The temperature is 56 degrees F. in Cleveland today. 20 degrees higher than the historical average of 37 degrees. However, because gasoline is now being sold for the lowest prices in 4 to 5 years, the ideas of fuel efficiency and of burning less gasoline moving forward into the future go right out of the window for most people. The understanding that the price is a reflection of increased yields due to fracking and increased off-shore drilling, both of which have created a constant media and legal war between Big Fossil Fuel and so-called environmentalists, seems to go right over the heads of the majority. I do not hear people linking this financial relief to the most greed-fueled and hazardous problem facing our planets ecosystem in human history; the continuous burning of carbon-based fuels and the resulting C02 emissions. Mainstream media refuses to discuss drastically different weather patterns as part of the big picture of climate change. Meanwhile, the extraction, transportation, processing, and burning of fossil fuels that exponentially increase C02 levels in the atmosphere, is conveniently greenwashed by petroleum companies like Shell and Exxon Mobile making spiffy, heart-warming TV and print ads to reassure the public that they are just looking out for everybodys best interest. I opened my January issue of Wired today and the cover and first page full spread ad assures me that the boy playing with Lite Brite will have a bright future if only we keep drilling deeper and deeper in the Gulf of Mexico to suck out as much as the estimated 300 billion barrels deep below the ocean floor. Of course, with shareholder profits at stake, the marketing department avoids entirely any conjecturing regarding the environmental consequences of this activity; the potential spills that could be even greater than BPs Deepwater Horizon, general pollution and contamination of the ocean in the areas where these massive drilling rigs are located based on increased human activity and contact, and the list goes on and on. Ironically, just 3 years ago Shell was the subject of a Wired article regarding an oil spill they caused in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of Nigeria that discusses the coming wave of increased drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the potential hazards. wired/2011/12/nigeria-oil-spill/ Moving from the underbelly of the country to our head, a Republican-majority Congress is salivating for January 6, 2015 to force its hand in submitting to Big Oils other man-made disaster, the extraction and processing of the Alberta Tar Sands. Vowing to go over President Obamas veto power through majority votes on approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, they are completely ignoring the myriad of immediate environmental and legal problems the project has already and will continue to cause, though, more importantly they are completely oblivious to the bigger picture; building this pipeline is the equivalent of giving a convicted murderer a gun for target practice. The statement to the entire world is that the U.S. Government agrees that 1) The Tar Sands are NOT a MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD that should be operationally shut down as soon as possible 2) Processing the oil sand crude and burning all 300 billion barrels estimated to exist of that fuel will be just fine in helping us achieve our emission reduction goals here and abroad. No Merry Christmas. No Happy New Year. Greed is winning. Science is being discredited. Money buys our lawmakers, and everyone who breathes air, drinks water, eats food, and lives in the ecosystem known as Earth will suffer for the luxury of a few.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 20:07:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015