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Calling All Future-Eaters
The human species during its brief time on Earth has exhibited a remarkable capacity to kill itself off. The Cro-Magnons dispatched the gentler Neanderthals. The conquistadors, with the help of smallpox, decimated the native populations in the Americas. Modern industrial warfare in the 20th century took at least 100 million lives, most of them civilians. And now we sit passive and dumb as corporations and the leaders of industrialized nations ensure that climate change will accelerate to levels that could mean the extinction of our species. Homo sapiens, as the biologist Tim Flannery points out, are the "future-eaters."
In the past when civilizations went belly up through greed, mismanagement and the exhaustion of natural resources, human beings migrated somewhere else to pillage anew. But this time the game is over. There is nowhere else to go. The industrialized nations spent the last century seizing half the planet and dominating most of the other half. We giddily exhausted our natural capital, especially fossil fuel, to engage in an orgy of consumption and waste that poisoned the Earth and attacked the ecosystem on which human life depends. It was quite a party if you were a member of the industrialized elite. But it was pretty stupid.
Collapse this time around will be global. We will disintegrate together. And there is no way out. The 10,000-year experiment of settled life is about to come to a crashing halt. And humankind, which thought it was given dominion over the Earth and all living things, will be taught a painful lesson in the necessity of balance, restraint and humility. There is no human monument or city ruin that is more than 5,000 years old. Civilization, Ronald Wright notes in "A Short History of Progress," "occupies a mere 0.2 percent of the two and a half million years since our first ancestor sharpened a stone." Bye-bye, Paris. Bye-bye, New York. Bye-bye, Tokyo. Welcome to the new experience of human existence, in which rooting around for grubs on islands in northern latitudes is the prerequisite for survival.
We view ourselves as rational creatures. But is it rational to wait like sheep in a pen as oil and natural gas companies, coal companies, chemical industries, plastics manufacturers, the automotive industry, arms manufacturers and the leaders of the industrial world, as they did in Copenhagen, take us to mass extinction? It is too late to prevent profound climate change. But why add fuel to the fire? Why allow our ruling elite, driven by the lust for profits, to accelerate the death spiral? Why continue to obey the laws and dictates of our executioners?
The news is grim. The accelerating disintegration of Arctic Sea ice means that summer ice will probably disappear within the next decade. The open water will absorb more solar radiation, significantly increasing the rate of global warming. The Siberian permafrost will disappear, sending up plumes of methane gas from underground. The Greenland ice sheet and the Himalayan-Tibetan glaciers will melt. Jay Zwally, a NASA climate scientist, declared in December 2007: "The Arctic is often cited as the canary in the coal mine for climate warming. Now, as a sign of climate warming, the canary has died. It is time to start getting out of the coal mines."
But reality is rarely an impediment to human folly. The world's greenhouse gases have continued to grow since Zwally's statement. Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO22) from burning fossil fuels since 2000 have increased by 3 per cent a year. At that rate annual emissions will double every 25 years. James Hansen, the head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the world's foremost climate experts, has warned that if we keep warming the planet it will be "a recipe for global disaster." The safe level of CO22 in the atmosphere, Hansen estimates, is no more than 350 parts per million (ppm). The current level of CO22 is 385 ppm and climbing. This already guarantees terrible consequences even if we act immediately to cut carbon emissions.
The natural carbon cycle for 3 million years has ensured that the atmosphere contained less than 300 ppm of CO22, which sustained the wide variety of life on the planet. The idea now championed by our corporate elite, at least those in contact with the reality of global warming, is that we will intentionally overshoot 350 ppm and then return to a safer climate through rapid and dramatic emission cuts. This, of course, is a theory designed to absolve the elite from doing anything now. But as Clive Hamilton in his book "Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth About Climate Change" writes, even "if carbon dioxide concentrations reach 550 ppm, after which emissions fell to zero, the global temperatures would continue to rise for at least another century."
Copenhagen was perhaps the last chance to save ourselves. Barack Obama and the other leaders of the industrialized nations blew it. Radical climate change is certain. It is only a question now of how bad it will become. The engines of climate change will, climate scientists have warned, soon create a domino effect that could thrust the Earth into a chaotic state for thousands of years before it regains equilibrium. "Whether human beings would still be a force on the planet, or even survive, is a moot point," Hamilton writes. "One thing is certain: there will be far fewer of us."
