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Global Warning - May 26, 2009 - Printable Version
- A Challenge to President Obama
by Robin Buckallew
President Obama has been making some speeches that sound pretty good. He’s been mentioning green energy, and the need for an alternative fuel for the future. He’s gone so far as to include funding for green infrastructure in his stimulus bill, and has even provided increased funding for Amtrak. He accepts the reality of global warming, and the need to do something about it, which is a welcome change from his predecessor (what was his name again?....I seem to have forgotten…oh, well, he’s probably not that important, anyway). In spite of all that, however, he proceeds with a caution that appears to belie the urgency of his words. At this point in his presidency, his approval rating remains high, his popularity is unquestioned, and he has a great deal of “political capital” to invest. Rather than investing his capital, however, he appears to be putting it under the mattress in hopes that it will still be there intact when he gets back to it in the future. Unfortunately, this is a time that calls for bold action, not just pretty words and cautious action. There is no better time than the present, while his popularity is high, and people are hanging on his every word. Use your capital, Mr. President. People have indicated they are willing to follow you, if you will just take the lead. This is the time for action, Mr. Obama, and I would like to challenge you to move boldly toward a cleaner, greener world…before it’s too late. During a recent speech on energy, Obama indicated that he wanted to move toward a future of cleaner, more sustainable energy sources. In the meantime, however, he said, we will need to continue to increase our use of fossil fuels until we can get to that point. We need to keep growing, and we need these fuels, these dirty, polluting, and rapidly depleting fuels to get us to the point where we can wean ourselves off. This sounds suspiciously familiar. I’ve been hearing this refrain since…well, since 1970, at least. In those years, we’ve been doing research and development, we’ve been building new structures, we’ve been developing new power sources, and as a result, over the past 40 years, we’ve managed to get our use of clean renewable power up to the staggeringly high amount of…..10% of our fuel use. Wow. I’m….just speechless. Really, I am. 10%? In 40 years? Break out the champagne – at this rate, we might be able to get ourselves up to par before the turn of the next millennium…or not.
I would like to question Obama’s commitment, although I do appreciate his lip service to a truly global problem. The problems of the environment, I would argue, are more urgent and more immediate than the problems of the Iraq war, the economic downturn, the balanced budget, the corruption in Congress, CEO bonuses, or Brangelina’s next baby, all put together. You see, the problems of the environment undergird everything we do. The environment is the foundation for all of the above, and more. Every thing that happens in human society, small or large, good or bad, happens because the environment exists. It happens because there is a world there for it to happen in, and that world contains the resources we require to allow it to happen. Continuing to “grow” at the expense of the environment, with the idea that you will be able to save the environment once you’ve “grown” to a proper size, a proper stability, a proper prosperity, is at best short-sighted. At worst, it’s criminal. We must rethink our choices now, before it’s too late. We’ve known for at least a century about some of these problems, and we’ve continued to table them, because there’s always an economic downturn we need to reverse, an economic upturn we need to enjoy, a war we need to start, a war we need to stop, taxes we need to cut, taxes we need to raise, storms in the Atlantic, storms in the Pacific….and so on and so on, not to mention the Super Bowl, the World Series, the World Cup, and the Olympics. To date, EVERYTHING has been given top priority over the environment, and growth has been given the top priority over all else. Yes, people are hungry…are they going to be less hungry if the recovery solutions cause even more loss of fertile soil, or more paving over of the land? Yes, people are poor…are they going to be less poor if the resources that create wealth have become so depleted they are no longer capable of creating wealth?
To date, all the solutions to the latest crisis are geared toward boosting the economy, the growth of sales and consumption…in short, the very things that got us into this pickle in the first place. We are throwing money at the problem, hoping that money will get picked up and used to buy more “stuff”…more cars, more computers, more clothes, more things to help that very elusive line on the chart go back up. Meanwhile, the balance sheet of the Earth will continue the dramatic downward plunge of the asset line that has been steadily going in the wrong direction at least since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Every day, more species disappear off the face of the Earth forever. Once they’re gone, we won’t be able to get them back, just because the economy manages to sputter obediently back upward again. No amount of money can bring back the dodo, the great auk, or the passenger pigeon. Economic health won’t bring back the California condor, the white rhino, or the blue-footed booby if they should be the next victims. In fact, most of the solutions that have been proposed to date will actually hasten the demise of the polar bear, the gray wolf, and the Florida panther, as habitats become even more fragmented, the planet becomes even warmer, and the air and water become even more polluted. Economic recovery isn’t the answer…before we can get the right answer, we need to ask the right question. The right question isn’t, how do we move the economy back to solid ground? The right question is, how do we build a new economy that can manage to function consistently without threatening the resources it relies on for its very existence? Some people are asking that question, but their voices are getting drowned out in the drumbeat of the other, louder voices still singing the same siren song they’ve been singing for the last couple of centuries…grow, grow, grow. Buy, buy, buy. Build, build, build. Grow. Buy. Build. Growbuybuild….it’s deafening.
