Speaking at the Boston Social Forum's Convocation
Boston, Thursday, July 24, 2004
From high in the mountains of southern New Hampshire I bring greetings.
The United States, as you have no doubt heard many times, accounts for about five percent of the world's population, but we consume a quarter of the world's oil and approximately that percentage of many other of the world's resources. If we raise the entire world to our standard of living and of consumption, we run into some math problems rather quickly. There is also the matter of the amount of carbon dioxide that once was so thick in the hot atmosphere that only the most basic life forms could exist.
Over billions of years, that carbon dioxide was put in safety deposit boxes, away from the atmosphere. It was taken up by the plants of great swamps, and trapped in now deep layers of coal and oil. If we bring it all up, which we must do if all the world is to have SUV's and 100-watt toothbrushes, we will be back to swamps in no time.
Now it should not take too much effort to see all this, as nearly all the scientists of the world agree that we are releasing more carbon into the atmosphere than the atmosphere can bear without changing, and that will mean a disruption of our agriculture, to be sure.
The leadership elite of our society are very invested in the idea of continuing with things as they are. They would like a McDonalds restaurant on every beach in Tahiti and an SUV in every pop-up garage in Tierra del Fuego. That's the only way they know how to think.
The CEO's of their corporations make tens of millions of dollars a year, not on the long range expectations of profits, but on this year's, this quarter's profits, and how those profits affect stock prices. They can't think more than a year out. The real problem is that they also own all the broadcast networks now, and they finance the careers of most of the politicians.
These people do not go around the world spreading peace, justice and democracy. They spread credit card debt, cell phones, sweatshop conditions, factory farms for hogs and not much better for people. They are in it for the money, and they want to economically enslave people, not free them. I will bet that Iraqis will see bills from MasterCard before they see a meaningful ballot, just like us. This is a new wave of economic colonialism, and, like previous waves, it is done in partnership with armies and rulers.
Some of us want America to move toward environmental sustainability so that the world, especially if it is to become more like America, will be sustainable for future generations. We are the conservatives. We want to conserve nature, the atmosphere, our carbon resources, or cultural diversity around the world, and our ideas of freedom, justice and happiness. We want America to be safe. We don't want our children to have to suspiciously eye every person who enters a bus or a restaurant. We understand that this security can only come with international justice. We know that, if America is energy self-sufficient and less dependent on other foreign resources, we can well afford to be a force for justice in the world, not for self-serving greed. So we have a vision of a better world, and we will work hard to make it so. You cannot protect an open society from the effects of injustice. You can either close the society, as Mr. Bush is doing, or you can cure the injustices. Which should be the American way?
We know the answer. We will fight the radicals whose short term, unsustainable vision of the world drives American policy today. We will work in the coming election to move our imperfect candidates to victory.
Who are we to be out there fighting, to be winning elections? We are the people who believe in a world of environmental beauty, of happiness and not exploitation, of justice and not oppression and torture--a world safe for children because we invest in our smart babies, not smart bombs. We believe in international law and cooperative action. We are the opposite numbers to the Bush neo-conservatives. If we lose, the world loses its environment, its justice, its happiness. So we are clear that we must win.
There are many among us who will not support a candidate unless that candidate is perfect on every issue. Politics is about winning. For us, it is about winning to save lives and raise people up from poverty and illness and loneliness and injustice. Those posturing on the left sometimes forget that. Don't tell me that you can't support a particular candidate because of tƒhis or that. This isn't about you and your precious political standards. It is about saving nature and our people. We are coming out to win, so please don't stand in our way. When we have reasonable people in power, let us start our arguments again, for we can not move forward unless we have a decent government underneath us and a Bill of Rights to let us speak freely.
This is great work. Did you, as a child, hope that one day it would be in your hands to save the world? Then rejoice.
For everything there is a season. This is the electoral season. Get busy.
Thank you.