By: Derek Polzer, Advisory Board Member
There are times when a person can no longer contain their old & smoldering anger, so that when a newly discovered fact brings a deeper understanding & clarity to a particular situation, it can trigger a long-suppressed feeling of outrage that for a moment can be blinding. I recently had such a moment.
Since the start of the last century, the mainstream environmental movement has led the fight for what is sometimes referred to as traditional conservation/preservation issues like the protection of forests, habitat & waterways inspired by the writing of wilderness advocates like John Muir, Aldo Leopold, & Rachel Carson to name just a few whose writings have
been both an inspiration & a warning! Then during the 1960’s issues like air & water pollution were added to the list sparking national legislation like the Clean Water Act & the Wilderness Act.
Since then, the focus has changed, yet again, so for the past 25yrs the emphasis of the environmental movement has shifted to a much broader & global environmental focus with its attention on the issue of
“global warming” or “climate change”. The change in focus is, unarguably, due to the devastating impact the changing climate has had on the lives, health, & livelihoods of the particular demographics that has resulted in another shift focusing on what is now being called “climate justice”, which I don’t truly understand what that exactly means or for whom they are
seeking justice?
As I listen to those who are behind this movement, I’ve begun questioning their shift of focus & believe it to be too limited in scope, & overly anthropocentric in its perspective focusing primarily on the impact climate change is having on the human population & giving what appears to be giving only lip-service to the impact it is having on the much larger biotic community. I will not deny the reality of the climate crisis nor its effects; I’m just questioning their proposed quick-fix high-tech solutions to this problem.
It must be noted that there are still “old school” traditional conservation organizations that are still hard at work protecting, preserving, & restoring wildland, wetlands, & waterways for the survival & betterment of
all living beings on this planet. They are led by a collection of hunters, anglers, paddlers, bird watchers, backpackers, home gardeners, those who are reviving the long sustainable tradition of small, local agriculture, & the thousands of just plain folks who enjoy a nice walk in the woods.
The folks at Rewilding New Jersey are just one of those important organizations whose members care deeply about our planet & all its inhabitants, choosing to work locally to restore & protect old life ways & diverse habitats & ecology.
What triggered my burst of anger happened a few days ago while I was driving around & running errands listening to a story on the mining of the mineral cobalt on the radio. Cobalt is one of the minerals used in the
manufacturing of batteries used in hybrid & electric cars. These mines are primarily found in the Democratic Republic of Congo located on the central
western coast of Africa. The mines are huge open pit mines were thousands of workers work shoulder to shoulder, & who are paid about a dollar a day to dig up the cobalt under working in hazardous conditions that
are horrendous. The miners are not given any kind of protective equipment to protect them from the harmful effects of the cobalt dust which radically
impacts the worker’s health. As the program progressed, my anger & outraged rapidly increased, but it got me thinking!
For decades electric cars & other hybrid vehicles have been promoted by both the auto industry & many climate activists as the solution to the present “climate crisis”, this is the same promises that are being touted for solar & wind power with little or no discussion of the
environmental impact the production & placement “carbon-free power generators”. Their promises are many, the investors are most pleased with their profits, & the buyer’s feeling free of guilt not realizing (or perhaps not caring) that they have been royally “green washed”! To put it simply, they’ve been had!
We’ve been convinced into believing we can buy our way out of this crisis & that we can continue to maintain our present privileged middle-class lifestyles & due to the prosperity that this green technologies will
provide it will raise the millions of the “disenfranchised” out of their present condition by implementing these so-called “sustainable technologies”, these “green” power generators that use finite materials mined & extracted from third world countries whose people receive little or no benefit other than the meager slave wages paid to extract the materials.
The fact that people in a third world country are working for the equivalent of slave labor to provide guilt-free transportation & a “green” lifestyles for the privileged here in America should provoke more of us to feeling a sense outrage!
Here’s another question, by changing all our home appliances to electricity along with our personal modes of transport, & eliminating our personal use of fossil fuels for home heating, cooking, & water heating, will
this not create a greater demand for more electricity, & where is this electricity going to come from? It must be remembered that these power generators are manufactured from limited natural resources. So, what will these alternative solutions last before we face another crisis?
The realities are simple, an environmentally sustainable future will not be brought about by technologies created by using resources extracted from a finite resource, the Earth only has so much she can give! And what do we do when those resources run out?
These are the realities that need to be faced along with hard & unpopular questions that need to be asked. Questions about culture, lifestyles, consumption & economics, & the big questions of what we are willing to sacrifice both as individuals & as communities to attain this desired sustainability? Are we willing to accept these necessary changes that may take decades if not centuries to realize, & will future generations
be willing to do the work necessary to create the future we envision? There will be resistance, & are we willing to confront this inevitability?
Those of us in the Rewilding community & the those in the traditional conservation/preservation communities have long committed ourselves to this work knowing that there are no quick fixes, that it will take direct action, getting our hands dirty, & that it will take more than just pointing fingers & blaming others for this crisis. As the old Pogo comic strip once said, “we have met the enemy, & he is us”, which as I understand it
means that we humans have created this crisis, & we as individuals must begin to make the necessary changes, right here, right know in our own lives! Real change always starts at home, so welcome home & get to work!
…paddling ever onward! Derel Polzer
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2 responses to “The View from 3rd Mountain: Outrage, Anger, & Possibilities”
Derel, I understand your anger. I understand the feeling of urgency and frustration, I sense in your writing. All I could say is take a deep breath and let it out.
Human beings use up resources. The higher the standard of living the more resources that are used. These resources are extracted from the planet and have resulted in the human crisis you point out. Cobalt is only one such notable example. I’m sure we can each point to many others.
We live in the age of the carbon pulse. Beginning about 150 years ago we discovered fossil fuel could do more work than a human or animal could. Much more. Every barrel of oil is equivalent to more than 5,700 hours of human labor
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Derel, I understand your anger. I understand the feeling of urgency and frustration, I sense in your writing. All I could say is take a deep breath and let it out.
Human beings use up resources. The higher the standard of living the more resources that are used. These resources are extracted from the planet and have resulted in the human and environmental crisis you point out. Cobalt is only one such notable example. I’m sure we can each point to many others.
We live in the age of the carbon pulse. Beginning about 150 years ago we discovered fossil fuel could do more work than a human or animal could. Much more. Every barrel of oil is equivalent to more than 5,700 hours of human labor. It supercharged our economy. Those of us in the developed First World received the maximum benefit from this. Many of the worlds poor get the shity end of the stick, but still strive to raise their standard of living. Efforts to reduce the harm to these people is what much of what “climate justice” currently refers to.
I don’t expect much to change until the cost of oil is beyond the reach of even the First World, as it eventually runs out, forcing global, national and regional transport to significantly slow down.
The value of ReWilding is to restore the local people and environment enough so that communities can survive the Great Simplification that is coming.
Art
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