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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (18793)	5/3/2003 9:08:42 PM
From: Mannie	Respond to of 89467

Thanks Rat... That was an excellent piece. Charlie Reese is a clear thinker. Happy weekend to you. Scott

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (18793)	5/3/2003 9:12:40 PM
From: Mannie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Did you see Reese's earth day Piece? Also did you know that average mpg for the US auto fleet is less than it was 20 years ago? I Missed Earth Day Oh, darn, I missed Earth Day. It was last week, and I didn't even notice. Neither did a lot of other people. Earth Day, which started with a bang, has sort of mellowed out in its middle age. That's too bad, really. Earth is in worse shape today than it was when the first Earth Day happened. Tomorrow, it will be even worse. And so on, because politicians in both hemispheres are committed to unending economic growth. Unending economic growth and preservation of the planet are mutually exclusive. In the end, we will have neither a decent economy nor a livable planet. In the end, we won't even have life. While the birth rate is apparently unlimited and the desire to consume is unlimited, the resources of Earth are definitely finite. Applying human labor to natural resources creates all wealth. The labor supply increases geometrically, but the natural resources are being used up. That's a fact. And in the process, the necessary ingredients for human life — air, water and topsoil — are being systematically poisoned. The basis of human society is agriculture. It all starts and ends on the farm. Yet how many stories do you see about agriculture in your newspaper or on television? As the farm population has shrunk, as people have migrated to ever-larger urban areas, agriculture has just fallen off the radar screen. Congress hasn't done much except to vote subsidies for the larger corporate farmers. Today, when people think of the West, they don't think of cattle. They think of Ted Turner and movie stars, since between them, they've bought up most of the Western states that isn't already owned by the federal government. Yet most American cities' food supplies would last only a week and a bit without being resupplied by farmers. I wouldn't count on broadcast moguls or movie stars to supply it. Six billion humans on planet Earth are about 4 billion too many. Unless some new predator comes along to thin the herd, we're going to do just what deer and other animals do when their population outruns the food supply — die of starvation and disease. It won't be pretty. A food supply that matches the population is called carrying capacity. It is always limited. But that scenario is still relatively far down the road. Somehow we need to wrest the environmental movement out of the hands of lawyers and ideologues. Both types tend to be short on common sense and inclusiveness. An environmental movement that treats farmers and ranchers as the enemy is insane. The enemies are the giant corporations and a capitalist ideology that says everything must make a profit. We need good, clean food, whether it can be grown at a profit or not. It is more important to grow the food and raise the cattle in a way that will preserve the topsoil and the water than it is to make a profit at the expense of poisoning the environment. Rather than subsidizing corporate farm operations, we should subsidize those who will grow their crops with the least damage to the environment. And we as consumers need to pare our appetites. We should start pestering manufacturers to make repairable appliances. In most cases today, either you can't get them repaired — especially electronic stuff — or it's considerably cheaper to toss the old ones and buy new ones. In my state, Florida, we're becoming mountainous because of landfills. The basic issue is that our problems call for statesmen with vision, while most politicians, whether they are European, American or Chinese, can't see beyond their own self-interests. In democracies, that's winning the next election, and in dictatorships, it's pleasing the boss. The answer is for the people to start setting the agenda instead of reacting to the agendas set by politicians and big business. Believe me, it's in our self-interest to do that. Then every day will be Earth Day.