Spirituality and Ecological Hope

Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:

That question gets me in trouble sometimes because it can imply judgment. But, really, what is wrong with us? When we receive information that tells us harm is being done, why isn’t our first reaction to stop doing the harm, instead of ‘how do we cover it up,’ or just pretend it’s not true?

I was thinking of this the other evening when attending the local premier of the film Food, Inc. Really, if you have friends, community, family, etc. that don’t know yet about how industrial agriculture is killing us and the planet’s ecosystems, take them to see this film.  Go as a group; have discussion afterwards; commit to a new food regimen in this country.

Much of this information was not new to me.  That said, it is presented in a very clear, powerful, unnerving, manner.  But one point that did shock me was the degree to which Monsanto is taking control of our whole food system and then threatening the first amendment rights of those who try to challenge their practices, or who are harmed by them, by using their legal clout and enormous financial resources — protected by federal courts and Congress.  Of course, one should look closely at campaign donor lists to find out why this happens, especially in the states of big corporate agriculture.

We have a very long list of concerns about how Monsanto operates, but rather than take space here, check out this page from the Organic Consumers Association, and this scary article, Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear, from Vanity Fair.  The OCA calls it “Monsanto’s Corporate Terrorism,” an apt description, we think.   From Agent Orange to RoundUp to genetically modified organisms to “killer seeds,” this coporation is doing a lot to destroy our ability to eat on a planet whose needs for good healthy food, grown in locally sustaining ways, without depleting soils, water sources, community life, and well-being will only be rising as population peaks out mid-century.

Why do we not immediately stop this kind of corporate practice?  And, just like the tobacco companies before them, what goes on inside of people who make decisions that cause such great harm, that use financial might to crush those without power who try to speak out for their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, in this case by running a family farm trying to make a living working hard to give us all some nutritious food?  I mean, do these people go to church on Sunday?  Do they read the Gospel of Luke? or Isaiah?

Why when we know the atmosphere is warming and that dangerous climate changes are already occurring don’t we immediately react to the danger by moving rapidly towards a post-coal, post-oil, post-fossil fuel future?  What keeps us from believing in imminent disaster despite all the signposts — like disasters already upon us?

Here’s another example of what I mean:

Source: Climate Progress

“A new Australian government report says that global warming appears to be occurring faster than earlier thought likely, and the country’s protracted drought is probably here to stay.”

That quote was in this week’s version of Earthweek: a Diary of the Planet.  If you’re interested in what is happening to Australia, and we all ought to be, here’s where you can find this report.

Australia wildfire - photo: Juliet Moore

Poor southern Australia. Remember the recent fires, the triple digit temperatures, up beyond 115-120 degrees in some spots?  Here is one area of the world that may be among the first to become uninhabitable because of climate change.  Yet the U.S., China, India, the European Union, Russia — all have trouble reacting like good healthy animals in biological trouble — responding appropriately to danger by getting out of danger!

Or this, some millionaire developer, a guy named Aaron Million, wants to build a private water pipeline that would take water from Wyoming’s Green River Basin to the Colorado Front Range so that he and other developers can continue the ecological horrors that have already caused the overbuilding, polluting, overcrowding of the Rocky Mountain foothills.  The NY Times had a word to say about this back in April when hearings were being held on the proposal.  They called it “De-Watering Wyoming.”

What Mr. Million is proposing is legal enough, and he has claimed that he will not build the pipeline if it doesn’t meet strict environmental standards. But there is a problem at both ends of his project. He is proposing to remove billions of gallons of water annually from a rich, aquatic ecosystem.

Colorado sprawl - Highlands Ranch - photo: CO Sprawl Action Center

And they describe what is happening on the Front Range quite accurately:

But the real problem is this: What water grows on the Front Range is development, nothing else.

You have to have spent time in Colorado before and after all this development to appreciate what a tragedy it is.

And, as the Times’ editors note, all of this is perfectly legal — unless enough opposition can stop it.

Why is all this perfectly legal?  Because our laws are still set up to protect the rights of corporations, developers, and investors against the rights of you and me and our natural world.  And our political system still wreaks of conflicts of interest when it comes to those who make the laws.  One example: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was once a lawyer for Monsanto.  Other connections between Monsanto and the former Bush administration include people like John Ashcroft, Donald Rumsfeld, and Tommy Thompson.  See this article at SourceWatch.

Connections in the Obama administration are not reassuring, starting with Sec. of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.  The other week, the administration announced that our new food safety czar would be Michael Taylor, former VP for Public Policy at Monsanto, and whose resume includes opposing labeling for food containing rBGH (bovine growth hormone).  Read more here and here.

So, just like the financial world we wrote of the other day, here is another example of the corporate world and government all mixed up with each other, the revolving door, one at the service of the other — to the detriment of the planet and its well-being.  This is why seemingly distant issues from our agenda here, like campaign finance reform, are also issues of ecological import.

One of the greatest struggles of this century will be to separate government and corporate power, to make government responsible to humans and the well-being of Earth, rather than the profits and power of corporations.  This is crucial if we are to live through the ‘end of the world’ and come out at the other end with a planet still desirable for human habitation.