It’s a Mad, Mad World Out There

The goals of corporatism are incompatible with the goals of ecology. No matter how we look at it, no matter how benevolent a corporation may be or how wide reaching and well meaning its CSR program, its prime directive will always be to encourage conspicuous consumption in one form or another.

If by slaping on an eco-label on its product it can make a customer feel good about buying that product then that is what a corporation will do. The aim remains the same to keep us buying, to keep us consuming and most important of all to ensure we keep disposing of old stuff at regular enough intervals and replacing it all with new stuff. It is the raison d'être of the corporation. If a corporation stops it dies, like a shark that needs to keep swimming even while it sleeps, otherwise it sinks. We all saw what the cloud of volcanic ash did to the travel industry!

I am not arguing that corporations are bad or evil in some way. They are a tool of capitalist society, a society that at one point decided that the only means to achieve efficient acquisition of wealth in sufficient quantities was to encourage a disposable culture. A corporation is a mechanism of business a tool of man's own making and we may if we choose decide to do away with it at any time.

It is no secret that our world has reached the crisis point, what we do now will determine if we live and how we live, and by "we" I mean our genetic extensions, our off springs. So it is the fight of our lives, literally, and it concerns every one of us. How we fight might also change as we get closer to that point of no return, beyond which there is little we can do to reverse the damage.

Traditional economic struggles between rich and poor nations could shift to ones of survival, as in the struggle over dwindling water resources in the Middle East, and may turn into very real hot wars. As environmental degradation worsens the poorest of our world may have few options open to them and few resources to fight a modern conventional war. We may see a new breed of eco-terrorist emerge, or eco-freedom fighter, whichever side of the wealth barrier you happen to be on.

All I know is that from mere observation alone I see my own country, Lebanon, going full speed ahead towards the ecological abyss and in a few years time we may start to circle that dreaded drain as we continue to mercilessly deplete our natural resources.

Political stability has brought about a plethora of business opportunities which has attracted a number of jobless expatriate Lebanese from the Gulf and even a few from the Americas and Europe who are returning home more often, some are even coming back to stay. This artificial population explosion which used to be seasonal can be felt all year round now and our country's meager resources cannot cope. Our road and transport system is too primitive and under developed, our water collection, storage and distribution system is too inadequate and our electricity sector is under crisis management.

Yet demand, nay dare I say insatiable hunger for land continues to grow and with it a new construction boom is sweeping the country, an unregulated and haphazard boom that threatens to pave over every green patch in Beirut and Mount Lebanon. But we cannot expect businesses in a feeding frenzy to put the brakes on development or regulate where they build and how high they go, that's a job for government.

To protect and defend its people and territories and to set, expound and enforce the law that is the state's primary mission as I understand it. Yet in Lebanon we see a state run by an oligarchy of private, tribal, confessional and corporate interests that is actually benefiting from the current state of affairs.

So if this is the sorry, sad state of affairs what hope is there for an environment which while enthusiastically promoted in countless political speeches is only really seen as an impediment to further growth and development. To a resource poor country like Lebanon, a nice view and clement weather could mean hundreds of thousands of tourists a year visiting spending foreign currency. But for the short sighted a view only conceals riches in the ground, rock, sand and gravel to feed the construction boom.

The choices we face are not easy, but if we make the right ones we could save future generations from living in a lifeless desert, with a population decimated by famine and disease and only hollow concrete shells, ghost towns, monoliths to the Gods of greed and avarice. If some view my warning as needlessly alarmist, look around you.

If you live in Beirut or Mount Lebanon, chances are your quiet neighborhood is no longer so quiet, chances are those empty plots of land are now busy construction sites and that old oak, or fir or pine tree is no longer the first thing you see out of your bedroom window when you wake up in the morning. It's time we all woke up.