Do You Know?

John Darvill

1990

Published in:

The Northwest Technocrat, 1st quarter 1990, No. 318

...The Federal Government of Canada has just banned the catching of all shellfish from a very large area off the West Coast of British Columbia. This is because of contamination by Dioxins and Furans from the pulpwood industries of British Columbia. This also follows in the wake of the recent closing of Howe Sound, a large body of water in the same area and for the same reasons. Here we have yet another example of the poisoning of our planet in the interests of "business first." Long ago, intelligent action would have resulted in the closing of installations like pulp mills, until they operate in an environmentally safe manner.

...Lip service is being paid to environmental problems; meanwhile, the degradation continues; the pillage and rape of the planet goes on.

...The automotive industry extolls the virtues of its products, and the build-up of CO₂ and other noxious pollutants continues unabated, causing unknown problems for the future. But economic considerations must have priority; the automotive industry accounts for 10% of the G.N.P. and some 20% of all consumer expenditures.

...The accumulation of garbage is a growing problem which local governments are taking tentative steps to alleviate. As with all Price System attempts at solutions, one step forward means two steps back. Incineration is becoming the solution of choice; ``out of sig ht, out of mind'' would seem to be the rationale. It has been pointed out that the main by-product of incineration is CO₂. What does that tell you about atmosphere warm-up? There are also other just as insidious problems. In British Columbia, the Greater Vancouver Regional District built an incinerator at a cost of 75 million dollars, and by this action has succeeded in turning household trash into a huge pile of hazardous waste. The 50,000 tons of ash produced each year by the incinerator is so laden with lead that it had to be declared a ``special'' waste, by environmental officials. Ash from the bottom of the incinerator exceeds the leachable lead limits by as much as four times while fly-ash, caught in the incinerator stacks, exceeds the lead limit by as much as ten times. In the province of B.C., at the present time, there is an estimated 200,000 tons of material that is so contaminated with hazardous compounds that it needs special storage and treatment.

...Again, lip service is paid to the problem of CFCs and its effect on the earth's ozone shield in the stratosphere. We are told that the use of CFCs must be arrested and quickly. But what is occurring? Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Center reported that the ozone levels over Antarctica decreased by 1.5% a day in September. And by the third week of that month the ozone concentration had decreased by about 30% from the beginning of the month. The rate of decrease in ozone is almost equal to the rate of decline in 1987 when a record ozone depletion was observed on October 5th. How big will this year's ozone hole become? That will depend on how long the present rate of decrease continues.

...5.4 billion tons of carbon are spewed into the air every year, world-wide, which means something over a ton for every person on earth. However, it is not applied very evenly. Canadians, by their addiction to fossil fuels, are among the world's leaders for per-capita carbon-dioxide waste, about 15 tons each in 1986. In 1988, nationwide, the burning of oil, natural gas and coal vomited 473 tons of waste into the atmosphere as a by-product of combustion. That is about two percent of the world's total. If left unchecked, emissions are expected to rise by 49 percent by 2005.

...Waste, toxic substances and pollution all are the result of the misuse of resources by humans who are mostly concentrated in urban areas. And, as the number of people increase, so will the problems unless remedial actions are taken, and this does not appear to be happening. The city of Sao Paulo, Brazil had a population of 2.5 million in 1955; today, estimates range from 17 million to 20 million.

It is further estimated that 2,000 buses a day, all filled with people, pour into the city from all parts of Brazil. Some 300,000 people a year move to Sao Paulo. Similar number are moving to Rio de Janeiro and cities like Caracas and Mexico City. Several million people a year move to urban centers of South America, Africa and Asia. In Karachi, Pakistan, only half of the 9 million residents were born there. Lagos, Nigeria, with a population of 7 million, is 20 times the size it was just 30 years ago. As is usual, predictions by politicians are proving woefully inadequate. By the year 2,000, 17 of the world's 20 largest cities will be in the Third World; in 1980 it was only 11. In Kenya, the city of Nairobi, is a city of children with nearly half of its 2 million people under the age of 16. What future disaster does that portend? The Worldwatch Institute warns that this population explosion will stretch to the limit those cities' already overburdened infrastructures. The bigger they become the more complex and expensive it is to service them. Many cities in North America face imminent collapse. So far, economic growth and infusions of money have prevented this from occurring -- but for how much longer?

...Nero had only Rome to be concerned with, while the ability of this planet to sustain life, is what should be concerning us. We are rapidly running out of time, and very definite measures must soon be taken if the pollution of this planet is to be arrested and reversed. We are concerning ourselves with maintaining a viable economy, but this effort is diametrically opposite to effort directed toward saving this planet. The more we attempt to maintain a "healthy" monetary economy, the greater will be the environmental degradation of this planet. Only by abolishing all monetary considerations can we hope to address the very serious problems confronting this earth we call "home."

How this can be done is outlined in Technocracy's design for functional government.

Investigate it.