Author Rob Jackson
Title The Earth Remains Forever:
Generations at a Crossroads
Year 2002
Publisher University of Texas Press
P. O. Box 7819
Austin, Texas 78713-7819

December 31, 2002
This book was reviewed for “Choice”, and the review was submitted on January 6, 2003.

The Earth Remains Forever evokes both enthusiasm and profound depression. The enthusiasm comes from the excellent presentations of background on the increase in the human population, resource utilization, loss of plant and animal species, ozone depletion, and global warming. Jackson’s descriptions are better than those in environmental science texts used in freshman-level courses. The depression springs from two sources: one, the failure to acknowledge improvements in air and water quality in the United States over the past 30 years; two, the complete lack of creativity in proposing solutions. The proposed solutions could also be gleaned from network television news, newspapers, popular culture magazines, and scores of ill-conceived books: America is the problem and is standing in the way of solutions, sport utility vehicles are evil incarnate, those who question the popular wisdom (his) are equated with those who appeased Hitler, raising taxes would solve our problems, turn environmental issues over to international organizations, and citizens are encouraged to sue oil companies, auto makers, and power companies for causing environmental problems.

Rob Jackson has crafted a book in a superficially optimistic tone by avoiding the tendency of many writers to predict the end of time because of environmental problems. He takes great pains to refer to our “environmental dilemma” rather than our “environmental crisis.” He even evokes the bible to stress that the world is not coming to an end and uses part of the quote as the title of the book: “A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains for ever.” (Ecclesiastes I:4) After starting the book with the bible to stress that he is not predicting the end of the world, Jackson ends with a quote from Jefferson to stress that he is an optimist at heart: “My temperament is sanguine. I steer my bark with Hope in the head, leaving Fear astern.” (From a letter to John Adams.)

Between these bookends of optimism, the remainder of the book is as gloomy as most of the others that see global environmental issues through the prism of pessimism. Consider his predictions for the end of the current century:
1. There will be at least nine billion people on earth.
2. Annual global energy use will be a least fifty percent higher per capita, and energy consumption will triple.
3. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations will be more than five hundred parts per million, double the pre-industrial levels and higher than at any time in the past forty million years. In consequence, the average temperature of the earth will be at least 5°F warmer.
4. Thousands, perhaps millions, of species will be extinct.

I ask, Are these the predictions of an optimistic person?

The basic design of the book is summarized in this sentence from the Introduction, “The changing earth—the consequences of rising population and consumption—is the subject of this book.”

The first regular chapter, entitled Living With Success, is an excellent example of island ecology gone bad because of over population and excessive harvesting. Although he did not intend to, Jackson destroyed the myth that environmental destruction is the unique characteristic of white Europeans. A group of Polynesians called the Lapita destroyed the ecology of Easter Island centuries before Columbus discovered the Americas. When the Dutch first landed on Easter Island in 1722, the lush tropical island had been deforested, 29 of the 30 native species of seabirds and all six of the flightless bird species were extinct, the various tribes had been at war with one another, and slavery was practiced. All of this before anyone on the island had even seen a white European.

Jackson’s point is that we face the same collapse (so much for optimism).
“The collapse of a society five hundred years ago on an island slightly larger than Manhattan may seem inconsequential for us today, but it isn’t. The same laws and processes that humbled the Lapita still operate, only today the earth is one large island and the Lapita are six billion strong. We have no idea how far along our “thousand-year journey” we really are, as the earth is resilient and so are we. But so were the Lapita, and the choices that they made a thousand years ago are the same choices that we face today. Our challenge is to be smarter than they were.”

The increase in human population is caused by lower death rates and higher birth rates in developing countries.

Jackson notes that growth rates have been declining from a high in the 1960s (>2% per year) to about 1.3% per year today. Because of the higher population levels today, this decline does not represent salvation. What he fails to mention is that the fertility rates in most of the developed countries of the world, including that of the United States, have been below replacement rates for about 30 years. Immigration is the primary reason that the population of the United States continues to expand at a high rate.

Jackson does an excellent job in describing the three factors that stand out as the reasons for extinction of species: overharvesting, exotic invaders, and habitat destruction. Introduced species and habitat destruction are the major causes. The intentional introduction of the kudzu vine, Eurasian tamarisk (a tree) and the Chinese tallow tree are described. The accidental introduction of the zebra mussel is well described. From Russia in 1985, noted in Lake St.Clair in 1988, and all the way to New Orleans a few years later.

In the United States, approximately 4000 exotic plant species and 2,300 exotic animal species have been established. An important note is that an extremely small portion of the introduced species is actually causing problems. The case of the introduction of the European gypsy moth into the United States in a private effort to develop a silk industry is described. The moth has proven to be the most devastating forest pest in North America.

