Global pollution and the environmental destruction of the earth is obvious, apparent and affronting. The oligarchical status quo of globalization and institutionalization has resulted in pollutants and toxins which permeate the oceans once thought to be limitless, and pierced the atmosphere.
Do the ice caps have to melt before this narrow carbon-obsessed global warming debate might cease for a moment, and focus may turn toward actually doing something positive about our fouled air, water, land and food?
What is already scientifically known about global environmental destruction is enough for any reasonable person to support drastic change -- in order to prevent drastic change. Undeniably, this change must start with the immediate reformation of institutions, particularly the energy and technology industries that profit while simultaneously working to suppress the development of genuinely sustainable energy technologies. Individuals, like you and me, who are already burdened with bioaccumulative toxins of all sorts from these contaminating practices, should not be the only ones to bear the hardship of such change. Such burden should be placed squarely on the institutions that are the source of the problem, that profit from the problem, and accordingly, that wield their political influence to prolong the problem.
Time For Climate RevolutionPolitics is about nuanced views. At one time it was commonly held in scientific circles that industrial byproducts such as nuclear and fossil fuels were largely responsible for the emerging ecological imbalance on planet earth. But that nuance has come and gone from political discussion, and the rhetoric manipulated so as to falsely deflect responsibility for our current woes back onto a disempowered public.
Michael Klare is a professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College, and theauthor of numerous books on the politics of energy, including Resource Wars, Blood and Oil and The Race for What's Left. According to Klare:
"Few governments are as yet prepared to launch the sorts of efforts that might even begin to effectively address the peril of climate change, they will increasingly be seen as obstacles to essential action and so as entities that need to be removed. In short, climate rebellion."
According to a report by Nitin Sethi fromTheHindu.com, leaked US State Department internal documents show that U.S. senior State Department officials advised negotiators at the 2013 Climate Change Conference in Warsaw to essentially do nothing -- specifically advising officials to "delay emission cut commitments and not to agree on any time line for funds" and providing instructions on "how the diplomats should posture publicly to help the delegation" achieve that goal. Meanwhile, President Obama and Secretary Kerry claim to treat our current environmental crisis as a "high priority".
"In an internal briefing paper prepared for its diplomats across the world ahead of the Warsaw climate negotiations, which The Hindu has accessed, the U.S. has opposed the setting up of a separate process on 'loss and damage', pushed primarily for the role of private investments and finance in providing the promised money to the poor countries to adapt to climate change and have a 2015 climate agreement where no country is forced to take higher emission reduction pledges than the ones they initially volunteer. It also informed its diplomats to keep pushing the line with other countries that the U.S. was doing enough domestically on the climate change front and these were priorities for President Barack Obama and John Kerry." ~ Nitin Sethi
In the very accurate words of writer, filmmaker, and activistDennis Trainor, Jr. (who was critically acclaimed for his documentary on the Occupy movement, American Autumn):
"The Giant Pink Elephant in the room is that our world leaders can't seem to deal with the reality of climate change because it is not profitable in short term profits for the global elite and the bottom line of transnational corporations."
Human over-consumption of the Earth cannot continue without dire physical and spiritual consequences. We cannot consider ourselves the peak of evolution on earth while also being responsible for its devastation. We cannot breathe, eat or drink politics. Nor can our future generations. It time we start thinking outside the narrow confines of the political convention and formality that led us here. What we need is an environmental revolution. Our future on earth now depends on it.
-- at this pivotal moment in global history, there is little time to pick apart the 'manners'" of a species on the verge of self-extinction. The wrongness of investing our money in companies that are wrecking the planet -- polluting, contaminating and rendering non-consumable the water, food and air on which our survival depends -- is self evident. It is the very definition of insanity.
"Now, perhaps more than at any time in global history, we dare not marginalize our own for asking the questions we are afraid to ask" How will we create a future worth living if even those who rally for peace lack the capacity to appreciate those who 'think with their hearts?'" Who will be left to point out the irony of a culture that rhetorically endorses -- even teaches its children -- concepts of "conflict resolution" and "conservation," while simultaneously waging war and consumerism on the rest of the planet?"
"It is those brave ones, those courageous enough to question the basic tenets of this outdated economic model, who will save us -- if we are to be saved." ~ Sandy Leon Vest, 'Operation Infinite Love'.
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