Arizona State University - Sun Devil Spark / Sahuaro Yearbook (Tempe, AZ)

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dead. The challenge of survival has become the burden of the common man. The professor believes that we are not likely to assume that responsibility unless we understand the nature and implication of our collective encounter with death. Firstly, our encounter with death persuades us that our situation in the world, and the world we inhabit, is new. Secondly, the death experi- ence restores limits to a world society, we have run up against a system of insurmountable restraints, or limits: to pro- duction, to consumption, to expansion, to growth, to frontiers and even to public behaviors, lt is now evident that we cannot do whatever we wish to do.We cannot consume very much more of the earth without consuming oursleves along with it. So, too, with expansion and growth. lt is now clearthat the earth frontier is closing. In many areas, we are tasting the limits of our relational lives. The appearance of limits present us with several unique opportunities. They enable us to replace the politics of power with the politics of environmental concern. Our crisis makes it unrealistic for us to consider our problems in any but a planetary, or whole-earth, contest. And this suggests that the time is ripe for a new and enlightened internationalism. An appreciation of the limits of our situation makes it pos- It is better to be slightly a'armed than slightly dead. that has been without them since the onset of the industrial revolution. Thirdly, the prospect of death forces us to live and act in the open and, equally, it introduces consensus into a perceptually fragmented world. What the crisis of survival does is impose a governor on our dizzy rate of change.More concretely, it means that forthe first time since the decline of Medieval Europe and the rise of the scientific-technological resources le.g., we are running out of arable agricultural lands in many parts of the worldl and facing the fact that we are effectively confined to this planet, unless and until we can transport large numbers. lt is likely that we shall have to grow without using up the earth. The only way in which I know how to do this is to grow internally, personally and culturally, rather than materi- ally and economically, by im- proving and enriching our sible - and not just desirable - for us to plan. By reducing the number of problems that we have to tackle head-on - to those that involve protec- tion of life-support systems and preservation of the species - they make it easier for many people to grasp what the crucial issues are and what must be done to overcome them. As we act to settle these problems we shall find, en pas- sant, that we shall be acting to resolve other problems - Environmental Crises-17

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lf we environmentalists are correct. . . then by becoming alarmed about it, we might be able to prevent an irreversible disaster. life-support system is knocked out, no one will be left to re- pair it. Once a species is lost, we cannot recover it. Thus, if really we wish to live beyond the present, we shall have to take risks in our daily lives, institute ways of skirting dis- aster, experiment with a host of survival plans, and get used to acting on the basis of imper- fect information. Sixthly, survival depends up- on our ability to fashion a con- crete survival scenario and get majorities of people of dif- soning of land and water re- sources and the steady flow of concrete smothering our farm land and forests. He has already anticipated some of our arguments and refuted them in the light of what he knows about the environ- ment and human nature. Most people deny death in- stinctively. For instance, there are many who see nothing new in our surroundings. They in- form us that humankind has met and conquered death be- fore and that it will do so again, they are the intended victim of disaster even when the signs are incontestable, as it was for the inmates of the concentration camps. If we environmentalists are correct in our diagnosis about the extent and immediacy of our survival crisis, then by be- coming alarmed about it we might be able to buy the time needed to prevent an ir- reversible disasterg if we are wrong, and no such disaster is in the offing, then we lose nothing by acting to prevent g -.gg--neg,-' .-g5.-1 j- .,g 4--Q' ,- '- '-.'f'-' -, 1 ..,y. 1 .- J, 4 4, J- , ' . ' c . , ---T.oi,f?'Ag: .L , - -I , K A , A ,-105. -jf ' ' 4- fa ' J' Q. R ' X war ....... ...-an-' ...g. .. 16-Environmental Crises ferent social, political, eco- nomic, psychological and cultural backgrounds to accept it quickly. Professor Reader recognizes our probable skepticism es- pecially regarding his belief that, life on earth is about to end for most, if not all, species - including our own. But he asserts that the evidence is all around us, in every oil spill and smog alert, in the sharp rise in the number of en- dangered species, in the poi- as an unlearned reflex. This view about humankind conquering death previously, assumes that people carry about their persons a survival mechanism that triggers auto- matically in the presence of death. This is just not true as the history of our species, especially as it has been played out in this century, attests. When confronted with death many people will tal acquiesce to it needlessly, passively and quiescently, or tbl deny that it. By acting as if an irreversible disaster was about to hit us, we are likely to improve both our environment and the quality of our daily lives in it. If you are wrong, then our decision to act cautiously and deliberately twhich is the implicit consequence of your general attitude! without haste and in good time, will simply hasten the advent of that dis- aster which we all wish to prevent. It is better to be slightly alarmed than slightly

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T 1-'fy il We cannot consume very much more of the earth without consuming ourselves along with it. 5. . 1' -Iaf' ,lex ?- T1 l. ff: .QQ 'ml fl' 'Q' V ffgqgQki',j254 . 4 - ii : like hunger, war, resource allocation and management, bureau-cratic organization - To put the case another way, identification of a problem as environmental, rather than as ideological, has a cluster- effect, drawing to it a host of other equally important ad- ditional problems. The side- effect, or spin-off, of solving an environmental problem is to settle this issue. Thus, as we act to clean up our environ- ment we are likely to be hu manizing our society. As we recognize the limits of our situation, we are cau- tioned to act in ways from which we and others can re- cover. Because the times are so perilous and any form of 18-Environmental Crises 4-.. Yu 'ru 'tg I xl I death lincluding eco-death! is so final, we are becoming conscious of the kinds of thinking that leads to actions which no one can repair. The introduction of limits into our situation gives us the security we need to plan an innovative, non-manipulative and adjustable future. And, in these circumstances, ordinary people everywhere may be able to manage their destinies once again. The possibilities and alter- natives seem quite clear. What our reaction will be is not nearly as clear or as definite. There are many reasons why we might falter. The saddest is a grave matter which Professor Mark Reader carefully con- Z' siders and mourns. We Americans do not recognize each other as a people with common concerns and a common destiny as long as we refer to each other as hard-hats and long-hairs, as radi-libs and fascists, as oppres- sors and oppressed. With survival at stake, we are none of these: we are quite simple, each of us, a hurting part of humanity that is feeling its age.