What Our Leaders and the Media Are Not Telling Us

                                               Ross McCluney, Ph.D., 28 May 2006

                                                           rmccluney@cfl.rr.com

Joe Klein’s new book Politics Lost is subtitled: How American Democracy Was Trivialized By People Who Think You're Stupid. But the American Public is not stupid. We often think the media are stupid, for their avoidance of certain issues and narrow reportage on others, or else that they are bought out by the giant corporations who won’t let them report the truth. I suspect that the real truth is a combination of denial that the most serious issues facing us are really that bad and a lack of understanding how most of them are connected.

We also think we are very close to having lost our democracy, suspecting that our politicians either:

            Don’t know the truth,

            Are so afraid of losing elections they won’t level with us,

Are bought by and controlled by the major contributors who won’t let them tell us the truth,

            Have no courage, so fail to provide real leadership,

Are increasingly involved in scandals, mainly over greed and poor ethics, making them ineffectual at leading us,

            Have become followers rather than leaders,

            Or all of the above.

So it is not surprising that we are not hearing much useful stuff from the politicians.

Here’s what most of us know:

            Important ice sheets are melting, ice caps shrinking.

            Glaciers are calving to the sea in greater volumes.

            Polar bears, dependent on sea ice, are threatened with extinction.

            There are fresh water shortages all over the globe.

            Food crop failures are reported with increasing frequency.

            The oceans are nearly fished out.

            Air and water pollution are on the rise, with serious long term health consequences.

            Famine and epidemic disease are more widespread than ever, and are growing.

            Sea level is already starting to rise, with noticeable effects.

Species extinction has reached epidemic proportions, rising to 20 per day, well above the natural background rate of a few per year.

            Hurricanes are more severe.

            The weather and climate are changing more quickly than any of us remember.

We’re not sure these are human induced, but the huge levels of extra CO₂ injected into the atmosphere by industrial societies don’t help the situation any, and we see the charts showing that the global average temperature is increasing faster than before humans existed on the planet. We read that scientists now claim nearly unanimously that humanity is the major contributor to the global warming now conclusively considered to be real, and accelerating faster than the atmospheric scientists formerly predicted.

We also know that the extinction of plant and animal species is accelerating all over the planet, for a variety of reasons, but we don’t know what this really means for us. Scientists tell us that the current human-induced species extinction rate is exceedingly high, matched only by pre-human catastrophes resulting from asteroid impacts and other gigantic environmental alterations, but our leaders do not appear to be alarmed about the current wave of extinctions, so we don’t worry much about it.

We also know that the planet is getting seriously overpopulated, but, again, we don’t know what the long range consequences might be. We also don’t think there’s anything much we can do about it. We suspect that the basic problem is that we have allowed our numbers to grow past the point where Earth can sustain us indefinitely at our current levels of affluence, but we really don’t know much about how the Earth system works, nor what are nature’s normal corrective mechanisms.

We hear reports that the air over America is cleaner than it used to be, but we also hear conflicting reports that air pollution is still a serious problem, especially with large countries developing rapidly and which are as addicted to oil as we are, if not more so.

We hear that water is still being polluted in a lot of places, and we are beginning to understand that there is a serious fresh water shortage around the globe. Some of us have heard that China no longer grows enough food to feed its people, that it is having serious grain shortages, and that this largest country on Earth also is short on water.

We know or assume that Earth has provided us with copious bounties in the forms of energy, mineral, and soil resources, plus more than adequate fresh water and clean air to breathe. But we are starting to realize that we’ve reached and are in the process of exceeding natural limits.

We see that the adverse consequences are already being felt in a few locations, with people suffering from rising sea level, increased air pollution, declining fresh water, loss of cooking fuel, and increasing diseases, starvation, and resource wars.

We suspect, but haven’t put it all together yet, that the global warming thing is part of a larger picture, part of a larger environmental crisis, not to be solved by just a new oil field in Alaska or by switching to ethanol or some other technological fix that might come along. Plus we worry that the carbon dioxide emissions from burning ethanol will simply add to our global warming problem.

