Chevron Is Running a Con Game

Found this blog post at The Unsuitablog that so accurately nails the arrogance of corporate America in general and the oil industry in particular, that I just had to pass it along and, of course, add a few of my own comments.

It’s time to recognize Chevron for the hypocritical, phony, band-wagon-jumping, contemptible, lying, bastards they are.

The con game they are manufacturing against America’s common sense to make us believe they care about what is happening to the environment and us while providing a lifeline for the oppressive and murderous Burmese regime is disgraceful.

They orchestrated a coup against the US House of Rep last year in the wake of the juntas crackdown on it’s citizens by arguing that if they didn’t maintain access to Burma’s rich gas fields then someone else will. And our fool reps, with dollar signs in their eyes instead of compassion in their hearts, bought it.

This has only emboldened Chevron to pull that same wool over the public's eyes so they can stay in a business that enslaves indigents and props up a Fascist government all in the name of profit.

Please, don't support them.

Photo Credit: The Unsuitablog

Global Warming is Real, Mr. Klaus

The annual world economic forum of global leaders was held in Davos, Switzerland this past week, and Czech President Vaclav Klaus used this forum to verbally attack Al Gore over his stance on global warming.

"I don't think that there is any global warming," said the 67-year-old liberal, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. "I don't see the statistical data for that."

Referring to the former US vice president, who attended Davos this year, he added: "I'm very sorry that some people like Al Gore are not ready to listen to the competing theories. I do listen to them.

"Environmentalism and the global warming alarmism is challenging our freedom. Al Gore is an important person in this movement."

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, he said that he was more worried about the reaction to the perceived dangers than the consequences.

"I'm afraid that the current crisis will be misused for radically constraining the functioning of the markets and market economy all around the world," he said.

"I'm more afraid of the consequences of the crisis than the crisis itself."

I agree that people tend to become alarmed over perceived dangers, that is after all what warnings are meant to do, if they are taken seriously. This climate threat has been ‘perceived’ by climatologists for many years and those early predictions are beginning to take shape. The non-scientific community needs only observe the changes in weather patterns and the resulting destruction of wildlife habitat to see this is true.

You cannot dismiss the fact that polar ice sheets are melting at a record pace. You cannot ignore the fact that navigable routes have opened through the arctic, about 30 years ahead of predictions.

Nor can you ignore the fact that the planets surface is warming up.

The greatest debate over causal factors is whether these changes are the result of a natural cycle or are they man-made.

The burning of fossil fuels has certainly taken its toll, not only on human health but also on the health of the atmosphere as a result of excavating earths resources, burning those resources and releasing the resulting gases into the atmosphere. The resultant greenhouse gases increase the planets temperature. Not alarmist theory, scientific fact.

Earth’s climate is a closed system. Everything that exists in this system, stays in this system. The melting of polar ice caps produces evaporation and the increased atmospheric moisture results in increased rainfall which then leads to increased severity of hurricanes. A side effect of this increased hurricane intensity is the associated low pressure sucks more moisture away from the drier climates of the world creating more severe droughts. As a result, agricultural patterns worldwide are being affected.

Polar ice cap melt also increases sea levels which could result in future category 2 and 3 storms causing much more severe flooding than anticipated otherwise, in low-lying coastal areas.

As the planet grows ever warmer, and former cold zones give way to rising temperatures, plant and animal species are loosing their habitat and dying off thereby decreasing biodiversity. This does not bode well for planets inhabitants, for man and beast.

Are these the ramblings of ‘alarmists’ for the purpose of “radically constraining the functioning of the markets and market economy”? It seems Mr. Klaus, and by association all other naysayers, is more concerned with the health of the market system than with the health of our planet. And this perfectly illustrates the very reason why we are in this mess today.

We dismiss scientific findings at our own peril. This has proven itself many times throughout history. Taking heed of this lesson is of the utmost importance to prevent a predicted global calamity.

