Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
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one estimate, <strong>the</strong> human footprint exceeds <strong>the</strong> capacity <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
Earth by 25 percent, and <strong>the</strong> defi cit <strong>of</strong> carrying capacity continues<br />
<strong>to</strong> grow. Were everyone <strong>to</strong> live like Americans, humankind would<br />
require <strong>the</strong> resources <strong>of</strong> three additional Earths. After a quarter <strong>of</strong><br />
a century <strong>of</strong> “sustainable development,” virtually no indica<strong>to</strong>r <strong>of</strong><br />
planetary health is moving in a positive direction, and we should<br />
ask why (Speth, 2008).<br />
It is clear by now that we have seriously underestimated <strong>the</strong><br />
magnitude and speed <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> human destruction <strong>of</strong> nature, but we<br />
seem powerless <strong>to</strong> s<strong>to</strong>p it. The rapid destabilization <strong>of</strong> <strong>climate</strong> and<br />
<strong>the</strong> destruction <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> web <strong>of</strong> life are just symp<strong>to</strong>ms <strong>of</strong> larger issues<br />
<strong>the</strong> understanding <strong>of</strong> which runs hard against our national psyche<br />
and <strong>the</strong> Western worldview generally. Americans, <strong>the</strong> largest users<br />
<strong>of</strong> Prozac, proudly think <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>mselves as an optimistic, “can-do”<br />
people not easily given <strong>to</strong> doubt or despair. That is mostly a useful<br />
outlook, until it is not. According <strong>to</strong> Evan Connell, George<br />
Armstrong Custer’s last recorded words just before <strong>the</strong> opening<br />
shots at <strong>the</strong> battle <strong>of</strong> Little Big Horn were a stirring: “Hurrah<br />
boys, now we have <strong>the</strong>m” (Connell, 1985, p. 279). Optimistic bravado<br />
in <strong>the</strong> face <strong>of</strong> long odds is a much-admired American trait in<br />
some quarters, and sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.<br />
Unfortunately for Custer, that day Sitting Bull and <strong>the</strong> Sioux were<br />
not much amused and apparently not particularly awed by <strong>the</strong><br />
chutzpah <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 7th Calvary. In our own time, <strong>the</strong> pronouncement<br />
by George Herbert Walker Bush that “The American way<br />
<strong>of</strong> life is not negotiable” came only a decade before Osama bin<br />
Laden negotiated it downward several trillion dollars, depending<br />
on how much you care <strong>to</strong> include. The end <strong>of</strong> cheap oil will take<br />
it down several more notches.<br />
It is easier, I think, <strong>to</strong> understand <strong>the</strong> reality <strong>of</strong> dilemmas in<br />
places that have his<strong>to</strong>ric ruins and are overlaid with memories <strong>of</strong><br />
tragedies and misfortunes that testify <strong>to</strong> human fallibility, ignorance,<br />
arrogance, pride, overreach, and sometimes evil. Amidst<br />
shopping malls, bustling freeways, and all <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> accoutrements,