California is part of a global economy deeply
divided between rich and poor and addicted to cheap energy, limitless
growth and mindless consumption. Worse yet, as it burns through the
Earth's remaining reserves of precious hydrocarbons, it is doing untold
damage to the life support systems that sustain us.
It's been three centuries since the indigenous people who once
dwelled on the land we now call California lived in enduring,
self-reliant communities. The invasion of Europeans annihilated this way
of life. After the Mexican-American War ended two centuries of Spanish
and Mexican rule, the Gold Rush supercharged the process of plunder for
profit. A horde of fortune hunters invaded the golden state from around
the globe, tying California's destiny to the United States and the
industrial revolution. Within a few generations, this invasive species
of new Californians had ransacked and reshaped the landscape to make it
conform to their quest for profit and progress.
Long after the Gold Rush panned out, California remained a promised
land. Its natural abundance made it the richest state in the wealthiest
nation on Earth and a Mecca for those seeking fame and fortune. Farmers
grew bumper crops of every kind in its lush soil; fishermen, lumberjacks
and miners enriched themselves on its bounty. California's scenic
beauty and diverse landscapes became spectacular backdrops for the
movies that made Hollywood famous; and its sunny climate, thriving
economy and affordable suburbs drew people like a magnet. California
became synonymous with the good life and renowned worldwide as a land of
milk and honey.
Behind the scenes, hydroelectricity and petroleum fueled the state's
rapid industrialization and electrified its sprawling cities, linked by
complex networks of power lines, railroads, highways and harbors. A vast
hydraulic infrastructure of dams and generators, canals, aqueducts,
reservoirs, pumps, levees, irrigation ditches and sewers drained and
diverted distant watersheds, produced electricity and transported water
and power hundreds of miles through deserts and over mountains to meet
the insatiable appetites of agribusiness, industry and urban sprawl.
Soon a dense network of gas stations, roads and freeways supported
nearly as many cars as people.
The profit-hungry economic system Europeans imposed on California has
always been deeply divided between those who owned the productive
wealth of the state and those who worked for them. By controlling
California's natural resources and its agricultural, industrial and
financial wealth, a small corporate elite has dominated state politics
as well. But they have not ruled with impunity. Over the years their
hegemony has been repeatedly challenged by those who have suffered under
their shortsighted penchant for profit and power.
In the early years, this took the form of labor unrest and populist
movements to break the railroad barons' control over Sacramento by
democratizing state politics. During the Depression, working people
enthusiastically campaigned for, and nearly elected, a
governor whose program called for unemployed workers to collectivize
idle factories and farms and to produce for use rather than profit.
In
recent decades, minority communities and students have resisted war,
poverty, racism, police violence and the bankrupting of the state's
public education system; farm workers have fought for labor justice and
immigrant rights; and environmental activists have shut down nuclear
power plants and organized grassroots campaigns to protect the
environment, grow food organically and promote clean, safe, renewable
energy.
Many good people have fought to defend and preserve the golden
state's natural beauty, which can still be found in its parks and
wilderness areas. But the last 160 years of "progress" have taken their
toll.
California's ecological abundance has been drilled, pumped, dammed,
mined, plowed, paved, poisoned and clear-cut. Many of its native species
are endangered or extinct, including the grizzly bear, which is now
found only on the state flag. The state's verdant wetlands and ancient
Redwoods are nearly gone; its enormous oil and mineral reserves are
history; its aquifers have been drained; its waterways are dammed,
diverted and polluted; its topsoil is exhausted and contaminated by
pesticides and chemical fertilizers; and its residents inhale some of
the dirtiest air on Earth.
Today, California is part of a profit-driven global system that must
plunder and pollute the planet on an ever-grander scale to survive.
Major sectors of the economy like agribusiness, tourism and construction
depend on cheap labor drawn from outside the state. California's
hydroelectric and fossil fuel reserves have peaked and can no longer
support its insatiable demand for energy.
The state must import an ever-larger portion of its electricity, oil,
natural gas and fresh water. In addition, the pollution generated by
this high-energy lifestyle now threatens to disrupt the global climate,
with disastrous consequences for everyone, including Californians. Over
the coming decades, California may begin to look more like Nevada as
climate disruption decimates the state's fresh water resources by
reducing Sierra snow pack and imposing extended periods of debilitating
drought. Yet our state is the largest emitter of climate disrupting
gases in the United States, which is one of the worst greenhouse
polluters on Earth.
Clearly, the California dream has become a nightmare - it's time to wake up! But waking up is hard to do.
from here
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