April 9, 2002

Talk to Albuquerque Lawyers Club
Allan Savory, Founding Director, The Allan Savory Center for Holistic Management

Thank you for the invitation to talk about the conflict over our deteriorating public lands. I doubt you knew it, but you have hit the tip of an iceberg far larger than that which sank the Titanic! This matter of deteriorating land is the greatest problem that has ever faced humans and continues to be our greatest problem today.

Over thousands of years we have learned that - Poor or deteriorating land is a symptom of biodiversity loss. And that poor land inevitably leads to poverty – increasing soil erosion – droughts and floods – invasions of noxious plants – poverty and social breakdown – increasing conflict (i.e. environmentalists vs. ranchers) – violence – rising crime – blaming and seeking scapegoats – religious fundamentalism – genocide and war – and eventually the downfall of entire civilizations. We have no exception over the last ten thousand years where deteriorating land has led to prosperity, peace, harmony and rising civilizations.

Land degradation has destroyed more civilizations, both in the Biblical world and on this continent, than armies have done and now threatens humankind on a global scale. And since September 11th it has taken on a new urgency and proportion.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and brought us into WWII it did change the world, as we know. Now our leaders, and the press, talk of September 11th changing the world again. But are these events similar?

In WWII, the Axis powers – provided a clearly defined enemy that sought world conquest and domination. And intellectual giants like Churchill and Roosevelt led the enraged democracies of the British Empire and U.S. We had a clear enemy and defined issues in the minds of our leaders and people.

Now we have President Bush and Prime Minister Blair leading us into a "war" in which the enemy is in every country including the U.S. and Britain. A war in which the enemy does not seek world power and domination and seeks change in our policies rather than our downfall. In this ‘war’ our leaders policies are judged in television polls taken from a population showing almost no understanding of either the causes of the conflict, the seriousness or its historical context. If we judge President Bush’s advisors by his speeches and actions, it would appear there is little comprehension of the nature of the threat or its causes, beyond the obvious knee jerk military response. Frankly the first of several mistakes was President Bush calling it a "new form of warfare for the 21st Century". A war "We would win in a time and place of our choosing" I think were the words.

Guerilla warfare, which we are engaged in, far from being new, is the oldest form of warfare. A form of warfare that governments have never to my knowledge won by military means.

Had President Bush announced on September 12th that he was determined to bring the perpetrators to justice and that he intended to lead the world in "a struggle for peace, prosperity and justice" we would already be facing a healthier situation than we do. Who on earth would have mounted a jihad against Bush leading a struggle for worldwide peace and justice?

How many other wars have our politicians promised to win apart from Vietnam?

Wars against drugs – - poverty – - soil erosion – - urban crime & violence – - noxious weeds – - soil erosion – - desertification – - And so on endlessly.

As you well know, none of these wars have been won no matter how many billions of dollars were thrown into the battle and our latest war will prove no exception.

There is a reason, first discovered through its connection to the land, that explains why such "wars" (if one insists on using the warfare metaphor) against nature, or massive public anger and violence, are seldom won by governments. Let me explain, as I came here to be constructive – not merely critical. I know I need not explain to you that you cannot solve a problem by attacking its symptoms no matter how much life or money you expend. It does not require much intelligence to see that unless you address the root cause of violence historically it will not be possible to secure global peace, prosperity and justice. Until all feel secure and well governed none are.

I am certain that the Bush and Blair Administrations are not even thinking about the historical cause of poverty and violence as they launch us into an ever-escalating military quagmire. If they did understand the need their advisors would assure them that the causes are well known but that no government had the power or money to be able to deal with the things leading to biodiversity loss – land degradation or desertification as it is commonly known.

What are those well-known causes the President’s advisors would outline?

Let us take countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan or Somalia where desertification is severe along with the usual poverty and conflict. The U.S. is considered the leading nation in range management so what would our experts (and none in the world differ) say was causing such degradation? Overpopulation – overstocking with livestock – communal tenure of land (the tragedy of the commons) – lack of access to capital – lack of access to western technology and knowledge – lack of education and extension services – poor and corrupt governments – and so on and on goes the list but I have covered the main things you will find in any report of the World Bank, IMF, UN, American universities and government agencies as well as international consultants.

