“They took paradise and turned it into a parking lot.”
No, we took paradise and turned it into a junk yard.
Let’s take a good look at Puerto Rico (PR). We see absolute disaster. Then we can look into a mirror and ask, “Who’s responsible for this mess?” Look real hard. Maybe you can see the answer!
Scientists say everything has a cause. So, what is the cause of Hurricane Marie? Most scientists say it was global warming.
Of course, President Trump and his friends deny this. Trump says that all we need as a faster growing economy and jobs, jobs, jobs. Then and we will have paradise. Free enterprise has the answer to everything. Perhaps our economic growth will not stop these, ever more frequent and ever more disastrous, hurricanes, but at least we will have the money to rebuild places like PR every time these hurricanes occur. Like every few years.
Is there any validity to this line of reasoning?
So, maybe the scientists are right. But then, what — who — caused global warming? Let’s look back into the mirror.
Certainly, the Puerto Ricans are as guilty as anyone. Like everyone else in the world, they consume as many goods and services as they can, and then they want more. If fact, PR was nearly bankrupt and deeply in debt (consuming more than they were producing) before Maria. And certainly, there was no movement in PR to do their part in reducing global warming.
But they are only 5 million people. How much did the 350 million Americans contribute to global warming, that is, contribute to Maria? How about 70 times more than the Puerto Ricans.
Being vegans and refraining from eating animals and animal products is the most effective thing an average individual can do to stop global warming. How many Puerto Ricans and Americans refrain from eating animal products?
The U.S. contributes around 25% of the world’s consumption of goods and services, and it contributes around 25% of the world’s pollution and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. China and India, with their large populations – all craving to have what Americans have – are not far behind.
But to hell with PR, let’s just continue what we are doing….only more so. Last year 70% of car sales were mini vans, with their low gas mileage. We are driving more than ever, filling the highways with bumper-to-bumper traffic. We are flying more to our wonderful vacations and business meetings. We are lining up at McDonald’s and Burger King more than ever, as our waistlines expand. We are building bigger and bigger houses. We all want our kids to consume more goods and services than we did.
And let’s keep it up. Let’s keep the world economy growing until much more of the world is like PR.
Or perhaps we could say, “Ok, enough is enough. We got the message. Let’s now become adults and be responsible for the earth.”
This article has so much layers into it. I totally agree that global warming is the major reason of why we are experiencing these calamities. It’s like the earth is trying to give us little warnings with much bigger impact.
Rachel,
Tx for your comment. Unfortunately, many scientists say it’s too late. We’ve crossed the point of no return. We ate the apple. They say that we’ve put up so much carbon in the atmosphere that there is no way we can reduce it back to normal levels. These hurricanes may be here to stay. Perhaps we should’ve listened to the scientists and Al Gore 15 years ago. But even now, most of us aren’t listening, and we’re just putting bandaids on a serious wound in the earth’s outer coating.
But what we can do — and we better do it fast — is stop any increase in global warming, so conditions don’t get even worse.
Here’s where you come in. Can you think of any policies that will radically reduce our — and the world’s — carbon emissions, especially policies that we can get passed with such a thick-headed and financially compromised government?
Also, can you come up with any realistic ideas on how to protect ourselves from the effects of global warming? Like moving our cities more inland and putting up sea barriers.
Just a little project for you to do in your spare time.
And tx again,
RG
Hi RG,
Thank you for your thoughtful response! Definitely be thinking what else we can do improve our nature’s current state.
Rachel
Rachel,
Tx for thinking! As long as I have you thinking about nature, how about putting this under your thinking cap:
I just talked to a well-respected economist. She agreed with my theory that we are all going over a cliff regarding the depletion of our non-renewable resources: water, oil, scarce metals, clean air, wet sand (for roads and construction), and so on.
Our capitalistic model — which now the whole world subscribes to — is totally dependent on continual increase of. the consumption of goods (that is, the economy). Ideally, we all want about 3% growth of GDP a year. There is no way our tiny planet, of only 25,000 miles in circumfrance — with 7 billion people — can supply such consumption.
Thus very. soon we will need an economic model based on no-growth and sustainability. This is where you come in again. How can we do this?
Don’t knock yourself out. Just have a beer and ask the question to a friend.
RG
The Porto Ricans off course are responsible for themselves. The government there is so corrupt that they did not invest properly on the island. Why should we bail them out?
I think every country has a corrupt government. It’s inevitable. It’s human nature I guess to have those tendencies. But we should not give up on trying to do good to others.
True Maria, the government here is corrupt. But where in the world is it not? Having lived here for a couple of years, island life is much slower and disorganized that the mainland. But have some heart. We need help girl.
Sounds like you need a bailout. You must be a fan of Bernie.
Maria,
Perhaps we can all get together and bail out Jeff!
But we have to face reality: there is ALWAYS an antithesis. Whenever you come up with an idea, someone will come up with a contradictory idea. Isn’t this what happens?
In trying to understand Jeff, we can see that Peurto Rico has us by the throat. True, they have an irresponsible and corrupt government. And maybe the majority of the people are irresponsible — like the Spanish and the Greeks — they want to spend more than they produce.
But wait!………..what about us? One thing that the Republicans and the Democrats agree upon is “Deficits don’t matter…….the size of the national debt doesn’t matter.” Let our kids pay it off, or at least let them pay the interest payments (now around $400 billion a year). And the American people care less: “Just give us more money and services and lower our taxes. Stick our kids with the bill, especially the white suckers.”
Then Jeff accurately sees this problem: In our advanced economy, we simply can’t ignore a devastated island. And they are American citizens! Also, the raw fact of reality is that the Puerto Ricans will never be able to get their island going again and pay off their $70 billion debt (plus the new debt from the new loans they want). They can’t even feed themselves without help.
Forget Bernie Sanders, even the most radical conservatives agree that we can’t just “turn our heads, pretending we don’t see.”
But on the other hand — and there is always an other hand — Trump had a point when he harshly responded to the mayor of San Juan criticizing the U.S. for us not doing enough, when they, themselves, have not have been doing enough.
Thanks for your comment and suggestion that we bail Jeff out. (“Hold on, Jeff, we’ll be right there.”)
RG
Hi RG, thanks for your thoughts to ponder on. I think you’re right that we all should have a reform on all aspects of our society. And that includes economic, social, political. I think for economic, we can start by consuming less processed goods and start going back to basic, maybe we can do something that is now frequent nowadays, farm to table concept. That way, we can minimize the “process” of processing what goes in our daily consumption. For social aspect, I think maybe we can start to live in a minimalist way. We can start by sorting out what are our necessities and disposing extra baggage we have in our jam packed lifestyle. Lastly, I think the government should start to implement laws on industrial processes, I’m not really sure about this, as I’m not that familiar, but I think lessening the industrial aspect of our economy might help lessen or slow down our destruction.
Rachel,
I believe you are right on the money. You hit the bullseye. You have perceived the problem accurately and proposed realistic and practical solutions.
But what now?
Now all we have to do is convince the majority of the 350 million others in this country, many of whom want to make as much money as they can and consume as many goods and services as they can, and then rationalize their minds to believe this is the best thing they can do with their lives.
We can also try to convince the whole world that a 3% a year growth in GDP — which all countries want — will destroy the world as we know it in only a couple of decades.
I think we have our work cut out for us. Let’s support each other!
RG