I have read many articles and books of Naomi Klein. I find
her provocative and enlightening. One of the many books and articles I read
about the fiscal crisis was her “Shock Doctrine” which focused on the
ramifications of policies and actions by major funding sources, e.g., World
Bank and IMF, on the target countries. Her data supports the view that often
the countries in need of support become saddled with huge debt or structured
policies that negatively effect generations. She has written about the oil disaster
in the Gulf of Mexico, pointing out the role of major corporations as they
pursue economic gain while putting the environment at risk.
Her new book, “This Changes Every Thing”, zones in on global
climate, a topic that I am most interested in. She did not have to clue me into
a scenario that I often belabor, viz., we are in the process of making Mother
Earth uninhabitable by human beings. It is a sad story to think that our future
generations will look back at us and wonder how could we have been so irresponsible.
I have ruminated about these problems on FaceBook and in prior blogs. What
particularly engaged me were her views of the implications of the changes that
would be required to address the onrushing devastating scenario.
Klein essentially minimized many of the efforts to lessen
the release of carbon, e.g., cars with better fuel economy. It was not so much
that these efforts were not better than nothing. Rather, the problem is so much
bigger. And, I did become more depressed as I read her version of a world that
realistically confronted the problem.
For global warming to be addressed meaningfully, it would require a
world-wide change in how we grew and distributed food, met our domestic need
for housing, and major changes in how our need for heat and electricity are met.
She would envision a world that would produce food more efficiently with less
use of chemicals and a distribution of the food that minimized transportation.
She would want a world where people chose living arrangements requiring less
energy and less dependency on automobiles.
Ultimately, she overwhelmed me! It is not so much that I
considered her arguments and solutions in error, but rather the hopelessness of
ever imaging not only our nation, but all nations cooperating in this effort to
save our earth. At times like this, I may feel terribly sad about the future,
but it makes being closer to death less an issue.
Fortunately, it is good that I am not left marooned on my
island of despair. In discussing the book and my general agreement with the
necessity to revamp the world’s way of living (and rather quickly at that), my
daughter’s friend was more tolerant of the apparent slowness of the world’s
governments to respond. As he referenced the relatively short history of major
destruction (essentially that last 200 years since the steam engine started the
series of inventions that transformed our way of living that has been
destroying the planet), he felt more optimistic that we will achieve solutions
that will permit humans to continue to live well on Earth. Even he could not
predict the scenario that transitioned us to a better world, I was pleasantly
relieved that my doomsday scenario may not be inevitable. Whether right or
wrong, I will hold onto that more benign view as I continue to read about the
status of our Earth’s well-being.
