Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

governance S 15
regard for long-term consequences. 2 Political scientist Frank
Kalinowski argues further that the roots of our environmental
problems, such as the rampant individualism that undermines the
public interest, the commitment to growth at whatever ecological
cost, incremental decision making that blinds policy makers to the
connections between air, water, land, wildlife, human health, and
long-term prosperity, and the tendency to discount the future, “all
can be found fi xed in the processes of the Constitution.” 3 Philosopher
Thomas Berry attributes that fl aw to the preoccupation
of the writers of the Constitution with property rights, “with no
recognition of the inherent rights of nature and no defense of the
natural world” from corporations (Berry, 2006, pp. 108–109).
Whatever one’s views of the Constitution, beginning with the
onset of the Cold War government became increasingly shrouded
in secrecy and organized to accelerate the exploitation of natural
resources, subsidize corporations, treat the symptoms of environmental
problems without touching their root causes, alleviate
some aspects of poverty without solving deeper problems, and
protect the interests of the wealthy. We have had neither an open
and honest political system that effectively encouraged public participation
in major decisions nor one particularly distinguished by
its competence—partly the fault of self-fulfi lling prophecies from
those who said they wanted to get government off our backs.
One predictable result was a marked decline of public confi dence
in political institutions and widespread cynicism and apathy that
undermined democracy and encouraged yet more malfeasance in
high places.
These problems were compounded by the response of the
Bush administration to the events of September 11, 2001, casting
further doubt on the stability and workability of the constitutional
arrangements. Specifi cally, the theory of the “unitary”
executive set the precedent for a presidency beyond the reach of
Congress and the courts, armed with the power to wage wars and
spy on the public with few if any restraints. But long before the