The daily news reports about the Gulf oil spill bring the effects of modern industry home to people everywhere on earth. The actual fact of the oil spewing forth from a pipe more than a kilometer below the ocean’s surface combined with the all too frequent public relations lies issued by the private and public officials that claim to be resolving the situation. The effects of human hubris combined with the greed of monopoly capitalism reveal their ugly nature in an eruption of fuel whose only truly lasting effect is the fouling of nature for immeasurable time.
No one in their right mind honestly can foretell the long term effects of the Gulf oil spill on the earth. Those who claim to have such insight are lying to themselves and all those that listen to them. Indeed, it is not even possible to predict the fortunes of BP at this point. The economic effects of its demise would certainly be felt by many whose only fault is that they either worked for BP or a related industry or that their pension funds are somehow tied up in that corporate monolith. If one thinks a bit more about it, even those of us whose relationship to BP is very tangential will feel some effects not only from the natural effect of the spill but from the economic effects as well.
The same can be said about what has come to be known as global warming. Despite its naysayers, the fact of global climate change has been documented over and over. Its relationship to human undertakings remains a matter of debate, but the fact of climate change is considerably less so. In his latest book, No Rain in the Amazon, Nicholas Kozloff accepts the predominant scientific evidence pointing towards global climate change and looks at its effect in South America. To hone his perspective further, Kozloff uses a prism that dissects the role economic and political relations between the wealthier and poorer nations plays in how the effects of this climate change are felt by those who live on the continent to Washington’s south.
The effects of changes in the weather such as increased or decreased rainfall are described throughout the book. One example of such changes is the incredible rise in soybean farming in Brazil. These farms, which produce soybeans for northern markets, are on land that was previously part of the Amazon rain forest. As the market increased for soy so did the destruction of the forest as growers–legally and otherwise–destroyed the forest to make way for soy plantations. These plantations, which are now reaching into the mato grosso (dense forest) have changed the patterns of soil erosion and population density. In addition, the accompanying roads and other development have impacted the animal life that once lived in the region. To this, one must add the fact that thousands of the workers in these regions are landless peasants who have come to work in the industry now that they can no longer sustain their previous lifestyles. The owners and management have done little or nothing to provide housing for the workers. So, they have constructed shantytowns and live off of meager wages and fish from rivers polluted with pesticides from the soybean plantations.
In discussing the environmental and economic impact of the soy and other industries in South America, Kozloff acknowledges the complexities of the situation. The desire of governments to improve their people’s lot in life and the compromises one makes with the world’s neoliberal economic reality are always present in his writing, as is the role local practices like slash and burn play in the climactic and environmental changes being wrought. There are no simple solutions to the situation Kozloff describes. However, No Rain in the Amazon makes it very clear that it is northern hemisphere capital that has created the current state of affairs. Furthermore, it is the governments of the nations that serve that capital whose inaction is exacerbating them. Cap and trade is not a solution, but a capitalist method to place the blame for climate change on the very nations that are currently paying the most in human terms for its effects.
Indeed, if one takes Kozloff’s underlying theme in this book–that the neoliberal policies of leading capitalist nations are what is most responsible for the modern human causes of climate change–it can be reasonably argued that climate change is one more element in the history the underdevelopment of the southern hemisphere by the capitalist north. In other words, it is just one more element of the colonial legacy.