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TechnoratiThe Planet’s Imperative: Stop War, Shine On
On Earth Day, I contemplated the pre-dawn sky, looking for shooting stars. The evening prior, my partner and I had scouted out a viewing spot adjoining a vacant lot just a few blocks from home. Though we live in a central neighborhood, the clear air and waning moon offered favorable viewing conditions for the Lyrid meteor shower even from our urban vantage point.
In a warm climate, the transition between night and day is a time of rejuvenation for the earth, when ground water rises into plant stems, pushing them upward. Planted in my camp chair, gazing upward, I thought I could feel the life force, too -- the magnetism of the heavens pulling gently against the gravity that held me down and drew the meteors in.
The night was balmy, and the quiet was actually filled with sound: insects humming, a mockingbird singing his brilliant medley, our neighborhood screech owl trilling his single note. There was some street traffic: a dumpster truck, a few cars and several bicycles that glided by. Above, two planes passed the spot we were watching during the hour we were there.
My partner and I saw 6 meteors each. The brightest was a burst of light with no visible trail. The others made brief but unmistakable dashes between the constellations. We welcomed each silent flash with an exclamation. Did the mockingbird and the owl see them, too?
Staring into space makes me think about time. I want the planet to celebrate an uncountable number of future Earth Days. But, the darkest hour reveals the starkest truth: the primary obstacle to the earth's longevity is the effect of my own species on our shared home.
In a quiet moment of reflection in the film, "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore asks himself, in voiceover, about the barriers that keep human beings from living more sustainably. It would have been the perfect opportunity to discuss the most inconvenient truth: our preoccupation with security is killing us. The drive to keep ourselves "safe" has become the greatest threat to our existence.
Many indicators point to the US Department of Defense as the largest institutional polluter in the world. Most tellingly, the US military is the world's largest single oil purchaser and consumer. If the invasion of Iraq, and perhaps Afghanistan, was about US oil interests, then military occupation serves mainly to perpetuate the military, like a snake devouring its own tail, feeding and destroying itself at the same time.
War is not only ungreen, it discourages greenness. I sometimes feel ridiculous sorting my recycling and installing low energy light bulbs while the massive pistons of the war machine keep pumping, consuming incalculable amounts of energy for every watt I try to conserve.
On Earth Day eve, Al Gore said that we are now at a tipping point. "This year, 2009, is the Gettysburg for the environment," he said. It's interesting that he should use a war metaphor for his call to action. The US Civil War caused untold environmental destruction along with its huge human death toll. All sides lose when home is a battlefield. Now, home encompasses the globe.
We human beings can decide to abolish war. The owl needs its prey, but we do not. Our most basic, most elegant tools are at hand: communication, education, international law, creative arts and sciences, nonviolent resistance. When we are threatened, we have these tools, mightier than the sword, to protect ourselves. In the process, we protect our descendants - and the owl, too.
If the Obama Administration is urging us to look forward, then we must take the long view of the future. The long view means valuing the history lesson along with the brain-storming session. If we care what happens to our progeny ten generations from now, we've got to consider the trajectory from ten generations back as equally relevant.
The life of our planet must not be a flash in the pan, a brief streak of light in time's expanse. Our ancient Mother deserves a future of infinite history, and so do we, her youngest children. To celebrate our common Mother's Day, let's give her bicycles, sustainable agriculture, windmills, solar panels, rain barrels. Because it makes no sense to give her bicycles with one hand and bombs with the other, it's time to acknowledge that the critical point we have reached is not a call to arms, it's a call to lay them down.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said it more directly when he told the United States that our choice was between nonviolence and non-existence. This is our Montgomery moment, our Letter from a Birmingham Jail. The planet can't wait, and neither must we.
19 Comments so far
Show AllI agree that War is a Racket, pursued for profit. But, I think the security issue is still what makes people willing to go along with it. Armed interventions of many kinds are sold as being protectors of security, and most folks seem to buy it, at least at first, so that's why I posed the security concern as a primary barrier to sustainability. I do think people are realizing more and more that the safety they thought war was buying them was just the opposite. I hope Al Gore will address the "War is not green" issue directly as he continues writing and speaking about our planet.
Excellent points about how people fall for the security trap hook, line, and sinker. There are strong cases to be made for the correlation between security and going green.
My gut feeling tells me that as Peak Oil hits the planet across the board, the road to long term peace and stability will be tougher to avoid and the warmongers will be going down. I could be wrong though.
I think you're right. Peace is inevitable as we develop a global tribal ecological consciousness. It wont be long when the way we've been operating our society will seem archaic and barbaric. Obsolete. Things are changing so rapidly.
Peace!!
Excellent article! Makes me want to shout "Bikes, not bombs!"
