My hero’s back: William Greider’s newest piece for The Nation has been, as they say, liberated by truthout.
The mass culture marinates American citizens in false triumphalism. [Damn! Wish I’d written that. — CED]Events, nevertheless, have delivered a teachable moment — an opportunity to reframe and reargue many long-neglected matters. The wheels are coming off the right-wing bus. The President of Oil and War is no longer much believed. The vast suffering and physical destruction in New Orleans have made all too visible what ecologists and social critics have been trying to explain for years. Their warnings once seemed too abstract or remote to require public action. New Orleans announced, for those who will listen, that the future is now.
Oceans are warming, the Arctic ice cap is shrinking. The deep topsoil of Iowa is draining into the Mississippi River, leaving behind chemical swamps. Good drinking water, once freely available to all, has become a scarce commodity for commercial exploitation. Much of the population, dispersed farther and farther from urban centers, is pole-axed by soaring gasoline prices. Meanwhile, the gorgeous abundance of consumer goods continues to poison earth, air and water. This year, Americans will throw away something like 100 million cell phones, pagers, pocket PCs and portable music players, interring their toxic contents in the “dump” called nature.
He goes on to talk about the Apollo Alliance, whose name harks back to JFK’s project to land a man on the moon, regularly cited in world-wide opinion polls as the most impressive achievement of humanity. Apollo began as an alliance of environmental and labor groups, which have often found themselves on opposite sides, but in reality, taking everything into account, ought to be partners. The premise is that jobs and the environment are connected in positive rather than negative ways: that what’s good for the environment is good for jobs as well. The false dichotomy between the two has been exploited for too long.
When Washington State was enacting its green building code, the paper industry initially persuaded machinists and carpenters to oppose the higher standards for timbering as a threat to local jobs. But the unions reversed themselves when the alliance demonstrated that the industry’s job claims were false. (In fact, the legislation gives preference to regionally produced lumber.)
Of course, with what Greider calls “oil-based Republicans” in office, the federal government is hopeless in this, as in other, areas. But as the US increasingly falls behind other countries, especially the European Union, the difference grows harder to ignore. For instance, the EU is forcing industries to redesign their products, processes, and methods of packaging. Beginning next year, auto manufacturers in Europe must take back their old vehicles and re-use 85 percent of the materials in them, and consumer electronics, computers, and cell phones are next. Note that the onus here is on the companies, not the individuals who buy the products. It’s easy to see how such a requirement will cause rethinking by industry.
It’s also easy to imagine what would happen in the US right now if such a program were undertaken. But we can — we must — pursue similar goals if we wish the land we love to be habitable by our descendants.
Visiting from the Existentialist Cowboy. Chuck Dupree visited Existentialist Cowboy recently but, for some reason, the comments didn't show up immediately (until this a.m., in fact) The settings were all OK. In any case, Chuck, thanks for dropping by and come again. Everything should be OK.
I'm not sure that landing a man on the moon was a wise use of our dollars, in fact, I would argue that it was just another part of the cold war's many boondoggle projects.
Much of that money might have been better spent here on the planet. Schools, roads, hospitals, relieving poverty, building better and more energy efficient cars, investing in alternative energy, etc. Building hass transportation systems. The list could go on and on.
Not to mention that fact that we spent all that money to put someone on the moon while were fighting an expensive and terribly unpopular war.
I suppose that isn't the point, I haven't read enough on the program yoou're talking about it to comment. However, the analogy bugged me a little so I thought I'd comment in that regard.
You wrote: [Damn! Wish I’d written that. — CED]
You will, Chuck, you will. :)
Posted by: Earthling on January 3, 2006 11:42 AM