A Statement from the Board and Staff of Environment Hawai`i
The board and staff of Environment Hawai`i oppose strongly the coming war with Iraq. We take this stand because we believe it is imperative that thoughtful, reasonable people within the United States raise their voice against the prospect of such a war.
We take this stand also as people who are concerned with the health of the world and its ongoing ability to support its inhabitants. War is nothing if not the destruction of people, the crushing of their means of livelihood, and the poisoning of the wells so vital to life itself.
While the United States has never seen modern warfare systematically conducted on our land, the costs of war, if not the unspeakable devastation war brings, will inevitably fall upon those of us living here. Money will no longer be available for social services, for environmental restoration, for education.
In the absence of compelling evidence, or any evidence, that Saddam Hussein poses a threat to the United States, we draw the only possible conclusion: that the sole motivation for an invasion of Iraq is to control its natural resources, most conspicuously oil.
The hands of our nominal president and his aides are black with crude. Oil has been the source of much if not all their wealth, and they are unable to conceive of a situation that might require the United States to curtail its disproportionate and profligate consumption of this commodity. As a result, the nation is being dragged by leaders of doubtful legitimacy into a war of aggression, not of defense, whose only possible outcome will be increasing global political instability, a rise in anger directed at the United States from our foes and allies alike, and mounting restrictions on our own cherished freedoms – to assemble, to speak freely, to seek relief for unjust imprisonment through writs of habeas corpus, to petition, to travel, and to worship (or not) as conscience dictates.
To protest war for oil is not enough. We must also take measures in our own lives to reduce our consumption of oil. We should urge our legislators to enact laws to spur the development of renewable, non-polluting sources of energy. We should disabuse ourselves of the notion that we have an unbounded right to as much of the world’s oil as we can afford to consume and must recognize the link between our own actions and their global consequences: the exploration for new oil in sensitive areas, the fouling of coasts and contamination of soil associated with the transport of oil, the political, social, and economic costs of wars fought over oil, and, by no means least, the wholesale alteration of the Earth’s very climate as a result largely of the burning of oil.
The current administration was not elected by a majority of the citizens in this country, or even by the majority of those who voted. Its jingoism and arrogance must not be allowed any longer to pass as the sentiment of the nation. For these reasons, we affirm our opposition to the prospect of war with Iraq, our respect for international law and diplomacy as the only civilized means of addressing global disputes, and our unwavering support of renewable energy sources as the path toward a healthier, more peaceful, and more just world.
Kathy Baldwin, director
Teresa Dawson, writer
Mary Evanson, director
Paula Merwin, director
William S. Merwin, director
Karen Miyano, director
Leland Miyano, director
Mina Morita, director
Patricia Tummons, director, editor
Miranda Watson, office manager
Emma Yuen, columnist
Marjorie Ziegler, director
Volume 13, Number 9 March 2003
Leave a Reply