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Puerto Rico: Climate Change on the Margins of Empire
26
September, 2017
Right
now Puerto Rico, an American island of over 3.4 million people, is in
ruins thanks to the rampage of two major hurricanes, Irma and Maria
respectively. Most are facing months without electricity, many are
homeless, more face poor access to fresh drinking water, farms have
been razed, and the specter of disease looms over flooded towns and
toxic industrial and military superfund sites. Officials on the
island have described the situation as “apocalyptic.” Now a dam
is dangerously close to bursting. This is our climate changed present
and future. But if you pay attention to the corporate media you might
never know these facts or what they mean.
Puerto
Rico seldom gets much coverage in the US mainland press because it
lies in the grey zone of Empire. In fact, polling has demonstrated
that most
Americans do not even realize it is part of the US. But it
was one of the first victims of American global expansion and
hegemony following Spanish colonialism and served as a base of
operations for the US military in its forays throughout the Caribbean
and Central America. It was never granted statehood thanks in part to
many Puerto Ricans who resisted American occupation, but also due to
elites in Washington for its geopolitical advantage to the US. As a
result of this marginalized status its residents cannot vote in
national elections, and it has scant control over internal issues
when it comes to neoliberal
austerity measures, US
military installations and environmental
protections.
In
recent years it has been put in the vice grip of debt by vultures on
Wall Street, much like Greece, Spain and Argentina. And with
increasing swaths of the planet engulfed in climate chaos it has been
ensnared in a widening circle of “sacrifice
zones“ where residents of impoverished neighbourhoods,
cities or regions are largely left to fend for themselves when faced
with pollution, climate change related disasters and ecological
destruction. This has disproportionately effected immigrants,
indigenous peoples and people of colour, but the lines are also being
drawn based upon class.
Puerto
Rico is another early example of the world to come. In truth, most of
the world’s population already lives in some form of this dystopia;
but it is the future for the rest of us thanks to the current course
of unrestrained production and consumption of fossil fuels and the
corruption, greed and apathy of the global elite. They aren’t
slouches when it comes to protecting their interests and saving their
own hides either. In articles from CNN to The
New Yorker,
tales of the sprawling estates and luxury bunkers being bought or
built by them show how seriously they take the coming shocks to
civilization.
So
how will the powerful respond to a future of disasters and chaos for
essentially anyone who isn’t part of the wealthy elite? The answer
can perhaps be gleaned from a tweet President Trump sent out Monday,
his first response to the devastation in Puerto Rico a full five days
after the hurricane made landfall. He began by saying the island
had “massive
debt” that
is “owed
to Wall Street and the banks” and
which “must
be dealt with.” This
was the first priority given, not the welfare of the people or the
environment but how much the beleaguered people of Puerto Rico owe to
vulture capitalists and the extortionists on Wall Street.
It
doesn’t get much simpler than that
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