So, my challenge, Mr. Obama, is this. Use your current popularity, your current high approval ratings, and take a risk that few presidents have ever taken…probably none in my lifetime. Tell your constituents the truth. We don’t need to keep ramping up our fossil fuel resources to grow…we have the ability, right now, to change that. We can (warning: bad, dirty, nasty, obscene word coming up…) CONSERVE. Gasp! Did she just say what I thought she said? No, she couldn’t have said that…that’s one of those words you can’t say on TV! That’s OK, friends, this isn’t TV, this is the Internet, and you can say just about anything you want here. I’m going to say it again, just in case you missed it the first time…WE CAN CONSERVE. Although many people may think they are conserving, although miles driven did actually drop last year, this comforting fantasy is belied by the continuing upsurge in the CO2 emissions. It is still considered in apropos to mention the word carpool around most people, and mass transit is still never mentioned in the myriad articles I read about how we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Although there was money for Amtrak in the stimulus package, that money is inadequate to address the national needs for good, affordable, reliable mass transit that is available nationwide. It is also dwarfed by the amount of money given for road-building, to cut still more ribbons of dirty gray highway through the last remaining acres of unpaved lands, so that Americans can manage to get from point a to point b without ever having to interact with another living thing…unless, of course, they happen to encounter the occasional squirrel or rabbit with their car wheels, or impact insects or birds with the windshield. Higher mileage cars for everyone will do little to solve the environmental problems, and in fact, will probably end up increasing the problem in ways few people have anticipated. More money for building green buildings still doesn’t take into account the fact that most American businesses leave their lights on all night, and that most American houses are lit up like Christmas trees at all hours of the day and night, even when no one’s home. It doesn’t take into account light pollution, or noise pollution, or habitat fragmentation, or any of the myriad ways that we are destroying the world we rely on more rapidly with every passing day. It probably won’t even make that substantial a difference in our emissions. It certainly won’t make the sort of difference that would be made simply by changing our expectations that everyone is entitled to travel alone by private car, and should have the roads available to take them wherever they want to go. We have got to end this mindless pursuit of consumer goods…and we have to end it now. President Obama, you have an historic opportunity. You can seize the day, and call on the people of America to pull together in this crisis, consider the possibility of sacrificing a little today for the greater good, and possibly for a richer, more fulfilling future tomorrow. If you are more than just a rhetorically-gifted politician, if you are truly the visionary that your supporters believe you are, you’ll abandon the familiar, comforting phrases of the status quo, and lead your country forward into a new and brighter tomorrow.
Whenever I talk to people about trying to give a little, just a little, to help the protect the Earth, I usually hear that they have more important things to spend their money on. Last week, I heard this from someone who’s ecological footprint indicated that, if everyone lived the way she did, it would take 17 Earth sized planets to support them all. Yes, that’s seventeen….we don’t have 17 planets. I begin to get the sneaking suspicion that I am being told, over and over, even by people who believe themselves to be greener than most, that we can’t afford the Earth. Well, fine. If we can’t afford the Earth, at least we understand each other. I’m just wondering…how long before the Earth decides that SHE can’t afford US?
ADDENDUM: This is an update on the status of the lame-duck executive orders and the nasty businesses conducted by the previous administration, many of which are under review by the current administration. The current administration has completed their review on the polar bear, and its listing on the Endangered Species list as a result of habitat loss from global warming. The Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, has announced that this administration will uphold the previous administration’s decision that the Endangered Species Act cannot be used as a tool to fight global warming. In short, once again, the status quo has been upheld by a president who was elected because he promised to take us in a new direction. It appears that new direction could very well lead us over the very same cliff.
We have very little time to act. The polar ice caps are melting rapidly. The world is heating more rapidly than originally expected, and the CO2 concentrations have passed the worst case scenario of the International Panel on Climate Change. If we don’t want to be responsible for the extinction of the polar bear, not to mention many other species that are less large and showy, we must act now. Our government is refusing to take the high road; we’re going to have to show them the way. Contact your Senators, contact your Representatives, contact the President, write letters to your local paper, organize rallies, call your mother if you think it will help. Call for action on environmental issues. Let’s move this to the top of the list, where it belongs. It isn’t just about the polar bear…it’s about all of us. It’s about the future, and the only time we can save the future is in the present. If you just sit there feeling smug now because you’re focused on “more important” things, I hope you’ll at least have the decency to sit there feeling guilty in the future because you didn’t do anything while you could.
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