Do You Know?

John Darvill

1989

Published in:

The Northwest Technocrat, 4th quarter 1989, No. 317

... Rudyard Kipling wrote ``One of the few certainties of human progress is that the burnt fool's bandaged finger goes waggling back to the fire.'' How many times will we, as a species, get burned before we cry enough, or will we never learn to cry enough, and keep on repeating the same mistakes, until we, like many other species before us, disappear from this planet? We are said to have the ability to reason, to learn and to project, there is little evidence of this; we keep on repeating the same old mistakes and adding new ones. Our planet is slowly losing its ability to support life as we know it -- entirely due to our refusal to acknowledge that our actions are the main cause of the problem. And that is our refusal to realize that in the name of economic expediency we are endangering the long-term survival of human and other life forms on this planet earth.

... The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a report in February that provided the names of 75,000 firms which emit toxic wastes. North Carolina is among the worst states; they spewed 100 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the surrounding environment in 1987. The goverment of the province of Quebec has drawn up a list of the 600 worst polluters in that province, and Ontario's Hazardous Waste Generators directory now lists 20,250 corporate discharges and polluters.

... The ravaging of the fish resources off the coasts of North America will have serious long-term effects. U.S. Congressman Gerry Studds of Massachusetts, head of the Subcommittee on Fisheries of the House of Representatives, states ``Fishermen from Provincetown to New Bedford are fishing twice as long and twice as hard to catch half as many fish as they did at the start of the 1980s, and according to scientists the prospects for the future are worse.''

This has occurred in this short space of time as a result of overfishing. U.S. officials estimate that on Georges Bank, off the New England coast, overfishing has reduced the biomass of commercial groundfish, including, cod, haddock and flounder, more than 65% since 1977.

Canadian government scientists issued figures to show that fishermen were taking 45% of available Northern Cod every year rather than the 20% considered proper for maintenance of stock. The scientists wanted a cut from 293,000 tons to 137,500 tons this year. The Canadian government rolled this back to 258,000 tons. However, even this meagre cut resulted in scale-downs and plant- closures which could effect 8,000 jobs this year in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Again economic expediency was taking precedence over the long-term survival of a food-source fish -- and this kind of action is duplicated continually in Price System monetary consideration before action which would benefit the planet and those life forms inhabiting it, including us.

... In early August, 9,100 litres of a chemical, TCMTB, a highly toxic wood preservative, was spilled into the Fraser River in Surrey, B.C. It coincided with the biggest sockey salmon run in 76 years. The river was closed to fishing while "tests" were carried out. Next day it was re-opened, the tests were said to indicate that no damage had been done. One wonders to what extent this decision was influenced by the large salmon run and the economic losses that would result from a lengthy closure. Perhaps the level of contamination was small, but how much did it actually affect the fish, and, in turn, how much can be ingested by humans without affecting human health? A little here, a bit more there - - fruit, vegetables, meat, fish -- many of the foods we consume have some degree of contamination; add to this the contamination of the air we breathe and the water we drink, and this could cause a very insidious set of circumstances affecting the health of us all.

...We are rapidly destroying the ability of this planet to sustain life in its present form; this planet could well be unlivable in 70 years if we continue on our present course. In spite of all the warnings by people of knowledge in the community, we continue to give precedence to the opinions of politicians and businessmen, and allow our ``thinking'' to be influenced by the flashing of ``news'' on our T.V. sets and the often biased reporting as seen in our newspapers.

In 1758 David Hume wrote Of the First Principles of Government. He said, ``Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few, and the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers. When we inquire by what means this wonder is effected, we shall find that as Force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is therefore, on opinion only that government is founded, and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments as well as to the free and most popular.''

This may have been nothing more than a philosophical excercise at the time it was written, and government by opinion did not cause any great harm. In today's society it is extremely dangerous. Our highly complex technological civilization is capable of providing the high standard of life evident in North America, it is also quite capable of destroying all life if used incorrectly and if the present abuse of this technology continues for very much longer. We need more than opinions -- we need highly informed rational decision, not based on what we think or would like. We must administer our social mechanism on the basis of function, organizing our physical equipment in such a way as to bring the maximum benefit to all citizens, the greatest security commensurate with our present degree of knowledge, working toward the long-term survival of a high-energy civilization with the greatest protection to our environment. All of this can be accomplished by the installation of Technocracy's design for functional governance. Your investigation is welcome.