51吃瓜

The term 鈥渄evelopment鈥� is just colonialism applied to the natural world, says Derrick Jensen.

鈥淪ustainable development鈥� is a claim to virtue. The word 鈥渄evelopment鈥� used in this sense is a lie.

The word 鈥渄evelop鈥� means 鈥渢o grow,鈥� 鈥渢o progress,鈥� 鈥渢o become fuller, more advanced.鈥� Some synonyms are 鈥渆volution, unfolding, maturation, ripeness,鈥� and some antonyms are 鈥渄eterioration, disintegration.鈥� And here is a real usage example from a dictionary: 鈥淒rama reached its highest development in the plays of Shakespeare.鈥�

But here鈥檚 the problem: A child develops into an adult, a caterpillar develops into a butterfly, a stream harmed by (say) mining might possibly in time develop back into a healthy stream; but a meadow does not 鈥渄evelop鈥� into white-box houses, a bay does not 鈥渄evelop鈥� into an industrial port, a forest does not 鈥渄evelop鈥� into roads and clearings.

The reality is that the meadow is destroyed to make the 鈥渄evelopment.鈥� The bay is destroyed to 鈥渄evelop鈥� it into an industrial port. The forest is destroyed when the 鈥渘atural resources鈥� are 鈥渄eveloped.鈥�

The word 鈥渒ill鈥� works just as well.

Sustainable Destruction

Think about it. You鈥檙e going about your life, when someone comes along who wants to make money by 鈥渄eveloping鈥� the 鈥渘atural resources鈥� that are your body. He鈥檚 going to harvest your organs for transplantation, your bones for fertilizer, your flesh for food.

You might respond, 鈥淗ey, I was using that heart, those lungs.鈥�

That meadow, that bay, that forest were all using what you call 鈥渘atural resources.鈥� Those 鈥渘atural resources鈥� were keeping them alive. Those 鈥渘atural resources鈥� are their very body. Without them they die, just as you would.

It doesn鈥檛 help to throw the word 鈥渟ustainable鈥� onto the front of whatever you鈥檙e going to do. Exploitation is still exploitation, even if you call it 鈥渟ustainable exploitation.鈥� Destruction is still destruction, even if you call it 鈥渟ustainable destruction.鈥�

One sign of intelligence is the ability to recognize patterns. We industrialized humans think we鈥檙e smarter than everybody else. So I鈥檓 going to lay out a pattern, and let鈥檚 see if we can recognize it in less than 6,000 years.

Greek Sustainable Development

When you think of Iraq, is the first thing that you think of cedar forests so thick that sunlight never reaches the ground? That鈥檚 what Iraq was like before the beginnings of this culture. One of the first written myths of this culture was of Gilgamesh deforesting the hills and valleys of what is now Iraq to build great cities.

Oh, sorry, I guess he wasn鈥檛 deforesting the region; he was 鈥渄eveloping鈥� the natural resources.

Much of the Arabian Peninsula was oak savannah, until these 鈥渞esources鈥� were 鈥渄eveloped鈥� for export. The Near East was once heavily forested. Remember the cedars of Lebanon? They still have one on their flag. North Africa was heavily forested. Those forests were destroyed鈥擨 mean 鈥渟ustainably developed鈥濃�攖o make the Egyptian and Phoenician navies.

Greece was heavily forested. Ancient Greek philosophers complained that deforestation was harming water quality. I鈥檓 sure the bureaucrats at the Ancient Department of Greek Sustainable Development responded that they would need to study the problem for a few years to make sure there really is a correlation.

In the Americas, whales were so abundant their breath made the air look perpetually foggy and were a hazard to shipping. 鈥淒evelopment鈥� of that resource removed that hazard. Cod were so numerous their bodies slowed the passage of ships. 鈥淒evelopment鈥� of that resource fixed that, too. There were so many passenger pigeons that their flocks darkened the sky for days at a time. Once again, 鈥渄evelopment鈥� of that resource got rid of them.

Do you know why there are no penguins in the northern hemisphere? There used to be. They were called great auks. A French explorer commented that there were so many on one island that every ship in France could be loaded and it would not make a dent. But that 鈥渞esource鈥� was 鈥渄eveloped鈥� and the last great auk was killed鈥攐ops, I mean 鈥渄eveloped鈥濃�攊n the 19^th听肠别苍迟耻谤测.

200 Species a Day

Two hundred species went extinct just today. And 200听will go extinct tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that.

Every biological indicator is going in the wrong direction.

And we all know why. The problems are not cognitively challenging. 鈥淒evelopment鈥� is theft and murder. 鈥淒evelopment鈥� is colonialism applied to the natural world. 鈥淒evelopment鈥� is kleptocracy鈥攁 way of life based on theft.

The reality is that the meadow is destroyed to make the 鈥渄evelopment.鈥� The bay is destroyed to 鈥渄evelop鈥� it into an industrial port. The forest is destroyed when the 鈥渘atural resources鈥� are 鈥渄eveloped.鈥澨齌he word 鈥渒ill鈥� works just as well.

