It is eighteen years too late for me to read the book “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” by Pulitzer Prize winner Jared Diamond. If you’re reading the first edition of this book now, you’ll find the content is a bit out of date. Nonetheless, I’ve learned a lot about the rise and fall of ancient and modern societies resulting from environmental change, climate change, hostile neighbors, friendly trade partners and the society’s response to its environmental problems. The book serves me a good reminder to love and respect the Earth. And I can’t agree more with the author that we tend to forget things.
“In modern literate societies whose writing does discuss subjects besides kings and planets, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we draw on prior experience committed to writing. We, too, tend to forget things. For a year or two after the gas shortages of the 1973 Gulf oil crisis, we Americans shied away from gas-guzzling cars, but then we forgot that experience and are now embracing SUVs, despite volumes of print spilled over the 1973 events.”
—Jared Diamond, author of “Collapse”
I don’t have very good memory. Perhaps that’s why I resort to writing. These days with the help of the smarter-than-me phone, I take photos of the events or things that prompt me to take action. But it might be human nature that out-of-sight-and-out-of-mind keeps happening to me. Even I have photos to remind me, if I don’t see them I won’t remember why I took the photos. So, I begin to make sense why in the old days people need to go to church every Sunday, why religious people say prayers at a certain hour of the day, and why on our birthdays we may have a chance to think back and compare the older self with the younger self. We need constantly to review, reflect and be reminded of in the journey of making a meaningful life.
But what if I’m living in a lie that was made before I was born?
For starter, I read a news story this week saying the oil giant Exxon Mobil’s scientists made accurate predictions about global warming in the 1970s despite leadership denial. The scientific study conducted nearly half a century ago showed from 63% to 83% of the climate change projections fit strict standards for accuracy that the globe would warm about .36 degree (.2 degrees Celsius) a decade.
So how can we hold the liars accountable for the devastating ecological and financial losses caused by fossil fuel emissions? Not to mention that the methane release from Nord Stream leaks last year is a result of man-made destruction and political lies.
We don’t physically participate in a war but we global citizens in every corner of this planet feel the pain of any war regardless of its format, scale and intent. I would like to be your reminder. The potential consequences of modern war and military activities on ecosystem structure and function are huge. And yet, humans only value fatalities tolls on humans and financial losses without giving too many thoughts on the chemicals they deploy in the air and in deep sea.
I think before we aim to destroy our so-called “enemy” in political rhetoric, we could have destroyed our food chains and habitats. To make it more current, who is going to pay for the rebuild of post-war Ukraine? Who is going to restore the marine life in the Taiwan Strait if missiles and bombs are launching from north, south, east and west? After all, Japanese, Taiwanese, South Korean and east coast Chinese people consume and export seafood in enormous quantities. Do you believe without wildlife, clean water, clean air, moderate temperature for humans we can live on for generations?
Can you tolerate noisy neighbors hammering and drilling day and night near your dwellings? You can imagine how wildlife is disrupted in their breeding season and migration routes by human military activities in our oceans and skies. This is my narrow assumption that few military and strategic think tanks in Washington, Beijing, London, Brussels, Tokyo and even Pyongyang will factor in the ecological casualties and far-reaching impact of a modern warfare in the strategic policy advocacies.
For entrée, a recent study published by the Science journal reminds us that if the world overshoots the 1.5 Celsius temperature limit, it could trigger multiple climate tipping points. So, limiting global warming to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius requires more measures on climate mitigation as well. This winter Europeans are following government mandates to reduce energy consumption although the initial reason is not for saving the planet but to combat energy shortages. I wonder if this is a trade-off of a hot war in the continent.
Can North Americans and Chinese people take more aggressive action to reduce fossil-fuels dependence and landfill methane emissions? Municipal solid waste is the third-largest source of human-caused methane emissions in the US. Methane is also the largest component of natural gas, and natural gas leaks are predominantly methane. Carbon dioxide and methane are both critical greenhouse gases. Now, you know the liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo ships are contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.
As author Jared Diamond pointed out in his book Collapse, “All modern societies depend on extracting natural resources, both non-renewable resources (like oil and metals) and renewable ones (like wood and fish).” I would like to remind you that sustainability means differently to different sectors and industries in a society. But to almost all societies on this planet, whether they are modernized or not, sustainability means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. There are many lessons learned in the book Collapse as well as other competitive works in recent years. The advances of technology should not only focus on how much more we individually can acquire natural, social and economic resources at a lower cost, but what other eco-friendly alternatives will allow us to meet our needs fairly and sustainably.
The best gift we mortals can give our unborn future generations is repair and restore our debilitating ecosystem now. We don’t need another war triggered by shortage of food and water and a pandemic. A warming climate can affect the spread of diseases worldwide.
On a personal level, we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by, for instance, simply turning off your car engine when you are waiting or running errands. Too many times I see in parking lots or curbside that drivers just let their engines running while they either sit in the car or are absent.
An idling vehicle releases harmful chemicals, gases and particle pollution (“soot”) into the air, contributing to ozone, regional haze, and global climate change. Every gallon of gas burned produces more than 20 pounds of greenhouse gases. I hope this is a friendly reminder that every driver, whether you are driving a company truck or a private car, can do better for our shared planet and public health.