70 years ago, ‘litter’ meant paper, bottles and cans. Unsightly, yes,
but hardly able to clog the digestive systems of sea birds or congeal into
floating mats. In 1940, there were 2 billion humans. Now 7 ½ billion occupy
every habitable acre . . . and extract resources from the rest. The remotest
nooks and crannies proffer bits of trash and traces of chemicals, medicines and
pollution. We’ve filled the Earth.
Now what?
If a group of runners arrived at the edge of the continent, their
experience with running on land couldn’t carry them much further. They’d have
three options. 1. They could charge into the waves anyway, flail madly and hope
to figure it out soon. 2. They could turn back, which would mean running over
the masses who followed them. Or 3. they could party like there were no
tomorrow.
This is America’s predicament. We’ve raced across the planet, and in the
last half century, challenged the Earth’s limits. As many in the world follow
our energy-dependent lead, the amount of life trampled increases. Polluted
water, poisoned air, exhausted agricultural acreage, depleted fish stocks,
increased rate of extinctions, climate change, rising seas, etc. It’s
universal.
We won’t sit and do nothing, but should we go forward or back?
The present administration takes us backward. It rescinds regulations
that protect plants, animals and habitats, including air and water. It opens up
previously closed areas to extraction and development. It relaxes laws against
trophy hunting. Plus many more life-destroying actions.
This should come as no surprise. Expropriating from nature - food,
tools, raw materials and essential resources - has been our practice for
thousands of years. Our MO is long established: explore new lands, invade
territories occupied by others, conquer them, take what we want and leave the
mess to others. The drive to selfishly expand and conquer is the key to our
success. It’s in our genes and embedded in our culture.
This administration, though, runs over its own people by appropriating
lands in Monuments that belong not to nature or to enemies but to us, by taking
away health care and Social Security (if it could) and by confiscating our
future earnings through tax breaks for the rich that were funded by national
debt.
Egad, they destroy nature and society. What to do?
We can look to that vast sea beyond the shore, because we, unlike the
‘runners’, know how to swim. We can wade into the future unafraid of being run
over.
The runners, loosely speaking, are men. The fastest are the alpha males,
the explorers, adventurers, warriors, killers, conquerors and builders. Wired
for conquest, and driven to exploit and dominate, they pushed ahead, exhibiting
little to no empathy for the lives lost. “We provide for our own!” they boast. In
their wake, humankind multiplied, expanded and thrived.
But their us-against-them attitude could never lead us to peace and
sustainability.
Women have always been the producers of life and the nurturers of the
vulnerable. If we are to find within our gene pool support for children and
protections for nature, we’d have better luck if we looked to female leaders.
Humankind is in transition. We exit a male-dominated, exploitative
phase, and enter a female-oriented, life-affirming phase. Women rise and will
never again submit. Women speak and will never again be silent. Women and kids
and minorities take to the streets fully aware that they build the foundation
for a Global Village.
