When Eco-friendliness and Peace Collide

 

By: Nurfitri Muslim Taher*

When the Indonesian army commander stated that among others, the danger faced by Indonesia and other equatorial countries is the effect of the Hubert’s peak oil theory, you cannot ignore such statements.  Gatot Nurmantyo explained that global oil production has decreased since the 80’s. Indonesia, which is rich of natural resources would be fought over for the sake of its plant-based energy resources, when global oil and gas is scarce.

According to Mathew Wild, we are now living in the period following the peak oil theory, meaning that the only way is down. This does not mean that the world’s oil supply will be finished, but it would just be too costly to extract hence exploration would be stopped.

But here comes the good news. The New York Times writes that China intends to spend at least $360 billion until the year 2020 on renewable power sources like solar and wind, as stated by the government energy agency. The move aims to curb the growth of pollution in the country. Moreover, Chinese renewable energy manufacturing creates a drop in the cost of wind and solar industries, making them competitive with fossil fueled power generators.

And if we look at the United States, similar progresses are happening, Business Insider will show you news titles like “ Google Says it Will Hit its 100% Renewable Energy Target in 2017” and “3 American Cities that Use 100% Renewable Energy-and 7 that Plan to Join Them Within 20 Years”, not to mention how Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that his company runs its business on 100 % renewable energy.

So if we look at all of this progress, equatorial countries should not be worried that it will be made into a land of war.  For sure, affordable-cost-eco-friendly power generators would make countries less likely to be dependent on coal, oil and gas, hence no land would ever have to be fought for. We should just relax in an eco-friendly lifestyle because in a decade or so, the world will finally be a happy place to live, and greed might be gone from the face of the earth, right?

While we must praise and be grateful for all the ecological friendly efforts made by countries like China and the United States, we must not forget that there are industries that will condition parts of the world to be at war with each other. Jonathan Turley in Al Jazeera highlighted US President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell speech that warned the nation about what might be a fact that we see today.  Turley writes, “…Eisenhower warned that “an immense military establishment and a large arms industry” had emerged as a hidden force in US politics and that Americans “must not fail to comprehend its grave implications.” Eisenhower added that “…while perpetual war constitutes perpetual losses for families, and ever expanding budgets, it also represents perpetual profits for a new and larger complex of business and government interest.”

Former Argentine Prime Minister Néstor Kirchner told Oliver Stone in the documentary movie titled “South of the Border” that then US President Bush said to him “all the economic growth that the US had had, had been on the different wars it had waged.”

CNN presented a pie chart on the share of global arms sales in 2015, where the US had 56,6%, the UK 10,6%, Russia 8,1%, France 5,8%, other European countries 7,9%, and other countries 11%. With so much investments made by these powerful countries, logically thinking, it would be a waste not to have wars, no?

Just when I start to think about the future of my children, I come across Sputnik News talking about Putin’s statement on Russia’s plan to converse and diverse their defense companies’ production. Economic analyst Dmitri Pskezin believes that the plan is a lesson learnt in the 1990, when Russia was left with millions of people with no job given the decline in the defense sector, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Perhaps other countries could take similar steps on this matter, since, with eco-friendly energy generators operating worldwide, we can counter the peak oil theory. And we have seen scientists try to make us to become less dependable on fossil energy. We have seen the inventions and experiments of eco-friendly cars, eco-friendly road that could generate the cars that go pass it, and so on.

With nothing to fight for, let us hope that the production of military equipment will be moderate, and not far from now, we can finally relax in an eco-friendly lifestyle because in a decade or so, the world will finally be a happy place to live, and greed might be gone from the face of the earth.(RE1/P02)

 

*She is Indonesian activist, presenter, as well as observer on Middle East and Islamic issues. 

 

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (M(NA)