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May 2009: Reading the article For leader of Maldives, it's not just sink or swim (see IHT, May 10, 2009; or the local copy), which reports on the proposal of Mohamed Nasheed, President of the Maldives, to save enough of the money earned through tourism to be able to buy a new country when the Maldives disappear under a rising sea level, which I think is a very wise adaptation strategy, I came across the mentioning of the British film "The Age of Stupid", a film I had not noticed so far. Is there any better description of our time? We really seem to be living in "The Age of Stupid." So many signs are there showing that the planet is changing rapidly, and not for the better. In order to provide for the needs of a rapidly growing and increasingly more demanding population, we have reengineered the planet. And we have very well documented the magnitude and details of the changes we made to a once healthy planet: the forests that we have cut down at a speed unparalleled by any natural changes in forests; the rivers and lakes that we have polluted to a level unknown in Earth history; the atmosphere that we have changed at a rate seldom achieved by natural processes; the number of species that we have extinct or brought close to extinction to an extent associated in Earth's history only with the end of a geological epoch and a transition to a radically changed planet. And humanity has never been as precarious as it is today socially and economically: 1 billion people suffering from a lack of sufficient access to clean drinking water; 1 billion people suffering from insufficient or inappropriate food; the most powerful weapons in the hands of potentially irrational political leaders; an economy that allows a few individuals to bring the global economy on the brink of collapse; many of us without basic rights and access to education, information, and in denial of a dream for a more prosperous future; and most of us, except very, very few, struggling economically either barely able to make ends meet or living in poverty. Today we have an abundance of information about the state of the Earth and the trends to the worse. Looking back from 2050, which is the perspective taken in the film "The Age of Stupid", people will say: "They cannot claim they could not know."

Paul Hawken argues that if you are trying to do something to revert the unsustainable development, you are not alone: "there are over one - and maybe even two - million organizations working toward ecological sustainability and social justice" (Hawken in the preface of his book "Blessed Unrest"). Our leaders are also increasingly acknowledging the need for sustainability and have expressed the will to make progress towards sustainable development. The United Nations' Millennium Development Goals are just one expression of this awareness and the will to change. But despite the largest and fastest growing social movement in history seen by Hawken, and despite the political will expressed in the Millennium Development Goals and in many other documents, the first decade of the 21st Century has not resulted in any visible improvements and not brought us much closer to sustainability. Why is this so?

Too many of our scientists, decision makers, and politicians seem to set their personal fate above the fate of the local, regional, and global community. As parents, workers, shoppers, tourists, voters and in many other roles that most of us take on at various levels we all seem to value our personal instantaneous advantage higher than the broader societal advantages, particularly the more long-term ones. And most of us do not even want to know what the full impact of our way of life on humanity and the planet is. But many, many of us are at the same time diffusely worried and full of fear of an uncertain future, both for them individually and for their country or the Earth as a whole. And, as pointed out already, we cannot claim that we could not know.

Meanwhile, do we have to join the President of Maldives and look for a new country, a new Earth, to be ready when our own disappears or becomes uninhabitable? Recently, a taxi driver in the U.S. told me that he is prepared for the worst, when society drifts into revolution: "I have riffles, I can make my own ammunition, and I have a place to go and hide when society falls apart." What is needed so that we do not try to prepare ourselves individually (like the taxi driver) or as small groups (like proposed by the President of the Maldives) for the worst, but as a whole species, as humanity, take on the challenge of stewardship for a planet in a precarious dynamic equilibrium?

The President of the Maldives argues that as sea level rises, millions will have to relocate, and he rightly fears that in such a situation, nobody will care about 300,000 Maldivians. The taxi driver rightly fears that in an unstable social situation, if not prepared he may end up as a homeless person, disregarded and thrown away as social garbage. As long as these fears prevail, rightly prevail, I must say, many will focus on individual adaptation instead of mitigation that can only be achieved if all stand together. To overcome the fears, the President of the Maldives needs to be assured that the 300,000 Maldivians will not be overlooked. The taxi driver needs to be assured that he will not be left behind. Only if a believe in a basic security can be instilled in many will we overcome the fears that block us from looking at the evidence (and thus make the step from 'we could have known' to 'we know') and from addressing the origin of the fears.


Concerning the Maldives, see also NYT, March 16, 2009, NYT, March 16, 2009, NYT, Nov. 11, 2008 (or the local copy).

For more about Paul Hawken, visit paulhawken.com or the Paul Hawken Wiki.


If you have a story, thought, or picture worth to be considered as story, thought or picture of the month, please feel free to inform me about it by sending an e-mail to hpplag@unr.edu.