Instead of the usual sky-is-falling rhetoric (often sadly necessary in our Ecological Unraveling), this piece focuses on a positive, proactive vision of what could be for our last functioning ecosystems and wildlife populations not just in the United States but around the world.
Racking up Debt
First, let’s start with a little (oversimplified) history. For good or ill, whether we like it or not, the U.S. is the most “powerful” nation in the world. The question few ask is: How did it get there?
One argument is that the foundation of the United States’ economy, culture, and influence is the “natural resources” taken from its rich, sprawling land and waters.
When Europeans first came to this continent, it was inhabited by hundreds of tribes who’d lived here for millennia. While Native Americans had an impact on the Earth, those civilizations (for a variety of reasons) left the majority of ecosystems intact. Even the Pilgrims co-existed for decades with indigenous people and the land, thanks to the latter’s generous sharing of survival tips with their largely unprepared visitors.
Of course, as more European immigrants showed up, this lighter footprint (both figuratively and literally: a moccasin print is nowhere as heavy as a boot print) devolved into plunderous extraction by the newly dominant culture. This ranged from harm to wildlife (overfishing, overtrapping, overhunting) to wildlands (clearing forests and plowing grasslands for settlements and agriculture), along with the brutal adoption of slavery to do it as cheaply as possible.
It was this vastness of land and fertility of life and that attracted and sustained the incoming flood of Europeans intent on the “manifest destiny” of commandeering almost all of it for themselves. Naturally, such pillage generated great treasure which translated into military might during World War II and ever since.
If the above is true, then the relatively high quality of life and wealth of your average American has been borrowed from the land…and not only hasn’t the debt been repaid, we’ve maxed out our credit limit.
Eco-Integrity Alliance 