The Environmental Movement, as it has taken shape these past few years, cannot offer answers to those who would not allow answers. It moves no conscience when one’s conscience cannot be moved. For example, a while back, a certain bow-tied conservative said on national television that ‘science is overrated.’ To this there can be no response. Much later, another pundit on the same network asked a gentleman on his national program about the scientific community’s view on Global Warming. The response was that the science was practically conclusive and that the threat of Global Warming has not been overestimated. Then, another gentleman on the program was allowed to respond. He replied that Global Warming is ‘socialist alarmism.’ This is the public debate, as it stands, in 2008.
I do not pretend to understand all the science that is involved in Climate Change, as I am sure those national pundits would also concede. But the world under discussion in this debate is not beyond me; nor is it beyond any other television host or writer. I can see it right here, or in Chicago, and after years of appreciating the planet I live on, and listening to people proclaim their overt desire to destroy it, I have come to realize that my conscience will no longer allow me to live in a way that destroys the earth. It’s not much for a revelation, maybe, but it’s difficult.
The same people who think science is overrated in the Climate Change debate also do not want America to change its ways. They will say something to the effect of ‘China and India are big, dirty, industrial countries, and getting bigger and dirtier, so why should we change if they won’t.’ I have heard from many people who maintain this opinion, who must be smart, logical women and men. But their logic is deeply flawed. The world is not just somewhere else, as this argument supposes; the world is here. Despite what some may wish to believe, the natural world still lives in the U.S., and if we as a nation wanted to keep it, we would try, even against the longest odds, to protect it. No matter India or China’s opinion.
In the same interview that suggested environmentalism was socialist alarmism, the host claimed that environmentalism is fundamentally anti-capitalist. What do they mean? That’s not a rhetorical question. I don’t know what they mean. If we make fuel efficient automobiles and start encouraging mass transit and bicycling instead of driving, or investigate and invest further into alternative energy sources, does this mean we don’t want the U.S. to thrive? The environment can produce jobs, and it will, as does any new and growing industry. If we know that surface mining for coal harms the little remaining bit of the natural world left in the U.S., why don’t we attempt to do something else? At least try to. The conscience of the country will support it.
Maybe that is too bold a statement. But do people really want the country to continue growing in a way that will permanently alter and disfigure the face of the planet if we know it is happening and are making no serious attempts to stop it? This Bush administration seems to believe Capitalism cannot be defeated. So how can the environmentalists harm capitalism by trying something new? Isn’t that what capitalism is supposed to be all about?
Yet here we are, somehow positioning environmental concern with anti-capitalism and socialist propaganda. ‘Think twice about buying an SUV’ has transformed from sensible advice to a credo that marks one as an anti-business, tree-hugging activist who hates America and wealth. Truth be told, I don’t really like wealth, and I am an activist. Most of the people I know don’t have any real wealth. Most of those who do don’t seem to care much about the trees they see me hugging, or any other part of the world surrounding us. That’s why we seem anti-capitalist, I guess, when we’re really just thinking: why don’t people with millions to spare, spare a little to help save some of this?
They don’t seem to want to. Most of them, anyway. So what can I do? As a young man who simply enjoys immersing himself whenever possible into the natural world, who doesn’t want to see that part of it that remains in the U.S. destroyed, who is trying in every part of his life to simply not harm life. This is who I am, and I’m trying to figure out what to do. But I guess I already know.
I’ll continue to ride my bike to work as long as it’s possible, and if it rains too hard, I’ll take the bus. I’ll do everything I can not to waste energy in my home, or water. I won’t throw trash on the ground; I’ll recycle everything I can. When my wife and I can own a house, we’ll outfit it in order to conserve as much as possible. Can it get more basic? Doesn’t it seem like nothing? Those nationally televised pundits, who sit behind their desks and claim the pitfalls of science and the alarmism of activism, they see these actions of mine, and they see a threat. To Capitalism, and Democracy, and other Idols. Even these simple tasks are not encouraged to our citizens because they are a change leading towards, as unlikely as it sounds, socialism. But at night, even though the science will be beyond me and the debate may never end, I will simply go to sleep next to my wife, with my conscience clear, knowing that today I did as little as I could to add to the destruction of the world that surrounds me.
0 comments:
Post a Comment