The former Soviet Union (USSR) had a tendency to engage in gigantic projects, often ending in disaster. One such project was the use of the rivers flowing into the Aral Sea (an landlocked inland sea) to irrigate cotton. Jackson gives a good description of the impact of the project.

“Fifty years ago the Aral Sea in central Asia was the fourth largest lake in the world; today it is one of the earth’s greatest environmental disasters. So much river water has been diverted to cotton farms in the region that the Aral Sea has dropped fifty feet and lost four-fifths of its volume, about as much water as Lakes Erie and Ontario combined. Its shoreline has retreated seventy-five miles in some places, with the former harbor town of Aral’sk now a landlocked community twenty miles inland. A commercial fishery of forty-five thousand tons a year and sixty thousand jobs has also disappeared. … [W]hat little water remains is now saltier than the oceans.”

The treatment of the background of the ozone depletion in the stratosphere is better than that found in freshman-level environmental science texts. The latter part of the chapter describes the introduction and later the elimination of CFC 11 and CFC 12 production. The work of Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina is also detailed. The involvement of the popular media in spreading information about ozone and CFCs is detailed.

Some of the reasons why the effort to ban CFC 11 and 12 production are
1. Compelling scientific evidence,
2. A potential threat to human health indicating that people are willing to be engaged when their health is at issue, and
3. Technology was available for replacing CFC 11 and 12.

Jackson is correct in pointing these factors out, but then he ignores these points when proposing solutions to other environmental problems.

The chapter devoted to global warming includes these lines: “The international response to ozone depletion was unparalleled—arguably the first time that humanity created a global environmental problem, recognized its significance, and solved it.”
But did we. There is really no indication that the problem is on the mend despite banning the production of the CFCs. By holding to the idea that improvement will not come for 20-30 years, those responsible will not have to face the music if the idea was completely wrong. When it does not appear to make any difference, they can just say wait until we are all dead to see if something good happens.

Also included are these words: “…only strong leadership and a revolutionary consensus will slow rising population…”
The environmentalist refuse to see that population growth is already slowing. The percentage of increase is only about one-half of what it was 30 years ago. The fertility rate is already below replacement values in most if not all of the advanced nations and less than one-half what it was in the developing countries, even in Africa.

Jackson does get the concept of change as being the only constant thing in the world.
“There is a danger in the way we see the world, in our attempt to fix it immutably as we know it today or, more often, as we knew it in the first twenty or so years of our lives.” “Our memories are hazy palimpsests.”

palimpsest: a parchment, tablet, etc. that has been written upon two or three times, the previous text having been imperfectly erased.

Our memories are not perfect.

When one reaches the latter chapters the book goes from stimulating to depressing. The complete lack of creative thought in the chapters dealing with what can or should be done to address global environmental problems is unfortunate. After writing such a good description of our overriding problems, Jackson simple repeats the same correctives that can be found in hundreds of media or culture outlets ranging form MTV to CNN and from network news to large urban newspapers.

The basic themes are the standard lines that we are fed every day: America is the problem and is standing in the way of solutions, sport utility vehicles are evil incarnate, those who question the popular wisdom (his) are equated with those who appeased Hitler, raising taxes would solve our problems, turn environmental issues over to international organizations, and citizens are encouraged to sue oil companies, auto makers, and power companies for causing environmental problems

The problems outlined by Jackson in the last chapter are listed below:
1. Automobile subsidies (roads, bridges, etc.) and fuel efficiency
2. surface pollution (nonpoint sources)
3. pesticide use
4. loss of wetlands
5. declining fisheries
6. groundwater pumping

“If we distill the essence of the above list into a common theme, it would be that the real costs of consumption should be included in the price of each product.”
What does this mean?
In many respects this is already the case. Oil companies must not only make enough money on their products to cover the cost of production but also must make enough money to cover cleanup of spills, account for accidents, and to pay fines. In the common speech, he wants taxes levied on products that are considered in an unfavorable light so that the products will not be affordable and will not be purchased and therefore not produced. Who is to decide what products are desirable? What is to be done with the tax money that is collected? Will the money go to protection of the environment? Will the tax money be put into a trust so that funds will be available for remediation of environmental problems? I think not.

Jackson proposes that we turn our environmental problems over to “international organizations.” Why would an international body composed of people who are looking out for their own interests be any wiser than our national own organizations who are looking out for our interests?

Jackson encourages lawsuits following the model of those against cigarette companies and gun makers. He suggest class action suits against oil companies, automakers, and power companies because of carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to the greenhouse effect. If the suits did come about and the companies did have to pay, where would the money go? The cigarette settlement has simply proven to be another source of income to state governments with very little going to treat the health impacts of tobacco use. The public will not tolerate new taxes; these suits represent another way to get more money into government through an invisible tax. The cigarette companies are not paying the settlements; the buyers of cigarettes are paying the hidden tax to provide the money. We call taxes on tobacco and alcohol ‘sin taxes.’ Are we going to call taxes on electricity and gasoline ‘sin taxes?’

