Modern society's pyrrhic victory

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There is a price we are all being asked to pay collectively for modern society and all of its amenities.  Technoiogical advancements in the twentieth century have provided us both with achievements that lead us to think of ourselves as existing at the pinnacle of human existence and as masters over nature, but these same advancements have also come at a great cost to life on the planet.  The question of whether or not modern society can sustain itself is currently being asked, but have our actions up to now already put into motion events that have reduced humanty's chance of survival?  Are modern life amenities really worth the risk?

The Pyrrhic War was a series of battles fought between the Greeks, the Romans, and the Carthaginians in the years 280-275 BCE.  King Pyrrhus of Greece, upon defeating his Roman enemies, declared, "If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined".

Similarly, modern society has seemingly defeated nature.  The industrial age, or modernization, was a period where social change and economic development was paired with technological innovation which sought vast quantities of resources from nature.  During this time, large-scale energy production was instituted for the purpose of manufacturing more goods more quickly.  People living in industrialized countries now enjoy the fruits of those labors with homes and offices geared with technoligical devices that have successfuly removed many of the challenges in nature that limited the people living in pre-industrialized nations.

Some of the modern advancements that have thrust humanity into a new age include water infrastructure capable of bringing clean water to homes and taking wastewater away, energy infrastructure that provides electricity to power computers, televisions, refrigerators, coffee makers, lights, radios, and the like, natural gas pipelines that allow not only for hot water heating but also clean cooking indoors, transportation infrastructure that allows goods to be dependably shipped into local communities, and communication infrastructure that allows information to be passed through digital signals.  We are, no doubt, living in an age of significant human achievement.

But the question of whether or not our achievements are coming at too great a cost to humanity as a whole, and to the natural ecosystems around us, is a question worth asking.

Much of the settling of America by European colonists had religious overtones.  From the times shortly after the settling of the original thirteen colonies, the West became a place of fear; it was viewed as a place of the unkown, full of beasts, demons, and savages.  Nature was 'wild', as were the people who lived in it, and was in need of being tamed by the hand of man.  "The challenge of the yeoman farmer was to convert the land from a (useless) wilderness to a (useful) garden, in the name of God. They began immediately to wrest the land from a forested state and to make it flourish in the tradition of husbandry they had brought with them from England."

From Carolyn Merchant's book called Reinventing Eden; the Fate of Nature in Western Culture, "Narratives form our reality.  We become their vessels.  Stories find, capture, and hold us.  Our lives are shaped by the stories we hear as children; some fade as we grow older, others are reinforced by our families, churches, and schools.  From stories, we absorb out goals in life, our morals, and our patterns of behavior.  For many Americans, humanity's loss of the perfect Garden of Eden is among the most powerful of all stories.  Consciously at times, unconsciously at others, we search for ways to reclaim our loss.  We become actors in a storyline that has compelled allegiance for millenia".

No doubt that the stories of the Bible have shaped American history.  Genesis 1:28 ("Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground") has been interpreted quite literally by early and modern Americans alike to mean that the natural world is here for our consumption and disposal.  Merchant, in her book, tries to draw attention to the way the Genesis story, as well as others, have been interpreted by the imperfect human mind over time and makes the powerful point that "mastering nature to reclaim Eden, has nearly destroyed the very nature people have tried to reclaim."

Synonyms for the word 'subdue' include beat down, conquer, control, defeat, dominate, overcome, overpower, overrun, quash, reduce, repress, restrain, squelch, subjugate, suppress, tame, and trample.  It seems as though this word from Genesis, which has been exponentially applied to every corner of the globe, is the wrong word to be using with such a benevelont entity such as the earth.  

Still, early American colonists took the Genesis phrase quite literally, and so does modern society.  Our communities have streched across the whole continent; we have built homes to protect us from the elements; we have roads to take us anywhere we desire; our electrical transmission system weaves its way through urban and rural communities; dams have been constructed and rivers managed to make water available in cities where lack of water prevented settling.  In fact, humanity has conquered nature to such an extent that we have a blossoming technology culture replete with movies, video games, reality tv, iPhones, computers, etc.; we even have toys like recreation boats, private planes, motor bikes, ATVs, and snowmobiles. 

We have conquered nature, and nature has passively allowed us to conquer it; but has our victory come at too great a cost?

The NYT published a piece called, Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering.  In it, they try to draw attention to the growing water crisis facing Americans living in regions of heavy energy development.  "Almost four decades ago, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to force polluters to disclose the toxins they dump into waterways and to give regulators the power to fine or jail offenders. States have passed pollution statutes of their own. But in recent years, violations of the Clean Water Act have risen steadily across the nation.  In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants, and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times. The violations range from failing to report emissions to dumping toxins at concentrations regulators say might contribute to cancer, birth defects, and other illnesses.  However, the vast majority of those polluters have escaped punishment."  Find out if your drinking and bath water in your house is safe to use here.

The natural gas industry has begun to be questioned by the EPA for Clean Water Act violations of its own; so has mountiantop coal mining where they use dynamite to blast off the tops of mountains filling thousands of square miles of valleys and streams below.  The chemicals being used for natural gas drilling are showing up in many residences' drinking water (although it hasn't been proven yet).

Pollution from coal-fired power plants is the main cause of mercury poisoning in fish.  It is also the main source of CO2 emissions, a main contributer of sulpher dioxide to the atmosphere which contributes to acid rain, a major emitter of nitrogen oxide which causes smog, and is responsible for dumping copious amounts of arsenic and lead into the environment.  (Union of Concerned Scientists)

Without getting technical here, oil drilling affects the environment at every stage of the process.  Seismic waves used to find offshore reserves disorient marine life leading to beachings; infrastructure such as pipelines and roads disrupt migration corridors; wastewater and sludge ponds from drilling affect water sources and impact wildlife; burning it in our automobiles produces pollution that leads to negative health impacts in humans; the plastics we make from it do not decompose easily and they have recently found a large patch of floating plastic (twice the size of Texas) in the central Pacific; the fertilizer we make from it is causing dead zones in river deltas where it is concentrated; oil-based pesticides have a way of washing into our groundwater supply.

Is this really what was meant by "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground"?  Human beings have been fruitful and multiplied to the point the earth's resources can no longer sustain our species; we have successfully subdued the earth to the point that it is dying; we have overfished the fish of the seas and impacted virtually every ecosystem and every living creature on earth, sending an increasing number into extinction every year. 

We have created our own extinction event, one that is caused by human actions.  "In the 21st century, the extinction rate is nothing short of explosive due to habitat degradation, overexploitation, agricultural monocultures, human-borne invasive species, and human-induced climate-change.  Fully 40% of the examined species of planet earth are in danger, including perhaps 51% of reptiles, 52% of insects, and 73% of flowering plants." (Daily Galaxy)  (American Museum of Natural History)

Humanity has successfully conquered nature.  In every corner of the earth, we can find evidence of human society.  Our technical advancements have allowed us to achieve amazing improvements in the quality of life.  We have developed a culture that is able to grow food, raise livestock, deliver water, build homes, and allow for culture and communication to thrive; but at what cost?

Is humanity's victory over nature really a pyrrhic one after all?  Do we really want to pay the price we are being asked to in order to keep business going as usual?  How much is clean water worth to you?  Clean air?  Healthy ecosystems?  $4 per month?  $12?  $300?  One thing is for certain.  The cost in human suffering will only increase if we don't find a way to balance our modern lives with the laws of nature.

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