Will Humanity Allow itself to be Excized Like a 'Cancer'? (CartaMaior, Brazil)
"The earth can no longer withstand our all-out war against
it. She needs a year and a half to replace what we extract every year. Global
warming is the fever showing we are severely ill. .... Either we again begin to
feel a part of nature and show respect for it and ourselves, or we will move
into a paradigm of conquest and domination. We can live together and respect
the natural rhythms and exist within the limits of our ecosystems, or prepare
ourselves for the bitter lessons that Mother Earth will teach us."
Either we begin
again to feel a part of nature, or prepare for the bitter lessons that Mother
Earth will teach us.
There
are deniers of the Shoah (the elimination of millions
of Jews in Nazi extermination camps), and there are deniers of climate change
on earth. The former receive the disdain of all of humanity; the latter, who up
until recently bore cynical smiles, now see their convictions refuted daily by
undeniable facts. All they can do, which is regularly denounced by serious alternative
media, is continue coercing scientists not reveal to the world what they know. It is madness to try to accumulate wealth without any other
consideration.
Recently,
we have experienced extreme weather events of ever-greater severity: Katrina
and Sandy in the United States, horrific typhoons in Pakistan and Bangladesh,
the tsunami in Southeast Asia, the typhoon in Japan that dangerously damaged
the Fukushima nuclear plants, and most recently, devastating Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, which resulted in thousands of deaths.
We
now know that temperatures where major typhoons begin in the tropical Pacific
is historically below 66.5ºF. These oceans have been warming: in 1976, average
[surface] temperatures reached about 78ºF; and starting in 1997-1998, they
reached 86ºF. This produces a tremendous evaporation of water. Extreme weather events
generally occur starting at 78ºF. With global warming, typhoons are occurring with
greater frequency and wind speeds. In 1951, winds reached 150mph; between 1960
and 1980 they rose to 170mph; in 2006 they reached 190mph; and in 2013, wind
speeds reached a terrifying 225mph.
In
recent months, four official reports from U.N.-related organizations issued
vehement warnings about the severe consequences of increased global temperatures:
with 90 percent certainty, this is demonstrably caused by the irresponsible activities
of human beings and industrialized countries.
In
September, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], which consists of over 1,000 scientists,
confirmed this, as did the U.N. Environment Program. The International Program on the State of
the Oceans report denounced increased ocean acidity, which results in less CO2
absorption. And finally, on November 13 in Geneva, the World Meteorological
Organization followed suit. They are unanimous in asserting that we are not "headed"
toward global warming - we're in it. If, at the beginning of the
industrial revolution, CO2 levels were 280 ppm (parts
per million), in 1990 that had risen to 350 ppm, and
today it is 450 ppm. This year it was reported that some
parts of the planet have already breached the 3.6ºF
warming threshold, which can cause irreversible damage to living things.
A
few weeks ago, Executive Secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate
ChangeChristiana Figueres, during a press conference, burst into sobs while
reporting that countries have done almost nothing to adapt or mitigate global
warming [video below]. Philippine representative Yeb
Sano, at the 19th U.N. Climate Change Convention in Warsaw held Nov. 11-22,
also wept in front of representatives from 190 countries as he recounted the
horror of the typhoon that had decimated his country, including his own family.
Most failed to hold back the tears. [see video in photo box].
For
many of those present, these were crocodile tears. Representatives already had
their government's instructions when they arrived, and for the most part, the
larger countries make it difficult to reach a consensus. There are also the
holders of great influence around the world, shareholders and owners of coal
mines and coal- or oil-powered facilities in steel, auto manufacturing, and
others. They all want to keep things the way they are now. This is the worst thing
possible, because our path into the abyss becomes more direct and fatal. Why
this irrational opposition?
Let’s
get right to the central question: the present ecological chaos is attributable
to our mode of production, which devastates nature and encourages a culture of unlimited
consumption. Either we change our paradigm of relations with the earth and
toward nature's goods and services, or we'll inevitably confront the worst.
The
current paradigm is governed by this logic: how can I use technological
innovation and greater competitive power to make something with the lowest
possible investment in the shortest amount of time? Production is pure and
simple for a consumption that generates accumulation - that is its main
objective. The devastation of nature and the impoverishment of ecosystems are
mere externalities (they don’t enter into business accounting). Since
neoliberal economics is strictly guided by competition rather than cooperation,
a war of markets is established - of all against all. Those who pay the bill
are human beings (social injustice) and nature (ecological injustice).
It
so happens that the earth can no longer withstand this type of all-out war against
it. She needs a year and a half to replace what we extract every year. Global
warming is the fever showing we are sick and severely ill.
Either
we again begin to feel a part of nature and show respect for it and ourselves,
or we will move into a paradigm of conquest and domination. We can live
together and respect the natural rhythms and exist within the limits
ecosystems, or prepare ourselves for the bitter lessons that Mother Earth will teach
us. One cannot exclude the possibility that she no longer wants us, and will free
herself of us like one seeks to excise a cancer cell. She will go on, covered with
cadavers - but without us. God forbid such a tragic fate.
*Leonardo Boff, a theologian and philosopher, is author of Protect the
Earth and Care for Life: How to Escape the End of the World (Record, Rio de Janeiro, 2011).
