Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of the immensity of inequality - has fomented the terrorism against which
wealthy and powerful governments have declared war (Rogers 2000)?
Of course, very few representatives of privileged populations accept this
analysis, including the Australian Government. For example, Friedman
asserted that the attack on the US in September 2001 was purely one of
Islamic totalitarians trying to impose their will. But like most Western ana-
lysts of the war on terror, Friedman evinces insufficient regard for the possi-
bility that deeper causes may underlie the concerted attack on relatively
powerful and privileged populations, now well under way.
Naturally, terrorists are denounced by the comparatively privileged pop-
ulations that they threaten. Such unilateral views are typical of winners, who
in most cultures inherit histories written to support, and belief systems
designed to justify, the status quo. The US itself emerged as a separate nation
only after rising against Britain, the great power of the 18th century. Within
the 13 colonies that created the United States this revolution was widely per-
ceived as just. However, a different view was certainly held in London.
Now in the 21st century, the US and its allies, including Australia, preside
over and materially benefit from an economic and cultural empire that in
some ways is comparable to that of the British in the 18th century, including a
sense of manifest destiny and cultural superiority. For example, this empire, to
which the privileged classes in China and India are now being admitted, con-
sumes the vast majority of fossil fuel and is thus mostly responsible for the
enhanced greenhouse effect. While some parts of the empire, especially in
Europe, are concerned about climate change, official policy in both the US and
Australia appears contemptuous, not only of the danger of climate change, but
also of the case for populations in developing countries to emit more carbon,
in order to develop. This contempt for developing countries is evident in the
refusal of Australia and the US to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, arguing that it lets
developing countries evade their responsibilities.
This empire also has an almost complete monopoly on the possession of
weapons of mass destruction. In his 2004 State of the Union Address, US Pres-
ident George W. Bush accurately described nuclear weapons as instruments of
mass murder. A careful listener would not imagine, from either the tone or
context of his words, that the US possesses thousands of these weapons.
The arrogance and hypocrisy of this empire, regarding global inequality,
climate change and who should possess weapons of mass destruction is
scarcely visible within the empire, yet they are as obvious and inflammatory
