October 2, 2010

Watch your Thoughts

Tuvalu

The Polynesian island nation of Tuvalu is doomed. With

A land area of 26 square kilometers (10 square miles), a

Highest elevation of 4.5 meters (15 feet) above sea level,

And without a surrounding shallow shelf to offer protection,

The island will soon be destroyed, either by one “king” storm

Surge, or a slow, incremental, inexorable seeping up of salt water.

Tuvalu’s three sister atoll nations in the Pacific Ocean, Kiribati, the Marshall

Islands and Tokelau, will soon suffer the same fate, their inhabitants

Loosing not only the soil under their feet, but also the site of their origin,

Their familiar surroundings, their culture, their way of life, and their

Independence. (Worldwide, 500,000 inhabitants of low-lying islands

Either are now, or will soon be displaced as a result of global warming).

Now, follow your thoughts carefully. Do they tarry on the individual and

Common tragedy this scenario implies? Are you visualizing idyllic blue

Sky and ocean feasting a tropical isle? Do you wonder how it would be

To rely for your staple food on the roots of the Pulaka plant, poisonous,

Unless cooked for hours? Are you trying to assess whether the Tuvaluan

Language, now spoken worldwide by 13,000 people, will survive?

Or is your thinking attracted to power relationships? The central-southern

Pacific ocean forms a vast strategic expanse desired by nations. At stake

Are access to fisheries, the use of sea-lanes located in relatively calm

Waters, rich under-water resources, the control of regional security,

And the prospects of geo-strategic advantage and geo-political leverage –

Enough to spend a few dollars massaging the egos of local politicians.

When Tuvalu disappears physically, does it also cease to exist as a legal

Entity? Does it loose its seat at the United Nations? Does it forego all resource

Rights in its 370-kilometer (200-nautical-mile) exclusive economic zone,

Previously available for fishing, under-sea mining, and off-shore oil drilling?

If Tuvalu’s submerged territory is declared international waters, then how

Long will it take for a powerful country to install a naval base in its place?

The Arctic

The fabled Northwest Passage in the Arctic is already passable – predicted

To become ice-free during the summer within the next few years. Do your

Thoughts linger on the fragility of this polar ecosystem, and the many species

You will miss, such as the polar bear, the Arctic fox, the Pacific walrus, the

Musk ox, reindeers, seals, whales, sea butterflies and sea birds? Do you

Ponder whether the pizzly, the new polar bear-grizzly bear hybrid, will survive?

Or, do you focus on the fact that the Passage is now one of the most

Coveted trade routes in the world? The distance London-Tokyo via

Northern Canada is 16,000 kilometers (10,000 miles) – 4,800 kilometers

(3,000 miles) shorter than the present shortest route, which is via the Suez

Canal. The mineral resources of the Arctic, which include fossil fuels, are

Very abundant, and Arctic cold water fish, such as cod, increasingly valuable.

The Himalayas

The Himalayan watershed rivers, originating in the 9,000 glaciers of the

Massive range, provide water for nearly half the world’s population.

The glaciers are melting, and precipitation patterns are changing. Central,

East, Southeast and South Asia face the likelihood of both floods and water

Scarcity. The two major countries in the area, China and India, are even

Now suffering from chronic, severe and worsening shortages of water.

Do your thoughts amble toward the implications of melting glaciers and ice

Caps for the future of that large segment of humanity? If so, remember that

Both China and India are increasingly powerful, and competing with the

West for limited supplies of oil, natural gas, agricultural land, minerals, the

Control of narrow pathways (choke points) along shipping routes, the privilege

To emit greenhouse gases, the ability to threaten nuclear war, and more.

The Question

Is climate change then an opportunity for us humans to review

Our relationship with one another, perhaps re-discovering

Fundamental commonalities which may help us retreat from

The suicidal cliff which the warming of the globe represents?

Or, is it rather another opportunity to aggrandize Empire

And raise economic growth, to the detriment of all of us?

The Answer

Open your heart, search your conscience. Embedded in your

Answer will be your definition of wealth, the value you place on

Future generations, the solidity of your connection with Nature,

And, indeed, your answer to the very existence of life itself.

Think with your whole being.

It is a momentous decision . . .

References

Barnosky, Anthony. 2009. Heatstroke – nature in an age of global warming. Washington, D.C.: Islandpress/Shearwater.

Pp. 10-14 (The first “pizzly” was discovered in 2006. The combination of global warming and the reduction of polar bear populations, has increased the chances of an encounter between a grizzly bear and a polar bear. The split between the two species occurred between 70,000 and 1.5 million years ago).

Bryce, Robert. 2010. Power hungry – the myths of “green” energy and the real fuels of the future. New York, N.Y.: Perseus Books/PublicAffairs.

