War - Who Needs It?

This class comes at a perfect time. It's depressing, but fitting to be discussing war tomorrow in light of the recent announcement that 30,000 more troops will be sent to Afghanistan and Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize and giving a speech about just wars.

I thought that Robert Kaplan's quote was interesting: "in places where Western Enlightenment has not penetrated and where there has always been mass poverty, people find liberation in violence" (Environment, p223). I disagree with this. The United States, which was built on Western Enlightenment, is not lacking in violence against people (or the environment). India, a country that was forced to accept concepts of Western Enlightenment as superior to their own ways of living, is still struggling with violence, corruption, and environmental degradation. Israel, which is a country founded on so called Western enlightenment, is obviously fighting with people who are resorting to violence to obtain liberation and water concerns are a key issue there. Western Enlightenment has nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, I don't know what does. It seems that violence and environmental degradation are a common trait of rich and poor nations, east and west culture alike.

Another very interesting concept brought up in the reading for Friday's war discussion is that humans are not necessarily worse to the environment in times of war than in times of peace. Peaceful selling/buying of natural resources can occur between cooperating nations that are far worse to the environment than war. True, but that is an examination of direct results of war. What about indirect environmental destruction? What about all of the money that is being spent on the war that COULD be spent on renewable energy R&D? And the thought that every dollar spent in Iraq keeps us burning coal for energy.

According to the CQ_Iraq article for tomorrow, by 2012 we will have spent 3 trillion dollars on the Iraq war! That's just a tad more than estimated 60 billion initially. And as much as World War II. I know many people who would call the US investment in WWII just. I don't know many who would call the Iraq war just. Think of all of the good that money could have gone towards. Education. Renewable energy R&D. Health Care. It is so scary how speeches like Obama's in Norway about just war makes it sound like war is his only option. But it is not. What happens in a year and a half when they say "just 30,000 more troops and then we can discuss an exit strategy later." Will the price of Afghanistan reach the price of Iraq? Will we be in even more debt? Will we have exhausted our resources making investment in renewable energy and environmental protection so far down on the list of priorities that it's not even an option? He was right that knowing that war is bad doesn't make it go away, or that knowing that peace is good doesn't make it easy to achieve. But it has to begin somewhere.

At least he mentioned climate change in his speech.... that was perhaps the only hopeful thing about it.

Let's Hear it for the Trees

Please note, I try to use lighthearted titles because point blank some of the issues and topics in which we discuss are rather dismal and downright depressing and I refuse to let anything steal my joy.
That being said I enjoyed to discussion on trees and the whole issue of deforestation which I will admit did not mean much to myself. The only time I think about trees in the city is when I have to rake my yard and then I think get rid of them all. I have noticed since enlisting in this field that there is a forest preserve that I pass on my way to church and I always wondered the reasoning behind preserving a forest, I mean like what is the use. It was not until I read the article about the effects of deforestation and how women in other countries has to walk further just to try to find wood for fire in order to cook and about how it affect the soil, etc that I began to see the need for preservation of our trees. However I must admit that I can see the other side of the argument because there are necessities in which we need that trees provide and it is recognized as a renewable resource so that sort of decreases the face value of the forest because we see the trees as profit. Talk about seeing the forest for the trees. ( I should have titled this) I really was impressed with the article about Wangari Maathai and her tree-planting efforts in Kenya. I really enjoyed and felt moved by her article because it incorporated the sense of community and allowed the common folks like myself a part in the mission. I felt connected and inspired and if I was in Kenya I could and would have participated in. It also offered hope!!! The story highlighted her efforts and noted the issues while presenting solutions which were activated and not just spoken of. Because plainly talk is cheap.