Today I encountered three stories of the displacement of indigenous peoples and environmental destruction in the name of progress. The first was from a talk by Arundhati Roy given at Northwestern University on March 18 called Reimagining the World. I downloaded this from the Alternative Radio site for $4. In the talk, Roy tells the story of her trip to the forests of interior India to visit the so-called Maoist rebels, who are protesting the taking of their land by mining interests in cahoots with the government. She ponders the question of where to go from here, given that the current system (i.e. democratic capitalism) isn’t really working.
The second story was from the latest issue of Harper’s magazine, an article titled Promised Land, about the plight of Brazilian indigenous people in the Amazonian jungle whose land was distributed to ranchers, farmers and developers in the 1970s.
And finally, I listened to the latest podcast of Living on Earth, and heard a story called Controversial Dam in Ethopia, about the possible construction of the Gibe Dam, which would wipe out a whole civilization of indigenous people, but be a boon for capitalists and the government.
Each story got me angry, and they built on each other, and on similar stories I hear all the time, as I listen to environmental and progressive podcasts, and read blogs and news feeds.
Add to all this the constant bombardment of solicitations from environmental groups that I get in e-mail and from snail mail, telling me that this company or that government is going to mine, log, frack or otherwise obtain some resource from the earth and use it, regardless of the consequences, and so I should send the organization money to help them stop it.
What do you get? Well, you get a picture of a relentless search for resources in search of money, power and a better life for all (or more particularly, for a few) vs. a steady if meager fight against all this.
I’ve been pondering the effects of all this activity for quite some time, focusing mostly on climate change, but also on other environmental and social consequences. What can I do to stop it? I’m active in the area fighting LNG, big boxes, logging, and development (especially involving paving) in general. There are always victories amidst the steady paving and killing of the planet.
What if the capitalists, developers, industrialists and their friends actually succeeded in emptying the Earth of all her minerals, in actually converting all the wild forests of the world into plantations, in actually damming all the rivers and streams, in actually harnessing all the wave power, tidal power, wind power, geothermal power and whatever other power by building huge machines and structures that kill everything in the vicinity? What if they got all the permits they needed, and provided all those jobs to build it all, and it all worked? Would the environmental groups and indigenous groups and activists and scientists be right? Would the Earth die? Would we all die?
You see, there is a balance between all the niceties of life that this mining, logging, energy and development bring us and the destruction it causes. If we actually stopped all this, our living standards in the developed countries, or at least those of the rich amongst us, would necessarily come down. No more fuel for that fire. But if we allow it all, the chances are good that the human race would be in deep trouble, as well as most other multi-celled organisms on Earth. In fact, even at the current rate of extraction, it’s probable that whole ecosystems will fail in the near future, and the whole Earth (except bacteria) soon after that.
I don’t know how we can stop the barrage, though. My guess (and in a way, hope) is that “nature” will fight back, and before we can kill it all, we will be severely impacted and slow down the rate of destruction.
I can’t wait to read what Arundhati Roy thinks the answer to the problem of how we proceed is. We need many big thinkers to work on this problem. Including all of the readers of this blog. Any answers?
This post also appears on Bob’s Blog on Blogger.
Thank you for this thoughtful essay, Bob. As a physician, teacher, and parent, I struggle with balancing all of these commitments with my dedication to participatory citizenship. I know that right now, raising a compassionate and courageous child is my and my husband’s biggest contribution to the welfare of the world, but when I read about all of these manifestations of humanity’s devastating impact on one another and on our environment, I yearn to be more active. It’s hard to reconcile myself to the fact that there’s only so much time, and so many commitments, available to each person. For now, I hope to contribute through writing and to focus on environmental concerns in our region, such as clear-cutting and LNG. But I also wish to be a model of engagement for our little one. What a challenge! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences with it.