(What the United States wants is power. It can achieve a continuation of its present power by using its own natural gas, while it develops new nuclear technologies which will help provide nuclear energy for the future. This plan would produce not only a boost for the economy, but also benefits for the environment).

Dyer, Gwynne. 2008/2010. Climate wars – the fight for survival as the world overheats. New York, N.Y.: Oneworld.

P. 34 (Exclusive economic zone: 200 nautical miles, 370 kilometers); P. 58 (Aridity in China); P. 60 (Unsustainability of China’s economic growth); P. 98 (Oil in the Arctic Basin); Pp. 100-102 (Competition with China for oil and agricultural land); P. 173 (In 2008, Chinese greenhouse gas emissions overtook those of the United States); P. 174 (China will accept no commitment on greenhouse gas emissions, unless the United States does).

Independent, 2006. “Disappearing World: global Warming claims tropical Island – for the first Time, an inhabited Island has disappeared beneath rising Seas.” (Geoffrey Lean) December 24.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change. Accessed October 3, 2010.

Pp. 2-3 [The disappeared island is Lohachara Island, in India’s part of the Sundarbans (the mangrove-dominated Ganges Delta), where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers flow into the Bay of Bengal. The island was home to 10,000 people].

Lynas, Mark. 2008. Six degrees – our future on a hotter planet. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.

P. 69 [Tuvalu (population 9,000), Kiribati (population 78,000), the Marshall Islands (population 58,000), and Tokelau (population 2,000), the latter a dependent territory of New Zealand. Worldwide, the population evacuated due to global warming, from submerged islands and the coastal areas of small islands, totals about 500,000]; P. 75 (With a chronic shortage of water, China will not just struggle to develop a more affluent lifestyle, it will also struggle to feed itself).

Paskal, Cleo. 2010. Global warring – how environmental, economic, and political crises will redraw the world map. New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s/Palgrave Macmillan.

P. 18 (China’s desire to increase its influence with its Himalayan neighbors while at the same time appropriating shared water resources); Pp. 19-20, 82, 92, 90, 97, 105-106, 122-123, 165, 180, 225, 260n7 and 262n46 (The Northwest Passage could become one of the most coveted trade routes in the world – with all the politics and military posturing that this entails); Pp. 59, 144 and 175 (China’s aridity); P. 76 (The changes in the Arctic are not just a tragedy for the people trying to live there. They are increasingly being seen as an opportunity for resource extraction); P. 82 (Chokepoints: areas which force the wide flow of traffic through narrow, geo-strategic alleys); Pp. 141-142 (The Himalayas contain more than 9,000 glaciers. The Himalayan watershed rivers link nearly half the world’s increasingly water-starved population); Pp. 189, 210-211, 217-218, 224-225, 228 and 230-231 (Tuvalu; China seems on course to increase its hegemony over large sections of the Pacific).

Program to relocate and assist environmental Refugees, 2009. “Seychelles threatened by Sea Level Rise.” (Wade Norris) January 20.

http://www.praer.org/2009/01/seychelles-threatened-by-sea-l.html. Accessed October 2, 2010.

P. 1 (Seychelles and Maldives).

Telegraph. 2010. “Arctic Fox joins polar Bear on new List of Arctic Species in Danger of Extinction – polar Bears are not the only Species in Danger from global Warming, a new Report has warned.” (Louise Gray). September 14.

http://www.telelgraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange. Accessed October 2, 2010.

P. 4 (The 17 species in danger of extinction due to climate change are the Arctic fox, the polar bear, the Pacific walrus, the sea butterfly, the caribou /reindeer, the musk ox, four species of ice seals (ringed, bearded, harp and ribbon), four species of whales (grey, beluga, bowhead and narwhal), and three species of sea birds (Kittlitz’s murrelet, spectacled eider and ivory gull).

Truthout. 2010. “Climate Change’s secret Weapon. (Khadija Sharife). Foreign Policy in Focus. February 24.

http://www.truth-out.org/climate-changes-secret-weapon57179. Accessed October 2, 2010.

Pp. 1-4 [Capital deriving from extractive enterprises, and profits deriving from global warming (such as from carbon trading), flow to offshore locations, themselves threatened by the rising waters due to global warming].

Wikipedia, 2010.

“Alliance of small Island States (AOSIS).”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated August 25. Accessed October 3, 2010.

“Pulaka.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated September 30. Accessed October 2, 2010.

“Seychelles.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated September 29. Accessed October 2, 2010.

“Sundarbans.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated September 15. Accessed October 3, 2010.

“Tuvalu.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated September 30. Accessed October 2, 2010.

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