///NATURE


STRIKES BACK///////


PART TWO 17


Breaking Points


Consumerism may have created a short-lived age of prosperity, but the “externalized” costs are tearing apart ecosystems and unique life forms that may soon be lost forever.


O


IL SPILLS, LITTER and threatened wildlife are nothing new. What is new is the frequency, magnitude and intensity of these manmade pressures on our world. Changing this death spiral sometimes seems


almost impossible. Mainstream apathy, an increasingly compromised media and a bipartisan lack of political will stand in the way of the drastic shift toward sustain- ability that is needed. For example, months after the BP spill—made possible by deep water drilling loopholes set down by former Vice President Dick Cheney’s secret Energy Task Force--the Obama administration cleared the way for more deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Many of those pumps are up and running, and


little has changed. New images obtained under the Free- dom of Information Act (see page 18) show that the BP oil spill caused far worse damage to wildlife and wetlands than previously admitted. Dolphins are sick, indicating ecosystem-wide damage, and other creatures such as sea turtles have suff ered huge losses. But oil spills are just one ugly side eff ect of the un-


folding tragedy of 100 years of linear consumerism. It’s clear that countries with economic wealth need to move quickly toward closed-loop, or better yet—“restorative” models of resource use. If private interests can’t or won’t help keep plastics out of waterways, protect freshwater ecosystems and put the needs of other living things ahead of corporate profi ts, then it’s a matter of our own survival to shut them down.


www.greenbuildermag.com 06.2012


PHOTO: STATICPHOTOGRAPHY.COM


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