just because we can, should we

“IT” is fixed when the question becomes …. Just because we can, should we…?

In the photo above appearing in the Thursday 9-5-08 -issue of the Arizona Republic – Tiger Wood is reported to be reviewing his most recent and most ambitious commercial venture. Along with his Dubai investors, Tiger Wood is developing a 1.1 billion dollar golf course in Dubai. This venture will require copious amounts of water to grow and maintain over 5 million square feet of grass along with the growing and maintenance of over 30,000 full-grown imported trees.

Fresh potable water resources in Dubai are limited the majority of potable (drinking and crop growing) water is processed through desalinization of the ocean’s water. I am not aware there are any water experts who refute that as a result of desalinization the water returned to either the ocean or land has a significantly higher saline content and it deleterious to most all life forms.

Might there be something just a bit out of balance here…? I am fully cognizant it is not possible to legislate or demand or force anyone to take, foster or adhere to any specific moral or ethical path. I have difficulty integrating how on the one hand we – Americans – prop up folks like – Tiger Wood – as champions, heroes who win under medically challenging circumstance, while on the other hand, we can summarily watch as his commercial action degrade our sole source single ecosphere all for the sake of personal glory and a few measly dollars. Are these really the actions a hero takes…? Are not heroes the one who stand tall in the face of adversity, like Gary Cooper in High Noon…? Heroes are not in it, just for the buck, are they…? Tiger Wood, because of his public persona is an easy target, but he is not the only target. Is not each of us equally accountable and responsible for contributing to this imbalance…?

Our local newspapers report our “leaders” want to tie Arizona’s future to desalinization of the ocean’s water from the area around Rocky Point, Mexico. A - “WAG” – that’s an economically scientific term for “wild ass guess” was tossed out at $250 billion dollars as the cost for this project. What we should all know by now is that any figure that government provides is totally fictitious as the true and ultimate cost is normally from 2 to 10 times greater.

Desalinization requires enormous amounts of energy. Where is this energy to come from for the Tiger Wood’s Dubai golf course project and for the desalinization project envisioned by Arizona’s leaders….? Greater reliance on fossil fuel…?

If folks seeking public exposure as benefactors of our environment truly want to champion projects which can have universal application, let them put their “charitable-tax-free-funds” into sponsoring totally “out-of-the-box-thinking” about solar, wind, wave, algae conversion, etc, as well as applying this thinking to cleaning up our water and our air…?

Surely there are folks around our globe, many of them from indigenous aboriginal cultures who posses as Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D. - a psychologist and medical anthropologist, notes … “Knowledge is wisdom. Information is knowing that water is H2O. Knowledge is being able to make it rain.” Knowledge we express through our beliefs in our economic, political, social, and educational systems. Even our medical practices are, by their very nature, hostile, masculine, and aggressive. These paradigms hold that we can rape, loot, and pillage as we wish, we can spoil the earth and postpone the price of clean-up to future generations. Tiger Wood’s Dubai golf course is merely emblematic of this contemporary American paradigm. Tiger Wood is not to be judged as bad or wrong, he is merely reacting within the confines of our American capitalistic greed based economic model. Do not we, though we see ourselves as farther down that ladder, equally climbing and adhering to that same greed based economic model…?

Getting one’s head and heart outside our contemporary economic model is extremely difficult. We can get there in the moment only to fall quickly back into alignment with the politically correct thinking of the day. Don’t beat yourself up, when you become aware of where you are in the moment you have an opportunity to make a choice. Every action and move you make is by choice. Most of us have been operation on “auto-pilot” for so long we do not know how to grip the steering wheel with our own hands. That’s the first step. Only when I/you/me/us shall accept and assume sole responsibility for all of our actions are we truly and honestly free.

That’s what IT looks like when it’s fixed for me. What’s your position, I’d really like to know and learn and be open to discussing it with you…?

Respectfully,