Wealth, Environment, Ethics, Morals: One Place At One Time
By Eli Amdur
If you had to point to the Cook Islands on a map in order to win a bet, chances are you’d go home no richer than you were earlier. Most likely, that reality would hold true for everyone else in the room, too.
That’s about to change. This South Pacific island nation of 15,040 people is sitting on what may amount to not only a huge resource of valuable energy, but also an area of critical strategic international advantage. It seems there are more minerals that will be used in electric car batteries than we can, at the moment, measure. So vast is the reach of these mineral deposits, that mining the ocean floor to extract them could conceivably power the entire world’s shift from fossil fuels.
Fifteen islands make up this tiny nation, with a total land area of 91 square miles. On the other hand, the Cook Islands cover slightly more than 750,000 square miles of ocean. For perspective, the land area would fit into Mexico City six times while its waters would cover the entire country of Mexico, the 14th largest in the world. The GDP of the Cook Islands is $384 million, which is what Walmart rings up in sales in five and a half hours of one day.
Currently, Cook Islanders – with their pristine shores, crystalline sands, and sparkling waters – are troublingly dependent on tourism. Increasingly though, accompanying the arrival of huge cruise ships, vessels owned by international mining companies and carrying sophisticated scientific equipment are making regular appearances, an augury of very big things.
Aside from the obvious – wealth accumulation, scientific advancement, and a dose of health for our environment if this is to be done right – there is woven into this fabric a golden thread: an opportunity for the world to demonstrate its ability and willingness to collaborate, cooperate, and moderate while, at the same time, move ahead with the urgency of the moment. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown (No, I didn’t know his name. either.) could realistically be thrust into a position of global leadership if he chooses to set a leadership example. It won’t be easy, balancing the forces of voracious commercial appetites and insatiable scientific curiosity with reserved caution born of
concern for Mother Earth. But it can be done, although finding examples of this feat is not easy. What’s more, examples of the opposite – strip mining, oil drilling, coal extraction – show clearly what happens when we do this without thought or concern. We now have a chance to do it right – and to do it on a gigantic scale
But that’s what leadership is all about: not doing what others have done before, but carving a path along which others will travel.
Is it possible to amass wealth, advance science, care for our environment, and do all of that ethically and morally?
Here’s the chance.