Yes, these things are beyond the power and money of governments to address. But what if these were not the cause of the land degradation? We were, need I remind you, once equally certain the world was flat and would brook no other view. Frankly we have another such situation today as I will show you. · Let us look at an area of America that is similar in climate to Afghanistan, Pakistan or Somalia. I will take President Bush’s home – West Texas – where the practices are the opposite of everything blamed for the land degradation in Afghanistan or Somalia, but the result is the same.

In West Texas we find – A low and falling population – - constant destocking for over 100 years and almost no animals left on the land – private tenure of land and Texans, including Bush, love their land – great wealth and easy access to capital – access to all western technology and knowledge – good education and extension services – basically good government and some control of corruption.

Now to any fair minded person we have opposite practices in a similar climate. Logically we should see abundant life, clean flowing rivers, little soil erosion, few droughts and floods, no noxious plant invasions, thriving rural communities and so on in West Texas, but we do not. We find sand dunes forming in many places, whole towns and villages are completely deserted and Texans spend billions of dollars in futile efforts to deal with those symptoms – flooding, eradicating noxious plants and poverty. Even the President’s own ranch that he loves is deteriorating like all ranches I have observed over the last twenty odd years in Texas. Two weeks ago I flew back from Texas in my plane on a windy day and could not get out of blowing dust till above 8,000 feet.

Everything that is happening in those other desertifying poverty-stricken countries is happening in Texas and most of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, California, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Pakistan, India, etc where I have worked on this problem. In America our small population and extreme temporary wealth only mask the extent of the problem.

Lawyers above all would understand that such evidence shows clearly that the cause of biodiversity loss and land degradation is unknown in our universities, government agencies, environmental and livestock organizations as well as World Bank, IMF and the UN agencies. Once you realize that our experts do not understand what is causing the environment of most poverty and violence then you also begin to understand other oddities.

Why it is that despite Americans investing over 200 billion dollars every year in charitable organizations to address social and environmental ills they are getting worse.

Despite billions invested internationally in combating desertification we witness deserts expanding.

Despite all Western States investing billions of dollars to combat noxious weeds they are increasing.

Despite the greatest concentration of scientists ever known in one nation, the U.S. now ‘exports’ more eroding soil than all our other exports – beef, grain, timber, military and commercial products – combined annually.

Despite billions spend on flood control; flooding has become our leading weather-related cause of death.

I could go on an on with examples of our failure to deal with any of the symptoms of biodiversity loss and consequent land degradation.

Nothing could illustrate more clearly how little chance Bush and Blair have of leading us into anything more than a deeper and deeper morass as they try to apply military solutions to the world’s oldest and greatest problem.

There is one single simple cause of biodiversity loss that is easily reversed.

After years of grappling with this problem, we were, a few years ago finally able to understand for the first time what is causing biodiversity loss / land degradation, and how simple it is to address. Biodiversity loss / desertification was being caused by the one and only common denominator in all situations where degradation had taken place – Africa, Middle Eastern countries and America, ancient civilizations to modern times. And that common denominator was – – - that humans made the decisions.

From this we learned that while humans make a great many decisions and form policies in many ways, they always do so using the same framework in which there were several flaws. This universal framework for decision-making has remained unchanged across cultures and time since the cave days.

Over the last forty years a group of scientists and others working with me have developed a more holistic decision-making framework that fairly quickly, and usually at little or no cost, begins to reverse the problems. In summary:

1. People have always made decisions in many ways - and there are many professionals who teach and train people in decision-making, but all were unaware that they use the same universal underlying framework. And that we have done so across time and cultures from our cave days to the most sophisticated scientific team today.

2. There are several flaws in our universal framework - and it was these flaws, rather than lack of knowledge, bad people, greed, self-interest or whatever that has led to almost all human problems of today including desertification and its many poverty and violence related symptoms.

3. Today we do have a different framework that as with the universal framework, uses all today’s knowledge and science but quickly reverses most problems and makes both decision-making and policy formation easier and faster.

