No? Oh well, we’ll have to wait until next spring. Call Al gore, tell him he’ll have to put of his retirement for one more year.
I know – nobody expects to save the planet in one day. Earth day is every day, of course. Raising awareness – that’s what this day is really about, right?
I’m not sure it’s working.
Some of you probably don’t even think we have anything to worry about. So let’s start with this: This is not a column about global warming. It doesn’t matter so much what you believe about that – except that why you believe what you believe may reveal how intellectually serious you are. This isn’t even a column about climate change, which is really a better phrase than global warming, since it reflects the level of precision with which we can actually measure and describe what is happening and predict what is going to happen eventually. Change – yes, certainly. Warming…well, maybe…sometimes, in some places. We just can’t be certain.
But that’s about all we can’t be certain of. The climate is changing, and for now, it is generally growing warmer. Climate and weather are complex but no matter how you slice it, if you consider a broad variety of measurements, there is no doubt about it. And it’s clear human beings are having some effect.
And how could we not? We have taken unimaginable amounts of stored energy and released it into the air, water, and soil. The Earth is essentially a closed system. To hope that our behavior would have no effect is unscientific to the point of foolishness. And study after study – including reams of papers published not by Greenpeace or “LEFT” (Liberal Earth Freedom Terrorists) but by infamous environmentalist wackos like NASA, the Department of Defense, and the Bush administration’s EPA – not to mention a broad swath of physical scientists from many nations, with a variety of political bents and no axe to grind (compared to the very few scientists, most not climatoligsts) prove it.
But still, the “skeptics” – flat-Earthers, really – continue their heedless squawk. So we have Rush Limbaugh telling us global warming is a hoax, and offering as evidence two of the stupidest claims I have ever heard – and I’m a regular listener, so that’s saying a lot. Limbaugh actually said that Greenland proves the climate changes all the time, because it used to be green – thus the name. Of course, it’s “Iceland” that’s arable, and still is. Greenland is a tundra, and always has been. It was named in an act of Viking deception by an exiled warrior.
More laughable even than this gaffe, which should have tickled any half-educated sixth grader, was Limbaugh’s claim that since the ozone hole is above Antarctica, it must be a natural phenomena, since nobody lives down there except scientists and penguins. Nevermind convection, a basic natural occurrence that circulates air and the toxic chemicals it carries all over the planet. To understand and consider the actual forces of nature would be egg-headed; Limbaugh doesn’t need science – he’s got “common-sense”.
Right. I wonder if he’ll so glibly dismiss science next time he needs surgery, or wants to fly on an airplane, or have his car repaired.
This is the state of the American “conservative” movement: reactionary, anti-intellectual, and so thoroughly committed to the expansion of technology and wealth that even the death of the oceans leaves Republicans unmoved.
And Earth Day, I fear, isn’t doing much to change that; it is mostly preaching to the choir, and a few celebratory events; maybe someone, somewhere, will learn that electric cars exist, but depend on coal-burning plants, so it’s back to the drawing board.
This is not going to change much; in fact, by pretending to be an answer, it may make things worse.
But something has to change, because things are getting worse. While focused on a few hot-button issues – gas prices, crazy weather, sunscreen sales – the national conversation misses the core of our environmental crises.
So this column is not about global warming. It is not about the Grand Prix, or about Earth Day. It’s about a basic fact, overlooked and misunderstood, which ought to be the daily focus of government and of all citizens.
Our economy is unsustainable. It is unsustainable for three reasons. First, because it is based on oil, which is finite. Second, because it must continually expand, which is impossible on a finite planet. And third, because it depends on the majority of people being underpaid workers, and fails to meet the basic needs of most people, a situation that human beings will not forever tolerate.
I read a “speakout” comment in the Press-Telegram this week, which derided solar power and wind power, insisting that oil is the life of our economy, and it is oil we must have. Capitalists are drooling to get at the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, which by the most optimistic bets could fulfill 3% of our oil needs for 50 years.
Not too impressive, and it leaves a question: And then what?
Oil is the life of our economy, and that’s the trouble. As its supplies diminish, whether in ten, fifty, or a hundred years, alternate energy sources will not fill the gap. Conservation is the only real solution, and I’m not talking about changing a few lightbulbs and carpooling occasionally. I’m talking about the American way of life, where you always have everything you want, where you never have to worry – this endless party we are selling to the rest of the world, telling them they, too, can have it all – this cannot last.
The question is only when will it fall apart, and how?
So keep cheering for those cars, driving fast to nowhere. The money they make will be spent before Christmas. The sun will keep shining, the oil rigs will pump until they don’t, and humanity will continue to multiply itself. China and India, following our lead, will promise their people the glamour of a new Gilded Age, and the advertising industry will count its gold even as the skies are already turning black over Beijing, and Bombay, and Long Beach.
What we need is a thousand-year economy. What we have are quarterly profits. Happy Earth Day; where’s the party?