There are no corners of the Earth that we can pollute without poisoning it all....and our own bodies. We cannot squander our resources on killing people on the other side of the Earth while leaving ourselves to be destroyed by the mayhem at home. Either our species learns this lesson, and acts on it--NOW!--or we do not survive.
::::::::
As you read this, the life of our bodies, nation and planet
is being blown out a corporate hole in the Gulf of Mexico and into a BP
Dead Zone of no return.
The apocalyptic gusher of oily poison
pouring into the waters that give us life can only be viewed---FELT---by
each and every one of us as an on-going death by a thousand cuts with
no end in sight.
Yet our government---allegedly the embodiment
of our collective will to survive---has done NOTHING of significance to
fight this mass murder. Not one meaningful thing.
As it did
while New Orleans drowned downstream from a willfully neglected levee
system, our most potentially effective counter-force dithers on the
other side of the world, in the wrong Gulf.
We squander our
treasure on the largest conglomeration of people and weapons the world
has ever seen. It's bloated with hardware designed specifically to
destroy and kill. Hundreds of thousands of Americans sit on our dime in
more than a hundred countries, rotting in the outposts of a bygone
empire.
Why aren't they in the Gulf of Mexico, fighting for our
truest "national security"?
The depth and scope of this
catastrophe is impossible to grasp because it is just beginning. The
entire Gulf, the west coast of Florida, the Everglades, the east coast
of Florida and all the way up, wherever the currents go....they are all
at risk.
This is the most lethal single attack on the life of
this nation since December 7, 1941. It is a time that will live only in
infamy.
The moment it happened, a sane president, a functional
government, a society worthy of survival, would have marshaled every
mobile resource available and moved it down to the Gulf.
Except
by hitting a nuclear power plant and rendering this all radioactive, no
terrorist could dream of igniting the kind of havoc now destroying our
most vital, precious and irreplaceable resources.
Our mass media
should be filled with stirring images of a focussed, determined
President mobilizing all available assets to curb the damage. Instead,
Barack Obama defends offshore drilling and endorses the resumption of
whaling---if this underwater gusher actually leaves any alive. It is a
suicidal tribute to the power of corporate ownership.
Instead of
a seeing a Gulf population deputized and mobilized to fight for
survival, we are subjected to a loathsome trio of corporate
stooges---apparently named Larry, Curly and Moe---blaming each other for
the catastrophe. They should all be clamped into orange jumpsuits and
locked onto a clean-up vessel.
Thus far the only armies
officially mobilized are of the corporate PR departments and ubiquitous
lawyers savoring the gusher of billable hours sure to stretch through
the decades.
Our collective non-response to this cataclysmic
reality now includes the introduction of a pathetic "climate bill",
concocted by another woeful trio, in service to the very corporations
that have brought us this lethal gusher.
This bill will do
nothing to solve this particular problem. Nor will it address the root
cause of our addiction to obsolete and suicidal fossil and nuclear fuels
at a time when the clean, cheap renewable alternatives are readily
available. It is, in short, Beyond Tragic.
Make no mistake: in
our lifetime, the Gulf will not recover. Nor will our species.
There
are no corners of the Earth that we can pollute without poisoning it
all....and our own bodies. We cannot squander our resources on killing
people on the other side of the Earth while leaving ourselves to be
destroyed by the mayhem at home.
Either our species learns this
lesson, and acts on it--NOW!--or we do not survive.
--
Harvey Wasserman's SOLARTOPIA! OUR
GREEN-POWERED EARTH, is at www.harveywasserman.com. He is senior advisor to
Greenpeace USA and senior editor of FreePress.org, where this was first
published.
Authors Bio:
Harvey is a lifelong activist who speaks, writes and organizes widely on energy, the environment, election protection, social justice, grass-roots politics and natural healing, personal and planetary.He hosts "California Solartopia" at KPFK-Pacifica and "Green Power & Wellness" atprn.fm. He editsnukefree.org,solartopia.organd has taught history, diversity and ecology studies at numerous colleges. With Pete Seeger and David Bernz, he co-wrote the Grammy-winning "Solartopia Song."
With Dan Keller, Harvey co-wrote the award-winning "Lovejoy's Nuclear War" and "Last Resort" documentary films. In 1994, he spoke (for Greenpeace) to 350,000 rock fans at Woodstock 2. He's made major media appearances on "Today," "Nightline," "Democracy Now," "Thom Hartmann," "Phil Donahue" and more. His articles have been published at The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Nation, Progressive, Huffington Post and more.Harvey has authored or co-authored about 20 books, with introductions or endorsements from Howard Zinn, Bonnie Raitt, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Marianne Williamson, Studs Terkel, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Kurt Vonnegut, Ina Mae Gaskin, Dennis Kucinich, Lila Garrett, Ed Asner, Ralph Nader and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
He is married with five daughters and many grandchildren. His top priority is to shut all nuke reactors and help make Los Angeles the world's first Solartopian megalopolis.