The holistic decision making framework while profoundly simple to use is not easy to introduce into society because people and governments are not even looking at decision-making. People are not aware that while making decisions in many ways, all are using the same flawed framework. People are looking for technological solutions, a silver bullet, human behavioral change, spiritual salvation or whatever – and in the government’s case military solutions.

To complicate the introduction of a simple constructive way forward is the fact that our media today also use the same flawed decision-making framework. Because of this they have unintentionally produced a ‘short sound bite society’ where anything requiring more than a few seconds to explain is on a slippery path.

As I have so little time allotted for this talk I will cut right to a conclusion.

Conclusion

What could be done right now that would make a difference? What could start on us a path to recovery peace, prosperity, justice and good governance for all? What would quickly be cost effective considering the present unwinnable war is costing over $27 million per day with both costs and violence escalating?

When faced with such situations and ever since leading a political party myself in the past, it has been my habit to assume the buck stops with me. What would I do? Having been engaged in solving this problem while waging years of futile guerilla war during a life ranging from research biologist, to soldier, to politician, to international consultant, – - were I in Bush’s shoes I would take one immediate action. I would expand the range of people I appointed to the National Security Council. I would do this to provide a body capable of understanding the social, environmental and military consequences of all policies – our own domestic and foreign as well as our allies.

I would include in the NSC not only the good military minds already present, but also people with a deep understanding of social, environmental and military consequences of policies - our own as well as international agencies, multi-national corporations and of our allies. There are many Americans, and others, with exceptional knowledge in all these areas, currently being ignored at our national peril. And if it truly is a war as the President states, we should be acting through a coalition government and bringing in the best brains we can regardless of party affiliation.

While not calling it a war, I would accord it that degree of seriousness and put all government efforts on a ‘war footing’ beyond party politics.

At the moment, while military minds are plotting strategies to combat terrorism, we observe party bickering over oil, social security and other issues. At the same time elements of our society are fostering the very environment that ensures our military failure. For example, when last I worked in Baluchistan on the Afganistan border twenty years ago I warned in the strongest terms of the appalling land degradation and its consequences. I could not help but note that every single Pakistani government professional land manager I dealt with was trained in an American land grant college! With this education they were producing policies that can only result in expanding desertification, social breakdown and violence. No one is doing this deliberately. What we are seeing is purely the consequence of all making decisions and forming policies using the same flawed framework. The Israeli Palestinian conflict is no different in that both sides are trying to solve the conflict with the same flawed framework for all actions and policies.

Frankly instead of only spending $27 million per day, with no long term hope of success, we should be putting at least one day’s expenses per year into addressing the root cause through education and training on decision-making and policy formation in all our schools and universities, documentary educational films for government agencies, livestock and environmental organizations and the public. Children’s environmental education programs more intelligent than those directed at saving a few species of rare animals. Retraining of USAID and Peace Corps people to understand how to empower people in all nations to reverse biodiversity loss / desertification. Massive training and assistance to corporations to enable them to begin making enlightened decisions in their own self-interest – to genuinely achieving that ideal of a triple bottom line audit (social, environmental and financial). All of these necessary actions would begin to flow if our NSC was expanded as suggested and giving the President broader advice.

I know some people who should know better are already saying the war against terrorism is almost over. However, if the historical root cause of most poverty, conflict and violence is not addressed I predict a very costly (lives and money) dangerous and violent future. And that brings me to my final comment. Something of great concern.

We faced dark times indeed during WWII. But the terror Hitler was capable of inflicting on the world pales into insignificance compared with today. Today our highly intelligent "enemy", dispersed throughout all countries including our own, is capable of producing chemical, biological and atomic weapons of hideous proportions in a garage workshop as the Bush administration has warned.

What are you going to do? I hope you will at least become more actively involved in increasing your own level of knowledge and committed to doing something more than business as usual tomorrow morning. Only when there is a groundswell of demand will our leaders and supporting bureaucracies change their present course that will prove ultimately so disastrous for everyone.


RETURN TO THE CONVERSATION