Here鈥檚 another test of our intelligence: Name any natural community鈥攐r ecosystem, if you prefer mechanistic language鈥攖hat has been 鈥渕anaged鈥� for extraction, or that has been 鈥渄eveloped鈥濃�攂y which is meant industrialized鈥攖hat has not been significantly harmed on its own terms.

You can鈥檛, because managing for extraction is harmful, as we would all recognize if, as in the example above, it happened to us. We would all recognize that if an occupying army came into your home and took your food and a couple of your relatives that your family would suffer.

So why, with all the world at stake, do we suddenly get so stupid when it comes to 鈥渟ustainable development鈥�? Why do we have such a hard time understanding that if you steal from or otherwise harm a natural community, that natural community will suffer harm?

Enslaving the Planet

Upton Sinclair wrote: 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to make a man understand something when his job depends on him not understanding it.鈥� I would extend that to read: 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to make people understand something when their entitlement depends on them not understanding it.鈥�

In the 1830s, a pro-slavery philosopher argued that slavery was necessary because without it the slave owners would not have the 鈥渃omforts or elegancies鈥� upon which they had become so accustomed.

The same is true here, when we extend the understanding of slavery to the natural world, as this culture attempts to enslave鈥攔ead, 鈥渄evelop,鈥� oops, 鈥渟ustainably develop鈥濃�攎ore and more of the living planet.

In short, we鈥檙e allowing the world to be killed so we can have access to ice cream 24/7. And we call it sustainable development so we can feel good about ourselves as we do it.

漏 Shutterstock

The good news is that there are a lot of people who see through the bullshit. The bad news is that this doesn鈥檛, for the most part, affect policy.

A story may help make this clear.

Before the big Rio Earth Summit in 1992 (and wasn鈥檛 that a success! Things are so much better now, right?), the US ambassador to the United Nations sent out high level assistants across the country, ostensibly to get public input as to what should be the US position at the summit. One of the meetings was in Spokane, Washington, where I lived at the time. The hall was packed, and the line of people to speak snaked to the back of the building. Person after person testified that 鈥渟ustainable development鈥� was a sham, and that it was just an excuse to continue killing the world.

They pointed out that the problem is not humanity, but this culture, and they begged the US representative to listen to and take a lead from Indigenous peoples the world over who lived well and lived truly sustainably on their lands, without 鈥渄evelopment.鈥� (In fact, they lived well and sustainably because they never industrialized.) They pointed out that 鈥渄evelopment鈥� inevitably forces both Indigenous peoples and subsistence farmers off their lands. Person after person pointed out precisely what I鈥檓 saying in this article.

When we were through giving our testimony, the representative thanked us for our support of the US position and for our support of 鈥渟ustainable development.鈥� It was as though he hadn鈥檛 heard a word we said.

Sustaining the Exploitative Lifestyle

Here鈥檚 the problem: The word 鈥渟ustainable鈥� has since been coopted to not mean 鈥渉elping the real world to sustain,鈥� as in playing your proper role in participating in a larger community that includes your non-human neighbors, but instead to mean 鈥渟ustaining this exploitative lifestyle.鈥�

Think about it: What do all of the so-called solutions to global warming have in common? It鈥檚 simple: They all take industrial capitalism (and the colonialism on which it鈥檚 based) as a given, and the natural world as that which must conform to industrial capitalism. This is insane, in terms of being out of touch with physical reality.

The real world must be primary, with whatever social system you are talking about being secondary and dependent, because without a real world, you don鈥檛 have any social system whatsoever. 鈥淪ustainable development鈥� is a scam and a claim to virtue because it is attempting to sustain this exploitative, destructive culture, not the world on which it depends.

And that will never work.

So many Indigenous people have said to me that the first and most important thing we must do is decolonize our hearts and minds. Part of what they鈥檝e told me is that we must break our identification with this culture, and identify instead with the real world, the physical world, the living Earth that is our only home.

I want to tell one final story. In his book,听The Nazi Doctors, Robert Jay Lifton asked how it was that men who had taken the Hippocratic Oath could work in Nazi death camps. He found that many of the doctors cared deeply for the health of the inmates and would do everything in their power to protect them. They鈥檇 give them an extra scrap of potato. They鈥檇 hide them from selection officers who were going to kill them. They鈥檇 put them in the infirmary and let them rest for a day. They鈥檇 do everything they could, except the most important thing of all. They wouldn鈥檛 question the existence of the death camp itself. They wouldn鈥檛 question working the inmates to death, starving them to death, poisoning them to death. And this failure to question the larger framing conditions led these doctors to actively participate in the atrocities.

With all the world at stake, it鈥檚 not good enough for us to paste the word sustainable in front of the deceptive word development when what we really mean is 鈥渃ontinue this exploitative and destructive way of life a little bit longer.鈥� That destroys the words sustainable and development and, of course, contributes to the ongoing destruction of the world. It wastes time we do not have.

With all the world at stake, we need to not only do what we can to protect the victims of this culture, but we have to question the continuation of this death camp culture that is working the world to death, starving the world to death, poisoning the world to death.

The views expressed in this article are the author鈥檚 own and do not necessarily reflect 51吃瓜鈥檚 editorial policy.听

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