It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel.... ambivalent? A friend and I were talking about this yesterday and we concluded that the earth will probably survive us and that we will probably survive climate change though the consequences of our unfettered recklessness and greed could fling us or our descendants back into another Stone Age. It is virtually impossible to chart the future no matter how much detailed and accurate scientific research and reportage informs us. The scientists know far more about the earth, the atmosphere and the impact of fossil fuels and carbon and methane emissions on the biosphere than I ever will, and yet I can't help but wonder how much science really knows. They seem to be on a constant learning curve themselves. I also wish they would tell us some good news for a change and inform us that it is not too late, that we are not past the point of no return and that everything is going to be all right. And maybe we will be pleasantly surprised and the earth will continue to turn as always on its gently tilted axis, and summer in the north and winter in the south will still change places with the regularity of thousands of years gone by. Not convinced? Well, neither am I.
The only way we can adequately prepare for climate change is first by suspending and ending all extraction and use of fossil fuels. No one, at least no one working in Big Oil is about to do this. And our governments, or our publicly elected officials whom the oil companies have bought and control are not going to do anything that is going to offend or piss off their bosses. They are the real bosses, owners, share holders, and our prime ministers, premiers, presidents and kings all dance to the tune that they are calling. We know where the power lies. What we haven't figured out really is how are we going to reclaim that power and in doing so take back our lives.
Why do they have so much power? Why this complete lack of interest in putting the interests of the planet, the creatures that inhabit it, and us, ahead of their self-interest and short term greed? I am not able to answer this because I don't know the answer. Except, everyone wanted the product they were selling. When the car was invented and powered by gasoline, a petroleum product, this exhilarating, intoxicating and reckless sense of freedom had so duped everybody that everyone was buying and driving cars and the chosen fuel that kept them going, gasoline, came gushing forth like an endless river of life from gas pumps from Esso, Texaco, Shell and Pemex. It took us a few years to figure out that this is really a river of death, Styx running from subterranean deposits of dinosaur DNA to the refineries to the sales outlets and into your gas tanks, wrecking the environment, poisoning the air, endangering our health and imperilling the planet in the process.
I do know that green technologies, renewable energies are inexhaustible and I sometimes wonder if the heads of the oil companies have ever thought that they might remain just as rich and get even richer were they to invest in the development and exploitation of solar, wind, tidal, geothermal and biomass energies. Would it be that hard to make the transition? Would it not rather open up new industries and create new and lasting employment as they invest in the improvement and perfection of solar batteries, wind and tidal turbines and biomass and geothermal conversion plants? Energy is energy and this way we could still have electricity, computers and neat little electronic toys and functioning hospital surgeries without compromising the environment, wrecking the climate, causing the sixth massive species extinction and making the earth basically unliveable to ourselves and our descendants.
We live in a death culture. A global death culture. The accumulation of power and wealth easily transforms ordinary human beings into demons and devils. This is common knowledge. Of course we also have such billionaires as Warren Buffet and Bill Gates and a handful of others who have donated large chunks of their personal fortunes to charity while encouraging others of their ilk to do the same. There don't seem to be many takers. Carlos Slim, the Lebanese-Mexican tycoon, the world's wealthiest man, has been recorded many times declaring his refusal to share his wealth with the people of Mexico, a country that still is full of struggling and working poor. It has been estimated that some twenty-one trillion dollars or more that should be invested in taxes and helping shore up and maintain the social and economic infrastructures of entire nations is being illegally concealed in offshore accounts. I'm sure some of those trillions at least are petro dollars. And don't get me started about the banks. How do their CEO's manage to rake in millions in annual salaries and bonuses?
