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164Cairns: Eco-Ethics and Sustainability Ethicstwenty-first century war in Iraq was proposed. Sustainable use of the planet requires the normativelegitimacy of a planet ordered by law. Therefore, policy must be altered, even in powerful nationstates,in order to establish the international order required to achieve sustainability.Some disturbing indications are that the American preemptive war strategy is emphasizing therole of nuclear weapons as battlefield tools rather than as the ultimate taboo weapons (Physiciansfor Social Responsibility [PSR], 2003). This possibility is especially troubling in the case of dualcrises, such as North Korea and Iraq, even when preemptive strikes are theoretical exercises. Evenmoderate protective efforts, by any nation, against a preemptive strike would divert resources fromefforts to achieve sustainability. The threat of a preemptive strike does not reduce proliferation ofnuclear weapons. For example, when so threatened, North Korea withdrew from its Agreed Framework(abandoning nuclear weapons development in exchange for civilian nuclear power generation)[PSR, 2003]. Sustainability requires mutual trust at the global level and is hampered, evenwrecked, by mutual suspicion. Consequently, the case for preventative war is weak.The British philosopher Thomas Hobbes loved peace so much that he was willing to acceptabsolute monarchy as an alternative to civil war. In an era of globalization, a strong United Nationsmay be the only alternative to the eventual use of weapons of mass destruction, which would end,possibly forever, the possibility of achieving sustainable use of the planet. Hobbes believed that allhumans had reason, which could be employed to reduce the possibility of violent death. Peace willnot guarantee that humankind will achieve sustainable use of the planet; but, without it, the probabilityof doing so is problematic.ENVIRONMENTALLY BENIGN WARSEnvironmentally benign war is, of course, a hopeless goal. However, environmental harm can be limited,just as the military attempt to minimize civilian casualties and damage to the infrastructure (e.g.water supply, sewage treatment, power plants, hospitals, and other civil services) of the nation-stateunder attack. The United Nations is processing more than US$70 billion in claims for environmentaldamage in the invasion of Kuwait (the Gulf War). The less damage to environmental and other resources,the lower the cost will be for recreating Iraq. In the Gulf War, nearly a quarter of the Kuwaitidesert was encrusted with oil, which also contaminated aquifers that had produced as much as 40%of the water supply. Unexploded ordnance abounds. The churning of tank treads and truck tyres hasaccelerated erosion so that sand dunes are edging toward Kuwait City. Environmental damage by oiland oil fires is summarized in Youngquist (1997), which contains useful references on this topic.DISTRESS AND EUSTRESSDistress is an emotion that can overwhelm and prevent effective functioning. Distress warns ofdanger and impels the actions of fight or flight. In today’s world, fight might merely be a letter to alocal newspaper or peaceful picketing. Instead of running away from a rabid pit bulldog, whichdirectly addresses a problem, ‘flight’ may manifest itself as limited denial, meditation, music, andthe like. However, ‘flight’ can also mean suicide bombing, road rage, or actual war. Eustress (theprefix ‘eu’ from the Greek word meaning ‘good’) is the emotion that motivates and gives a sense ofaccomplishment when goals have been achieved.The wars of the twenty-first century have not produced the elation that followed the end of WorldWar II. No heads of nation-states surrendered and acknowledged defeat. In fact, victory was notannounced as it was at the end of World War II. Instead, words such as ‘cessation of hostilities’were used, even though significant portions of the populations of Afghanistan and Iraq have
Article 18165remained hostile and many indigenous combatants have merely discarded their uniforms and hiddentheir weapons, almost certainly with the intention of using them at the first opportunity. Diplomaticrelationships of long standing have been replaced with suspicion and lack of trust. TheUnited Nations has, temporarily, ceased to function as intended. Most of humankind is still feelingdistress, and the end of this emotion is not in sight — hardly an appropriate condition for embarkingon a cooperative program to globalize sustainability, which requires implementation of euthenics(i.e. science concerned with bettering the condition of human beings through improvement oftheir environment).The quest for sustainable use of the planet will be stressful because the shift from unsustainableto sustainable practices will require major, initially unpleasant, changes in both individual and societalbehaviour. War itself is an unsustainable practice if humankind intends to leave a habitableplanet for posterity. Humankind is already pushing the limits of environmental carrying capacity infood, water, fossil fuels, toxic chemical substances, radioactive wastes with a long half-life, andrate of climate change. For example, world production of petroleum will soon begin to decline (e.g.Deffeyes, 2001; Duncan, 2001).The activities of humankind have placed nitrogen, potassium, and phosphates into the environmentat a rate greater than that of natural systems. These chemicals degrade all types of waterecosystems, e.g. there is a ‘dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico and brown slime in the Adriatic. Theconsequences of these activities are uncertain, but, at present, they cannot be stopped becausewithout commercial fertilizers billions of humans would die (e.g. Smil, 1991). The era of rising irrigationhas ended (Postel, 1999), and even water rich areas of the United States have had to beginimporting water by truck for growing populations (Grant, 2003). Such environmental crises couldlead to resource wars if the human population continues to grow. However, if the human populationwas stabilized at present levels, or reduced, the funds that are being used to reduce thesecrises temporarily could be used to develop long-term sustainable practices. This more desirablestate requires reexamination of war and growth, both demographic and economic, and the ethicalrelationships within human society and with the 30+ million other species with which humans sharethe planet.A FUTURE WITHOUT HUMANSOn May 18, 2003, the television channel Discovery aired the program ‘Future is Wild.’ Scientistsenvisioned a future world in which humans are extinct and bizarre creatures inhabit the world.Many people would dismiss a world without humans as science fiction or fantasy. ‘Future is Wild’illustrated climatic and geological changes that, if even partially accurate, will drive most extantspecies, probably including Homo sapiens, to extinction over the next 10 to 100 million years. Ifsustainable use of the planet truly means working toward human use of the planet indefinitely,humankind needs to demonstrate the capability of living sustainably under the present comparativelybenign conditions. If this goal is not possible, sustainability is a denial of reality and a moresuitable word to describe human activities should be selected.One obvious beginning point of working toward sustainability is with energy (defined as thecapacity to do work). Heniberg (2003) argues that global oil output will peak in 3–12 years. If anaggressive shift toward new energy sources, such as wind, solar, or fuel cells in the mix, is notachieved in the 3–12 year time period, there will be severe, even grim, consequences, such as economiccollapse, resource wars, famine, disease, and despotism. If humankind reduces energy consumption,the transition period can be lengthened, but the basic problem must be addressed.
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