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
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Safety Patrol D.C. visits never get old
I asked Cam Morris, head of Eastern Travel/Oneonta Bus Lines, how many years her company has been handling the Safety Patrol trip to Washington, D.C.
Continued ... - My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
- Catching a whiff of 'Vermont Vapor'
- Selections from the virtual mailbag
- Recalling days of 'Doughnut King'
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Safety Patrol D.C. visits never get old
- Cary Brunswick
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We've become our own worst enemies
The past month has been marked by a seeming unprecedented number of man-made tragedies, as distinct from those caused by violent outbursts of the natural world, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis.
Continued ... - Plenty of blame to go around for Bangladesh horror
- Obama is going against his word on Social Security
- Reflecting on a Florida trip
- Those magnificent spies in their flying machines
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We've become our own worst enemies
- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
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Records seizure is an insult to free press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
Continued ... - The evangelical view of same-sex marriage
- Manor's fate will be Otsego board's legacy
- A closer look at our economy - Part II
- Use fracking to fill budget gaps
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Records seizure is an insult to free press
- Lisa Miller
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A view from above
Fire towers in the Catskill Mountains have always been destination points, built to capture some of the region’s best views. These sentinel stations served an important role for the earliest possible sightings of forest fires in the remote mountain ranges. But the fire towers and those who manned them fulfilled a multitude of other roles as well.
Continued ... - Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
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- Mark Simonson
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General Clinton Canoe Regatta got a new home in 1972
Ever since 1963, when Charles Hinkley and a group of Tri-Town businessmen came up with the idea for what we know today as the General Clinton Canoe Regatta, people lined the shores of the Susquehanna to watch the canoeists as they made their 70-mile trek from Cooperstown to Bainbridge.
Continued ... - Sunday movies in Oneonta finally shown in 1934
- Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
- Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
- Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
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- Rick Brockway
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Kids have sparkle in their eyes
When I was in my teens, old Bill Naatz told me about a stream north of Lake George where a man had panned out enough gold to make his wife a wedding band. It was all rumors, but to his grandson and myself, it sounded like the makings of a great adventure.
- People make the outdoors even better
- Turkey season has ups and downs
- Spring air isn't always the freshest
- Adriondacks keep growing and growing
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Kids have sparkle in their eyes
- Sam Pollak
- William Masters
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
As the time to vote draws near, we need to remember how money can run politics more than we can. Raising funds is a prominent (if not the dominant) task of getting elected. Raising issues is also crucial, but those efforts are subject to distortion and fear-mongering.
- Republicans feelentitled to allthey can garner An entitlement is a legal benefit available from the government to individuals who are within a defined category of recipients, such as needing insurance for unemployment or health services.
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Romney focuses on self; Obama emphasizes unity
Mitt Romney criticizes President Obama for saying a person's success is rooted in his community, and is not all his alone. Romney belittles this with his belief in individual initiative. He is better at the put-down than the push-up.
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Romney shows little regard for common man
The Republicans in Congress have voted over and over, 33 times, redundantly and uselessly, to rescind what they call Obamacare.
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Scouts' gay ban creates problem where none exists
The Boy Scouts of America's "emphatic reaffirmation" of its vow to exclude any and all homosexuals from its hallowed ranks is ill-considered and pathetic, especially in view of its having reviewed the matter for two years.
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Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