Meanwhile the famous gap between rich and poor continues to widen creating the very abyss that might end up swallowing us all. I am confident that we can still learn from the lessons of history, that no matter how much power and wealth the One Percent has accrued that they can continue expanding only for so long before they eventually implode and the rest of us rise up against them. This idea has been ratified throughout history, in fact it is the only reason that now in 2014 more people all over the world than ever before are enjoying a standard of life that our great grandparents could never have dreamed of. This has come at tremendous cost, not only the blood and lives of those who have fought, resisted, protested and advocated for just and fair working conditions and for just and fair societies protected by truly democratic governments, but also through the crafty seduction by the multinational corporations through the huge mass media and advertising networks that have duped us into slavishly consuming their product.
Now we face the chasm of more change, of a new era. The old and familiar ways are no longer going to work. We have the Internet and easy access to computer technology and social media to thank for the possibility that this could be something positive because our survival as a species may take a massive co-ordinated effort. We are facing increased storms of an unprecedented ferocity, a rise in the sea level, massive floods, burning droughts, to name just a sampling. Franken foods, thanks to Monsanto, have taken over global agriculture and this is problematic on two fronts: the possible but still unconfirmed dangers and risks that eating these crops may pose, and the stranglehold that Monsanto holds over its seeds and rights. This and monoculture along with a global human population that is already unsustainable only contribute to the headache. Since Thomas Malthus we have been confronted with and have been having to contemplate the outcome of global overpopulation. We so far have not starved and actually a greater percentage of human mouths than ever are being fed, but at the cost of unprecedented environmental degradation.
On the other hand, human beings are incredibly resourceful and creative. Now that we are living in the first global civilization with access to knowledge and technologies never before anticipated I think we also have at our fingertips the very strategies we are going to need to not only survive but to thrive in this changing world, but this is not going to come easily. To succeed we are also going to all have to work and cooperate together as never before and this is probably going to be akin to herding cats, which is to say more than seven billion very stubborn and very individualistic cats.
By the time we ever change from fossil fuels to green technologies it is likely going to be too late to reverse the change. The proverbial horse is already out of the barn. We will either have to run out of extractable oil or it will become so expensive as to be inaccessible to almost everyone before we change. Unless there is a huge shift in our thinking and please let's not rule out this possibility no matter how remote. We have abolished slavery and in most countries capital punishment. Women have the vote and increasing power and equality, there is more and not less co-operation occurring between nations and races and religions no matter what Fox and Sun News might want to say about radical Islam and a supposed clash of civilizations. We have made unprecedented gains in health care and knowledge of maintaining healthy lives. We have so much working in our favour that I think there is room for at least a little glimmer of hope that we will somehow get through this.
It probably is not going to be easy. Perhaps parts of the world vulnerable to hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones and tornadoes are going to have to invest in and build structures that are semi-subterranean and resistant against humongous wind forces. Maybe we are going to have to change our diets and food sources, learn how to cook, eat and enjoy bugs for example or other foods, vegetable and animal previously unknown or previously unappetizing. Maybe some deserts, such as the Sahara, Gobi and Atacama will become moist and fertile, will bloom and become the world's bread baskets.
In the meantime there is much we can do to prepare: I like the trend in urban agriculture, of becoming increasingly independent of Big Food. We might all have to become proficient at growing food, at sourcing local foods and relying less on imports. We will have to radically change our diets, I think eventually all be prepared to become vegetarian. In the event of massive power failures disabling the Internet and computer and social media communications we have to become less reliant on Wikipedia and reverse the trend towards digitalizing culture and knowledge. That's right, we have to recover and not lose the arts of writing, books made of ink and paper, the playing of musical instruments, the learning and memorizing of all the works of world literature and science. We have to re-empower ourselves and one another to recover and become what we have been outsourcing to electronic communications.
These are only a few ideas and I'm sure anyone reading this will have ideas to contribute. In the meantime we must continue to resist, educate ourselves. learn, become empowered and never cease to enjoy and celebrate life and one another. We must not lose our hope, we must not lose our joy. And we must continue to reclaim what we have surrendered and never cease to speak truth to power.
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