The Collapse is Happening Now

By Nicole Yegorina / Fall 2019

Over the last few decades, we’ve seen movies like the American classic “Back to the Future” paint a stunning image of the year 2025. Advanced society, flying cars, robot servants - a prosperous utopia of sorts. In reality, it’s almost the year 2020 and the only thing we’re expecting in the next half a decade is rising sea waters, regularly erratic temperatures, and more super storms. How could we have gotten the story so wrong? Who’s responsible for all this chaos? What can we do about it? Everyone has so many questions but the answers are all too hard to come by. The only thing that’s certain is that the rules and methodologies of our current society are doing nothing to stop the acceleration of climate change; in fact, they are only making it worse. Society is currently on track to raise the planet’s temperature by three to five degrees Celsius by the year 2100, well above the two degree limit that scientists have warned us would be detrimental to our planet. All around the world people are already experiencing the effects of climate change - millions of people are at risk of losing their homes, millions of people are already losing their homes. Indigenous folk whose ancestors have lived in harmony with mother nature for centuries are suddenly forced off of their land, and where are these people supposed to go?

Before we examine the situation and who or what is responsible, let me give you some context. As the earth warms, historic ice sheets start to break apart and melt into the ocean, causing sea levels to rise - the effects of this can be seen all over the world. In the South Pacific, island countries like Kiribati and the Marshall Islands, which are only a few meters above sea level, are starting to disappear. Hundreds of thousands of people are struggling to keep the sea out of their homes. Residents are forced to build barriers of rock and coral to protect their livelihoods but there is only so much they can do - barriers of coral are no match for more frequent and stronger storms. The rising sea level is affecting these people’s fresh water supply, it is destroying the trees and farms that they rely on. Trees that have been used to sustain these peoples for centuries are being ripped out of the ground, and there’s nothing they can do to stop this. To make matters worse, sacred burial grounds are being washed up at high tide and adding to the emotional horror that presents, sanitation becomes a major concern. These people are having their homes ripped away from them in front of their very eyes, how are they supposed to stop this destruction?

In 2019, three children from the Marshall Islands decided that they could no longer silently watch the destruction of their home. Along with thirteen other children from around the world, they filed a complaint with the United Nations accusing powerful nations of failing to protect them against climate change; they gave testimonies about what is happening to their livelihoods and their futures in hopes that the world would hear them and work on a solution. This powerful message, this cry for help, has certainly been heard all around the world, and has left world leaders with no excuses for not taking the appropriate steps towards a sustainable future. This is incredibly important because realistically there is not much that the islanders themselves can do to fix this problem. The problem of climate change stems from thousands of miles away, from affluent countries - where technological breakthroughs partnered with the misconception that men own this planet have led to gross misconduct and mass ignorance.

Developed countries have secured their position at the top by wildly industrializing and polluting, and today, developing countries are taking the same path in order to achieve a higher standard of living. After centuries of operating without consideration to the effects of our actions, mother nature is starting to wage war on her unloving children. Now, even people who have followed nature’s rules are in big trouble.

Island peoples will be the first to experience the full effects of climate change and they will feel it more than anyone in the developed world. The general population of island residents is not particularly wealthy, many families live in extreme poverty, not able to provide for their basic needs. Large families often live under the same roof, supporting each other in whatever way they can. These people don’t have the privilege to just pack their bags and start anew - the most they can do is say goodbye to their homes and move as much inland as possible. In the next thirty to fifty years, however, this will no longer be an option. Rising sea waters will swallow these countries whole, and all inhabitants will be forced to flee. Mary Robinson, who was president of Ireland in the nineteen hundreds, reflected on this issue in her Ted Talk Why Climate Change is a Threat to Human Rights. As you watch this Ted Talk, you can feel yourself filling up with despair as she empathized with the leaders of these island countries. She discussed how unimaginably painful it must be for these leaders, knowing that they don’t have many options left to protect their people. She talks about the President of Kiribati and how “he has to wake up every morning thinking about the impacts of climate change on his people,” and how he’s had to buy out land from different countries, in fear that his people will be permanently dislocated with nowhere to go. (Robinson 2015) These island residents, who don’t have any material wealth, are running out of time. They will be forced off of their islands and will become what is known as climate refugees, seeking asylum in any country that will take them, but who will take them? We’re seeing that people in countries like the United States are becoming increasingly resistant to outsiders, using patriotism as a mask for racism, and choosing to blindly follow mass media’s notion that outsiders are a threat. With the returning rising tide of white supremacy, these climate refugees are experiencing the worst from the countries they are looking to call home. But where are these ideas stemming from? Who is pushing for these policies that make it increasingly difficult to get through the border? How come it is so easy for multinational corporations to move freely throughout the world, but so hard for climate refugees to find a place to call home?

