Letter to the Editor: Incremental Improvement for Rich Means Devastation for Everyone Else
August 15, 2003. All in the name of a few more years' greed and profit, American corporations are committed to risking the future of the planet by relentlessly seeking business practice carte blanche no matter the cost to make life incrementally better for million/billionaires and dramatically worse for the rest of world. The global climate change resulting from the exhaustion of fossil fuels at a rate soon to exceed demand (within the next ten to twenty years) will, if left unchecked, literally make the planet uninhabitable by raising temperatures and, thus, drying up rivers and irrigation supplies in massive swaths of arable lands. But, hey, if America's wealthy stand to pocket another dollar they don't need and can't even spend anyway, even if it means taking bread from the mouths of starving children, then more power to them—they have the Bush administration's full support, and they know it.
The real mystery is how few non-wealthy Americans know it. Working class Americans from all walks of life seem strongly to support the Bush administration and its economic policies without seeming to realize that they are not the ones being served by these policies and politics. Have they failed to realize what pawns they are—have they mistaken themselves for being members of the ruling class? Perhaps. Will they realize that they and their lifestyles too are fodder for the wealthy neocons eying their bank accounts? Too soon to tell.
The issue here is sustainability: America as we know is it unsustainable.
Consider the scenario that America continues as it has, unchecked by conscience or reason. According to Enviroweb's global perspective (http://globalwarming.enviroweb.org/ishappening/peopleemc2/peoplenenergy_globalper.html), the U.S., which accounts for 5% of the world's population, generates 22% of the world's fossil fuel emissions—a gross inequity. Yet fossil fuel, which is not renewable, is under ever increasing demands in the face of growing American consumption, including via SUVs, hummers, and other low-mileage-per-gallon vehicles often used for single-occupant daily commuting. What efforts has the U.S. taken to wean itself and its economic partners off this dwindling fuel source? Virtually none. What will happen when there is not enough oil to meet U.S. demands? Chaos. Beginning with rationing, shortages, skyrocketing prices, black markets, hoarding, riots, and other economics of scarcity, the American way of life as we know it will cease virtually overnight—people's lives and jobs, and therefore their paychecks, will be brutally disrupted. America should have been preparing for the days ahead decades ago: it is too late to pull an all-nighter and expect to come out with an “A” on this exam. Furthermore, fossil fuel emissions lead to global climate change: temporary cooling trends followed by significant warming. The result of global climate upheaval in the short term is increased occurrences of powerful, destructive tornadoes, hurricanes, and other storms—and their spread into regions that usually do not suffer them—resulting in the loss of life and property. In the long term, global climate change will alter the face of the earth beyond recognition, resulting in the loss of arable land and, with it, an acute decrease in the ability of humans everywhere to feed themselves. What happens to middle and working-class America if the “bread basket of the world” comes up empty ... year after year after year? What would be the value of Bill Gates's billions if there simply isn't a piece of bread to be bought? If we thought life without oil was bad, we ain't seen nothin' yet 'til we've seen life without food.
A grim reality, this. Perhaps it disturbs you; it certainly disturbs me. Sadly, it entirely fails to disturb the Bill Gateses and George Bushes and Tony Blairs of the world ... they seem to think their money will protect them somehow ... but there are some realities money can't change to suit the wealthy. Not even money can alter the laws of nature.
Greed is bad business—it is unsustainable. If you continually screw all your customers, your customers will seek greener pastures elsewhere. Oh, you may enjoy a monopoly for a while, but people will eventually get fed up and revolt (case in point: the growing freeware movement in response to the ridiculous prices and pitiful quality of Microsoft software). If you take your profit out of other people's hides, you will eventually run out of hides to harvest (another case in point: Senator Bill Frist propounded, George Bush lobbied for, and Congress passed a bill exonerating vaccine makers from any and all liability when their products injure, maim, or kill ... Congress thus legalized gross negligence ... Later, Congress pretended to be affronted at what they had passed, promising to rectify the “mistake” later only to let it slip conveniently below the nation's radar, never to be heard from again). People and their stupidity are, as resources, only renewable up to a point—and businesses may only pass that point at their peril.
There is a simple lesson here for America's wealthy, their businesses, and their government: sustainability is actually good business. It may require greater social responsibility and greater short term investment—which, by diminishing immediate short term returns, is what makes it so very unappealing—but it is more self maintaining in the long term. With sustainability, everybody wins: the rich, the poor, the environment ... everybody. Perhaps that is the real reason that America's rich and powerful detest the idea so viscerally. Perhaps they begrudge every bite of bread that goes into the mouth of every less-than-wealthy child. In any event, they will eventually have to wake up and smell this particular coffee ... or die out, like the dinosaur.
The writer, Zoe Owens, is a Ph.D. philosopher and author of such introspectively religious books as “Jesus Holy Christ Almighty.”
