As someone who used to be a sci-fi aficionado, I'm pretty familiar with those cautionary portrayals of a not-so-distant future, replete with the various environmental impacts of human exploitation on the Earth, and more interestingly, the way mankind copes with them. Be it relocating from the affected areas, building cities upon spires in the sky ala The Jetsons, burrowing under the earth to seek refuge, ensconcing ourselves in great spheres, or abandoning the planet and scattering to the cosmos, Wall-e comes to mind in this case. The fertility of human imagination and the will to live form a potent combination, giving birth to such fantastical "solutions". That's what I love about sci-fi: Its exploration of the trajectory of society's progress; where it may lead and the issues it may bring.
Which very neatly brings me, after much vacillation to the current hazy situation. But rather than an apportioning of blame, or comment about the ineffectual flapping around on the political front, because really, what can we do? What's been more interesting to me have been the ways we've been dealing with the haze: From the more mundane N95 masks, to the guys donning full-face chemical defense masks, it's obvious that this has impacted us to some extent. And this isn't the first time we've been the victims of our neighbor's negative externalities, so much so that the face mask has become something of a seasonal garb for some of us, but it's unprecedented in degree and has quite rightly unsettled various individuals seated in high places. In the army (cause that's pretty much all I know), response was as swift as could be expected, urged on no doubt by the current safety climate (8th core value lol), outdoor activities were quickly curtailed before eventually being cut-off altogether - disrupting our plans to change tracks, you won't find me complaining though - and the night found us seeking refuge in the offices, pillows and blankets in hand - sorry if I'm giving a negative portrayal of the army - as PSI levels soared, having had our hopes of being allowed to head home dashed mercilessly. All this while I found myself melodramatically entertaining thoughts of what could happen were pollution levels to persist or perhaps even continue to climb further, air handling units whirling desperately as their filters get clogged up with carbon particles in the air, people beginning to drop like flies, those with past history first, as the realization sinks in that the air we used to breathe and take for-granted is simply no longer breathable. Conjuring scenarios of whether this could hint at the harbinger of a new Ice Age, caused not by the eruption of nascent super-volcanos, ash clouding the sky, but rather the spread of flames beyond what we claim to be able to control, soot released, blocking the sun. Pretty far-fetched but an interesting 'exercise' for a way too idle mind.
I make no claim to be a bleeding-heart environmentalist, but it should be pretty clear that environmental preservation or even simply limiting the extent of environmental damage simply isn't possible within a solely capitalist environment. Companies cannot be made to wholly feel the consequences of their actions, since these negative externalities can hardly be localised, and rarely, if ever, will they feel the onus to sacrifice some of their profits in the name of the environmental protection. There has to be something above the profit margins that we're all answerable to, a corporate and social accountability. Even setting that aside and looking at profits alone, one glance at the curative/coping measures sci-fi writers and/or scientists (though the two are hardly mutually exclusive) have laid out before us will inform us that these measures will not come cheaply. Would it not be remiss if not downright negligent to ignore the long-term costs of environmental damage in favour of short-term profits? "Prevention is better than cure", "A stitch in time saves nine", adages so overused that we're all sick of them, but that's the only possible course of action, if you don't wish to see us scrambling over ourselves to find the next solution; at that point long queues to get N95 masks will be the least of our concerns. If corporations can't be made to plan and act with the future in mind, besides some blatantly token gestures of appeasement, shouldn't that be where the very visible hand comes in to make them do so? It's not going to be easy, when such huge sums of money are involved, the system needs much enforcement: When the government claims no control over the activities of such corporations within their own jurisdictions, even when these activities are illegal, then you know that there's something very wrong going on.
Someone has to bite the bullet, before we're all forced to do so somewhere down the line of inaction, excuses and false promises.
An interesting question, a little food for thought though: Why protect the environment? Above I've only talked about (and not at any particular depth even at that) the benefits accrued to mankind, or conversely the discomfort we stand to experience and the costs accumulated by sustained environmental damage. Are there any further reasons? Our intrinsic and inextricable link to the natural environment around us and an innate capacity to appreciate it? The intangible joy we experience while enveloping ourselves in it? The desire to preserve it for our children? Or even out of, as the cynical may call it, a sense of nostalgia, to keep things just as they are. Even then, all these intangibles derive themselves from a very human perspective. Motivations which if not exactly selfish harbour at least a little self-interest. Is there anything else? Thinking about all this brings me back to those PW days, really. Heh perhaps I'd benefit from digging up those materials and having a look around.
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