There's no such thing as global warming, Bush Incorporated assures us. Could anything else be expected after electing the Bush-Chaney petrol party? After weathering Oil War I and II, the introduction of the American Gestapo (aka Homeland Security) and numerous other travesties, the average American citizen probably doesn't even remember what global warming is. We are reminded that buying a quarter sack of weed supports terrorists, but are not asked to car-pool in an effort to not only cut down on pollution but decrease intake of the black liquid everybody seems to be fighting over in the desert these days.
Why would Bush show any interest in the environment, however? As an oil baron, his interests in the the state of our planets health is about on the same level as Philip Morris' interest in the state of his customers' lungs. To put it simply, killing the environment is good for business. This fact is so obvious that most people can't seem to see it. The Bush administration balked on the Kyoto treaty to cut back emissions and passed up the invitation to the Friends of the Earth summit. Maybe professional wrestling was on that night.
Obviously, the power behind the throne, big business (especially big oil), are not interested in even feigning an interest in the state of our dying planet. The Kyoto treaty just marks another case of the Bush administrations willingness to flaunt their disinterest in the importance of certain global issues. As for missing the Friends of the Earth summit, it's probably best considering our leaders don't seem to want to know the ever decreasing state of our planet's health, considering the fact that they hire scientists to show that everything is perfectly fine.
Despite the trend of "companies that care," the business sector is still intent on destroying our planet and depleting our natural resources as quickly as possible. No one questions it because it's the post-agricultural, post-industrial trend. Since most people are enslaved and addicted to the corporate world's wares, no one seems to dig too deeply in the implications of some of their activities. Like destroying the earth. In fact, even some of these "companies that care" are just investing in lies to convince the average consumer that what they are doing isn't that damaging. To paraphrase Carlin: a little cancer in your drinking water is good for you.
These corporations can't afford to care. It's much more cost effective to pretend anyway. The business of business is making money. Caring about the environment means implementing some practices that would cut profits. Despite the growing concern over the long term side effects caused by criminal corporate negligence, most corporations are still trying to do the least they can get away with.
Underneath this is another more sinister reason that the murder of our planet is allowed to continue. Despite the ever decreasing amount of non-renewable resources like fossil fuels, corporations that profit from these substances move forward as if there was a never-ending supply. Alternative energy sources are not only not explored, but suppressed by the mainstream corporate power structure.
Criminal conglomerates like Esso are not only not concerned about the long term fate of our planet, but are fighting tooth and nail to destroy it as quickly as possible. Even though alternative energy sources would slow down the corporate destruction of our planet, the big businesses that profit from this destruction seem to fight at any costs any possibility of allowing the planet to regenerate.
It makes sense though. As our planet continues to die, everything will become a lot more scarce. To bring some Malthusian paranoia to the picture, a mixture of global warming, global famine and nearly extinct non-renewable natural resources will create a prime spot for those who control the dwindling supplies of black gold and other poisons.
So obviously the corporations can't be expected to care as much as their PR agents tell them to say they do. So who do we turn to, the government? Not as long as it's run by the multinationals whose business seems to be killing the planet at all costs. Only the growing grassroots support can hope to bring light to this sad situation that the majority of consumer robots ignore as they pump their gas on the way to work.
Our planet is dying. Most people find it easy to ignore this fact because the corporate news media doesn't cover the story very often and our corporate government pretends there is no problem. There is a situation however, a dire one, and as long as we allow the corporations to rule, the trend will only worsen.
.. 2004 1-42 Online
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