VII Readings on the Environment
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There seems to be almost universal agreement that we are destroying our environment, and that the culture of capitalism is unsustainable. There is also agreement that if people in the so-called developing world emulate the life style of people in the developed world, they will be inviting environmental catastrophe. For example, we note in Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism that in the United States there is one automobile for every 1.3 persons; in China there is one automobile for every 125 persons. But the Chinese people (with the full support of the Chinese government, not to mention automobile manufacturers) want to have as many cars as Americans do. The result could be an ecological disaster. Global warming, some scientists say, is with us, and is responsible for the dramatic changes in weather patterns of the past few years; the depletion of the ozone layer is causing an epidemic of skin cancers; toxic wastes are rapidly washing over our living space, particularly in the developing world and in poor areas of the developed world. The question, of course, what, if anything, can be done about it? |
| A. The State of the Environment | |
| The following selections describe the
damage that has been done to the world, and examines the rate at which people are
destroying their environment. |
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| Reading 1. Global Environmental
Outlook 2000: Overview http://www.unep.org/geo2000/ov-e/index.htm |
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This United Nations Environmental Program overview of the state of the environment provides a good starting point for understanding the problem. The essential sections are the ones on global perspectives and the one on major global trends. |
| Reading 3. Environmental Trends (From
Rachel's Environment and
Health Weekly) http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/bulletin.cfm?Issue_ID=508 |
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| While concern for environmental destruction goes back at least until the nineteenth century, the modern environmental movement traces its origins to the 1960s when authors such as Rachel Carson in her book, Silent Spring, began warning of an ecological catastrophe. The movement has had some success in convincing governments to enact environmental legislation. The question is, has it made a difference? This report concludes that despite 20 years of substantial effort the major industrial nations have failed to reverse the trends of environmental destruction. | |
| Exercise 1. The Environmental Scorecard http://www.scorecard.org/ |
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Local politicians and media don't often publicize instances of environmental pollutants in their communties. But at this site from The Environmental Defense Fund you can get a list of local polluters and what they are adding to the environment. Just type in your local zip code and get the information. You can also get information on environmental justice (or injustice), and find out how the burdens of environmental pollution are borne largely by poor and marginalized populations.
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 Reading 4. Trends
in Global Temperatureshttp://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2005/ |
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| The Goddard Institute
for Space Studies charts the increases in global temperatures.
One of the biggest factors in the increase in greenhouse
gases in the U.S. is the shift by largely educated Americans to gas guzzling utility
vehicles (see Global Problems
and the Culture of Capitalism, p. 266). |
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| Reading
4a. Phaeton’s Reins:
The Human Hand in Climate Change http://bostonreview.net/BR32.1/emanuel.html |
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| Superb summary of the history and the
dynamics of climate change and global warming by Kerry Emanuel, one of the
foremost people examining the human impacts on climate.
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| B. Consumption and the Environment | |
| Three factor's contribute to
environmental destruction: population, technology, and consumption. Of the three,
consumption has received the least attention, probably because it is the most difficult to
do anything about. But the need for ever increasing consumption in the culture of
capitalism is arguably the single greatest cause of environmental degradation. It is
the need and desire for more "stuff" that stimulates the development of
technologies that degrade the environment, and, while population is often cited as a cause
of environmental problems, it is clearly the slowest growing countries that cause the
greatest problems. Even the destruction of environments in developing countries (e.g. the
destruction of rainforests) is a consequence of the economic demands of the wealthier
members of our planet. The following selections all address the issue of consumption
as a factor in habitat destruction. |
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| Reading 5.
Human Development Report 1998:
Overview (PDF) http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/1998/en/pdf/hdr_1998_overview.pdf |
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| This United Nations report describes the relationship between consumption and human development. It focuses on the vast increase in consumption, noting, however, how unevenly this increase has been. it also describes some of the effects of consumption on the environment and on societies. | |
| Reading 6. Revisiting Carrying Capacity:
Area-Based Indicators of Sustainability http://dieoff.com/page110.htm |
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| "The fundamental
question for ecological economics," says William E. Rees in this article, "is
whether remaining stocks of natural capital are adequate to sustain the anticipated load
of the human economy into the next century." Rees uses the idea of
"carrying capacity" to make the point that our way of life is not sustainable.
But his use of the term (unlike many others) takes into account the high
consumption lifestyle characteristic of the culture of capitalism. He defines
"carrying capacity" as "the maximum rates of resource harvesting and waste
generation (the maximum load) that can be sustained indefinitely without progressively
impairing the productivity and functional integrity of relevant ecosystems wherever the
latter may be located." He argues that many countries are
already vastly exceeding their carrying capacity, existing largely by drawing on the
resources of others or of future generations; as he puts it, "so-called 'advanced'
economies are running massive, unaccounted, ecological deficits with the rest of the
planet." Thus if the present population of the world were to all to enjoy the
lifestyle of North Americans (to which they all aspire), we would need an additional two
planets Earth. Gandhi had
the same insight over 50 years ago; a reporter asked him if he wanted India to take the
same path to industrialization as England. "If it took tiny England half
the world to reach its level of development," asked Gandhi, "how many worlds
would it take India?"
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| Reading 7. Ecological
Footprint Accounts http://www.earthday.net/footprint/pdf/ef_english_color.pdf |
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| This report is based on one of the
questions posed by William E. Rees in the previous selection. "How large an
area of productive land is needed to sustain a defined population indefinitely, wherever
on Earth that land is located?" The report notes that There are approximately
1.7 hectares of land to support each person on earth; the problem is that in some nations
each person is using 8, 9 or 10 hectares of land to support his or her standard of living.
