Biology and the Economy

Global warming, agricultural run off, and nuclear power plant disasters are good for the environment. I have the feeling that you are giving your computer screen a strange look right now, but stay with me for a minute.

As climate change causes warmer temperatures to march northward several species have been able to extend their range up the map without losing any of the Southern parts of their homelands. Armadillos are a perfect example. I can remember seeing armadillos as a child, but only on trips to a zoo or on family vacations into the very deep South. Now I occasionally spot armadillos right here in the Nashville area and scientists have found them living in parts of Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas, quite a bit further North. Global warming has greatly benefited the armadillo and several other species of plants and animals and if you were able to speak with an armadillo I am pretty sure they would be very much in support of loosening regulations on industrial carbon dioxide emissions.

If you are one of those people who is bright green and single celled, you probably love agricultural run off entering our waterways just as many types of algae do. Sure algae can be slimy and look disgusting to our eyes, but it is enterprising and innovative and works hard to take advantage of the situation it is in. We gave the algae agricultural run off and it made lemonade! Not to mention how altruistic algae can be; see it doesn’t just take, it gives as well. It produces oxygen and takes in carbon dioxide (at least during daylight hours). Sorry armadillos, you and the algae will have to work out the carbon dioxide thing amongst yourselves. It allows itself to be eaten by a wide range of critters, and when it dies it breaks downs and puts a lot of those nutrients it used to grown right back into the water so the next generation of algae can continue to prosper. Quite often a massive algae bloom will out compete other plants and cause fish to die off in a large scale, but you can’t blame the algae because the fish hadn’t planned ahead.

Nuclear disasters are one of the greatest things for the environment though. Don’t believe me? Just look at the area surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Since this reactor melted down and exploded in the 1980s, there has been an explosion in life around the power plant. Plants and animals are thriving, everywhere you look there are trees and flowers and birds and deer. Rare species like lynx and wolves are finding a pleasant home around Chernobyl, and it is quickly becoming one of the more biologically diverse areas in Europe. Many of the trees there grow deformed and twisted because they can’t figure out which way is up and many of the animals show lots of genetic abnormalities. But hey, it has to be better than living with humans (they were all evacuated at the time of the disaster and it still isn’t safe for them to come back almost 30 years later).

So why do people complain about things like global warming and agricultural run off and nuclear power plant safety? Because, while armadillos and algae and the plants and animals around Chernobyl may have benefited from these environmental disasters, the environment as a whole is damaged by these things. While these species might think eliminating these issues would harm them and they don’t need to be concerned about other species in other parts of the world, we understand that other species, including our own species, are harmed by things like global warming. We understand that protecting the environment means that sometimes individual species might not be favored. This doesn't mean that they will be forced into extinction, but it means a sustainable balance will be met. Now, do me a favor and in your mind replace the word “environment” with “economy”.

Don’t misunderstand me, I am not writing to talk about the environmental impacts of things like agricultural run off. No, I am writing to show the way many people think of the economy today as opposed to how we should think about it. I am writing to think that it benefits all of us to reach a sustainable balance in our economy instead of rigging the system to favor just a few individuals.

In the US we tend to be armadillos. We look at things like government regulations and tax laws as harming us and preventing us from reaching our maximum potential the same way an armadillo looks at a stable climate as being a barrier to colonizing Canada. But while it may be painful to the wealthy to pay a higher tax rate, while Wall Street may chafe under tough regulations, these things benefit our over all economy and in the end help all of us. Some of us are like the armadillos still living in Southern Texas. We may still be in the South, but knowing that other armadillos are making their way North excites us and we don’t want anything standing in our way of moving to Kansas when we get the chance! Sure, we look around and see water levels dropping in our own neighborhood, and food is a bit scarce, but one day we will go North too and we don’t want the see the climate cool off and hurt our chances of being the first armadillo in Greenland.

Sadly global warming might just cause an environmental catastrophe that will not only make it possible for future generations of armadillos to relocate North, but might also make it impossible for the Southern armadillos to survive. Our economy is in a similar situation except that the people who are gaining the most from our broken economic environment are also the ones controlling it. Add to this they have many of us convinced that with enough hard work our own economic situations can move North and so we should support everything they are doing to make themselves richer even if it is hurting us now. Well our economic environment is getting hit with global warming, agricultural run off, and nuclear disasters all at once and while some are most definitely benefiting our over all economy is suffering and may be at risk of collapsing.

We talk about things like redistribution of wealth and a fairer tax system and strong government regulations and many think it is just lazy people wanting to take from the rich so they won’t have to earn for themselves. That’s like an armadillo telling a polar bear to stop complaining and get off his lazy butt so he can build a boat and not have to worry about the ice melting under his feet. This isn’t about hurting the rich or helping the poor, this is about saving our economy from a disaster so we can all survive.

Sure, many think there are other ways of protecting our economy. Strangely it seems that all of their plans revolve around doing what we have been doing that got us into this mess in the first place. Some seem to want to speed up the process. Well if it didn’t work out well for the economy as a whole the first time, why do they think it would now?

We have to stop thinking about the short term, stop thinking about individual aspects of the economy, stop thinking only about how things are going to effect us personally, and start thinking about rebuilding our economy so that it can be prosperous and efficient and stable and beneficial to as many people as possible for as long as possible. Some people claim they are thinking in this way and that’s why they want to cut government spending dramatically. Well if that causes slower job growth or even more job loss, they won’t be protecting their grand kids from government debt, they might very well be giving their grand kids a completely failed economy. Think big, look for the connections. See how what you do effects others, not just how you are effected. Capitalism is a system that requires we work together on many levels. If we are all just in it for our own personal gain, the system will fail, plain and simple. If it fails, you better hope you can live where it is hot, or in a river full of fertilizer, or enjoy glowing in the dark, because only those few who do may be able to survive. No one will be able to thrive. And do you really want to live in a hot river full of fertilizer with a view of a collapsed nuclear power plant?