Instead I'll share the words to an old anthem for peace that was often sung during the Vietnam war protests, and by no less than Pete Seeger and Joan Baez:
Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream
words and music by Ed McCurdy
Last night I had the strangest dream
I'd ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war
I dreamed I saw a mighty room
Filled with women and men
And the paper they were signing said
They'd never fight again
And when the paper was all signed
And a million copies made
They all joined hands and bowed their heads
And grateful prayers were prayed
And the people in the streets below
Were dancing 'round and 'round
While swords and guns and uniforms
Were scattered on the ground
Last night I had the strangest dream
I'd never dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war.
And here's a video of Pete Seeger performing this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwJUGL8aSb8
This is one of the reasons I end up listening to the older singers than today's singers. Thank you.
P.S.: Since you're from Montana, I kind of felt sad for you and your fellow Montanans out there after the way Senator Baucus gave your state a bad rap today when he called for more policing against advocates of single payer healthcare just because they spoke out and protested for being excluded. Here's what I am referring to:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/05-9
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/05-6
That's bogus. Max strikes out again. He's a fence rider. One thing I'll credit him with though (in part) is securing a lot of private timber lands in our valley and returning it to the public trust. It's called the Montana Legacy Project.
http://www.themontanalegacyproject.org/
The drawback of course is that Plum Creek Timber Company made boat loads of money. But at least these priceless wildlands are off limits to greedy land developers.
"The individual whose vision encompasses the whole world often feels nowhere so hedged in and out of touch with his surroundings as in his native land. " Emma Goldman
Agreed that warmaking is one of our biggest problems. But in addition to corporate greed there is the fact that men like war, that is a major underpinning of patriarchy. And the other one is for men to be top dogs as in the corporate culture. So its not just about wanting security, though that maybe the mistaken reason women support war, its about exercising male power, conquering and empire and the spoils of war always include raping women. Yes there are men opposed to war but few who want to get us out of the male dominince that has led us to this place and women's accompanying sin is their passivity in the face of it. There is little time left to save ourselves so we need to at least get a clue about what is driving this disgusting militarized earthraping, women hating machine.
Susan ,thanks for your post.It is the ultimate hypocracy for the U.S. to discuss cap and trade while maintaining almost a thousand military bases around the world.I'm sure if the size of the Military machine and it's carbon footprint were known people would be very angry, here as they are around the globe.
The human costs,enviornmental costs and moral costs of endless war are huge.They consume 50% of tax dollars,and bankrupt us spiritually.Yes war is the ultimate organized crime and by paying for it we are all war criminals by proxy.
Ok so we may be peace voters,maybe voting third party,hoping for change how did that work out for us?We didn't vote for war and destruction ,we got it without representation! peace
Solving climate change is our generation's greatest challenge. A revenue-neutral carbon tax is the cheapest, simplest, most effective and most progressive way to do it.
Join GreenChange.org in calling on President Obama and our elected representatives to support a revenue-neutral carbon tax:
http://tinyurl.com/neutralCO2tax
Susan Van Haitsma wrote, "In a quiet moment of reflection in the film, "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore asks himself, in voiceover, about the barriers that keep human beings from living more sustainably. It would have been the perfect opportunity to discuss the most inconvenient truth: our preoccupation with security is killing us. The drive to keep ourselves "safe" has become the greatest threat to our existence".
FIRST, Al Gore is an environmental hypocrite, from what I've read anyway. What that said is that he's a major or huge consumer of energy resources for his multiple millionaire or rich "homes", estates, whatever the hellbent properties he uses to reside in are called. No serious environmental activist of honest sort should use him or his words for support. He's another corporatist, etcetera, and like all of them, they seek opportunities to profit. Is this really the case with him? I don't know, but I expect that people who've reported on his environmental "crusade" hypocrisy did their homework and are telling the truth about this. If they did, then I'd give him no support at all, but might want to personally adopt some of the ideas he speaks of. After all, he invented [nothing]!
As for the article's author saying that "our preoccupation with security is killing us", I "beg" to differ. Security is [not] why the USA is at war, why the USA has been hellbent "screwing" with African countries, why the USA supports, protects, arms, ... the hellbent government of Israel, why the USA led the act-of-war coup d'etat against Haiti's majority and their [democratically elected] government on Feb. 29, 2004, while maintaining this hellbent status against this defenceless country ever since, ongoingly, and ... and so on! It has absolutely [nothing] to do with security!
[War Is a RACKET]! For the USA and its allies, that is.
As for opposing war due to environmental concerns, this is a real concern, but it's not the top-most. Human lives, millions of human lives, many millions, is more important. However, and with that said, yes, the environmental impact is important to remember and to use as an additional argument; only an (important) addition, but not the main argument. The argument's very important. After all, the environmental impact is highly toxic and contributes to the toll on humans, besides other living organisms.
