The Hidden Cost of Free Trade - orig. 08/10/07

Constantly focusing on the problem/problems in regards to sustainability is causing me some stress. Hopefully by now anyone reading this blog is convinced that we are facing some serious issues such that I no longer have to keep hammering away at them. I would like to spend more time focusing on viable solutions. These are going to take time to research and formulate.

A simple thing a person can start doing now is to stop barbecuing, especially with charcoal as this adds CO2 to the atmosphere which is one of the major causes of Global Warming.

One can also stop eating beef as cattle are a source of methane which is another contributor to Global Warming. Beef consumption is also a major force behind the destruction of the rain forest in Brazil.

-----

Here is an interesting article called In the Cards that a friend posted to the message board regarding personal energy consumption regulation that is being discussed in England.

-----

Here is a link, submitted by the same friend, to a series of environmental blogs at a site called Grist Magazine.

-----

I had to write a letter to my local newspaper today in response to an article by a guest columnist.

The hidden cost of free trade

I am writing in response to a guest column called “The complex benefits of free trade”. The problem with free trade is it places corporate externalities out of site of the American people and removes our ability to use trade sanctions as a means of deterrence.

Externalities include, but are not limited to, damage to the environment and the cost of environmental cleanup. It is more profitable for corporations to produce goods in developing countries that do not yet have environmental regulations or organized labor.

On a humanitarian level this means children and women working unreasonably long hours in sweat shops for wages that keep them in poverty. It also means Machiavellian tactics in regards to keeping labor forces from organizing.

Environmentally it means causing harm to the global ecology that may be irreparable. Developing nations have an extremely high rate of pollution. It is not until the toxicity of an environment begins to have an obvious negative impact on a significant portion of a nation’s population that the people begin to demand regulation.

Unfortunately the world is a closed system. The pollution being generated in developing nations right now can and will have an impact on the US.

I will use the example of global warming for this letter. Most scientists would agree that global warming is a real phenomenon that is currently taking place. Unregulated industry is a major source of the pollutants that are responsible for global warming.

A recent show I saw on PBS used a computer projection to show the portions of the American coastline, including most of Florida, that will be lost due to rising sea levels caused by global warming unless we spend many billions of dollars on dikes or do whatever is necessary now to slow the effect.

Another effect of global warming will be a shifting of the temperate zones. This means that the majority of our current farmland will become worthless in regards to the types of crops that are currently supported. This could lead to serious food shortages.

I don’t have room to discuss things like damage to other species and the destruction of the Brazilian rain forest.

Free trade agreements are extremely short sited in terms of the environment and humanity. They are designed to create short term profits for shareholders at the possible expense of our children’s and grandchildren’s futures.