I have a guest blogger today, my older brother Jerry. Background: He spent his entire professional life with the US Forest Service, mostly leading huge national forests in Colorado and Montana. After “retiring” he taught in the Forestry Department at the University of Montana and has been a prolific author and thinker about trees, plants, air, water and dirt. He is also a sought-after national expert on forest fires, when/where/why/how to fight them.
The following is designed to scare the hell out of you as you think about the future for your grandkids (my words, not his). I do recall a few decades ago reading a proclamation that most future wars will be fought over water rights. Maybe the future is right around the corner.
400 Generations? Think About It.
by Jerry Covault
May 2019
People’s economic systems and the Earth:
The previous economic system on the North American Continent, the hunter-gather economy, managed the natural resources; water, air, soil, plants and animals to sustain the people’s way-of-life for 10,000 years. The natural resources this economic system left in place have been the driving source for the economic system that followed, that system is capitalism.
In ten generations, 245 years, capitalism, has been startlingly efficient in converting natural resources to military strength, a nation-wide infrastructure, industry, energy production and personal comforts for people. The cost has been terrible with possible irreversible damage to the basic natural resources of the continent; water, soil, air, plants, animals and minerals. The damage to the resources is so severe that the Earth may not be able to sustain the way people are living now. Many years ago, I read an article that said if China reached the standard-of-living of the US, it would take the resources of six Earths to support the people. That may or may not be true, but it is worth thinking about.
Capitalism, our present, successful, power producing economic system was defined by Adam Smith in his 1776 book, The Wealth of Nations. Adam Smith, as I understand it, identified the ideas of division of labor, productivity and free markets. Under these descriptions, and individual can do whatever he or she wants and if the goods or services the individual produces are in demand by others, the “market place” will set the price for those goods or services. The ideas were revolutionary. They raised the material wealth and comfort of those who successfully worked the system. This Capitalism has become so ingrained in American culture that we cannot draw a line between ourselves as individuals, the economy, and our government.
It makes sense that American Democracy and Capitalism are inseparable by most of us, they came to the world in the same year, 1776. Democracy and capitalism have grown-up together on the same continent, shaping the values and understanding of a nation of people, Americans.
About Capitalism:
Adam Smith basically said when every person has the right to do what is best for him or herself, there will be more goods and services for everyone. And for 245 years it has worked out that way.
However, as I understand Smith’s ideas, he failed to consider and deal with two critical factors that are presenting themselves in the 21st century. Those two factors are; limited natural resources, and human greed. The Earth’s air is filling with pollutants that are changing climate and making it unhealthy to breath. Water supplies are less than what are needed and becoming more polluted throughout the Earth. Soil, that grows our food, is polluted with fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides and eroded of its texture throughout the Earth. The United Nations tells us more than a million living species on Earth are facing extinction and the oceans are becoming polluted and less supportive of a variety of life. Capitalism has been the vehicle for tremendous national power and comfort for citizens and it is painfully evident that it has caused so much damage to the Earth that the life-style it has enabled is unsustainable.
Increasing technology produced by the capitalistic system cannot offsets lack of water, atmospheric pollution, soil depletion, extinct species of plants and animals and other irreversible impacts on basic Earth resources.
Morality of it all:
Capitalism is amoral, it has no moral compass, whatever an individual (person or company) can do to make money is ok with capitalism. Government is the institution that has the authority and responsibility to determine what is right, legal and moral within a society. We are well aware of laws and regulations that limit personal and corporate behavior in relationship with other people or companies. These laws and regulations are boundaries to capitalism’s behavior. However, governments have established very few laws that address respectful treatment and rights for non-human life. There are few laws limiting how non-human life and natural resources (such as air and water) can be used, abused, or sustained. This is because these non-human lives and inarticulate resources do not have “standing” in the human legal systems. As a result, the health of Earth is threatened with more than one million living species in danger of extinction, Earth’s diseases are getting worse and they are caused by people.
