| By Susie O’Keeffe |
| Early this spring a large number of people gathered in Searsport to hear about a proposal to develop an offshore wind port (OSW) on Sears Island. During this event, I overheard a well known (and well meaning) leader of one of Maine’s largest environmental organizations say, “the trouble with Sears Island is that people love it.” I wish I could say the statement came as a surprise. But, the reality is that our collective effort to protect the natural world has been co-opted by the thinking that defines the large-scale, highly destructive, and deeply impersonal industrial system that the environmental movement formed to challenge. In short, the thinking goes something like this: nature, whether water quality or wetlands, forests or shorelands, wildlife, clean air, human health, local fishing folks or small farmers must be sacrificed for economic growth. The damage and pollution, extinction and ugliness that ensue are chalked up to the “cost of doing business.” This approach leads to something called “sacrifice zones” often heard in the argument to destroy Sears Island for an OSW port. By offering Maine an opportunity to follow several of the key elements in its Climate Action Plan, this OSW project is an incredible opportunity to truly tackle this issue correctly. These include:Protect existing, crucial ecosystem “services” that mitigate the impacts of climate change and extinction. Sears Island provides indispensable habitat for millions of birds and other creatures, and hosts essential carbon sequestering wetland, near-shore and forest habitats, while absorbing damaging winds and storms;Repurpose an existing industrial site while supporting a local, fossil fuel based business’s transition to clean energy;Utilize existing rail lines and roads;Create a project that is appropriately scaled with good jobs instead of clamoring to be “the biggest” and “the first” (like Nordic, the OSW project would be using technology that is still being tested and developed);Exhaust every energy saving option, especially rooftop solar and energy conservation;Expand the project once the new technology is proven and the kinks worked out; and finallyProtect a deeply cared for and needed natural area for countless creatures and people.But, let’s take a closer look at this idea of the “sacrifice zone.”A local reporter who recently moderated a presentation about OSW in Bucksport passionately stated to the locals that it was only fair that Maine communities absorb the damage caused by industrial development as a disproportionate number of black and brown communities have suffered terribly under industrialization and the fossil fuel industry. Such a statement reveals how completely we have accepted the thinking that has landed us in the climate and extinction crises – the natural world, and the welfare of human communities must be sacrificed. This well-meaning message reveals how completely the “nature must be destroyed for human endeavors to go forward” mind-set permeates our civilization, even among environmentalists and climate activists. Wendell Berry, one of the most passionate defenders of the land and local communities, stated in his speech “It All Turns on Affection:” “industrialists and industrial economists have assumed, with permission from the rest of us, that land and people can be divorced without harm…but land abuse cannot brighten the human prospect. There is in fact no distinction between the fate of the land and the fate of the people. When one is abused, the other suffers. The penalties will come sooner or later to a land-destroying civilization such as ours.” The list of the penalties we experience is heartbreakingly long, and will only expand unless we fully transcend this abusive relationship with the natural world and our own communities, and the false perceptions that perpetuate it. We must move from experiencing the world as a place made up of “its” and “things” and “resources” to be exploited, destroyed and sacrificed, to experiencing ourselves as we truly are—members of an astonishing life community that must be tended and restored, and whose gifts must be reciprocated with respect and care. In short, we will have to lean into the love that we feel for a place, and allow that affection to guide us. Again in the words of Wendell Berry, “the primary motive for good care and good use is always going to be affection, because affection involves us entirely.” It is this affection that has protected Penobscot Bay and the Little River from Nordic Aquafarms and its proponents’ plans to pollute the Bay and destroy the Little River’s forest wetland complex, and it will be this same affection that will prevent an essential OSW project from moving forward because the State refuses to follow the recommendations found in every climate action plan in existence, including its own. But, what will botch this needed project more than anything is underestimating the depth and power of the people’s affection for Sears Island, the life she supports and the beauty she freely offers. Ironically, it is also this affection that will guide us toward true and lasting solutions to our ecological woes. Originally published in Upstream Watch’s October newsletter https://www.upstreamwatch.org/newsletters |
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Beyond the Sacrifice Zone: Saving Sears Island is Part of Maine’s Climate Solution
Published by
on
Alliance for Sears Island 