Let’s have a war?
Writing in The First Post, Robert Matthews argues that Scientists tackling climate change should be put on a war-footing.
Today, many regard global warming as the big scientific problem. They would also insist governments are not taking it seriously enough. The answer may lie in convincing politicians to mount a war against the evil forces of climatic change.
When you fight a war you don’t just throw money and people at an open-ended problem, you wrap that in temporal urgency.
In war there simply isn’t time: decisions have to be taken in the face of uncertainty. Sometimes they turn out to be wrong; taking no decision, on the other hand, leads to the certainty of annihilation.
And make no mistake, there is a war being fought right now. Alas for the most part that war is not being fought between those who would subjugate and destroy our Earth, our very home, and a rag-tag fugitive fleet (to quote Commander Adama) of activists who want to see an end to the pack-rape of our Mother Earth. No. Mother is fighting for her life, and, for the most part, we are all baying like hounds on the sidelines revelling in, and profiting from each and every penetration, every slash and burn inflicted upon her.
Most so-called activists, with a few noble exceptions, spend too much time wallowing in the filth of their own despair. That or they waste their, and everyone’s time with their own petty power struggles. This has always been the problem of the left, never more clearly articulated than in Theodore Kaczynski’s manifesto Industrial Society and its Future.
To win this war we have to first set proper goals. Right now a key goal is to prevent the warming of the planet by more than 2°C. That’s a fantastic goal, and probably achievable if we act fast and together to reduce atmospheric CO2. But it’s really a tactical goal, not a strategic one. It leaves our dear Mother in chains on the floor, still being repeatedly violated for our pleasure, and our convenience. And that’s simply unacceptable. What do we want for our future and how do we want to live? Are human beings even capable of living in harmony with nature, accepting our place in the universe as just one kind amongst billions of types of living things? Can we have iPods now and a future worth looking forward to?
Make no mistake, there is a war on alright. We simply need to choose which side we are on. I am an optimist. I take inspiration from movements like the Cradle to Cradle design movement that is calling for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design. I believe in human ingenuity, human dignity and that innovation and a benevolent approach to the natural Earth are not essentially mutually exclusive.
Whatever we do, Mother Earth will win this war. Even if the last drop of oil is wrung from the ground, the last piece of coal burned, the last gramme of uranium extinguished, the last drop of savage pleasure forced from Earth’s scarred, battered body, our planet, our home, will continue to resist. As Thomas Jefferson allegedly said, “In war, they kill some of us; we shall destroy all of them.” — DS
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