Thus the "ecological footprints" of some nations are far larger than that of
others. The report compares the ecological impact of 52 large nations,
inhabited by 80 percent of the world population, and examines the extent their consumption
can be supported by their local ecological capacity. Among other things it finds that
humanity uses over one third more resources and eco-services than nature can regenerate.
In 1992, this ecological deficit was only one quarter. If you like, you can even calculate your own ecological footprint. Or figure out how many planets are needed to support your lifestyle. And, calculate how many tons of co2 you are responsible for at the Inconvenient Truth website here or here.
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| Reading
8. Britain
Now "Eating Planet http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4897252.stm |
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| This article from the BBC
describes a report from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) and the Open
University that Great Britain is now requires more than three earths to
support itself. The article also contains a link to an energy
calculator gives you the opportunity to choose how you would like the
UK’s electricity to be generated in 2020.
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| Exercise
2: The Happy Planet Index http://www.happyplanetindex.org/ |
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| From Friends of the
Earth, the "Happy Planet Index is an innovative new measure that shows the
ecological efficiency with which human well-being is delivered around the
world. It is the first ever index to combine environmental impact with
well-being to measure the environmental efficiency with which country by
country, people live long and happy lives. The results are surprising, even
shocking, but there is much to learn from what they show."
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| C. Food and the Environment | |
| In Global Problems and the
Culture of Capitalism we emphasize the role of consumption in environmental devastation,
using our food habits to illustrate how our tastes in food have been culturally
constructed to maximize consumption. Meat (largely beef) and sugar--fat and
sucrose--comprise the major part of the American diet, to the detriment of our health and
the environment. The following selections discuss the consequences of our taste for
beef, and the environmental problems that rise from the production of a by-product of
sugar--rum. |
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| Reading 9. Warrior
for a Healthy Planet http://www.consciouschoice.com/1995-98/cc116/howardlyman.html |
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| The American taste for beef, we
argue in Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, is environmentally destructive.
Meat-centered diets, as Sidney Mintz has noted, are very unusual; most
cultures center their food tastes around some carbohydrate prepared in some distinct
fashion (bread, pasta, tortilla, etc), adding spices, vegetables, and meat as side dishes.
We also trace the development of the American taste for beef, noting the role that
government took in fostering that taste. In this article James Faber explains the
dangers of our beef consumption to our environment, to our health, and to the animals
themselves.
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| Reading 10. The Relationship Between Rum
and the Environment http://www.american.edu/projects/mandala/TED/rum.htm |
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| In Global Problems and the Culture
of Capitalism we trace the evolution of our taste for sugar, and discuss the negative
environmental impact of sugar production. One of the byproducts of sugar is
molasses, which is then used for rum production. Rum, in fact, figured almost as
strongly in the so-called triangular trade route from Africa, to the Americas, and to
England. This article describes some of the environmental affects of rum production
in Puerto Rico, where it is one of the staples of the economy.
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| D. The Resistance to Environmental Action | |
| Can environmental destruction be reversed
or even reduced in the culture of capitalism? Polls indicate that for Americans
environmental safeguards are at the top of their list of priorities, and even conservative
politicians are getting on the environmental bandwagon. However some claim that it
is impossible, given the values and cultural priorities of the culture of capitalism, to
halt the destruction of the environment, let alone ever reverse it. The accumulation
of goods, wages, and profits will, they say, never be sacrificed to save the
environment. The following selections indicate why this may be so. |
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| Reading 11. Ecology and Capitalist Costs of
Production: No Exit http://fbc.binghamton.edu/iwecol.htm |
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| This essay by Immanual Wallerstein
offers an excellent overview of the role of environmental pollution in our society, and,
more importantly recognizes a historical dimension to the problem that is lacking in many
critiques. From Wallerstein's perspective, environmental degradation is not simply
a byproduct of our way of life, it is an intrinsic part of it. The implication is
that, other than radically changing the way we live, there is not that much that we can do
about it. He begins with what he calls two elementary features of historical
capitalism: the first is the need for perpetual growth in production and constant
geographic expansion, and, the second is the fact that one source of capitalist profit
comes from passing the environmental cost of production and consumption on to the larger
society, the developing world, or future generations. This is what Wallerstein calls
the "dirty secret" of capitalism.
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| Exercise 3. Greening Earth Society http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/ |
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One of the points made in Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism is
that corporations have enormous resources with which to pursue a strategy to convince the
public that corporate actions, regardless of the social, political, or environmental
costs, are in the public's interest. To illustrate, check out this Web site of
the "Greening Earth Society"; they explain that, not only is global warming not
a problem, it is actually good for us. Their motto is: "Greening Earth
Society believes that humankind's industrial evolution is good, and using fossil fuels to
enable our economic activity is as natural as breathing." Before you begin exploring,
however, here is what Wayne Grytting had to say about this in his Newspeak newsletter:
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| Exercise 4: FoodNews Supermarket http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/produceaisle.php |
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| Finally, since the corporate world
assures us that what they do is good for us, they shouldn't mind your finding out what
kinds of pollutants they're feeding us. At this site provided by the Environmental
Working Group, you can calculate the type and quantity of pesticides in the food that
you eat. All you need to do is check off what you ate, and they'll give you the
information. You can also find out what pesticides go into your fruit
salad and how you can limit
your exposure to pesticides. Bon Appetite, as they say.
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| Exercise 5. The
Meatrix http://www.themeatrix.com/ |
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| Check out one view of the
environmental consequences and moral implications of a meat-centered
diet. R-rated.
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