As we begin 2020, I am struck by the discordance that is here in America. Am I alone in hearing these voices? I see and hear a lack of harmony, a lack of balance. Every time we pick up a newspaper, or watch television, there is another story of political strife, capitalism against environmentalists, disharmony against common sense.

The December 29th edition of the Chicago Tribune is a good example: The lead article on the front page tells a story of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which stretches from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota, through South Dakota, across Iowa, under the Mississippi River into Illinois.

The pipeline is currently approved for moving 556,000 barrels of oil per day. The owners want to double the flow to over a million barrels a day. They maintain the pipeline is structurally sound and meets codes that can handle the increase.

Environmental groups, on the other hand, have raised numerous objections, and the battle lines are drawn. When I read stories like this, I try to remain neutral and understand both sides, really, in this case, economic benefits versus potential environmental issues. However, on this one, I quickly concluded that the underlying reason for the requested amendment is more oil with less concern for the environment. The questions in my mind are, “Do we really need that oil? What is the potential cost to the environment? Why isn’t the money being spent on renewables?”

While today’s story is tomorrow’s history, it is only exasperated by the current administration’s efforts to support resource deployment at the cost of “our” environment. Right now, at this very instant, Washington is trying to dramatically weaken the Endangered Species Act (ESA), one of the most widely supported and successful laws. This law focuses on survival of species. This isn’t about losing a butterfly here or an otter there. This is about the extinction of hundreds and hundreds of species. This same administration has tried to scrap the Clean Power Plan, which would, for the first time, place binding limits on greenhouse emissions from existing power plants, the biggest source of climate pollution in the US. And, to add fuel to the fire (I hope you get the pun), Washington is attempting to strip California and 13 other states of their right to adopt tougher clear car standards that would keep thousands of tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere.

So, the question is, “What kind of culture have we become?” What era do we live in? As National Geographic puts it, “We don’t live in an ordinary time. Everywhere we look, species are winding out. Extinction rates are hundreds, perhaps thousands of times higher than historic rates. The last mass extinction, which occurred in the Dinosaur Age some 66 million years ago, followed an asteroid impact. 

Today, the cause of extinction seems more diffuse. It is logging and poaching and introduced pathogens and climate change and over-fishing and ocean acidification.” (And, I might add, a total disregard for balance in our very fractured world caused by over-population and global political disharmony). National Geographic continues, “But trace all of these back and you find yourself face to face with the same culprit. The great naturalist E.O. Wilson has noted that humans are the “first species in the history of life to become a geophysical force.”  And many scientists and philosophers argue that we have entered a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene Era or Age of Man – “this time around the asteroid is us.”

That’s the whole point! We are the ones causing the problems of water pollution, plastic contamination in the oceans, global warming, terrible epidemics caused by man-made illness that are transmitted from village to village and city to city. For goodness sake, why would our leaders in Washington not support stricter emission standards if they prolong life? Well, all of us know the answer – greed.

There’s an enormous debate about the Anthropocene Age. Some scientists suggest it began 12,000 years ago. Others consider the Industrial Revolution, the introduction of the steam engine, as the start of the Anthropocene Epoch. While the debate continues, the real point of this new era is that we, man, are the stimulation of change.  Wikipedia says, “The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth’s geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, Anthropocene climate change.”

Further, the Anthropocene Epoch’s unofficial interval of geologic time makes up the third worldwide division of the Quaternary Period (2.6 million years ago to the present), characterized as the time in which the collective activities of human beings began to substantially alter Earth’s surface atmosphere, oceans and systems of nutrient cycling.” 

By the way, Anthropocene is derived from Greek and means “the recent age of man.” (Maybe we should ask the Romans what they think!)

The Encyclopedia Britannica has a great chart on the Quaternary Period and where the Anthropocene Epoch fits:

The interesting chart (page 36), which from a purely scientific, geological view, defines each period going back in time thousands of years. Regardless of when the current epoch, the Anthropocene Epoch started, it seems to me we can agree that this is truly the Age of Man. Indeed, we are the asteroid as pointed out by National Geographic.

Like Heather Tallis, the Nature Conservancy life scientist that I mentioned in my last column, I think we have two courses of action: The current destructive path that some folks want us to take or the path that Theodore Roosevelt advocated over 100 years ago. 

Read this: “We have fallen heir to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.”  

He was referring to America, of course, but at the same is apropos to the world. What is fascinating, at least to me, is after Roosevelt became President, he put his words into action. He created a legacy of conservation. He became our first “public” conservationist. At one point, he argued that short of war, no question that faced the nation “compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land a better land for our descendants than it is for us.” 

I don’t think it’s necessary for me to compare our current administration with that of Teddy Roosevelt. You get the message.

As we start our next decade, it is my fervent wish, my New Year’s wish, that leaders in our industry, like UPM Raflatac, Avery Dennison, Sun Chemical, Dow-DuPont, and others, will continue to make sustainability their most important corporate goal. These leaders have begun to make changes and develop technologies that are less invasive. There’s another group of industry giants that include Berry Plastics, P&G, Walmart, Unilever, and others that have made the reduction of plastic waste a priority by forming an alliance to end plastic waste. 

Finally, industry is realizing it must do its part to make changes that will improve our environment. Yes, we are in the Anthropocene Era, the Age of Man. But, as Teddy Roosevelt admonished, let us all make decisions that protect what we have that is so very precious.

Another Letter from the Earth.



Calvin Frost is chairman of Channeled Resources Group, headquartered in Chicago, the parent company of Maratech International and GMC Coating. His email address is
[email protected].