Connecting the Dots

In these times, it is impossible not to connect the dots between our environmental problems on San Bruno Mountain and political assaults on almost everything except the right to carry a gun and tax cuts for the very wealthy.  It is, I think, time for us to get out of our “green silos”, as Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine says, and recognize that many problematic issues are closely tied together. 

For example, this fall, leading Republicans and tea partiers are planning a full throttle assault on environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, all in the name of fiscal responsibility and job creation.  Does this sound like the recent claims that we can’t afford to take care of the poor, fix our bridges, or improve our schools, or pay our teachers a decent wage?  It should, and the similarities are not coincidental.

If we examine how the following phenomena are related to environmental destruction, we see a pattern:

•Increasing attacks on unions

•Rising rates of hunger and homelessness

•Declining oceans

•Contining subsidies for nuclear power and the relicensing of old plants;

•Continuing massive military efforts

•The scape-goating of immigrants

•Denying climate change 

All of these troubling tendencies are rooted in the drive to exploit the middle class and the environment for financial gain by corporations and the very wealthy.  In the current financial crisis, our society is especially vulnerable to sweeping, strong-armed changes that benefit the richest among us at the expense of environment and the poor among us.  Finacial aid is cut, education is cut, government services are cut.  And the wealthiest individuals along with corporations get tax cuts.

If we think of ourselves and the environment as a community, with common goals and aspirations, and common resources, we can clearly see how we have gotten into this situation as well as the way out. If the commons, by which I mean the pool of natural and human resources, was cared for by and shared among us all, many present day problems would be greatly diminished. We would have a much more sustainable economy and society, and be entering the second decade of the 21st century with a much rosier forecast.

How do we get to a rosier forecast for our future?  Naomi’s Klein’s message is that we have to do more than tend our own garden, that we need to speak up and help out with other burning issues since they are all related.  For example, while San Bruno Mountain Watch concentrates on preserving the habitat on San Bruno Mountain for generations to come, we also need to support and work with those, like CREBL, who are working in Brisbane to combat global warming, or Mountain Keepers, who are fighting mountaintop removal in West Virginia.  It’s a small world, and if one part of the commons is under attack, its all under attack.  As we defend San Bruno Mountain, we also need to lend a hand to other defenders of the common good.

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