Perhaps we should remember that with economic development and a rise in the standard of living comes protection of the environment. Perhaps we should look at the technology driven model that allowed the production of CFC-11 and CFC-12 to be phased out.
 

Title: Uphill Against Water: The Great Dakota Water War
Author: Peter Carrels
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0484
nebraskapress.unl.edu
Date: 1999

ISBN 0-8032-1496-0 (cloth)
ISBN 0-8032-6397-x (paper)

This book is for readers in the general public, and activist concerned with the organization of community efforts to oppose large projects that threaten significant environmental alterations. Uphill Against Water is a detailed description of the conflict among various interests impacted by federal water projects in the United States as perceived by opponents of an ill-advised irrigation project. The episode described extended over 40 years from the 1940s until the 1980s. The setting is the northern region of South Dakota located between the Missouri River, which flows through the approximate center of the state, and extending almost to the border with Minnesota on the east. The book describes the history of the Oahe Dam on the Missouri River and associated water projects. The specific focus is opposition to the Oahe Irrigation Project as lead by United Family Farmers, a grass-roots organization of concerned citizens, mostly local farmers. Ironically, the episode placed farmers, led by John Sieh, George Piper, and Curt Hohn and for whom the irrigation project was to be built and who opposed the project, against local urban interests, newspapers, assorted state politicians including the Governor, an array of federal agencies, and George McGovern, US Senator and presidential candidate from South Dakota. The long-term momentum of projects organized by the United States Bureau of Reclamation and the resistance efforts of local citizens are the focus of the book. The style of the book is from the point of view of the citizen opposition. A must read for those interested in community activism, grass-roots political movements, and the conflict between the power of government and ordinary citizens. The view of project proponents is presented in A Farmer Takes a Stand.
 

Title: An Ethics of Place: Radical Ecology, Postmodernity, and Social Theory.
Author: Mick Smith, 2001
Publisher: State University of New York Press, 90 State Street Albany, New York 12207

An Ethics of Place is a 287-page book containing an introduction and eight chapters. The hard-cover book is written in a scholarly style with 266 footnotes and copious reference to 411 entries in the Bibliography. Smith has demonstrated a masterful manipulation of an esoteric language to establish an ethic that will justify a political point of view. He starts with an intent to devise an ethical scheme and morality that will provide for the enactment, with a clear conscious, of the political program of a radical environmentalism. The object is a social movement seeking profound changes in our relationship with nature, a movement that requires dramatic changes in values, beliefs, politics, and economics. 

Since Marxism has failed manifestly to destroy capitalism through the establishment of a utopia built on an idyllic relationship between man and production, the same aim is advanced through the establishment of a utopia built on an idyllic relationship between man and nature. Anything is justified as long as it is done in the name of the environment. To that end, Marxism is used to inform a radical ecology for the purpose of accomplishing the destruction of industrial capitalism. Utopia will be reached with the demise of modernity and the return of the bucolic village. 

Favorable symbolism is employed to describe nature. For example, all species are referred to as “one’s fellows”, trees are sacred, the environment is termed our significant other, natural species are called our natural others, and nature is equated with women. On the other hand, derogatory symbolism is used to characterize utilitarian rationalism. Building a shopping center is ecological genocide, a road is devitalized space, chainsaw and bulldozer are agents of environmental holocaust, and modern society is masculine. Even language is masculine and must be destroyed for fear that it may convey contrary ideas.

Salvation lies in the eradication of the influence of rational thought. Since rationalism has brought us ecological genocide, erasing the influence of Newton, Bacon and Locke from the culture must tear the very roots of rational thought out. Feelings and emotions are to be substituted for rationality. We are to make decisions on the basis of political thought and how we feel about things. Products of modern society, the offspring of rationality like law, private control of property and individual freedom, have to go for the good of the environment.

The reviewer urges caution. An ethic that seeks to elevate the felling of an old tree in your backyard to the moral equivalent of killing your grandmother will, in the end, be more dangerous to your grandmother than protective of the tree. The book seeks to give moral force to those who actively work for the elimination of Newton from physics and capitalism from the economy. Perhaps An Ethics of Place will provide courage to those in academia who propose such an ethic to practice what they would have others do. 

Perhaps the advocates of an ethics of place will actively work to “make whole what has been smashed by the hand of modernity.” This can be accomplished through the deconstruction of the buildings and roads on their campuses, those edifices that serve as the temples of the enlightenment in our midst. Perhaps the last woman (the evil males having long since been banished) remaining in the forest that overgrows what once was a university campus can sit in green shade and contemplate the ethical dialectic between her desire for food and shelter as she starves and freezes and her since of wonder at the difference between a tree and herself. After all, cutting down a tree to clear land on which to grow food and provide lumber to build shelter is the product of a rational thought, which is no longer tolerated.