Al Gore's a jerk and an environmental pig in terms of energy [wastage], etcetera, though. Also, and as far as I'm concerned, he [is] guilty through complicity with the Bill Clinton war of aggression against Kosovo (Yugoslavia, Serbia), the hellbent bombings on Iraq that the administration maintained for nearly or roughly or wholly (?) two full terms, trashing of social assistance financing in the USA for people on so-called "well"-fare, the major importation of imported hi-tech workers to [replace] U.S. citizen professionals, and plenty more greed-based hellbent bs. Thoughout all of this, sh*t-for-brains Al Gore stood complacent, raking in all of the greed-based advantages he could by being VP. And plenty of "Americans" are still kissing his ass today. And he couldn't care less about these "Americans", except that he profitably wants their support; for whatever profit scheme(s) he has in mind and doesn't reveal to the public, for strategic purpose, "of course". He's a worthless citizen, but also worse; he has betrayed! Yes, literally.
He was worthless (or worse than that) as a VP and certainly isn't any better now.
MikeCorbeil: Good post. By the 2000 election, I finally wised up and quit voting for the "lesser of two evils", (I was afflicted with the ailment myself) and proudly voted for Ralph Nader. No regret. Between the continued bombings and sanctions in Iraq during the 90's, the Waco, Texas Massacre, and some detrimental legislation by Slick Willy whom I voted for twice: I know, I'm a slow learner, plus the other war crime by Clinton/Gore, the crime against humanity of
blowing up Yugoslavia, a semi-socialist country on behalf of American and European capitalists and the seedy, "working behind the scenes" group of "international bankers."
Yes, 2000 was the turning point for me. I proudly voted for Cynthia McKinney last year after Kucinich dropped out of the race.
The world is nothing less than a theatre of total conflict, and grows so more every day. The US military will not feel secure until everyone else is dead or in prison.
As for climate, Emissions Trading Schemes, Cap and trade and similar do nothing schemes for professional window dressers, we have had all the warnings we are going to get.
James Lovelock published his latest "A Final Warning", called The Vanishing Face of Gaia. Literally as seen from space, the planet Earth is visibly becoming devoid of life in the oceans and deserts as it warms up, and as we deprive Gaia of its phyiological balancing mechanisms.
There is a war we cannot win.
B 3 N I G N ,
¿ Can it be a mere coincidence that our egos also view, conceptualize, and perceive our life experience this way :
"The world is nothing less than a theatre of total conflict, and grows so more every day. … [we] will not feel secure until everyone else is dead or in prison ? "
We must put away our childish ego-centric viewpoints, and step up to being responsible members of the global community.
Each of us can choose to open up to our growing challenges of collaborating and working together, connecting with the seed of altruism in all of us, as it's ultimately about the future's children and the possibility of all of us living together in a sustainable existence.
Yes I agree, that our egos cannot make sacrifices, nor turn away from war, as selfish existence
" is a war we cannot win."
We must learn the heart of our consciences, grow into increasing levels of consciousness of our interconnectiveness, and choose more wisely than to ever again listen intently and act foolishly upon that drumming voice of our small, cold, and pale egotism.
We are in this together, except for our egos -- as each of them -- want it all for themselves.
Namaste
Obama is a breath of fresh air compared to any other president in the last 4 decades. Considering he's been give an garbage can full terrible things from those who preceded him, I feel he has done a good job. The future is bright if we want it to be. The good things in life have to be earned, they are not always freely given.
I feel we are at the dawn of a new age. The age of Clean and Free Renewable energy. If we don't have to fight over oil, we can concentrate on the better things in life. Go gettem Obama. It's only been a little over 100 days. Your repealing of all the GOP Laws that destroyed our Constitution and our personal rights is a step in the right direction. I for one am willing to give you the time you need to make the changes America and the world need to survive. I can't think of anyone out there who could have done a better job, giving all the circumstances you have had thrown at you. Keep up the good work, You have my vote,
Mik
Joe Hope? Is that you?
Well said:
"Many indicators point to the US Department of Defense as the largest institutional polluter in the world. Most tellingly, the US military is the world's largest single oil purchaser and consumer. If the invasion of Iraq, and perhaps Afghanistan, was about US oil interests, then military occupation serves mainly to perpetuate the military, like a snake devouring its own tail, feeding and destroying itself at the same time."
Kind of puts the lie to cap and trade. Why, other than to enrich certain financial trading platforms, require businesses to do fake carbon offsets, while feeding the war machine that truly offsets any good we could do. Like on every other topic, Obama speaks with a forked tongue. No wait, like on every other topic, Obama is a complete fraud.
..."communication, education, international law, creative arts and sciences, nonviolent resistance"?!! How in the world could any of these affect the enormous, gargantuan war machine with all its heavy and merciless momentum? Talk about an absolute waste of time and effort.
We might as well admit that unless we are willing, en masse, to put our bodies in the way of the guns (and even that would not remotely work unless it was LOTS OF PEOPLE). Or, LOTS AND LOTS of us withold our taxes until the U.S. stops making war, war machines, and all the profitable related products and services.
Since neither of those is ever going to happen- think of the economic repercussions! Jobs would be lost! The stock market would suffer! - we might as well better just say our namyanhos and rengehos and go plant a garden.
The planet can get along fine without us.
Not so we without the planet.