Enemy of the people
Big business as destroyer of planet
Observation on Kyoto & Alaska
By Deirdre
Griswold
A 240-to-189 vote in the House of Representatives Aug. 1
allowing oil companies to drill in a previously protected
wilderness area--the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge--reveals
once again that policy in the United States is driven not by
the voters' views or even what capitalist politicians perceive
to be their views, but by the profit needs of big capital.
Every school child is taught that this is a democratic
country in which the will of the majority prevails. Yet when
push comes to shove, it is big business--especially its
hyper-rich nucleus of global banks, oil companies and
war-related industries--that calls the shots on both domestic
and international policy.
How else explain the head-in-the-sand positions taken by the
Bush administration on energy, fossil fuels and global warming?
While the whole world is viewing the data on climate change
with extreme alarm, and urging governments to cut back on
greenhouse gas emissions before an ecological catastrophe of
apocalyptic proportions becomes inevitable, Washington is
thumbing its nose at the considered opinion of scientists the
world over.
That was what happened July 23 when 178 countries reached an
agreement requiring industrialized nations to cut emissions of
gases linked to global warming. The fact that nearly every
country in the world voted for it shows that the scientific
community is unanimous about the extreme dangers of global
warming.
Who's the 'rogue state'?
But the government of the United States, which accounts for
a quarter of these gases, wouldn't sign. The same global
strategists who brand countries they are trying to destroy as
"rogue states" and "pariah nations" refused to join the rest of
the world in even this watered-down version of the Kyoto
Protocol.
Nor is it just the Republicans who must take the blame,
although George W. Bush's cabinet is remarkable for how many of
its members just moved over from the corporate offices,
especially those that rip off the oil, gas, coal and other
fuels lying beneath the surface of the land that by rights
belong to the people.
On the vote concerning the Alaska wilderness bill and so
many others, the administration party has gotten the support of
enough Democrats to pass this pillage-and-plunder legislation.
The money of the lobbyists speaks louder than the anguished
cries of people shocked by what is happening to the world.
Let's not forget that when it comes to the rights of women,
that vast underpaid and repressed majority of humankind, these
reactionaries cloak their misogynist agenda in hypocritical
concern for "unborn children." But that's what the global
warming issue is all about. It's about the future of the
planet, the unborn children whose fate is being sealed by
decisions made now by a powerful clique of billionaires.
Capitalism rewards
short-sightedness
Capitalism rewards greed, short-sightedness, cutthroat
tactics--whatever it takes to drive down wages and boost
profits now, not tomorrow. The oil that has been discovered in
the Alaskan wilderness is only a drop in the bucket. One year
of serious energy conservation in this country would save as
much as the oil companies project they'll pump out of the
ground there for years to come. But even a small amount of oil
represents big profits, and that they can't do without--even if
the result is permanent damage to the environment and the
wildlife that have evolved there over millions of years.
If the resources of this country were controlled by the
people--if the people collectively owned them--then what
happens in the future, to their children and their children's
children, would be given very serious consideration.
It is often remarked that in communal societies, such as
those that existed in North America before the European
settlers, or in the civilization that flourished in the
Hawaiian Islands before the missionaries, the people had
devised methods of farming, hunting and even raising fish that
preserved the balance of nature and did not deplete their
resources.
Why was their attitude so different from that of the leaders
who have clawed their way to the top of this society? The
answer is simple. It is not that they had more scientific
knowledge or more sensitive natures than people today. It is
that they were not driven by the profit motive. Communities
that shared the wealth thrived when they thought very carefully
about how to protect nature. They were free to do what they
knew was right.
The great task before the struggling masses around the world
is to rid themselves of this economic system that enriches a
few while impoverishing the many and degrading the entire
planet.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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