We have fallen prey to the illusion that we can modify and control our environment, that human ingenuity ensures the inevitability of human progress and that our secular god of science will save us. The "intoxicating belief that we can conquer all has come up against a greater force, the Earth itself," Hamilton writes. "The prospect of runaway climate change challenges our technological hubris, our Enlightenment faith in reason and the whole modernist project. The Earth may soon demonstrate that, ultimately, it cannot be tamed and that the human urge to master nature has only roused a slumbering beast."
We face a terrible political truth. Those who hold power will not act with the urgency required to protect human life and the ecosystem. Decisions about the fate of the planet and human civilization are in the hands of moral and intellectual trolls such as BP's Tony Hayward. These political and corporate masters are driven by a craven desire to accumulate wealth at the expense of human life. They do this in the Gulf of Mexico. They do this in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, where the export-oriented industry is booming. China's transformation into totalitarian capitalism, done so world markets can be flooded with cheap consumer goods, is contributing to a dramatic rise in carbon dioxide emissions, which in China are expected to more than double by 2030, from a little over 5 billion metric tons to just under 12 billion.
This degradation of the planet by corporations is accompanied by a degradation of human beings. In the factories in Guangdong we see the face of our adversaries. The sociologist Ching Kwan Lee found "satanic mills" in China's industrial southeast that run "at such a nerve-racking pace that worker's physical limits and bodily strength are put to the test on a daily basis." Some employees put in workdays of 14 to 16 hours with no rest day during the month until payday. In these factories it is normal for an employee to work 400 hours or more a month, especially those in garment industry. Most workers, Lee found, endure unpaid wages, illegal deductions and substandard wage rates. They are often physically abused at work and do not receive compensation if they are injured on the job. Every year a dozen or more workers die from overwork in the city of Shenzhen alone. In Lee's words the working conditions "go beyond the Marxist notions of exploitation and alienation." A survey published in 2003 by the official China News Agency, cited in Lee's book "Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt," found that three in four migrant workers had trouble collecting their pay. Each year scores of workers threaten to commit suicide, Lee writes, by jumping off high-rises or setting themselves on fire over unpaid wages. "If getting paid for one's labor is a fundamental feature of capitalist employment relations, strictly speaking many Chinese workers are not yet laborers," Lee writes.
The leaders of these corporations now determine our fate. They are not endowed with human decency or compassion. Yet their lobbyists make the laws. Their public relations firms craft the propaganda and trivia pumped out through systems of mass communication. Their money determines elections. Their greed turns workers into global serfs and our planet into a wasteland.
As climate change advances we will face a choice between obeying the rules put in place by corporations or rebellion. Those who work human beings to death in overcrowded factories in China and turn the Gulf of Mexico into a dead zone are the enemy. They serve systems of death. They cannot be reformed or trusted.
The climate crisis is a political crisis. We will either defy the corporate elite, which will mean civil disobedience, a rejection of traditional politics for a new radicalism and the systematic breaking of laws, or see ourselves consumed. Time is not on our side. The longer we wait, the more assured our destruction becomes. The future, if we remain passive, will be wrested from us by events. Our moral obligation is not to structures of power, but life.
123 Comments so far
Show AllChris Hedges presents us with a terrible truth - the unavoidable future death of our planet.
Our Corporate potentates along with our money-mongering congress members do not care! All of them are of the age where they will not have to bear the burden of their materialistic, craven pursuit of wealth and notoriety which guarantees that Hedges' prediction will come to pass.
What ignoble creatures now people our beautiful and awesome planet!
No, the planet will survive. It is the many beautiful species on it, including homo sapiens (ironic name), which will suffer or perish.
That other species, which are not to blame for anthropogenic climate chaos, will suffer and perish, is the cruelest, most unjust tragedy.
Which ties nicely to the problem;
we've lost touch with those we share the planet with. As we developed our lovely brains, we left the others behind and now only consider ourselves in all we do. We forgot that we are no more important to the planet than the robin outside my window, or the worm it's eating. Not in the long run, we're not. And if we're not about to consider the rest of life in any meaningful way, then I'm content to let homo sapiens go extinct, even if we take many others with us. The planet will recover, in time.
Not just yet, however. It's possible our grandchildren won't need to walk to the Arctic Circle in order to fight over grubs. What can we do? Anything!
Stop driving everywhere. Hang clothes out to dry. Quit voting for monsters. Conserve, save, manufacture what you can. Grow some of your food. Teach the young to become radical. Starve the Beast. But most of all; get outdoors. Make contact with other species, observe them, learn them. Treat them with the respect you want for yourself.