We finally hear now that rising gasolene prices are symptoms of larger issues, but the larger issues blamed for this are our strong dependence on foreign oil, that we’ve become addicted to oil, that the greenies won’t let us drill in Alaska, that China and India are rapidly increasing their demand for oil (and are out-competing us on world oil markets—driving up prices), that we haven’t built any new oil refineries in years, and that these problems have only recently come to light.

We don’t hear that the peak of global oil production is either here or coming soon, that after the peak, as demand continues to rise, prices will soar to new heights and that the economic repercussions of this are very serious and will affect nearly everyone in America, nor that this peaking of global oil was predicted and ignored by most leaders several decades ago.

We are not told that the U.S. reached its peak of domestic oil production in 1972, that we missed that golden opportunity to begin switching in a massive way to energy conservation and renewable energy sources but instead only increased our dependence on foreign oil—an economic and political decision we are coming to regret, 34 years later. The media have recently discovered (and are at last telling us about it), that Brazil made a decision back in 1972 to become relatively energy independent and now is well on its way to fueling all its transportation with ethanol, from renewable crops growing totally inside Brazil. On the other hand, we wonder if this is a total solution, is truly sustainable, since the burning of ethanol generates carbon dioxide and other pollutants.[1]

We certainly haven’t been told that our serious problems with overpopulation, resource losses, pollution, soil depletion, loss of fresh water, and global warming are parts of one large and serious long-term global trend, the industrial world’s (inadvertent) assault on the biosphere.

We aren’t told that the problem dwarfs current difficulties with terrorism—and related factional disputes between cultures, economic systems, religious beliefs, and regional variations in resource availability. These are modest in comparison with the huge losses of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness we’ll all suffer as population grows, fossil energy resources decline, and we scramble, too late, to conserve resources and switch to renewable sources.

Most of the major issues currently being discussed and heatedly debated in the media have modest if any relevance to this largest, most serious of problems facing the human race.

For example, terrorism cannot result in the complete extinction of the human species, but our global assault on the human life-support system could do just that. Problems with the social security system—real worries—cannot extinct humanity. Immigration, by itself, cannot extinct humanity. Problems with the American health care system, by themselves, cannot extinct humanity. Rising gasoline prices cannot extinct humanity. Increasing national debt in the U.S. cannot extinct humanity. But our global assault on the life-support system very well could—and problems with child and adult education in the U.S. and around the world certainly don’t help any.

The potential extinction of our species is just too scary and too far in the future for us to take very seriously, so we aren’t surprised that our leaders don’t speak in these terms. In the backs of our minds, however, we have this tiny little worry about it.

When any of us think about these issues in the larger context, it looks like the industrial world has embarked on a program to systematically take apart the life-support system for humans. We realize that what is needed is a massive educational push to alert the public to the dangers, to explain how Earth systems work, how we all depend on those systems, and how comprehensive any proposed reforms must be. We realize that it will take more than a little recycling here, some energy conservation there, and more than even massive conversion to renewable energy sources. It will require a more fundamental structuring of the entire global system of commerce, and a rethinking of how we live, work, recreate, and even worship. But we don’t hear about any of this in the media today. We know that excellent books have been written on this subject[2], but few of us know about these books or take the time to purchase and read them.

The fact that our leaders are not raising the alarm would normally give us peace of mind, since we would assume this means that our fears are unrealistic and of little consequence. However, we can no longer trust our leaders—or the media supposedly reporting on the important issues of the day—to have our true interests at heart, so we flounder. We are at a loss to put the larger picture together ourselves, even though tens of books have been written on the subject and courses are even being taught about it in our colleges and universities.

So we are not stupid—just misinformed, poorly led, and caught up in a materialism-worshiping culture of consumerism and shallowness.

It is not helped that we are less well educated than before, so don’t have the personal tools and habits to enable better self-education. We are instead the best trained people the Earth has ever seen. We are generally well prepared for the high tech jobs we now find abundant. We are well trained to pursue our one or two or even three jobs, needed to maintain our excessively materialistic lifestyle. But training is no substitute for real education—about who we are, where we live, where we have been, and were we are going. Being well trained is not helping us for the long haul. Our leaders are not helping us either.

If anybody is stupid, it is these supposed leaders who fail to realize that their lack of true leadership is as bad for them in the long run as it is for the rest of us. Sure, they can insulate themselves from the worst of the coming problems with their wealth and power, but this cannot last. In the bankruptcy of an entire species its leaders will not be spared.

