Good morning, Umair. I don't have an argument for you. Do all societies go this route? Like the people of Eastern Island cut down trees to build and plant statues, only to die? Is it uniquely American? we were so dependent on whaling to maintain textiles that we thought the world would end with the last whale? We were pretty close to wiping out whales...
A couple things about the American part... It is isn't just that the present economic paradigm is killing the planet, or that our idea of productivity and success is the worst measure of a man ever invented, but that it promotes slavery. America the land of the free, enslaves people. How many sweat shops around the world make Disney shirts and toys? Disney was actually in the news several times for using kids to make stuffed toys they would never earn enough to have. Probably wouldn't want to have it. Do kids from sweat shop have PTSD? In China, Apple put nets up around their buildings to keep people from killing themselves to get out of mind numbing work? Little pay, no hope. Slavery is alive and well, but America is supposed to be against this. Sex trafficking is slavery, with California being number 1, and Texas number 2 for the highest rates of trafficking. Not a poor man's interest, when you consider the number of elite hanging with Epstein and that trafficking numbers spike around sport games like Super bowl and the Olympics.
It is kind of difficult to change things when the news outlets are run by the government and corporations to maintain the status quo.
Hemp was a sustainable product, but was made illegal by the guy who had orchards and the largest paper mill business? We've known lead was bad for how long, since the Romans drank from lead cups? And yet corporations lobbied for it to be in the paint. Asbestos mirrors that story? The process of making matches, children chimney sweeps, and radium girls... Seriously, how many things can we line up that were really just bad ideas for workers, likely bad for the planet. Is mercury still going into the ocean? We still haven't figured out how to handle nuclear waste...
I think we did fix the hole in the ozone. It has recovered some? Evidence we can turn this around if we try? I know planting trees are scoffed at because it's a temp fix, as trees do die and the carbon goes back into the air... But if we all planted trees... a lot of trees. Seed and fruit bearing trees, at least when we have exhausted the oceans of fish, we'll have something to chew on...
