Contact is taking a holiday!

Our environment is in a state of crisis. From the recession of ancient glaciers around the globe to the extinction of countless species, the natural world is being drastically altered by the habits of industrial societies.  Because of over-consumption, pollution, industrialization, increased globalization and extensive use of fossil fuels, the planet that sustains us is in peril. The constructs of our respective societies have greatly altered the natural patterns of the planet, while industrialized countries postpone solutions in favor of economic gain. Instead, it should be the responsibility of all humans, especially those in developed countries, to determine the fate of our environment, for in doing so we will determine our own fate. The environmental situation in Tibet is one example of the dire state our world at large is in, and the fate of Tibet could foreshadow the fate of mankind.
The Tibetan Plateau is one of the last relatively pristine ecosystems on earth. This elevated plateau has long been maintained by the Tibetan people. But after Chinese occupation, this delicate alpine environment has been increasingly exploited and its resources are dwindling.
Nomads have long cared for the high alpine environment of the Tibetan Plateau, yet China’s policies in Tibet have disrupted this symbiotic relationship through forced collectivist resettlement programs and state sanctioned rangeland management. Under China’s Western Development Strategy, “more than 73,700 nomadic Tibetans [have been forcibly resettled] from their ancestral homeland in Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture into permanent brick-houses” (http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/190808).  Nomads no longer have free access to the lands they have utilized for centuries, and are instead confined to specific locales. China argues that its plan will vastly improve the Tibetan condition and combat desertification in nomadic pastures. ”In Amdo province of Tibet, 67,000 hectares of land undergo desertification annually” (DIIR 21). However, the desertification issue was nonexistent before the Chinese invasion of Tibet. ”In extensive areas the ecological collapse of the soil/vegetation complex is imminent or has already happened.  This ecological degradation is the result of decades of extensive plant utilization by too many animals over too long of a period of time. The present rangeland degradation problems were brought about by disruption of the traditional nomadic herding system and central government programs intended to increase livestock numbers and production of livestock products” (DIIR 47).  China has utilized the land in favor of increased production to the detriment of the health of the natural environment.
The environmental degradation that Tibet has endured is not solely due to Chinese policies.  Multinational corporations are delving into the high meadows in search of valuable resources – gold, silver, oil, natural gas, copper, iron, and salt to name just a few. The extraction methods for these elements pose a great risk to the integrity of the surrounding ecosystems. Nearby rivers are poisoned with arsenic and mercury while the mountainsides are subject to increased erosion. Mining has not yet been fully explored in Tibet, but its rich mineral deposits may bring it under threat of further exploitation. There is massive global interest in the wealth Tibet offers, and “resources are transported to distant Chinese markets by large, state-owned enterprises, sometimes in partnership with transnational corporations and organizations such as the World Bank” (DIIR 151).
In addition to the exploitation of mountains and streams, China is heavily and unsustainably harvesting the forests of Tibet.  “Recently a few thousand Tibetans from India went to their native places in Tibet.  When they returned, they all told the same story. They said about 40 or 50 years ago there were huge forests in their native areas. Now all these richly forested mountains have become bald like a monk’s head” (HH Dalai Lama 2004; 66; DIIR 149). China’s heavy foresting has, in turn vastly affected the watersheds of many rivers. With fewer trees, erosion and flooding increase, altering rainfall regulation and destroying the delicate balance of Tibet’s water systems.
Tibet houses the headwaters of four major Asian rivers which sustain billions of people downstream in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Vietnam, and China.  Water is essential to life, to agriculture, and also  to industry, which is now the most significant consumer of fresh water on the planet.  China, a giant of industry, is undergoing a severe water crisis. In 2006, “Chinese water resources declined 9.1 percent, while average rainfall was down by 6.2 percent” (DIIR 121).  To mitigate this, China has dammed and even diverted many rivers in Tibet to quench its thirst, including the Indus and Brahmaputra rivers, turning the water issue into a potentially explosive political issue between China and Pakistan.
Environmentally degrading practices like mining, logging, damming of rivers, and oil and natural gas prospecting are all present in the Tibetan Plateau. But no amount of innovation in these fields will remedy the plague of over-consumption which drives these practices to extremes. Only a reduction in the world’s appetite for material goods will quell the storm that is brewing.  However, there is also rumored to be a massive quantity of oil beneath the Tibetan Plateau that is currently inaccessible due to inadequate infrastructure. This prospect could lead to dire consequences for Tibet’s natural environment.
“The custom of the Tibetan people over millennia has been to never endanger, pollute or lose these natural resources that sustain life.  Resources were not itemized separately from their environment or pitted against distant market opportunities.  The landscape was a universal resource that was cared for and respected by the local people” (DIIR 149)
What exists within the Tibetan crisis is a conflict of paradigms, of ideologies that are so inherently opposed to one another that they are irreconcilable.  One ideology promotes sustainability, respect for the land, and consideration of future generations.  The other treats the land as a  means to a productive end. Most of the world’s economies share this latter view, “[be they] communist, socialist, or capitalist, they all agree that productivism is the purpose of life” (DIIR 7).  This power structure has been observed most notably in recent Native American history. Here too, a developing nation was propelled to great wealth at the expense of its original stewards. Thus with the destruction of these sacred cultures and an increased focus on productivist materialism, our world spirals increasingly out of control, away from a middle path, away from sustainability, and, in that, from salvation.