There needs to be changes, but change can only occur if we people care about future people and the Earth as much or more than we care about NOW.
The Economics profession
Capitalism will not change itself. The gatekeepers of the economy, economists, have been co-opted by the lords of industry and banking. Economists are trained and committed to studying the minutia of economies to provide information that will benefit those with enough wealth to manipulate the entire economy to their advantage. Government economists are often complicit in these efforts to concentrate wealth. The profession should be developing economic strategies that will lead to long term sustainability of the basic earth resources and sustainability of human societies that will provide health, comfort and peace with all life on Earth. But they’re not interested in the next century, their efforts are toward economic growth and the next quarter’s profit, or loss. Economists don’t seem to know that NOTHING GROWS FOREVER, and certainly not an economy. Long-term (a century plus) thinking and planning needs to be incorporated into every economic strategy, but economists are not leading that way.
Governments:
Democratic government will not approach the problem of limited natural resources. Government’s primary responsibility is to the security of the citizenry: military security; security from crime, violent crime and monetary and white-collar crime; security of safe food and medicine. Governments do not look generations ahead, in a democracy, the people’s representatives are elected for short terms (2 to 6 years at a time) and their interests do not extend beyond their term.
Governments have the power, and responsibility, to limit the use and abuse of all-natural resources so that future generations will be sustained. But they won’t. Whether they are, democracies, autocracy, dictatorship, theocracies, socialist or whatever, they will do what is most beneficial to individuals in power, in the short-term.
Governments have the power to limit the amount of pollutants in the air, water, soil and oceans, the destruction of plants (forests) and animals, but they won’t because, at this time, we people are not demanding it.
A way toward sustainability:
Democracy is the form of government that can make changes with the least amount of domestic violence. The formula for change is, Public Awareness, followed by Public Education, followed by Public Voting. With the exception of America’s Civil War, this formula has been the process for great civil changes in national values, policies and direction in America.
As far as I can see, there are three institutions in our culture that have a chance to focus public attention on the long-term imperatives that we must live within to protect the productivity of the Earth’s natural resources,
These institutions are: our education system, the news media, and the entertainment industry. These three institutions have the potential to raise public awareness of the urgency of addressing the Earth’s illnesses, and educate the public about the issues, and to show what is at stake. When the public is committed to a course of corrective action, the votes for change will be there and politicians in a Democracy will act on behalf of the people and the Earth as well as their own interests.
A vote is a statement of hope. This strategy is a long-shot, but possibly the only one our grandchildren and beyond have for a peaceful and comfortable life on Earth.
Who’s going to do it and why?
Only the United States can move the world to help heal the Earth, because:
- The US is a Democracy and can and will respond to public pressure, i.e. votes.
- The US can change, no other country in history or present has been able to change as drastically and as rapidly as the US has demonstrated.
- The US has strong institutions served by competent and honest bureaucracies.
- The US has such a strong economy it can influence world-wide policies through rewards, sanctions, and other non-military means.
Why? Because, if actions are not taken to heal the Earth, generations, beginning with the Millennials, will begin to face issues the world is now seeing in Yemen. War over resources, food insecurity and mass starvation. The United States will not be insulated from these issues as resources become more scarce throughout the world.
We need to get our priorities right and to that end, we must recognize that economic growth is not the answer to a sustainable future. We must instead, insist that our government representatives consider the Earth’s ecology with as much or more urgency as they consider our economy.
And there you have it from my big brother, Jerry. A very thoughtful piece. And if you liked this article, there is a lot more. A couple years ago he published a book, FORESTS AND PEOPLE. If you are at all interested in world history and some answers to the questions, (why is the earth the way it is today and what were the factors that caused it to be this way?) then I’m sure you will enjoy his book, I certainly did and so did my wife. It is down-to-earth (no pun intended) interesting reading with a lot of personal anecdotes about the wonders of nature.
Marv Covault