They Knew
The title of this essay is taken from a book by James Gustave Speth, subtitled The US Federal Goverment’s Fifty-Year Role in Causing the Climate Crisis. The book is a historical account of the policies of both Democratic and Republican administrations that is part of the evidence in the case initiated in 2015 in which (I quote from the book jacket) “a group of young people sued the federal government in Juliana v. United States for violating their constitutional rights by promoting climate catastrophe and thereby depriving them of life, liberty and property without due process and protection of law.” The book offers a great deal of evidence that the various administrations were aware of the threat posed by increased concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, were aware there were alternatives to the fossil fuels that caused that concentration, and chose not only to do little to nothing to address the situation but, instead, intensified the use of fossil fuels. Recent Republican administrations have also gone out of their way to cast doubt on climate change, belittle science, and seek opinions that would dispute climate change. The Trump administration did everything it could to ruin the renewable energy industry which “lost 600,000 jobs—17 percent of all clean energy jobs—in March and April of 2020.”
Speth’s book was published by MIT Press. A large trade publisher could have done the book and put it front and center, but large trade publishers are commercial endeavors, as we all know. Also, as we all know, lobbyists from the various fossil fuel industries have worked very hard to forestall any environmental regulations that would get in the way of their profits, which fall under the law of “the more the better.” That has not been the most thoughtful law, given the environmental and human costs, but it has been a compelling one. Indeed, for many it is the only one. One of the epitaphs for the human race may well be: “They made money.”
For his part, Speth is restrained and content, as a lawyer and someone who has spent a lifetime focusing on environmental issues, to let the facts speak for themselves. He does, at the end of the “Overview” that begins the book, allow himself this statement: “Defendants’ actions on the national energy system over the past several decades are, in my view, the greatest dereliction of civic responsibility in the history of the Republic. And it is worse today than ever. This shocking historical conduct, government malfeasance on a grand scale, has left current and future generations enormously vulnerable to substantial danger.” A counterpoint to Speth’s remarks would be Dick Chaney opining that “Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy. . . .The aim here is efficiency not austerity.” Austerity! Perish the thought! Speth’s book points out that all administrations have worked against mandates to seriously improve automobile fuel efficiency but apparently efficiency is in the eye of the beholder, an eye that among other things has given us “clean coal.”
A fair question to ask is: What gives with the United States? Many books have been devoted to that topic but as far as the current situation is concerned several factors are in play. To wit: The United States is a determinedly Christian nation, which means that many Americans are concerned with salvation and the afterlife that awaits them. Their time on Earth, while engaging, pales beside the prospect of eternal life. Caring for the planet and for future generations is, thus, irrelevant. Stewardship, a notion some Christians like to put forward, is, given the rapacious nature of capitalism, so much window dressing. Far be it from Christianity to celebrate the generative life force, the “green fuse” as Dylan Thomas once put it, to say nothing of Eros. There is, consequently, a built-in hypocrisy to these United States, one that more than one American writer has pointed out. Many Christian Americans are here but not here. The Earth is an anteroom.
That mindset goes with an alienation from the Earth that went with the so-called “settling” of what came to be the United States. The land is not the howling wilderness the Separatists experienced but rather a sort of background and stage set. Most Americans live in cities. Their food comes from somewhere. Weather can be perplexing but, hey, weather is like that. A “comprehensive energy policy” takes care of their needs. Parks can be found for those who need them. The notion that all these so-called lifestyles may be affecting the Earth in ways that are deleterious for all concerned would require a sensitivity to the Earth that is not on many minds. Most of us are trying to get ahead, whatever that means, and have the circumstances of our lives to deal with. The Earth can take care of itself. It has, and in its way, it will. Whether that includes human beings living the way they live now is, as Speth’s book makes plain, another story.
Then there is education. Imagine if there were a national mandate to include ecology as a subject beginning at the beginning of an education and continuing in greater and greater depth throughout the course of an individual’s education. This would mean that Americans, Christian and otherwise, would have to agree that there is such a thing as ecology and that it matters. This may seem preposterous to some but is not at all preposterous. The facts speak quite loudly in this regard. “Back to basics” has never included the basic fact of residence on Earth, understandably, since an awareness of our role in ecosystems is bound to diminish the enormous importance we attach to ourselves, an awareness that many would find not merely upsetting but simply wrong. In the American-Ptolemaic scheme of things, we are at the center of everything. The notion of dependency, to say nothing of mere prudence, is repugnant. The miraculous yet fragile web we call “Nature” can be taken for granted. Land, after all, is something a person owns and disposes of accordingly and Americans are good at disposing.
All this touches on what is called with a capitalized flourish, the Economy, an entity that trusts in the prospect of perpetual growth. It’s a stimulating notion certainly—a train that goes on forever while picking up evermore passengers. As one pooh-bah in Speth’s book notes, the United States has 250 years of coal available, which is to say, “No problem,” as Americans like to say in lieu of “You’re welcome.” The notion of an economy in the traditional sense of maintaining a balance between what is used and what is conserved, of not just promoting harmony but living it daily, has nothing to do with an economy based on invention, wealth accumulation, and endless desire.
Desire? What does that have to do with the various eminences who populate Speth’s book? Alas, we can try to manage our appetites (and mostly fail) but our longings for the security, glamour, comfort, convenience, and novelty that go along with the inventions of industrial and post-industrial times seem boundless—and not only for Americans. We are the victims of a sort of idolatry, which is nothing new in human annals. How much we officially want to face it, is, as Speth’s testimony indicates, doubtful. How much we want to recognize that the issue is a spiritual one—our connection to the Earth—is also doubtful. Do any of us want to give anything up for those future generations? That is their problem. It certainly will be.
As to the legal case, it continues to try to gain some traction despite fierce opposition from the Justice Department under the Trump administration and continued opposition under the Biden administration. One can say that Earth Day speeches are all well and good, but “comprehensive energy policy” has been for those buckaroos who have been determined to run the show the way they want to run the show. Meanwhile, to end with a quote, “The nation is now expanding oil and gas extraction four times faster than any other nation.” As at the end of a geometry proof, I want to write “QED.” Thus it has been demonstrated.
Right on, Baron.
Splendid essay Baron. You ask all the right questions. Do any of us want to give any of these "gifts" from industrial capitalism? How do we break the wall of denial erected by the multibillion dollar corporate advertising behemoth that wiggles and dances naked in our minds? Christianity, stewardship. Ha. Teach the children about the worms, the phytoplankton, the community of trees. God forbid. It might get in the way of SCORES on TESTS which have to be HIGH so kids can get into GOOD SCHOOLS and have a GOOD CAREER and be a SUCCESS. This looks like a great book and I will order it asap from MIT press.
Not sure what you and I can do but keep writing!!