To carry on the "general strike" theme, I'd like to further suggest:
-one day a week where we drive nowhere, use no gasoline...a Saturday, say. Every Saturday for a month. "Earth Month". No lawn-mowing, no dirt-bikes, no trips to market, no soccer practice, no dinner out; unless we walk or bicycle there. It will actually do something (not burn those fuels), it will make a visible statement (sorry, shop-owners), it will cause us to stay where we live, which might lead to connection with the others that live there with us (and by that I mean the birds and bees, and rodents and bugs, as well as neighbors).
It's where we're headed anyway, it'd be useful to get the public exposed to it in a small way before the caca hits the fan.
Chris Hedges is awesome and I agree with him that we need to break out of politics as usual and get out there and protest. However its easy to talk and takes a little more effort and courage to march.
Maybe he has been protesting and the press hasn't covered it, but I would like to see Mr. Hedges actually start organizing protests and civil disobedience protests, rather than just sitting in his ivory tower, scolding us from his academic perch about our apathy.
Very well said, thank you stevehood.
stevehood,
Chris Hedges helps to organize and attends protests and political actions all the time. We ALL need to stop making excuses and get out and orgnize.
If you've 'seen the light' then you're a key part of our hope for survival.
Get to work.
Please.
iowapinko: You are correct! Chris Hedges does organize, and he attends countless events, often reporting on the events -- and he speaks out. I have been there to hear him.
I live in NYC -- (but I grew up in Iowa, in Red Oak) -- and I attend events whenever I can. For the most part, rallies and protests are small -- peace/anti-war, health care, financial collapse, etc. This area is home to more than 8 million people. Where are the people?
" For the most part, rallies and protests are small -- peace/anti-war, health care, financial collapse, etc. This area is home to more than 8 million people. Where are the people?"
I've stopped attending rallies and protests because they have become non-happenings. The last successful protests were the WTO protests in Seattle, which were successful because the media actually reported on some of the issues (though the main focus was on the police riots, which were, of course, blamed on the protestors). Ever since, the national media, and even local media, have stopped reporting on protests.
When there actually is a news report about a protest, the reporters find the most inarticulate and weird-looking protestors to interview, thus preventing the larger public from learning about the issues the protestors are trying to raise. So the protests are like a phone ringing in an empty house.
If the media had refused to report on the civil rights protests in the '60s, the U.S. South would still be living under Jim Crow laws.
Its time to renew cultural festivals with relevance. The idea is for people to go out to enjoy a social event and to discover and learn ever more about the societal problems that everyone must consider.
Hi Kay, It's good to know another poster here with Iowa connections.
Yes, protests are small here, too, and I'd say attendance has been dwindling for the last 10 years or more.
I'm coming out of an anti-vietnam-war-civil/women's rights movement background, so rallies and marches are my organizing tool of choice. It doesn't seem to resonate as much with the younger crowd though.
The media isn't free to cover rallies like they used to do either, so it's more difficult to communicate that way.
I think we need to be creative, engage in actions and create events that they HAVE to cover, sneak up on them in a way....and collaborate/communicate with a younger generation that is looking for its' own unique way to express their anger/opposition to empire.
If they've figured out ways to block our protests or discourage activism, then we have to create new strategies. We have to evolve.
And, despite all frustration and all the media shouting to the contrary, we need to keep the faith. Progressives/the left have historically been right. On everything.
IMO, the only wrong thing to do is nothing.
"IMO, the only wrong thing to do is nothing." -- iowapinko
I agree!
I spent my first 19 years in Iowa, and then, I lived in Lincoln, NE for a number of years before moving to NYC.
I think that the Internet is a great tool, but there's nothing like person-to-person connections, and that, to me, is the key to any serious organizing.
A few days ago, I read that there is a GENERAL WORLDWIDE STRIKE scheduled for September 29, 2010. If this is true, the U.S. needs to get busy and get out in the streets, like so many other countries in the world. I'm attempting to find out more information about the scheduled event.
Great meeting another Iowan!
After seeing Hedges speak in Manhasset, NY a few months ago, I asked him, as he signed copies of his latest book, if he would consider running for office. He said he was not interested.
He has appeared at protests as a featured speaker, such as at the King of Prussia shopping mall in Pennsylvania last year in the eventually-successful drive to shut down the "Army Experience" in that mall, a video games arcade designed to lure teens into the mindset of killing as fun.
The professional version of these killing video consoles is the robot-drone operations centers now proliferating under Nobel Peace Laureate Obama. Ciny Sheehan accurately and wittily calls them "Slaystations".
I think Hedges would say he is doing what he can best do as a writer, and the organizing and civil disobedience are now up to the rest of us who have been informed and warned.
