Demand
Destruction - Stadium
By Bill Henderson
18 July, 2006
Countercurrents.org
So far rising gas prices have
had little effect on North American consumption patterns. There are
nagging fears that consumer's discretionary spending is being squeezed,
but so far people are still buying. Buying big trucks to commute big
miles to their big mortgage house in the exurbs. Drivers expect to hit
the holiday highway in big numbers as usual this summer.
But high fuel prices are
seriously exacerbating basic survival problems in those many developing
countries with limited oil reserves. Some countries are already having
a very hard time keeping their economies from drowning in the rising
tide of fuel prices. (You can find an informative table delineating
the oil access problem for several African countries here)
This silent
crisis receives almost no attention in the developed world
media; it is certainly not on the minds of Joe Sixpack as he complains
at the pump. The precarious position of millions of our fellow global
citizens seems to be below the radar, not a factor to be considered
at all in how movers and shakers, planners and public go about creating
our future.
But the ethical and practical
considerations of drowning Third World economies must be a consideration
in how we spend our own fuel budget and how we spend our investment
dollars. And future triple digit prices per barrel of oil should be
something we are thinking about now even if only for the possible contagion
danger of failed states.
A local example:
There are plans to build
a new waterfront stadium for soccer and concert entertainment in Vancouver
where I live. At a recent planning meeting over a hundred concerned
citizens and organizations submitted briefs or spoke to city council
about this proposed development. A 15,000 seat stadium downtown in our
wonderful and fortunate city is not a big thing. But it is an example
of denial and indifference because the end of cheap oil and what it
means for our common future was not included in this input, was not
included in planning and in city council deliberations, was not on the
menu for public debate about this stadium.
Pro sports are a luxury we
can no longer afford in a world facing dangerous climate change and
where $75 a barrel oil is already straining the budgets of most Third
World countries and threatening their development future.
I'm a fan - had fun this
World Cup and fondly remember the great Whitecap cup run in 79 - but
even if it is 'our oil' (this distillation of millions of years of stored
sunlight), and we (very optimistically) believe that future generations
of Vancouverites will have energy sources equivalent to fossil fuels,
consider what it could be like watching a game or concert in 2010 when
oil is $200 a barrel and millions are starving to death worldwide.
Denial and refusal to shrink
our obese material demands will lead to demand destruction in India,
Indonesia, Bangladesh, etc., instead. Where we can least afford it.
We can enjoy local sports - pro sports are a luxury we can no longer
afford. There is no shortage of wonderful music in existing venues in
Vancouver.
And if we are going to get
serious about climate change does it make sense to have hundreds of
pro sport teams criss-crossing the continent spewing CO2? Are we going
to treat the Whitecaps and Canucks as sacrosanct and consider the NHL,
NFL or MLS more important than increased damage from storms, insect
infestations, drought or biodiversity loss? Or maybe even human
extinction?
Pro sports are one example
of a host of goods and services that we have come to regard as necessities
but which are now luxuries we can no longer afford. You can wade, paddle,
swim, canoe, kayak, sail or surf - aren't powerboats and jet skis luxuries
we can no longer afford?
Most of us think tourism
is basically a good thing, but surely tourism is now luxury travel in
our present circumstances when you calculate the fuel costs, the greenhouse
gas costs and the added increment to our already bloated individual
ecological footprints.
In his very informative book
ONE WORLD philosopher Peter Singer explains that globalization has expanded
our ethical
sphere to include everyone on the planet. But decision
making in our market economy doesn't quantify, factor in and price consequences
of our actions beyond supply and demand. The guy at the pump (supposedly)
rules.
So there isn't even informed
debate about these very real problems with investing in a new stadium.
As Øystein Dahle,
former vice president of Exxon for Norway and the North Sea, has pointed
out, “Socialism collapsed because it did not allow the
market to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it
does not allow the market to tell the ecological truth.”
newnoah (at) pacificfringe.net