If we don't change, change will bury us. That will be because of the changes we ourselves inflict so causally upon this one and only Earth.
We act as if oblivious to how our way of life is undermining itself. We depend hugely on gasoline, but the tank is getting empty. The smoke from our exhaust has been insulating the planet enough to melt polar ice caps and disrupt climate patterns.
We are mining the coal, pumping the oil, depleting the soil, the forests, and the oceans. Glaciers crucial to fresh-water supplies for large parts of the world are disappearing. The ecosystems that allow and support biodiversity and sustainability are changing and even collapsing.
Yet we gulp along, hogging and consuming resources like there is no end, and as if there is no one else on the planet who needs anything. It is not sustainable.
These problems are so massive as to defy belief. Indeed some do not believe. The powers that be resist the truth, just like cigarette companies did trying to pretend their tobacco did not kill.
Some problems are the results of unintended consequences, but are also the result of turning blind eyes to what we do not want to see.
Our tradition for America has been pride in being forward-looking, creative, moral and successful. We have been a model for democracy and religious freedom. We cherish our record for ingenuity and bask in feeling like the envy of the world, the good guys, protecting peace far and wide.
But let's get real. Who are "we"? A teeny-tiny percentage of us are stinking rich or holding the levers of power. We are not the people who created NAFTA.
A few of us have gone into the military, or taken mortgages we cannot pay off. More than a few of us are drawing unemployment insurance benefits, or relying on food stamps. Most of us are not homeless, or ill, or even hungry. But what about those who are?
There is a tendency to blow the poor off as if they caused their own problems. They get called dependent, or irresponsible, avoidant of real work or effort. Be careful, though, because when it comes to caring for the Earth, we are them.
We are all dependent: Both upon the Earth, and on an economy that is beyond our control. Nevertheless, some would now undermine the social safety net built up during the last century, especially since the Depression.
Many choose to disbelieve established scientific warnings of changing climate patterns and rising sea levels. They say environmental work is unnecessarily costly; that the stability of the Earth is as evident as its obvious flatness once was. The link between dismissing the suffering of the miserable among us and disregarding the global environment around us is a lack of caring about others.
We dismiss change when it seems not to benefit us directly. It is selfishness. The Right takes evolution as a justification, even glorification, of selfishness a la Ayn Rand. We are built for competition, survival of the fittest, and ergo our progress.
But there are competing concepts to be considered. That we cooperate, care for, and learn from one another speaks of a non-genetic evolutionary process.
Now society is not only individuals, but is defined by teamwork. Dr. Paul Ehrlich, Stamford University, notes that the evolution of ethics was slow. He describes a paradox in our evolving dominance of the Earth: It's that we are actually undermining our own environmental support system.
He refers to the toxification of the planet a movement toward cataclysmic climate disruption, overpopulation and eating up nature's capital, reducing soil and aquifers. A root problem is over consumption.
Recently, Dr. David Sloan Wilson of Binghamton University wrote about how not only selfishness can evolve, but selflessness too. His book, "The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve my City, One Block at a Time," describes a research project that brought subpar students up to state standards in one year.
We urgently need to change how we live on and affect the world today _ both the Earth and our fellow human beings. Our way is selfish, entrenched, and dysfunctional for our grandchildren. It is also immoral.
William Masters can be reached at wmasters@thedailystar.com.
Columns
'We are all dependent: Both upon the Earth, and on an economy'
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
- Cary Brunswick
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Some wisdom is best passed down through books
I was visiting a friend out-of-town recently and the subject of providing a "reading list" to young people came up in conversation. He said years ago he had asked a respected acquaintance in Oneonta to compile such a list for his teenage daughter, to help her be better prepared for life, culture, education, politics and people.
Continued ... - Let pragmatism, not politics, determine birth control debate
- As Center Street Elementary goes, so goes Center City
- U.S. intervention in Syria's uprising would be a gamble
- Santorum, Obama both got it wrong on Honduras
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- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
In Otsego County’s local elections last fall, a number of candidates — most of them on the independent Sustainable Otsego line — ran on an anti-fracking, pro-sustainability platform. They recognized that our current way of life — dependent on increasingly scarce, costly and polluting fossil fuels — cannot continue.
Continued ... - Time to get off the bus and on the computer
- Cuomo's Machiavellian maneuvers are a danger
- Home rule laws aren't a radical idea
- Sustainable shouldn't be a dirty word
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
- Lisa Miller
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Being a parent is a constant learning process
I am sitting cross-legged on the floor in the dressing room, waiting for Allie's dance number to be called. The cave girl costume has been donned, the jazz shoes double-tied, the hair pulled back, the requisite dab of lipstick applied.
Continued ... - Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
- Untethered from the cable box
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Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Mark Simonson
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Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
Oneonta became a settlement and has been a place to do one's "trading," whether it was the 18th century, or 2012, because of the five valleys that converge here. Only the places of doing the "trading" have changed a bit over the last 100 years, and Oneonta remains a place that attracts visitors and has always been a decent place to live and work.
Continued ...
100 Years Ago - Recalling the Hindenburg, John D. Rockefeller in May 1937
- Oneonta residents had diversions aplenty in the spring of 1952
- Damaschke essential to ensuring Oneonta baseball in 1927
- Area tunes to WONT in November 1972
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Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
- Rick Brockway
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Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
OUTDOORS COLUMN BY RICK BROCKWAY ... Last week, my friend George and I returned to the Gunks for another rock-climbing adventure. After last week's column, I asked about the rattlesnakes and was told not to worry. Rattlers are usually quite timid and will avoid people as much as possible. It's the copperheads that'll give you trouble. They're aggressive and will stand their ground to defend it. Oh great!!
- Rattlesnakes may be closer than you think, so pay attention
- Spring is here, so fishing should pick up soon
- Sneaky fox may be the next animal looking to horse around
- Pass down the rush of turkey hunting to your kids this weekend
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Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
- Sam Pollak
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I'm happy with our kids to a certain degree
It was several years ago, and I was in the kitchen, telling my eldest daughter and my then-teenaged son about the person who was taking over as publisher at The Daily Star.
Continued ... - I get by with a little help from my 'friends'
- It’s not easy for a politics junkie to get off the stuff
- The Encyclopaedia Britannica in print, unmourned by me
- Angelo Dundee was always a good man to have in your corner
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- William Masters
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Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
Richard Lugar, after six terms as a Republican senator -- known for his middle of the road rationality and his foreign policy finesse -- has been ousted by a Tea Party extremist backed by outside right-wing funding.
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War not worth gambling with lives of soldiers
Are you not tired of our war in Afghanistan? It had a point, once, after 9/11. Bush couldn't distinguish his myopic personal agendas from the nation's needs and let Osama escape, dropping the ball entirely, causing many deaths.
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Titanic was a microcosm of U.S. economic disparity
Haunting reminders of the Titanic tragedy have wafted over us with the centenary of its sinking. The maiden voyage of an impressive, state of the art vessel, was a little like that of the Challenger space shuttle, at the cutting edge of developing technology. But the shuttle carried our pride in science and space exploration, not hundreds and hundreds of people.
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William Masters: Nation stands divided between 'us' and 'them'
In February, Trayvon Martin was shot dead as "suspicious" by a volunteer neighborhood watch man. The case has aroused community reaction in Sanford, Fla., and is still echoing across the country.
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A quarterback can't win the game alone
What is the relationship between democracy and wealth? Democracy is a political system, while wealth relates to economics. We have equal political rights, but we don't all have money. Extreme differences destroy the continuity of community solidarity.
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Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