Chris spoke at the antiwar protests in DC on December 12 of last year, and, I think, the March 20 protest this year. Ever heard of them? You are correct. The press didn't cover them. In the case of the December 12 protests the turnout was only 150 people, and on March 20, still only 8000 people. There are probably 30 million people within a day-trips distance of Washington DC. So, I don't know what else to call it but apathy, or, in the case of my activity gathering ballot signatures for Green Party candidates, antipathy.
Hedges travels and speaks arould the USA almost continuously. Chris sits in no ivory tower. In fact, he isn't even employed at a university.
Yet in spite of the mounds of evidence, most Americans continue to lay praise on the Rush Limbaughs of the world while they vote for one of the two corporate parties responsible for their enslavement. Unlike France during Louis the XVIII or Russia in 1917, Americans are easily pacified with computer games, entertainment news, sporting spectacles and the prospect of endless shopping.
If and when Americans wake up and identify the real culprit, they'll find that the corporate elite have built a massive internal security machine to crush any signs of revolt. America, which already houses more prisoners than China, has armed every agency from Homeland Insecurity to the military with the most sophisticated weapons of mass destruction with the realization that one day the bottom 95% may not take it anymore. The irony of it all is that they have done this the blessing of the majority of Americans in which 70% have said that they are comfortable with the current amount of military spending or an increase to the overall budget.
The election of Obama with the help of the corporate media machine is a case in point. The majority of Americans voted for him in the hope that he would end this cycle of violence against average Americans. The MSM convinced us that he was different because he was black (well... half black anyway!), he was poor and that he represented the underclass. Instead he represents just another example of a high profile sell-out to his corporate masters. The private interests in America continue to trump the public interest, yet I hear low income Americans agree with the Sarah Palin’s and George Bushies of the world that we should reduce taxes on the rich and corporations while simultaneously slashing the social benefits that supply the lifeline to the majority. Our politicians apologize to BP, bail out the banksters and wage war against innocent countries abroad and the underclass at home. Nevertheless the vast majority will vote Republican or Democrat in the next election and the one after that. Go figure.
"...while they vote for one of the two corporate parties responsible for their enslavement"
Let's adopt a more accurate language: "They vote for the corporate party."
We will have to explain it a couple times, but it will spread very quickly and be far more effective because of its accuracy and how it explains many problems so elegantly.
>>Nevertheless the vast majority
56% turnout at the last presidential election does not represent a vast majority. Of that 56%, I suspect a large number are like myself. They don't have ties to either the democrats or republicans. Given the realities of healthcare reform, drone bombing, and banker bailouts amongst many others, it is abundantly clear that the corporate fascists hold all the levers of power in this country. The upcoming election will find a handful of candidates preselected by the corporate fascists to "compete", we'll swallow the bait and head out to the polls. Who runs the presidential debates? A corporation. Who owns the media that covers the candidates? Corporations. Yet we somehow feel that participating in this sham will actually change things? The best thing to do at this point is to stay home and not vote. If the country experiences a 20% turnout, it would not be difficult for us to declare the government illegitimate and go about the business of declaring a constitutional convention. This is probably the only path remaining for implementing true election reform.
The system is broken. Your vote is your stamp of approval on this corrupt system, regardless of who you vote for.
Until we realize that industrial super powers are nothing more than fossil fuel junkies, we will rot into physical and mental despair.
Not unlike a junkie on heroine we are heading to a dead end.
Blaming the corporate powers is easy but misguided. They are us.
Pogo was right. The enemy is us.
Until we change our own lives...really change the way we live...not just buy a Prius...nothing will stop this mad race to self-destruction.
Does anyone see this as likely without a serious...and permanent...crash?
Claiming that "they are us", and "we are all equally responsible" is the favoured tactic of those who want to shift responsibility.
Who benefits from those Chinese workers forced to work in horrendous labour conditions, to the point that they have to sign contracts stating that they will not commit suicide? Top executives and shareholders of those corporations.
rfloh
you do when you buy a pair of jeans for $10...or when you buy virtually anything.
We have to start thinking of ourselves as something other than consumers. We have to become producers...users of the land and its resources...always thinking of leaving it better than we found it when we leave...
"you do when you buy a pair of jeans for $10...or when you buy virtually anything."
Yes, but the corporate class has it so that eating, sleeping, breathing, clothing oneself is paid by someone else's human rights. Sewing your own clothes and ignoring the corporate class will not solve the problems. People who used to thoughtlessly buy $50 Levis and now buy $10 Wranglers at Walmart might still have something relevant to say about the abuses of the corporate class. Be mindful of what you are doing, but be mindful of the malice of the corporate class in engineering how the people are pitted against one another by any and all means.
