Economics

I was recently corresponding with someone who believes that environmental change will -and should- happen through economic forces. For example, they believe that as oil prices rise alternatives will become more economically viable.

Their main concern was that ‘We are all able to follow our chosen lifestyles’ which, in their case involved driving a car. No-one should try and affect other peoples lifestyles, even indirectly. For example it was unjust to make people pay taxes that would subsidise public transport because they didn’t all use public transport. I’ve since found that a number of Christians seem to think the same way.

Unfortunately the theory it has been exposed for what it is in the Philippines in the last few days. The M/T Solar 1, an oil tanker operated by the Sunshine Maritime Development Corp and chartered by Petron, sank and poured out 350 000 litres of oil into the Sea off the La Paz area.

The people living along this coastline are mostly poor and live off fishing and tourism. At the moment the oil prevents the fishermen from working, which means they have no money, which means their children can’t go to school. So far nothing has come from the company to help deal with the slick. The local people are making booms from bamboo and wood.

At the moment it is estimated that the cleanup could take three years.

The lifestyle of these people is being destroyed by our continual need for oil. The ship was built as a single-hull ship. This means was cheaper to build, but in an accident it is more likely to be ruptured and spill oil. In Europe, the government has interfered with the rights of the shipping companies and forces them to use double hull ships, but in this region they are not compelled to do so, and so of course, they don’t.

Well, we wouldn’t want to force the company to spend money. We mustn’t interfere with the workings of economics, or the rights of the oil company executives, any more than government should interfere with our right to drive more oil driven cars in our chosen lifestyle.

Tell that to the fishermen of La Paz.

Greenpeace is putting together a list of people, called ‘Ocean defenders’ which is a form of on line petition to show that there are people who care about the oceans. They are doing this to pressure the UN and the countries involved to stop damaging the creation around them. I know many people reading this don’t agree with everything Greenpeace does, but we are called to be salt and light. Everywhere:

http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/