The Cost of Living -- an essay

[ljgeoff]

Up around my neck of the woods, there is a huge debate going on as to whether a nickel mine should be allowed to open. The land that sits on top of the nickel deposit belongs to the State of Michigan. The mining company, Kennecott Minerals, argues that there is money to be made. The opponents argue that the cost to the environment will be higher than the financial payout. It really is as simple as that.

Now everyone knows that the non-sentient entity known as "Kennecott Minerals" doesn't care about the environment. Like an earthworm, it's only concern is to continue feeding so that it may continue living. If an earthworm found out that it's poop was toxic to the soil that it lived in, it would simple keep moving forward, leaving the poop comfortably behind; it will keep doing this until there is no more 'forward' and it must do this right up until its own toxic poop kills it. It has no other alternative.

The question of whether Kennecott should be allowed to open a nickel mine on the Yellow Dog Plains is a pretty simple equation: will we end up paying more for it than what we get out of it? Kennecott is very invested in convincing the State and the locals that the payoff will be significant and the costs negligible.

The other two speakers in this debate are the locals and the State of Michigan.

Like a corporation, the State of Michigan is also a non-sentient entity. But instead of requiring profits for its survival, it requires reelection. I concede that there are officials who will make a stand for what they believe is right against public majority opinion, but for the most part, party officials will not throw their support behind a cause that is unsupported by their constituency.

Which leads to the locals, the people who will be left to live in Kennecott's poop trail. There are several reasons why the locals are comfortable with the notion to open a new nickel mine on the Yellow Dog Plains.

Organisms strive toward life. First and foremost, living things must take in nutrients, dispose of waste, and breed new life. This truism flows from the cellular level on up through the whole organism. Because of this, an organism will become toxic to itself if it must do so to live. An example of this is the disease phenylketonuria, or PKU. Some newborn infants are born with a defective enzyme. The infants are unable to correctly metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine, an amino acid in breast milk. When these infants are nursed at their mother's breast, their bodies cannot convert the phenylalanine into tyrosine. Toxic levels of phenylalanine cause severe mental retardation. But the baby has no choice; it must eat to live, even if eating causes causes her system to become toxic. Severe retardation is still life, and the organism always strives towards life.

In the same way, many locals are convinced that the immediate financial payoff of jobs that will provide sustenance to themselves and their families is more essential than the eventual toxicity of their environment. This is mining country, and the people here are used to having to acclimate to toxicity in order to live.

And besides, the poop pile is over there. Since most people live a significant distance from over there, they are more comfortable with making that place toxic. It's a shame, but folks gotta make a living.

Finally, Kennecott has spent a lot of time and money convincing the locals that the damage won't be any more significant than what they've known all their lives, and the payoff is worth a little sacrifice.

In the meantime, the people who actually live on the Yellow Dog Watershed are going absolutely apeshit. They are being betrayed by their neighbors, and they are angry, hurt and horrified. Because they are a small group of people with limited assets, there is a good chance that they will not be able to convince their neighbors that the payoff will not be worth the sacrifice.

Deciding whether sacrifice is worth averting probable future pain requires a level of sentience. I'm curious of what a sentient community would look like. I wonder how "American" it would be; We The People are so invested in individual rights that we forget that we live communally in our environment. There really is no over there.

I think that it'd be a good idea to move toward sentience. Does our society really need this nickel mine? Does our community really need these jobs? Is the toxicity worth it?

I believe that sacrifice now might better insure life for our grandchildren. That is my answer. Perhaps you have a different answer. I would be willing to debate the question.

Currently, the decision process includes applications to the DNR and EPA. The DNR is holding a hearing in Lansing, Michigan as this post is being written on whether it is legal, by the laws of Michigan, for Kennecott Mine to open.

The hearing is being conducted before Richard A. Patterson, an administrative law judge with the state Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules. It involves two permits -- one for building and operating the mine, and the other for groundwater discharge. Patterson could uphold the DEQ's ruling or recommend that it be rejected. The final decision would be made by DEQ Director Steven Chester, who already has endorsed his staff's recommendation to approve the mine. Entire Associated Press Article

Most of the locals think that the hearing is about whether the mine will be safe enough; what the hearing is actually about is "a challenge filed by the National Wildlife Federation, the Huron Mountain Club, the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. They contend the DEQ wrongly concluded that Kennecott's plan meets environmental protection standards set under a state nonferrous mining law enacted in 2004."

I think that we, as a society and as a species still think of this planet as one of limitless resources. There is no end to the air in the sky and the sea is vast beyond our imagining. But, like the people of the Easter Islands, our resources are finite. And like the Easter Islanders, our choices may spell out disaster.

Or maybe we are canny enough, intelligent enough, and sentient enough to ask the right questions, to find the answers that point down a path toward survival. This new path will take courage and belief in our fellow humans. It will take hope. It will be frustratingly difficult. But working toward solution is the only really interesting option.

Comments

[anansi133.livejournal.com]

I might quibble a bit about your use of the word, "sentient". I mean, what *is* a sentient being? An individual? Most of the time, most of us muddle on through with only ocasional moments of self-reflection. If the mind of an institution is distributed among many brains, one might argue that it is *more* sentient over the long term, because all its brains are thinking about its sense of self more than they're thinking about their own.

I suspect the problem with institutions like Kennecott and the Michigan Congress, is not that they lack self awareness, but rather that they are overspecialized. As long as currency (in the form of votes and dollars) comes flowing in, then they can regard themselves as successful. A livable environment is only vaguely represented by votes, and not at all by money. (there's just no money in being able to breathe and drink clean, but there's lots of money in selling pure commodities to a starved population.)

In times of famine, there was a Chinese parable of picking one province to starve, and a neighboring province to feed. The fed areas will be loyal to you forever, and the starved one doesn't count, because it's dead. Sounds like the Yellow Dog Locals have been designated to take it in the shorts this time. But there's a long track record of fighting mine companies, and plenty of propaganda come and gone about what such-and-such a project will do to the economy. The two provinces couldn't talk to each other very well in old time China, things should be different now.

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do get what you mean. I have been trying to tease out for myself the difference between the corporate entity and the people who run the corporation. The fact is, the people who run the corporation are very clear and very invested in the idea that the corporation is a separate entity. Given that American businesses exist to make money, it follows that it would be against their nature to put any consideration before money making. For a business to sacrifice profits for what the people who run the business would consider "moral obligations" would be like a tiger deciding to go vegitarian.

In Collapse, Diamond writes, "Difficulties or reluctance to understand and accept this distinction underscores much of the tension between advocates of broadly mandated environmental programs and the business community."

In dealing with corporations, it always has to be about the money.

And as far as our Yellow Dog Locals go, there's an unhappy added dynamic; the folks who live in that area are, by and large, tree-hugging intellectuals. The other locals are mostly blue-collar salt of the earth's who are ... well, not exactly pleased that the oh-so-superior tree huggers are taking a fall, but there's a feeling of "now they can see what it's like to be us" in there.

[anansi133.livejournal.com]

Oh, and BTW, you can listen to Jared Diamond's talk over here:

http://www.longnow.org/projects/seminars/

it's about 2/3rds of the way down the page. Big Fun!

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

thanks!