The answer to these questions could be found by examining the neoliberal ideas that have spent the last few decades circulating throughout our society. At its core, neoliberalism calls for free market competition, a decrease in government spending, and market deregulation. Its goal is “to transfer control of economic factors to the private sector from the public sector.” (Kenton 2019) The logical reasoning behind this is that given the ability to do so, the private sector will propel society forward and increase people’s quality of life. Theoretically it is a great concept, however in reality, human beings are notoriously thirsty for wealth and power - by deregulating the market, the greedy people are increasingly able to get away with things that are detrimental to society and the planet. The materialism of the most wealthy men, powered by neoliberalism “played a major role in a remarkable variety of crises: the financial meltdown of 2007‐8, the offshoring of wealth and power, of which the Panama Papers offer us merely a glimpse, the slow collapse of public health and education, resurgent child poverty, the epidemic of loneliness, the collapse of ecosystems, the rise of Donald Trump.” (Monbiot 2016) By leaving multinational companies unchecked, and allowing for the top 1% to accumulate the world’s wealth, we are allowing our society to slide into the dystopian future that we are so desperately afraid of. The result of this ideology is the prioritization of profits over people, and the societal manifestation of a rats race to get to the top - side effects include ignorance towards environmental degradation, and hostility towards outsiders who now are seen as competition. These are the barriers that are keeping climate refugees from solving their problems, one way or another

Now that we’ve examined this problem, let’s explore a future where this issue has been solved. No more climate catastrophe, no more refugees, no more 1% - how can we get there? By developing a certain set of principles we can take a step in the right direction. Firstly, as a society we need to see our planet and it’s natural resources as a common good. If private businesses provided goods and services for the betterment of society, and made only a modest profit, we would alleviate a significant portion of the problems we face today. Which leads me to the second principle of interdependence - humanity needs to acknowledge that we are all interconnected by the very fact that we are living on this planet together. If we are letting materialism and greed fuel our actions, we will be negatively impacting other members of society - coming back to haunt us in a plethora of different ways. These two principles are crucial to our futures and it’s imperative for the struggling peoples of the world that we make this shift sooner rather than later.

Thankfully, this movement has already started! Young people around the world are starting to understand that they are being used as pawns in the game of riches. They are banding together from all walks of life to stand up against the oppression and widespread misinformation. Classes in universities are starting to teach using an intersectional lens, shining light on issues from multiple perspectives. Ethics classes are slowly becoming integrated with general curriculum, educating young people on what a world void of ethics can look like. Young people are the future, and with the proper education and guidance, the future can can be green, sustainable, and equitable. The next step is for business leaders to understand these principles, and acknowledge the consequences of their actions. Indeed there is a cultural shift happening, where business leaders are starting to awaken and take action, but this needs to assimilate faster within the private sector. We should see economists adopting these principles and exploring new economic models, ones that will serve society as a whole.

Every man, woman, and child from all over the world should be concerned about the impacts of climate change. Although island folk are on the front lines of this issue, they are experiencing just the beginning. If we continue on our current path, we will see a total collapse in our ecosystem. Everything is interconnected, all of us humans, the animals, the environmental systems - if we throw our environment out of balance, who knows how long it would take for it to get back to normal. By reducing our own carbon footprints, exposing the multinational corporations that are directly fueling this problem, and taking control back from the 1%, we as well as our children and grandchildren will be able to live our lives in a world safe from environmental disaster.

Works Cited

Kenton, Will. “Neoliberalism.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 18 Nov. 2019.

Miles, Tom. “Global Temperatures on Track for 3-5 Degree Rise by 2100: U.N.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 29 Nov. 2018.

Monbiot, George. “Neoliberalism – the Ideology at the Root of All Our Problems.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 15 Apr. 2016.

Robinson, Mary. “‘Why Climate Change Is a Threat to Human Rights.’” TED, 2015.