When a crisis becomes an opportunity

Pacific Reflections By Gabriel McCoard

 Even under the best of circumstances, there are two things you can anticipate in the islands: typhoon and power outage.

As parts of the island region recover from Typhoon Sinlaku and the war in Iran slogs on, these are not the best of circumstances.

Let’s dig a little further.

My elderly mother came to visit me in Chuuk. Following the island hopper slamming to a stop on the tarmac and a light lunch at the one restaurant with adequate, or overzealous, air conditioning, I introduced her to my office.

She had never been to the tropics and the paltry flow of slightly cool air from the window unit, which likely weighed more than I do, was not enough to dispel the heat and the wafting smoke from the perpetual random fires of the locale. The AC unit had two settings: off and not working because the coils were sealed into a solid block of ice. When she slumped over my desk, I was afraid I had killed her.

Energy in the Pacific is tenuous. While the world sits in a holding pattern to see what outcome might prevail, The War for Uncertain Objectives has inflicted one obvious casualty: energy prices.

Perhaps by the time this publishes, The War for Uncertain Objectives will have resolved itself. Perhaps not. But the economic shocks to East Asia and the Pacific from the bare drip of oil mount by the day.

In the Pacific, the reasons are obvious: island nations import almost everything, including the oil and gas that fuel their governments, households and businesses, their clothing and shoes, plastic wrappings that eventually find their way into the lagoons, most of the food, all of which take energy to produce and transport.

East Asia, perhaps shockingly, gets a vast percentage of its oil from the Persian Gulf, 4/5ths of Gulf oil by some counts, leaving the world’s economic growth engines distressingly vulnerable to a single choke point.

Last month, the Marshall Islands issued an energy emergency declaration ordering government offices to shut down at 3 p.m. for the next 90 days. Calling it the “largest draw on the public power grid,” the order further mandated turning off all government-owned air conditioners.

Other countries are already on this path: the Philippines announced a national emergency, Sri Lanka imposed a four-day workweek, Thailand ordered government workers to work from home, airlines in the U.S. and Europe are cutting flights.

Then came the super typhoon. Saipan bore the brunt. Sinlaku knocked down its power and water systems. From Chuuk, we saw the undeniably awe-inspiring footage, powerful waves crashing over the main road in Weno, unencumbered by anything resembling a dock. The pier at Truk Stop is gone. The state docks are in disrepair. Floodwaters submerged the ground far from shore.

It’s hard to describe infrastructure as “damaged" when a normal hard rain turns the road to a river, brownouts define a typical afternoon, the ATMs consistently run of cash and the gas stations lack gas.

Never let a crisis go to waste. Maybe someone will rebuild the roads into a legitimate passageway. You can even use the generous donations from the international community to put up the occasional seawall.

It shouldn’t take a storm or war to spot little reminders of our failure to make our environment livable: to wit, cinderblock buildings whose footprint does not align with cross breezes, but it doesn’t matter because the windows don’t open.

Or new government offices sporting wall-to-wall carpeting that require constant air conditioning throughout the building to prevent a mold buildup. Or solar panels that are few-and-far-between gifts from foreign donors instead of a mainstay of the national utility. Or government capitols and the adjoining office spaces located in remote corners of the jungle distant from the population. Palau and FSM, I’m looking at you.

I’m not against air conditioning or carpeting, but I oppose increasing reliance on outside energy and rendering people helpless when offshore events disrupt the flow of electrons.

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Poor countries have limited ability to insulate themselves from energy price leaps. They have fewer energy reserves, whether in the form of a strategic stockpile of oil or excess battery capacity. Their governments don't have a cash surplus to afford subsidizing the cost-burdened population. They have fewer options to cover lost work time and limited revenue for those who have no other choice.

Enter energy independence, the gospel that both the U.S. and China have preached for decades. The U.S. went for oil, China for electricity. As Alexa St. John wrote for the Associated Press on April 20, “Renewable energies overtook electricity demand last year, led by solar growth in China (and) India.” The geopolitical divide between China and America has a new crack: petroleum versus renewables. Something for the Greater-Indo-Pacific-Quad-Oceania-Blue-Continent to think about as they float between great power rivalries.

Never let a crisis go to waste.

Gabriel McCoard is an attorney who previously worked in Palau and Chuuk State. Send feedback to gabrieljmccoard@hotmail.com.

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