Rural Routes/Margot Ford McMillen

Choose Your Bullies Wisely

A few years ago, the New York Times pointed out that Trump and Putin share the same strategies for success: “keep pushing, keep denying — and never apologize.” Those characteristics, the characteristics of bullying, are on display now in Ukraine, and we expect no changes. For those trapped in a bully’s game, the wisest thing to do is reach out to those on your side, keep your mouth shut and wait for a break.

But what if the bully that has you scared is just a little guy in the scheme and there’s a much bigger one stalking you … and him. What if, while we’re all distracted by the situation in Ukraine, the world is suffering from a more threatening global crisis? Like, let’s say, greenhouse gas buildup? Those are the particles, like carbon dioxide and methane, that migrate upward and create an invisible cocoon, like a greenhouse, around the planet. Like an ordinary greenhouse in the backyard or on the farm, the gasses trap and magnify heat. In the next 80 years, the average temperature is projected to raise from 2 to 10 degrees. Violent weather events like heavy rains, tornadoes, hurricanes, wind storms, will increase. As snow melts and the oceans rise, small islands and much of the east coast of the United States—from New York to Miami—could be uninhabitable by 2050.

According to research from Boston University, the US Department of Defense is “the single largest consumer of energy in the US, and in fact, the world’s single largest institutional consumer of petroleum. Since 2001, the DOD has consistently consumed between 77 and 80 percent of all US government energy consumption.” And that translates to massive amounts of greenhouse gasses emitted into the atmosphere.

The world has had recent chances to review the many ways the end for humanity could come: It could be brought on by pandemic, a more-lethal and more-unchecked one than we’ve experienced. Or, the end could come from a bully’s insistent pushing into violence. But, as the poet T.S. Eliot observed in his poem, “The Hollow Men,” “This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.”

In November 2021, we had a lesson in how to end the world by our own good-hearted desire to have everything we want and can afford. That — COP26 in Glasgow — was the last time the world got together to talk about preventing climate change. Stay tuned for the next meeting — in 2026, if there’s no pandemic or world war to delay it.

To kick off COP26, host and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson compared our situation to James Bond “strapped to a doomsday device, desperately trying to work out which colored wire to pull to turn it off, while a red digital clock ticks down remorsely …” The US has never made anything but a lame stab at turning back emissions and an even lamer stab at creating a so-called “carbon trading system” or “emissions trade” or “cap and trade” that would allow everyone to do just as we’re doing, but with bookkeeping.

Johnson’s dramatic opener provided a great image, but the world met, and then went away without taking it in. So the problem is in the court of the ordinary citizen, but instead of figuring out which wires to pull to disconnect the bomb, we consumers have been remarkably un-creative.

And it’s not like we have no models. In the past, we’ve required ourselves to turn the lights off when we leave the room, we’ve carpooled to work, built smaller cars, lived in smaller houses. We did those things during energy shortages, thinking we were supporting each other. Then, when COVID was ruling our moves, we were afraid and made fewer trips in airplanes. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics found that air travel departures decreased by 71.5% in May 2020 compared to May 2019.

For a society determined to stop climate change, reduced consumption would be welcome. But scholars and government wonks are more focused on how to bring transportation dollars back than how to stabilize a new, lower normal. So we can’t expect any policy that will help curb greenhouse gasses. Again, it’s up to us.

To a large degree, such things as house size, choices in transportation, food consumption and the like are matters of fashion and can be changed by clever trendsetters. But abstinence doesn’t make money for anyone, especially the media. Give up tourism and the newspapers lose ad pages, the game shows lose sponsors. Stop clearing forests and the home building industry comes to a standstill. And with it goes road-building, banking and jobs.

There’s a news anchor we watch almost every night around here, and she reports on the most appallingly horrible events, ending her reports with a shrug and something like, “well … there’s certainly a lot to think about here.”

Not with a bang, but a whimper.

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. She also is a co-founder of CAFOZone.com, a website for people who are affected by concentrated animal feeding operations. Her latest book is “The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History.” Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, April 15, 2022

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