Yet great power in America today is recklessly refusing to change its ways to serve the needs of life –including human life-on earth. The scientific consensus has declared that the coming decades could see significant damage to humankind's niche on the earth.
This damage might take --indeed may already be taking-- many forms.
One possible form is the disruption of food production, as temperatures and rain patterns shift in lands on which food crops are grown. Another is the loss of land, as the melting of ice raises sea levels and submerges coastal territories and oceanic islands (including much of Manhattan, and a large chunk of the Florida peninsula). Yet another is the extinction of various species of plants and animals, as the extraordinary suddenness of these changes eliminates habitats faster than some life forms can adapt to or escape to find new niches. And then there is the predicted increased severity of weather, with fiercer storms and higher temperatures and greater extremes of drought and flood (Katrina as the wave of the future).
Stability of climate is the ally of life on earth, and life --including civilization-- suffers from the present destablization.
Despite the clear prospect of the subversion of the blessed wholeness of living systems, America's most powerful political leaders today –and the economic forces behind them- say we should "stay the course" on those human practices that science says are contributing to climate change.
Some say that there is uncertainty about the actuality of this problem of climate change. And indeed there is SOME uncertainty, but far less than is claimed by those who stress it in our collective deliberations. The majority of experts find little reason to doubt that the planet is getting warmer.
But even if the reality of global warming were only a 50-50 proposition –indeed even if it were only a 10% probability, or even 5%-- how responsible would it be not to act now to take that contingency into account? A middle class American family man who does not buy life insurance is –rightly-considered irresponsible, even if the actuaries say there's only a one in 200 chance that his family will need it in the year for which the premium is being paid. Why expose his wife and children to the possibility of such financial calamity, just to save the premium?
Still, political and economic powers have consistently refused to pay any premium now to protect those generations that will come after us. They say we need to know for sure before we pay the price for this insurance policy, even though by the time we know for sure it would be far too late for that knowledge to do us any good.
Some say that there is uncertainty whether the warming of the planet is due to human activity or to the natural cycles of climate. And indeed there is SOME uncertainty, though the evidence for human causation is persuasive to most who know what they are talking about.
But even if the ongoing warming of the planet were mostly caused by non-human factors in the climate picture, what difference would it make? It is well-established that certain gases –like carbon dioxide, whose presence in the atmosphere human activity has almost doubled in the past two centuries -contribute to the planet's getting hotter. So what sense does it make to COMPOUND the problem and amplify the speed and magnitude of climate change? If one has bronchitis for some reason other than smoking, does that alter the reality that someone with bronchitis is a fool to smoke?
The conduct of the Bush administration –and of American capitalism-on the issue of climate change is a disgrace. Anyone who is truly "pro-life" ought to be appalled.
REPAIRING THE DAMAGE
Foolish or wicked. In the case of the Bush administration, the choice of explanations is regrettably clear. For this same ruling group that does nothing about climate change has also damaged other essential dimensions of wholeness that represent much that is good in the world.
With a disastrous war of choice in Iraq, this American regime is also the one that has disturbed that vital and delicate form of wholeness-- the peace of the world. And this Bushite regime has also set about dismantling the foundations of comparative justice and tranquility in the American body politic, the Constitution of the United States.
This pattern of the Bush regime's wanton disregard for --perhaps even hostility to-- a whole variety of dimensions of wholeness seems an unmistakeable clue to how immoral is the spirit that animates the regime. Given this pattern, it seems reasonable to attribute to wickedness, more than to folly, the source of their immoral indifference to taking care of the biosphere-- the biosphere that is the foundation of every breath our descendents will take and every bite of food they will eat.
Now in America a piece of power has come into other hands. For the Democrats newly in the majority in Congress, the overriding task must be to continue the process of wresting power from the Bushites and to set about repairing the damage this regime has done to the nation and to the world. Of the many arenas in which this damage has occurred, none are more important than those three dimensions of Wholeness that have been under assault from this regime: the peace of the world, the Constitution, and the order of the biosphere.
Andrew Bard Schmookler's website www.nonesoblind.org is devoted to understanding the roots of America's present moral crisis and the means by which the urgent challenge of this dangerous moment can be met. Dr. Schmookler is also the author of such books as The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution (SUNY Press) and Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (M.I.T. Press). He also conducts regular talk-radio conversations in both red and blue states.
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