Rural Routes/Margot Ford McMillen

Can We Talk About Survival of the Planet?

I will be eternally grateful for the math teacher who e-mailed to correct my math after the March 1 Progressive Populist, saying that my figure of 49 million gallons of water for the Winter Olympic’s artificial snow didn’t add up with the estimate of a football-field-size space 10 feet deep. His class had estimated swimming pool gallons and said my number was off by a factor of 10.

Now that more numbers are available, Time says 49 million gallons is correct and nobody says a football field is 10 feet deep. Time goes on to say, “That poses a problem for the Chinese capital, where the 21 million residents are living with decades-long water scarcity.” And that, of course, is the point. Many parts of the world, and not just Beijing, are living on the edge of extinction, water-wise. So, thank you, math heads, for helping figure that out. And the follow-up question is, “Is it right to use water for the pleasure of a few folks and starve the rest?”

Numbers on artificial snow making of any kind are hard to get, and there are still conflicting reports on where the water came from. Did the Olympics water come from a reservoir, specially constructed for the Olympics? Or was it from the aquifer hundreds of feet below the surface? One researcher, Carmen de Jong, of the Mountain Institute of the University of Savoy, France, says that it doesn’t matter. As far as Beijing goes, the resource is gone because, when snow melts, much of it moves away in clouds and rains down someplace else.

As a farmer, this is an important question for me, and as consumers, it’s important for all of us. Right now, about a fifth of the United State is in drought, including most of the lands where fruits and vegetables are raised—California, most notably. And we are well on track for one of the hottest years on record. So figure out what you can buy locally and support your personal ecosystem.

“Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it,” Charles Warner said to his neighbor Mark Twain one day. The quip’s been credited to Mark Twain ever since, the power of fame over accuracy, but the fact is that even back in the 19th century we were doing something to change weather. It was the dawn of the industrial age, we had discovered electricity, and we were burning coal at a furious pace.

The children of Mark Twain and Charles Warner saw the internal combustion engine replace steam power and the cities clog up with smog, but they still thought weather was an unchangeable force. Today, the cities have been (mostly) cleaned up but some of us still think that humans don’t affect the weather.

Still, droughts have gripped much of the globe while flooding threatens elsewhere, and we still feel free to change the climate by traveling anywhere and doing what pleases us. If we can afford it, say we all, we can have it. And, so, we compete to be the first on our block to experience weightlessness in a rocket ship built by a gazillionaire. First to strike a one-legged yoga pose on every continent. First to visit every state capital. First to see 1,000 species of birds. 2,000. 6,000.

And, so, the 2022 Winter Olympics reporters announced excitedly that eight world records were shattered in the week of games. Highest snowboard jump. Most points in figure skating. Most gold medals for one athlete.

We and our indomitable egos. We should be thinking about what we might have to cut in order for people to live on this planet. And, as much as we loved seeing the world’s best ice skaters and luge riders, the Winter Olympics have to go. And other big-draw productions that bring spectators from far away and create traffic jams for hours, must be re-evaluated.

For me, a non-athlete on a farm in Missouri, it’s easy to say that spectacles should be cut. I can say with equal ease that the cities should get rid of excessive light in their tall buildings. And I can say that suburban people should walk or bike to the grocery store instead of driving. It’s always easier to get rid of someone else’s conveniences than it is to get rid of our own.

Will the human race do what has to be done to reverse climate change? Quit staging international games? Have fewer babies? Curb the US military that uses an estimated 77% of the US government’s energy consumption?

We will not.

And even though it’s way past time for a national conversation on the planet’s survival, we’ll continue building work-arounds, creating dikes in the ocean around flooding cities and making artificial snow where there is drought. And the math will remain uncalculated.

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. She also is a co-founder of CAFOZone.com, a website for people who are affected by concentrated animal feeding operations. Her latest book is “The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History.” Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, April 1, 2022

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