The drive to reduce the carbon footprint of this nation”™s much vaunted but highly polluting economy has been led by an unlikely individual, California”™s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. California tends to be a leader in establishing new directions for the nation over a period of time so it would be wise to pay attention to what goes on in the West.
In an interview conducted by Fortune magazine on March 23, 2007, the governor laid out his philosophical understanding of his role as head of the nation”™s most populous state.
“We now know that what we”™ve done in the past 100 years has caused such unbelievable damage to the world. We didn”™t know better, but now we do, and now it”™s not OK. There are certain things we know will happen in the next 30 or 40 years if we don”™t roll it back. So we have to start doing it now. Every marathon starts with a first step.”
His efforts to be green have gotten him into tussles with his colleagues, as he admits, “I have a tougher time selling those things to the Republicans.” Detroit claimed he was costing the auto industry $85 billion with his efforts to reduce his state”™s greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020. In a further move to show his personal commitment to the cause, Schwarzenegger has retooled one of his Hummers to run on hydrogen, and the other to use biofuels.
The governor really gets it ”“ the connection between the economy and ecology, the words stemming from the same root, “oikos.” In Greek this means the “home,” a place to live, surely not the public”™s understanding of either the economy or the ecosystem or how the two are inexorably connected. Both must be healthy in order to provide “the home” in which we can survive. At this point both are in severe difficulty, made more dire by the inability of the public, the government or just about anybody to put it all together.
Economists have actually been down-playing that which we should be paying attention to ”“ that we are dealing with a global issue, not one that can be manipulated by actions in this nation. Furthermore, the run-up in oil prices has brought about some truly bizarre analogies as to what lies ahead regarding energy costs. By comparing the oil price spike to a “bubble” like the housing or tech bubble, economists display stunning ignorance of the complexity of the current energy phenomenon, in effect suggesting that eventually the price will come down when the so-called “bubble” bursts.
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Oil is a natural product of the environment as it comes out of the ground, a gift of the ancient dinosaurs. It is a finite resource yet we are burning it up as if all we have to do is drill more to get what we need. It is the ultimate example of how the economy and the environment are inexorably intertwined. Only discovered 100 years ago, oil has built the world economy we see today and it is ultimately going to destroy the “oikos” we have come to rely on unless we get a grip on the consequences of its overuse. It is only a matter of time before we all have to be green, whether we want to be or not. It will be a matter of survival.
General Motors is the perfect example of how not to face the need to be green. It should have been obvious 30 years ago when the first oil crunch shocked the nation into rushing out to buy fuel-efficient cars, at that time only foreign-made cars. It was the first nail in the coffin of the nation”™s auto industry. Just recently GM”™s G. Richard Wagoner Jr. announced yet another “reorganization” (read, “figure out how to get us out of the hole we”™ve gotten the company into”). This reorganization will result, among other things, in the end of the era of the big trucks and SUVS, beloved by many and abhorred by just as many. Even the heroic Hummer is now on the block. Any takers? This may be GM”™s version of going green but the implications of its shift away from the ubiquitous gas-guzzler coupled with rising gas prices is going to have far-reaching implications for the nation”™s local communities.
Going green involves complex societal moves. According to Bill McKibben, in “Deep Economy,” there is a hopeful version of the future emerging ”“ a shift to economies that are more local in scale. The more driving, the less community bonding, the more mall-shopping, the higher the local property taxes.
The “casino economy,” the only way to describe the economic principles in play, is unsustainable, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report (GAO-08-783R). Robert Hormats, vice president of Goldman-Sachs International, puts another spin on the downside of deficit spending, by saying that we are seeing “ ”˜the collapse of the intergenerational compact”™ through which each generation saved for the future, had regard for long-term national interest and left a productive legacy for those who followed” (in John Gardner”™s “Rebuilding America”™s sense of community”). Painful as the transition out of the oil economy will be there will be substantial benefits. It will save the integrity of the oikos, the global home we all share, and be the ultimate “greening” of America.
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Surviving the Future explores a wide range of subjects to assist businesses in adapting to a new energy age. Maureen Morgan, a transit advocate, is on the board of Federated Conservationists of Westchester. Reach her at mmmorgan10@optonline.net.
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