I don't buy $10 jeans. I actually try to buy clothes tailored by local tailors; when that is not possible, every item of clothing I buy, I check labels. I do not buy things that say "made in China". Yes, that means that I buy far fewer items of clothing that most people, since I pay (much more) per item.
But that is irrelevant. Even if someone does buy a $10 pair of jeans made in China from Walmart, he isn't benefiting as much as the top executives and shareholders of Walmart.
Or put it another way, someone who drives a car is benefiting as much as the top executives and shareholders of BP.
It is misinformation to say "we are all equally to blame" without addressing the issue of whom benefits the most.
passive and dumb? speak for yourself. offering doomsday scenarios that do more to frighten and DISEMPOWER people is basically the same tactic the right used to get us into this mess.
what follows is an excerpt from my article at truthout.org entitled SPACESHIP EARTH: NAVIGATORS WANTED. please see the full article here: http://www.truth-out.org/spaceship-earth-navigators-wanted59735
"Right this very moment, scientists and citizens who recognize that we are quite a ways down the path that leads to failure – failure of our society to find common ground, and to care for that ground – are in the midst of a teachable moment. And we are bungling it...
Unless we change course…
Scientists, you need to know that when you say “climate change”, many cannot hear you. Demanding that your data is real and that those who doubt are ignorant is only serving to further alienate those you’d hoped to convince. But that’s not to say the situation is hopeless. The issue simply needs to be examined from a different angle...Cut straight to the bottom line: it is pollution that is the problem, not global warming. Pollution may be the cause of global warming, but it is the harmful effect of pollution that we can all see and feel and understand with our own bodies, hearts, and minds....There’s no more time to waste trying to convince us that our actions are responsible for destroying the planet at some arguable rate when it would be so much more efficient to make the case that our actions are very quickly destroying ourselves...Instead of reiterating the problems, assuage peoples’ fears by offering solutions – most importantly, that we can and must build a new foundation for our economy based on that which benefits society as a whole, and not based solely on what’s best for corporations.
WHAT CAN WE DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
1. Not give up. James Lovelock, famed progenitor of the “Gaia Hypotheis” which described planet Earth’s biosphere as one enormous, organism-like system that stayed in delicate balance via an infinite number of intricately connected feedback loops, claims that we are past the point of no return – planet Earth will not be able to support human life for much longer. By giving up hope, we also relinquish any modicum of contentment and peace that may come from striving for that which we know is right. When hope is gone, humanity is lost.
2. Understand the true cost of resources and be willing to pay for them. A few simple shifts would go a long way towards encouraging an overall reduction in resource consumption. Imagine a system (common in many European countries) whereby the less one uses, the less one pays, rather than the other way around. Our current model encourages waste and instills a false sense of value by rewarding the biggest consumers with a discounted price per kilowatt or gallon and by penalizing those who use the least with higher cost per unit.
3. Take it personally. We are all complicit in environmental catastrophe until each and every one of us takes responsibility for our actions. We can’t wait for the perfect legislation or the cheapest, most efficient “green” technology. We must strive everyday to be conscious of how our actions impact our own health and that of our communities and society.
4. Work together. The problems of our society and our environment do not belong solely to the government or to the corporations - we are the government and the corporations. By taking matters into our own hands and pooling our knowledge and expertise, enormous change is possible. Every child and teacher in every classroom across America, every engineer, plumber, doctor, artist, cook, cashier, carpenter – even those out of work – it’s time for us all to unleash our “comprehensive propensities” (as Buckminster Fuller called the human inclination toward creative innovation). We’re going to need all hands on deck to get our little Spaceship Earth back on course."
Yes, and civil disobedience doesn't always have to be getting arrested by lying down in front of the White House or Pentagon.
We could get inexpensive, small stickers made which state Real Cost: $_______ and fill in the appropriate cost of the item or service, then surreptitiously affix these stickers so "consumers" would be confronted with the true cost of their consuming. For example, a gallon of gasoline really costs between $5.00 and $15.00 when the costs of transporting and protecting and warring for it is included, and that excludes the incalculable cost of human lives and ecological destruction due to war. See
How much are we paying for a gallon of gas?
http://www.iags.org/costofoil.html
Real Cost of a Gallon of Gas: $11.35 plus (2008)
http://www.hybridcars.com/news/real-cost-gallon-gas-835.html
True Cost of U.S. Gasoline is $15.14 per Gallon, Report Says
http://www.progress.org/gasoline.htm
What's the "real" cost of gas? Dollar figures don't tell the whole story
http://green.autoblog.com/2010/06/21/whats-the-real-cost-of-gas-dollar-figures-dont-tell-the-who/
Factoring in the Real Cost of Oil by Michael Klare (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/19/opinion/main6497841.shtml)
ADBUSTERS CAMPAIGNS: https://www.adbusters.org/campaigns
We can use the Internet to research these Real Costs and then publicize them using blogs, stickers, billboards, truck billboards, and social networks such as Facebook. Perhaps a Blackberry and iPhone "app" can be created which would insert the Real Cost of items shown on these smart phones.
