 FRONT PAGE Archive Index Feedback |
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
| |||||
Focus On The Local To Avert Global Vulnerability
By Sandy Bradley
Oct 11, 2001 -- It's not just the terrorists...Our vulnerability demands a change in focus. We no longer feel as safe erecting buildings that stand out like targets on the horizon, flying on an airline that routes all flights through a single hub, or being dependent on a single power source. Centralization, long a favored move toward greater economic efficiency, is susceptible to suicide flights and explosive disruption.
Our vulnerability does not end there. We are vulnerable to infection and massive loss of crops when we use corporate farming methods of monoculture vegetation and intensive animal-fattening pens, whether a disease arrives naturally or is introduced by terrorists. Concentrations of people risk poisoning or infection through central air conditioning systems. Legionnaire's Disease already taught us about the dangers of recirculated air, but a calculated effort to inflict damage could be devastating in much larger buildings, like airports.
We're going to have to rethink this whole system. The things that make us the perfect target are also the things that are increasing our dependence. We depend on the supply network to ship us our food, which also increases our oil consumption and contributes to global warming. This weakens our ecosystems as we pollute and commute to our centralized jobs. We are making the gene pool that provides our food less flexible. We dilute our community participation by locating our jobs far from our homes. The system demands frequent moves to accommodate multi-national employers, and families are damaged when we squander our time on second jobs and long commutes.
All of these factors weaken our resilience locally, and therefore also nationally. They also take their toll in one more important way: they are very expensive! We could spare ourselves both the danger and the expense by making less costly choices.
Consider how would it affect your life if you:
* Had a job within a ten-minute walk from your home (A cardio-vascular bonus!)
* Grew some of your own vegetables and purchased the rest from local farms (yum!)
* Had an extra hour a day to spend with your kids (They need you!)
* Could count on your employer not transferring you to Houston (You'd have time to watch an apple tree grow and bear fruit!)
Would these improve your health? Your sex life?
Consider how it would affect our centralized supply systems if we changed our food production model in the following ways:
* So crop rotations, companion planting, and natural plant resilience replaced the pesticides that are polluting our environment (No more threat from crop-dusters with disruptive motives, either!)
* So we ate more locally produced foods (Fresher! More nutritious! Less transport cost! Food production profits stay in your community!)
* So it became less profitable for corporations to impoverish third world countries by demanding exotic monocrops for international distribution (Those farmers would grow food to eat locally! There'd be a cultural rekindling resulting from pride in self-sufficiency! We'd save many times the amount of oil available from one Arctic Wildlife Refuge!)
What if we gave credence to our real source of security: our community?
* You know the neighbors would take care of the kids
* The schools would have strong parental support
* You personally know the people you're going to have to depend on in real emergencies
* You know where to gather with your friends to talk about solutions, or count on equitable emergency food distribution
* If the power goes down you can all stay warm in the place with the wood stove or wind generator
* A neglected child's isolation could be diluted by a neighborhood full of friends
Seventy years ago things really worked like that. For millions of years we have evolved to live in exactly that sort of situation--we've been bred for it! We are a very specialized creature, and we have left our ideal social and natural environment in order to create a much more vulnerable one. We don't have to give up the polio vaccine, the Internet, cholesterol, personal vices or even travel. We just need to think carefully and return to some of our best old habits.
The big bonus? It'll be cheaper, healthier, more fun, more equitable, and of no value as a target for terrorism, if indeed any persists in the face of justice and common sense. And it will be easier, too: you can start in that direction today.
Sandy Bradley lives in Nahcotta, Washington on the Long Beach peninsula. Formerly a mainstay of the Seattle folk music scene and host of Sandy Bradley's Potluck radio show, she is now an organic oyster farmer and sustainability activist.
Reader Comments
Discuss this article in the forums!
No comments yet!