Eco-evil

I can think of an ethical issue that involves the very possibility of a good life for millions of babies and young people worldwide. It is also an issue that causes misery and death right now to thousands of young people worldwide. This issue is getting worse by the decade and many well educated, professional experts in their fields of knowledge have warned us that unless we stop what we are doing, we, as a species will suffer unimaginable misery and chaos.

However, instead of public discussion about this issue, right now in Australia we have a bunch of politicians, academics and media commentators who think that their ideological take on issues such as single parent families, homosexuality, gay marriage, abortion, Christian (and other) religious education are more important. Don’t get me wrong, all these issues are of some consequence in a society that has no other major problems, however, they are trivial when compared and contrasted to … the ethical issue of global warming and climate change.

While all of the issues above affect minorities in our communities, global warming seriously affects every being on this planet. We can debate the right to life nuances of the ethics of abortion, yet untold millions of innocent and non-consenting lives will be cut short by climate chaos. These 'innocents' also have a 'right to life' and their life chances should be given priority ethical consideration. While historical and heritage issues are important in our education system, nothing could be more important than survival education about global warming and climate change and how, if allowed to continue, it will devastate the life-chances of all future generations of human and non-human beings. Education about how to avoid such climate chaos should be the top priority of all education systems. It is all a matter of perspective and it is time we got the perspective right.

The ethics are crystal clear, global warming and consequent climate chaos has the demonstrable potential to smash our culture, agriculture and the industrial-technological foundation of our current society.  It will render our species hugely less populous and culturally depauperate. It will also take global biodiversity into a period of mass extinction that has no precedence in history … as this time it will be ‘us’ that will be the certain cause. To not recognise this, given the advanced state of scientific consensus about knowledge on this issue, is to engage the capacity for evil. Evil is the deliberate (wicked) continuance of actions that we know will seriously adversely affect others, particularly the innocent, into the future.

To deliberately ignore that which is core to all life and perversely focus solely on issues that affect small minorities sits solidly within my definition of evil. The greatest irony now is that many of those who openly claim the moral high ground on these minority moral issues are the same people who deny the reality of global warming. It is time to reveal the wickedness of their position and do our best to refocus on that which really matters. 

What I am suggesting is that 'we' take over ownership of the moral high ground and demonstrate to the public that the position of global warming denialists and sceptics is Evil. From every perspective possible (including religion) their position is one where a huge ethical issue is ignored and a values diversion (e.g., religious education) is put front and centre. Since 'they' ignore facts, the only argument that can hurt them is one they claim to have a vested interest in. We need to hit them hard with a values argument that questions their priorities and foundations. The 'right to life' is one such values issue. There will be over 100 million babies born worldwide this year ... the biggest ethical issue for them will be a habitable world by the time they are mature. An ethically motivated person can worry about abortion and global warming but only one of these two issues involves the foundation of life for all human and other beings. It is a question of balance and priority.

Ethical Dieback

Ethical Dieback.

While gamers and sports fans might like slow motion action scenes where you can watch every move in minute detail, I doubt if anybody would like to watch the slow motion disaster that is unfolding before our very eyes in the Perth region. 

I live in the hills at Jarrahdale and well into April I am watching whole sections of the forest slowly die. It is not just Jarrah and Marri that are turning yellow and dying, the whole ecosystem is in deep distress, so much so that, tragically, it looks like a Northern Hemisphere autumn is taking place right here, right now.

If we could watch what is going on in fast forward we would see vast tracts of bushland dying of thirst in the grip of this permanent drought. If you take the time to look, you will notice that the native ecosystems on the coastal plain are also in the deep distress of various forms of ‘dieback’. What is happening is a 'tipping point' in the process of 'tipping' ... a rare but hugely important event.

The Perth Region, including the Hills, has had a 20% decline in rainfall over the last 30 years and a much larger, 60% decline in runoff into the streams and our dams. Gooralong Brook, once a year-round running stream, has disappeared and most of its deeper pools are now bone dry. The climate of the SW of WA has already changed for the worse and if it gets even warmer and dryer, the Perth region will be in perpetual ecosystem distress. 

This distress is not only about trees, frogs, jilgies and thirsty kangaroos; it is also a crisis of the human spirit and the mind. Our identity as people of the Perth region is at stake. All that is endemic to this special part of the world is at risk of slow death by desiccation. Our iconic trees such as Banksia and Jarrah are already dying and the wildflowers, the exquisite ground orchids and kangaroo paws, will not reappear in a dry, colourless Spring.

Even the bikies that roar their Harleys up the Jarrahdale Road, heading for the hills, are part of endemic Perth, for although they might find it hard to admit, they love the beautiful bush vistas and the stress release that green, open spaces invite. That you can enjoy the roos, the jarrah forest and a thirst-quenching beer at the Jarrahdale Tavern is a quintessentially West Australian freedom. But it is a freedom, like the water in Serpentine Dam, which is in danger of disappearing. 

 

We are a people in denial about the huge, negative changes to our climate and landscape that have taken place during my lifetime (I am a baby boomer). Since 1975, in SW WA, we have experienced most of the driest years on record. Last year (2010) was the driest year for the SW since 1900 and we are now breaking records for night and day time heat. The summer of 2010 -11 had the highest average minimum and maximum temperatures on record. Our dams are right now at less than a quarter of their total capacity and the chance of record rains that would return them to the spectacular overflows I witnessed as a child seems a very remote possibility. 

We, in Perth, are in the front line of human induced global warming and its negative impacts and unless we confront that reality, our environment will either wither or simply pack up and move away from us. Sure, at huge expense, we can produce potable water from the sea and pump more ground water to keep Perth ‘green’, but these ‘solutions’ are a sign that we have got our relationship to the earth completely wrong. Go and have a good look at the (former) Lake Gnangara and think about the trade-off between ecosystem health and green lawns.

We are now living in a time of solastalgia, the homesickness you have when you are still at home. We have a lived experience of an environment that is changing all around us in ways that are distressing. Some people still think there is not a problem, that the problem is not serious, that we are not responsible for the problem, that we should do nothing ... but these responses are a sign of deep denial and ethical dieback.

Gooralong Creek with riparian vegetation dead and dying April 2011

Against Marohasy on Climate Change

We need to take a good hard look at the type of ‘facts’ Jennifer Marohasy (JM) presents before signing on to her view of the world. Also, take a good hard look at the above photo supporting the article. It shows a river with many dead trees (river red gums?) on its edges. The caption says “Catastrophe Averted: Salinity levels in the Murray have halved, but you won’t hear that from global warming zealots”. Is Marohasy and her paymaster (The Australian) actually suggesting that the landscape in the photograph shows a system in recovery? It looks more like a catastrophe to me.

See: http://multifaith-newcastle.googlegroups.com/web/Fuzzy%20but%20Cold.pdf?gda=M4z3uEwAAABOQTftyhqJubHCkUbQuhxW5kuQK5Hu7aflLRwsWWPzpuyPDPBtASCBtxegF3TlLelmqPZxlyfqqX6aflnmKKQG_Vpvmo5s1aABVJRO3P3wLQ

For an updated PDF of the material presented below

Also, see my new ethicsclimate Blog (follow link)