We can call this the Sticker Shock Movement.
Interesting post, alyceobvious. I agree with the steps you've listed under "What can we do".
However, I have a serious problem with your "advice" to the scientists who are generally careful with the terminology they choose. Where you can blame them is for being too conservative in their choice of words and the way they present their findings. Some find "climate change" to be too mild, and prefer something stronger. However, dropping it and simply drawing attention to "pollution" is a needless dumbing down of the crisis.
Calling it "global warming" or "climate change" is entirely appropriate, because that is the dangerous effect that we are facing, and that must be tackled. Pollution itself is not the primary cause - it's people's stupidity, greed and willful ignorance in the face of evidence. And a smug belief that it won't affect them, because they are so technologically advanced.
And guess what? The denial industry can muddy the issue and confuse people, no matter what you call it. Remember the ad that went something like "Carbon dioxide: they call it pollution, we call it life", by making the link between CO2 and plants and trees growing? So, instead of blaming the scientists, it's the denial industry that must be exposed and attacked.
You are completely mistaken about people's ability to perceive when you refer to "the harmful effect of pollution that we can all see and feel and understand with our own bodies, hearts, and minds". There's no way the driver of an SUV towing his boat, out on holiday, driving through the wide open country, with the A/C on, is going to "feel and understand with our own bodies, hearts, and minds". (Unless the law requires all exhaust pipes to open into the driver cabin). Or someone enjoying a barbecue and chilled beer with buddies (unless the law forces everyone to do it indoors, and not mess up a common resources, viz., the atmosphere). Or someone watching a game of ice hockey (unless you force that ice hockey MUST be played ONLY on natural ice).
There is just NO way that the average American or the average Canadian or Australian is going to connect his or her simple choice with the destruction that they cause. Why? These are all settler countries. There are wide open spaces. And Europe is not so overcrowded precisely because the Europeans could fill these settler countries (actually, three CONTINENTS).
And CO2 itself is colorless and odorless - so it's hard to make people see it as pollution the way they see smoke or smog. And the rich nations have for more than a century not only used up a disproportionate share of the Earth's resources, they have also used a disproportionate share of the atmosphere as a carbon sink. That is why they do not feel the effects of their own actions. If anything, it's OTHER people elsewhere who are feeling the effects.
I also noticed some inconsistencies in your post:
You seem to berate Chris Hedges (or is it the scientists?) for "offering doomsday scenarios", but your own post here, as well as the one on Truthout does mention things like "overwhelmingly destructive impact on our planet in the form of a hemorrhage of crude oil gushing into the sea, destroying lives, livelihoods and vital ecosystems far beyond that which can be seen with the naked eye", "planet Earth will not be able to support human life for much longer", "so much more efficient to make the case that our actions are very quickly destroying ourselves", etc.
And why do you think people talk of these "doomsday scenarios"? Because they are certainly probable unless humanity changes course, starting with the rich industrialized nations. Sometimes you need to focus on the impending disaster.
It's not the job of the climate scientists to "offer solutions" when it is hard enough to explain what's been happening and fighting the denial industry. They can make the link between CO2, methane and atmospheric temperature. How to reduce their emissions is not THEIR job. It's the job of everybody else. Because the people who drive cars and SUVs, fly to vacation, play golf, icehockey, etc. (among the most wasteful of sports), eat meat regularly (that clearly has a large carbon footprint), etc., FAR outnumber the climate scientists. It's they that need to act.
The solutions are there, they have always been there - for those that are interested in the solutions, that is.
Edit:
alyceobvious, on reading my post again, it clearly seems like I needlessly focused on some technicality, and perhaps distracted from the main points on your post:
"WHAT CAN WE DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?"
I think those were sincere words in your post, and that is what each of us should be focusing on. I just wanted to put this on record :)
To the best of my knowledge both Steward Brand and James Lovelock call for the using of nuclear energy as an answer to continuing the advanced industrial life style.
Is this not like offering methadone to a heroin junkie?
