Home » Opinion » Book review
How one volcano spews issues of global excess
By Wan Lixin |
April 24, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE ash spewing from Icelandic volcano has disrupted Shanghai flights to many European destinations for a week, stranding a large number of passengers.
Among them were the Formula One team.
It was reported a couple of days ago that drivers, team personnel, officials and media, and 700 tons of cars and equipment were facing a long wait.
Think of the fuel costs of flying tons of flesh and 700 tons of metal for thousands of miles in the air, and the amount of fuel -- probably life, too -- saved if this circus misses the next race.
In an article published on Thursday (Asking the market: How much do we need?), Greg Cusack points to the need to distinguish between wants and needs, necessities and luxuries, and sufficiency and surplus.
F1 race exemplifies how insanities can be rationalized and then worshipped in the relentless logic of economics, which finds its best expression in the amoral soil of capitalism.
James Gustave Speth's "The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability" affords us fresh perspectives on an issue that concerns us and our children: the environment.
The book claims that political interests, government subsidies and capitalism's fervor for growth have put the world on a perilous, unsustainable path.
The all-consuming passion for instant gratification in the increasingly individualist and materialist world is pushing us in a perilous trajectory.
Ironically, when our god has been transmuted from a belief to gold, as represented by a brand or racing car, we become very complacent, and busy, so much so that we no longer have time for a backward glance.
Francis Fukuyama's pronouncement of the End of History or Daniel Bell's profession of the End of Ideology are just two of the more blatant spinoffs of this massive hubris.
Flirting with these ends distracts us from another end more imminent -- the end of homo sapiens.
By comparison Speth has assumed a more down-to-earth attitude, likely helped by his multiple roles, as dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University, a White House environmental adviser, and former head of the UN Development Program.
These titles lend cogency to his otherwise cliched statement, "The planet cannot sustain capitalism as we know it."
True, the post-growth scenarios Speth tries to envision are as elusive as ever, as they are still informed by his faith in technological adjustments.
More meaningful would be the long overdue reappreciation of, and reconciliation with, the pre-growth scenarios.
As Wallace Oates believes, the market has failed environmentally because product prices do not factor in the true costs of resources, and the basic needs of future generations.
When the whole world celebrates one economic miracle after another, the images of strip mining, lead-poisoned children, urban sprawl, toxic dumps, left-behind village elders and children, the sandstorm and melting icecaps have all been carefully edited out.
Big Money is paying an inordinate amount of money to undercut the efforts of those who wish their children to survive.
Having your toilet paper and shoes made 10,000 miles away can only be stupid, but that stupidity become cutting edge in the operation of modern economics.
Globalization has triggered a global rivalry to cheapen life and those life-sustaining elements like water and air, for the sake of producing, and consuming, stuff unheard of five years ago.
Hence Speth's statement that globalization and international trade have spread counterproductive incentives and environmental degradation planet-wide.
That is understatement, for the most ambitious capitalists, after launching assaults on the polar regions and the moon, are setting their eyes on Mars.
That's why a thoroughgoing environmentalist should resist any products not made within 10 kilometers of his or her home.
Those who prefer to take refuge in green growth -- to foster economic growth without damaging the environment -- are generating plenty of placebos, when the situation dictates desperate remedies.
Speth is right in saying, "Basically, the economic system does not work when it comes to protecting environmental resources, and the political system does not work when it comes to correcting the economic system."
Only when green is delinked from growth, can we hope to sober up to the degree of our addiction to growth.
Among them were the Formula One team.
It was reported a couple of days ago that drivers, team personnel, officials and media, and 700 tons of cars and equipment were facing a long wait.
Think of the fuel costs of flying tons of flesh and 700 tons of metal for thousands of miles in the air, and the amount of fuel -- probably life, too -- saved if this circus misses the next race.
In an article published on Thursday (Asking the market: How much do we need?), Greg Cusack points to the need to distinguish between wants and needs, necessities and luxuries, and sufficiency and surplus.
F1 race exemplifies how insanities can be rationalized and then worshipped in the relentless logic of economics, which finds its best expression in the amoral soil of capitalism.
James Gustave Speth's "The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability" affords us fresh perspectives on an issue that concerns us and our children: the environment.
The book claims that political interests, government subsidies and capitalism's fervor for growth have put the world on a perilous, unsustainable path.
The all-consuming passion for instant gratification in the increasingly individualist and materialist world is pushing us in a perilous trajectory.
Ironically, when our god has been transmuted from a belief to gold, as represented by a brand or racing car, we become very complacent, and busy, so much so that we no longer have time for a backward glance.
Francis Fukuyama's pronouncement of the End of History or Daniel Bell's profession of the End of Ideology are just two of the more blatant spinoffs of this massive hubris.
Flirting with these ends distracts us from another end more imminent -- the end of homo sapiens.
By comparison Speth has assumed a more down-to-earth attitude, likely helped by his multiple roles, as dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University, a White House environmental adviser, and former head of the UN Development Program.
These titles lend cogency to his otherwise cliched statement, "The planet cannot sustain capitalism as we know it."
True, the post-growth scenarios Speth tries to envision are as elusive as ever, as they are still informed by his faith in technological adjustments.
More meaningful would be the long overdue reappreciation of, and reconciliation with, the pre-growth scenarios.
As Wallace Oates believes, the market has failed environmentally because product prices do not factor in the true costs of resources, and the basic needs of future generations.
When the whole world celebrates one economic miracle after another, the images of strip mining, lead-poisoned children, urban sprawl, toxic dumps, left-behind village elders and children, the sandstorm and melting icecaps have all been carefully edited out.
Big Money is paying an inordinate amount of money to undercut the efforts of those who wish their children to survive.
Having your toilet paper and shoes made 10,000 miles away can only be stupid, but that stupidity become cutting edge in the operation of modern economics.
Globalization has triggered a global rivalry to cheapen life and those life-sustaining elements like water and air, for the sake of producing, and consuming, stuff unheard of five years ago.
Hence Speth's statement that globalization and international trade have spread counterproductive incentives and environmental degradation planet-wide.
That is understatement, for the most ambitious capitalists, after launching assaults on the polar regions and the moon, are setting their eyes on Mars.
That's why a thoroughgoing environmentalist should resist any products not made within 10 kilometers of his or her home.
Those who prefer to take refuge in green growth -- to foster economic growth without damaging the environment -- are generating plenty of placebos, when the situation dictates desperate remedies.
Speth is right in saying, "Basically, the economic system does not work when it comes to protecting environmental resources, and the political system does not work when it comes to correcting the economic system."
Only when green is delinked from growth, can we hope to sober up to the degree of our addiction to growth.
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