Plan B: Rescuing a Planet....

I am in the final stages of reading the book Plan B: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble by Lester R. Brown, and the book has set me to thinking.

Mr. Brown discusses in his book what he believes to be some of our current global issues and offers outstanding theoretical evidence to prove the dire situation in which we are presently living. Some of these major issues include:

1) Declining fresh water access: Across the globe, we are increasing our rate of depletion of the water aquifers (yep, including ours here in the US-all of these topics apply to US as well), some of which have no ability to refill. Rivers and seas are also diminishing, especially as we are diverting water to arid areas for irrigation purposes. Decreased snow pack is also causing increased flooding in winter and less water flow during the hotter seasons.

2) Decreasing grain yields: While populations continue to grow, grain production has begun to decrease, which eventually could lead to more people and less food. We have begun to tap into our grain reserves. Fertile lands across the world also continue to decrease due to poor farming practices leading to increased deserts, among other reasons.

3) Global warming: Rising temperatures will decrease food production, while also continuing to increase the melting of ice caps. While the melting of some zones will not rise ocean levels, this phenom could occur if areas such as Greenland melt off. Rising ocean levels would then lead to the displacement of millions of individuals. Rising temperatures are also responsible for increased storms, which leads to horrible devastation.

4) Health epidemics: In poverty stricken areas, health epidemics such as AIDS, malaria, and the like decrease life expectancy and continue the cycle of poverty. Poverty restricts the ability of an individual to avoid such diseases and the diseases restrict the ability of an individual to move out of poverty. Within the world, one billion people are horribly under-nourished while one billion people are obese. Social injustice remains.

5) An underlying issue in each of the four issues mentioned above is that of population increase. The world continues to grow in population size increasing the pressure upon clean fresh water, food, and land usage. Increasing population in the industrialized nations also increases our overconsumption and our carbon footprints.

One major issue I began to think about in response to these topics is that of immigration. While I have a VERY liberal stance on immigration, I began to think about all of the environmental refugees that will be present in the world in the worse case scenario. If rising waters do occur, who takes responsibility for the individuals that will be displaced? Should it be us, here in the US, as we are the ones that have contributed some of the highest amounts of carbon gases to create the potential greenhouse effect? Should it be the neighboring countries as the displaced persons may benefit more from similar locales? What if the neighboring countries already have a high population count and are stressed beyond belief? Should displaced persons be distributed among a variety of countries? Should we all take on the "problem?"

My first problem with this discussion is that I feel like I'm talking about a commodity and not a person. My second problem is that I cannot even imagine what it would be like to be in that situation. Yet how do I know that some day I might not be banging on the door of a different country requesting the right to live on its land due to being displaced for political, environmental, or religious reasons. This is my primary problem with talking about immigration issues or listening to others talk about immigration issues. I definitely understand how increased people creates a "burden" on a society or a government, but if I was in the same situation as that person, I am almost sure that I would have made the same decision. If I was fighting for basic survival, I would have no qualms whatsoever to do whatever it took to cross a border into a land where life was "better." Why am I citizen of my nation and someone from a third world country is not? Two answers: luck and because I was born here-they go hand in hand. I could have been born there and someone else would have been here in my shoes......so who am I to deny anyone else the right to try to live where water is supposedly clean, the forests exist and are green, and the American "dream" can be attempted?

So I feel like I have two choices: I can attempt to make better individual choices to benefit the globe including the people and the lands contained in it OR I can begin to think about a day when I might be displaced or have to help support the displacement of others. Personally I currently think about both, but I would rather engage in choice a than have to face the facts of choice b.