Do you thik that a human population that fails at stopping oil spills could handle atomic energy?
I would change some of Hedge's wording to clarify the connections between corporations and the economic system it requires to do its dirty work:
"The leaders of corporations now determine our fate [as theirs is determined by an economic system that avoids countenancing so-called "externalities" in its calculations]. They are not endowed with human decency or compassion [because the system they serve is not so endowed]. Yet their lobbyists make the laws. Their public relations firms craft the propaganda and trivia pumped out through systems of mass communication. Their money determines elections. Their greed turns workers into global serfs and our planet into a wasteland."
As long as the Republican Party, economically financed by a corporate and near-corporate economic class, can mobilize its popular political base (at least 20% of the US population) to vote against its material interests on cultural-religious grounds, what chance does any other party have against it? This is especially true of any party that cannot afford to attend to the material needs of its base without offending those who provide massive amounts of funding for its election and will use the power inherent in the ownership of the media against it whenever it feels its class under attack.
At a minimum, all campaign money must be stopped from corporations and a cap put on donations so that the buying of political power becomes impossible. There are many opportunities for the further advancement of democracy, but this one has to happen right away.
"dimpossibility"
You are indeed "dim" if you think focussing blame on the republicans alone is realistic.
Amen. The Democrats are just as rotten, just as evil. They don't even dress better than the Republicans.
"At a minimum, all campaign money must be stopped from corporations and a cap put on donations so that the buying of political power becomes impossible."
You'd need to include self contributions as well to eliminate the self financing of election campaigns by billionaires, a major part of the problem. This is one of the glaring defects in most campaign finance reform proposals ...
What Hedges is saying is that the time for talk, voting, legislation and accepting dictates from "authority", is over. Taking to the streets has an awful lot of implications and meanings. Do we really need to read between the lines? Are we not smart enough to realize what needs to be done? Remember the one that goes, "Loose lips sink ships."
I hear ya' Wayout, but does this make you want to "take to the streets"?
"We will disintegrate together. And there is no way out. The 10,000-year experiment of settled life is about to come to a crashing halt."
I think that makes most people want to pull the covers over their heads.
"I can understand pessimism, but I don’t Believe in it. It’s not simply a matter of faith, but of historical evidence. Not overwhelming evidence, just enough to give hope, because for hope we don’t need certainty, only possibility." - Howard Zinn
Hope my ass. I'm tired of hearing about hope. Hope and two bucks will get you a cup of overpriced coffee at Starbucks. Hope is a city in Arkansas that gave us one of the biggest frauds of a president in decades. Hope? Hope if for fools and idiots. I sure HOPE I don't get flamed now.
dkshaw: agreed!
I'll borrow from Derrick Jensen:
"Hope is longing for a future condition over which you have no agency."
Yup, hope is like the pope, an opiate for the masses. Hope should be tossed out the door along with the notion that we live in a democracy.
Instead of "hope" we need action. Stop lying around thinking about hope and do something. Get busy. We really don't have much time left.
"Hope", the human virtue cannot survive "Hope, Inc", the brand. One of them has to come out on top. Odds are with "Hope, Inc" at the moment.
"I want my life back." - Tony Hayward
Excellent article, great comments.
I only wonder about "our secular god of science will save us". No doubt, we do believe science will find ways to deal with the dire conditions we find ourselves in, yet if science was (a) 'god', more people would have accepted the basic premise of global climate change.
Not to put too much meaning into a passing phrase, still, as a deist, Hedges may see 'gods' in more places than they actually exist. Science is a disciplined method for acquiring knowledge, and its handmaiden, technology, finds ways to utilize that knowledge. 'How' science and technology are used is a human moral choice. We are the (imperfect) 'gods'.
Hedges might be right about a few things, but, god, this piece of writing deserves an "F" as far as coherence and organization go. Everything from Cro-Magnon and Neanderthals (Are Cro-Magnons still considered a species or subspecies?) through discourse on human beings as rational creatures, on to the failure of Copenhagen, proceeding to the abuse of labor in Guang Dong, and ending with an exhortation to get busy and kick a little corporate ass. I'm breathless. Jeez, how about a little focus, Chris, the same that you would ask from your undergraduate students.
Maybe with the exception of this post that I am now writing, yours, drosera, is the most boring post I've ever read on CD
And Chris is not, nor ever was, a professor at any U. So, he never had any students, undergrad or otherwise. He is a writer and independent journalist. Read his bio blurb again.
drosera,
I find Chris Hedges to be one of our country's best writers. I find this piece in particular, defining. It seems to me that if you put more time into reading, as opposed to writing, his message, his meaning and his coherence would be exceptionally clear and concise. If it makes you feel better, probably 98% of Americans don't get Chris Hedges. However, that is not the author's fault for the decidedly short attention spams which have gripped our nation. If it were really much different, would we be in this predicament in the first place?
