In high school I used to think history was kind of useless: bunch of facts about dead guys and broken things and times no longer relevant. In university, Geographers and other more ”practically disciplined” academics chuckle at the History majors, suggesting the only career for one to apply a history degree is that of a history teacher. While that may be somewhat true, I have grown to appreciate insights for the future from examining the past.
Today’s history lesson: cheap and unethical sources of energy enable unsustainable and unequally distributed wealth. From a Knowledge Network TV series (*nerd alert*), I recently learned how colonial slavery fueled the riches of few elite in Britain… and when precedent was set to free slaves who won supreme court cases in Britain, it fueled an ideology of freedom in the US, leading to war and the declaration of independence.
Well, that’s the basic storyline. But the subplot I find enlightening for considering the predicament we are in today: slaves were seen as necessary for producing the commodities (sugar, cotton) that fueled economic growth; today, we rely on fossil fuel.
Notably, today we are reliant on an energy form less directly challenging to our morals and sense of humanity; though just as tortuous, as millions succumb to starvation, disease, natural disasters and increasing violent conflicts. Except this time, we also assault a great number of beings beyond our own species.
Are we bound to this destructive societal norm?
The host of the program noted that the Americans grew weary of high taxation, and desired liberty from British control… But he also surmised that increasingly, awareness of the lavish riches obtained by British merchants fueled a sense of injustice. Americans did not consider freeing slaves until much later, partly because they thought their way of life was reliant on slaves, and they were seeking to advance their society to meet the standard of those in Europe. What does this teach us about our predicament today?
Well, one does not need to look at history to see how unjust distribution of wealth is around the world… And how it is human nature to attempt to balance this inequity. Naturally, China, India and other developing nations will continue to use convenient and undervalued energy to fuel development, just as the US used slave labour (as did many other nations after the US abolished it). I imagine the move to mechanized harvest methods eventually made the transition away from slave labour easier.
This is not unlike the current focus on clean technology. At the individual level, there is friction between the “classes”. Example: what thoughts and feelings does the picture of a rich oil executive create for you? For me:
- Power above others.
- Greed.
- Justified by the current social norm (capitalism, individualism)… to name a few.
When I first started writing this blog post, I got to the line above, and wasn’t quite sure how to finish. It is a tiring subject to contemplate – wrought with the complexities of social justice, economic theories and environmental sustainability. Part of me ran out of steam, and another part just thought: “whoa, this is deep”.
Slavery. Can I really compare the terrible reality of this former societal norm to the prevalence of fossil fuel tyranny? Apparently, I can… because I have peers (who also happen to be peer-reviewed) that have done so before me.
”Today, the United States is as dependent on fossil fuels for its patterns of consumption and production as its South was on slavery in the mid-nineteenth century. It may therefore be unsurprising that US congressmen often rationalise fossil fuel use despite climate risk to future generations, just as slavery was rationalised despite ideals of equality.”
(Davidson, Marc. 2007. Parallels in reactionary argumentation in the US congressional debates on the abolition of slaveryand the Kyoto Protocol. Climatic Change (2008) 86:67–82. Retrieved from: http://www.springerlink.com/content/q5021x4506k0r622/fulltext.pdf)
From another article:
“Slavery Abolitionists Accused of Threatening a Way of Life… Those people who fought for the abolition of slavery were described as challenging the way of life in the Empire, in the colonies, and abolition would lead to sure economic collapse.”
The way out of this, if we look to history, is a gradual transition. Leaders of change can demonstrate to the “economy crusaders” that we can change how we produce and deliver goods and services. I think we need to show that wellbeing need not need to rely on unethical sources of energy. And the definition of wellbeing… I’ll leave that for another day.
From my sphere to yours, here’s to Earth on a Platter.
HB
