Mother Nature is Hollering – Maybe it’s Time to Listen? A Congressional commission to address international global sustainability

I know you don’t want to hear it in this current State of Emergency, but we can’t escape it – we need to face it. 

 Mother nature is hollering – she’s jumped up and punched us in the nose.  Is this the punch in the nose that will be the wake-up call, or will the human race need another more sever beating down the road to take a closer look at changing our global ways?

 I’m by no means a mystic, or inclined to promote points of view out or feelings without data and science to back me up.  I’m a realist.  And, when it comes to climate change, we all know the camps have been pretty divided between believers and nonbelievers in the notion that humans are a factor in climate change.  We must first get past the dialog that the climate is even changing to have a conversation about whether humans are contributing to it, and whether we can do anything about it. 

You need to read no further if you do not believe the climate is seeing drastic change…. For “milk-shakes,” the matter is self-evident.  Now, the question is are we contributing to it, and can we do anything about it?

 I have a saying I have used for many years during my days leading troops: “There’s only one thing worse than being a victim, CHOOSING to be a victim!  Don’t be a victim!”  I still use it in training my Mad Moose teenagers – My Rough Riders.  Its good empowering advice.

 Without providing you a sermon about how we have over-consumed what the world can sustain, again more self-evident information – look it up – I accept the notion we are taking more than our earth  can sustain.  I point to the research by the “Global Foot Print Network (https://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/us_population).  And, I also accept that we can still fix some of it.  But, I am also clear headed in understanding that there are some things we can control, others we can’t.  Coronavirus is our latest example of that.

 I’m reminded of my very early grade school days.  They used to show us videos (called “movies” back in the day) of how the rest of the world lived.  I was astute enough at that young age to ask my teacher whether the world shown in the videos could aspire to live the standard of living we in America lived.  She said no, she did not think so.  This was in the 60’s when America was waking up to the need to preserve our environment.  Some of you may remember the commercial of the old Indian man shedding a tear as the garbage from a passing car was thrown at his feet.  My point is, over consuming the world is not in our best interests.  Today, we have a wake-up call.  As painful as it is, we should not squander it.

 If I were in Congress, I would support aggressive international policy that addresses the need to balance our human needs with what the world can sustain.  I would use science to guide the dialog, and I would be cognizant of the need to address competing international powers that do not prioritize the problem as high as it must be prioritized.  And, I would address the economic factors that must be tweaked and re-engineered to sustain our standard of living.

Now, hold on folks, you’re not going to like it.  We’re gonna have to start giving real lip service to living within our means – not just within our own personal means, but also the means with which the planet can sustain.  Taking action on the over-consumption of our biosphere, which is absolutely being over harvested at an alarming rate, and has already seen the extinction of species and ecosystems we depend on at the hands of humans that we can never replace.

Maybe this Coronavirus is “The Black Swan” event we need to wake up and smell the coffee.  Maybe it’s the punch in the nose that will create policy that aggressively puts environmental sustainability to the top of all the nation’s security interests.  If we don’t do it, we will drive ourselves ever closer to the cliff, and maybe off it, with an outcome as I presented in my May 1, 2019 piece: “President Trump say’s our country is full. How crowded is too crowded in America – Global Population: 8 billion and growing.”  In that piece I forecasted how our current ways play out if we don’t step up and fix things – it’s not a pretty forecast.    

Four of the key things we have to take action on now and figure this out are:

1.      The global economic model of perpetual, virtually unconstrained, growth and over consumption - it must MUST be in balance with what the world can sustain.

2.      The use of already available technologies to eliminate further ecological over consumption i.e. finite fossil fuels verses infinite clean energy (we have to live within the constraints of what can be produced cleanly - such as hydro, solar, geo, wind, etc.). Figure it out!

3.      Expectations of a sustainable standard of living - a tough one that will include reorientation of values that do not accept or permit material gain over the erosion of your environment.

4.      And yes, even right-sizing our human population – scary though, right – quite a Pandora’s Box to be sure.

Folks, we have to do it.  America should lead it.  The evidence is not deep state, it’s not fake news, its life and death real.  The sooner we step up and get on with it, the better.  It will be super hard, but we must do it and we can do it.  Sticking our heads in the sand will result in tremendous global despair.