I think drosera does not find this article suitable because the tone of the article that might sound a little too depressing to some. Chris Hedges could be right that we are screwed but only if the system stays the same and no good solutions are implemented. Drosera is obviously a scientist and I understand that he probably has a different sense of optimism that there may be some breakthrough yet to escape fallout. All indicators point to a higher likelyhood of collapse but I think drosera believes that the chances are not really high yet. In any case, only time will tell whether we will escape it or not and if so how.
We're not dealing with emotions. Facts are facts. Where do you get that drosera is a scientist, or a he? As a biologist, I certainly don't see where you're coming from. "A little too depressing."? "....some breakthrough yet to escape fallout."? Please, what world are you living on?
Ok, my mistake when I said he was a scientist but he did express his support for science and had implied that he believes that breakthroughs in science can give us what nature couldn't. That's obviously open to debate.
"Please, what world are you living on?"
The same world you're living on. :-)
You handled that well, Max.
What world are we living in? There is more wisdom in that question than you might suspect. We're all obviously living on the same planet earth. But there is "more world" to this planet than we dream of, in our conventional philosophies. Also, some people have more than 5 senses active & working, & their "world" is quite a bit different from the 5-sensor world. Just because we can't see the tree at night doesn't mean it's not there.
We the people are not the govt and haven't been for some time, if ever. We also are not corporations despite Supreme Court rulings. The civil disobedience required to effect any change is more than marches and bumper stickers and requires skills that few have. To live outside the consumer theme parks we call cities we must not only give up the silly toys and extravagant lifestyles that define us, we need to radically change our belief structure. Corporate interests, organized religion, (the hand maiden of kings, CEOs and generals, will fight to the death to retain the status quo.
The sad part is we understand the problems we face and have reasonable solutions to correct them. Creative, intelligent men and women who care about the future of our species and the planet. They are marginalized, demonized, and often imprisoned.
But why add fuel to the fire? Why allow our ruling elite, driven by the lust for profits, to accelerate the death spiral? Why continue to obey the laws and dictates of our executioners?
Because there's still the real chance we'll win the lotto and become movie stars.
Please let me package a "solution" for you in nice and pretty, American-style, wrapping. All slick and shiny and ready for you to take home.
I really hope that's not what is expected when some ask for a "solution." The mere asking of this question betrays the lack of understanding of the fundamental issue here: That in order to find a "solution", or is it THE SOLUTION®, you must completely remove yourself from the reality that you have believed in through the years. This in and of itself is a very difficult task, and most people who sincerely want to "help the earth" (or humanity) die never understanding this. This is why so many feel hopeless about not being able to create true change. Because you're still looking for solutions on the same platform that caused the problems.
Strength in humility is a myth. Passive denial of the enormity of the problems that confront us and the radical solutions needed to address these, while understandable in light of all the devastation being visited upon the Earth by developers, corporate greed heads and a largely acquiescent populace, is still an indefensible and repugnant position.
As long as women and African-Americans were nice humble and passive what did they get? Nothing. Unless you count subjugation and servitude as something. Would those in power one day have awakened one day in a particularly genial and loving mood having experienced some psycho-spiritual transformation and said, "You are so nice and humble I'm going to allow you to vote, own property and while we're at it let's throw in equal pay?"
Dream on.
It took suffragettes and civil rights activists being insistent, unpleasantly arrogant, unrelenting and a willingness to risk what little they did have to attain the few freedoms that are "allowed" today. This meant laying their bodies on the line.
Those who are destroying our earth and our communities at breakneck speed are as humble and caring as barracudas, with all apologies to the more gentle piscine creatures, and will not easily or at all relinquish their stranglehold on the gasping planet or your neck.
What it will take is nothing short of large scale purposeful sustained direct actions that bring the system to a halt. This means tremendous sacrifice. This means discomfort. In this there is the inevitably of tremendous risk.
The only remedy will be when people begin to get interested in taking back active control of the processes that rule their lives and work with each other rather than crossing their fingers and heading off to the ballot box.
That's right, solutions will never be effected through the system. Crushing the system is our only choice.
Boycott the corporations and the government.
Sorry about the redundancy.
Starve them.
Ignore their lies.
Toss wrenches in their gears.
Your life depends on it.