There is a gigantic leadership vacuum in the U.S. today. No one in either the Republican or Democratic parties is stepping up to the plate, looking at the big picture, telling us about it, and suggesting a comprehensive strategy for dealing with the huge connected threats facing us. Instead we hear only about short-term bandaid quick-fixes that do little to solve the larger issue, however important most of them may be, as components of the larger comprehensive plan.

Our only current hope is in the small but growing band of private citizens and small organizations attempting to break through the media silence, clear the fog of misinformation, and alert us to the true state of the world in which we live. Some are even taking the next step, offering a variety of suggestions for reform, but, apparently because of the death grip hold the giant corporations have on our media and the politicians, we don’t hear about these positive steps, so don’t know how important it is to learn more, get involved, and help spread the word. There do exist organizations whose goal is to reform U.S. (and to a great extent the larger industrial world’s) political systems toward true human sustainability but most people don’t know of them.

If you are interested in accessing some of the new information and getting in touch with the new organizations trying to clear the air and provide true leadership in a time of monumental global crisis, visit the following sample of web sites and then do an internet search on the terms in the list below. A couple of new books I wrote and edited on this subject (see below) may also be of some value in guiding you through the issues.

Organizations pursuing the larger picture

http://www.pachamama.org

http://www.earth-policy.org/ See, in particular, Lester Brown’s book, Plan B

http://www.worldwatch.org/

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/

http://www.ishmael.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Tribal_Revolution

http://www.futureofhumanity.org/SlideShows/index.htm

http://www.npg.org/

http://www.earthethicsinstitute.org/

http://www.carryingcapacity.org/

Organizations targeted to specific parts of the problem

http://www.webdirectory.com/

http://www.naturalstep.org/com/Start/

http://www.newtribalventures.com/NTV/

http://www.envirolink.org/

http://www.ucsusa.org/

Political reform organizations and newsletters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_politics

http://www.answers.com/topic/green-politics

http://www.essex.ac.uk/ECpR/standinggroups/green/newshome.htm

http://www.abc.org/wmspage.cfm?parm1=2175

http://www.fpif.org/briefs/vol4/v4n10wbe.html

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/09644016.asp

http://www.environmental-center.com/magazine/mitpress/gep/index.htm

The major environmental organizations in the U.S. are not listed above, because of their almost unanimously narrow focus on bandaid fixes.

My Books

Humanity’s Environmental Future: Making Sense in a Troubled World and Getting to the Source: Readings on Sustainable Values, SunPine Press, Cape Canaveral, FL 2004. Available from Baker and Taylor distributors, Amazon.com, and a growing list of booksellers.

www.sunpinepress.com

Search terms

Global warming, overpopulation, world scientists warning, ecological footprint, inadvertent climate modification, environmental ethics, Earth ethics, environmental philosophy, green politics, green laws, green taxes, Chipko movement, sustainability, environmental politics.

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Dr. McCluney is a principal research scientist at the Florida Solar Energy Center, a research institute of the University of Central Florida. These are Dr. McCluney’s views and not those of the University. He has been writing and speaking on environmental topics for over thirty years and resides in Cape Canaveral, FL. ©2006 William Ross McCluney

References

[1] Cheryl Hogue, “Air Pollution from Ethanol: EPA says ethanol plants are releasing volatile organics, carbon monoxide,” Chemical Engineering News, Volume 80, Number 19, 13 May 2002. James Bruggers, “Ethanol benefits questioned: Homegrown fuel might worsen Louisville's air pollution,” The Courier-Journal, 21 April 2005.

[2] Paul Hawken, The Ecology of Commerce. Paul Hawken and Amory and Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism. Ray C. Anderson. Mid-Course Correction -- Toward A Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model. Brian Nattrass and Mary Altomare. The Natural Step for Business -- Wealth, Ecology and the Evolutionary Corporation. Thomas Prugh. Natural Capital and Human Economic Survival. E. F. Schumacher. Small Is Beautiful : Economics As If People Mattered. Ralph Estes. Tyranny of the Bottom Line: Why Corporations Make Good People Do Bad Things.