It is a widespread fact that species and their habitats are on the decrease while chances for ecosystems to adapt naturally are diminishing. This cannot be merely brushed aside as ‘alarmist’.


Sources:
Science Daily, Sep 22, 2005

Global Issues, Jan 1, 2009

Climate Change Weather Patterns

Greed hurts us all again

The rush to make money has once again worsened an existing problem.
The U.N., and others, is warning the world that water resources, already strained by over population, will become even more scarce from the increased production of corn and other crops for biofuels.

Also, since more corn is being sold to biofuel producers, diverting it away from food producers, the price of corn for food is increasing. The price of every other crop that is being diverted away from traditional uses to biofuel production is going up as well.

Winners and losers? In the short term, the winners are the farmers who convert their lands to grow more palm trees, more sugar cane, more of anything that biofuel producers will buy. In the long term, the losers are those very same farmers, along with anyone else who requires food. It may sound like a bit of an over-simplification and melodramatic, but it is true.

These problems and others, such as increased pollution from the increased use of synthetic fertilizers to support the additional crops and the conversion of forests into agricultural lands, have been discussed in length by ecologists, scientists, farmers, food producers, environmentalists and bloggers who can see beyond the need to make an extra buck, for quite some time now.

I don’t mean to get down on those poor countries who are struggling to make more money. They need to eat too. But their shortsightedness is going to affect everyone else. Using more land that hastens the shortage of one of our most limited resources and polluting it even more borders on lunacy.

The use of biofuels is a double-edged sword. It is better for the environment than fossil fuels and it increases energy security for many countries. The pitfalls affect social as well as environmental issues.

New studies from scientists, private agencies and governments are saying biofuels could do more harm than good. Instead of helping the environment, deforestation to grow more energy crops is increasing the threat of global warming.

Converting more land to agricultural use will prevent an ever increasing population from finding land to build homes on.

Pollution from synthetic fertilizers creates the need for more water purification systems which takes up more land.

There needs to be controls put in place to decrease the competition of agricultural lands in order to maintain a percentage of land for food production only. Developing countries will benefit most from this.

We need to look at long term solutions and not jump on the first immediate answer. How many times have individuals been burned in their personal lives by doing exactly this? When are we going to learn from our mistakes. This mistake is global and will have global consequences.

Another attempt to rewrite history

George W Bush is in Israel this week with plans to broker a peace deal in a region that knows nothing but war and hate, and subscribes heavily to revenge as a matter of national policy.

That region will never know peace. This attempt to paint himself as a stalwart of foreign policy and a ‘friend to the world’ will fail as badly as his attempt to present himself as an environmentalist after signing one weak, lame piece of environmental legislation. And the very fact that he thinks just by taking this one action will reverse the effects his illegal actions had on Iraq just proves how much faith he puts in Americas gullibility.

Mr. president, your record on foreign policy is abominable. Do you honestly think the American history books will portray you as a peace activist by virtue of this one trip in this final year of your eight year term? You think you will be exonerated for your crimes against the constitution and the American public by shaking hands with foreign dignitaries in their own land?

The bloody shadows of Iraq and Afghanistan, the campaign of hate against Iran, the threat of World War III, the destabilization of relations with Russia, the egotistical stance against any attempt to combat global warming, these are not the earmarks of a master of foreign relations.

The spying on American citizens in our own homes, the replacing of military leadership until you found one that agrees with you, the rewriting of scientific finding until they matched your personal beliefs, the refusal to do anything meaningful to alleviate environmental pollution, the blatant appointments of under-qualified personnel to key administration posts, the denigration of habeas corpus, the weakening value of our dollar, the selling out of the cornerstone of our economy (Wall Street) to foreign investors, exposing CIA operatives, covering up crimes under the guise of executive privilege, profiteering from war under the threat of terrorist attacks on our shores.

Just what good have you done for this country? This list of crimes against the American people is disgusting, sir. And this doesn’t even begin to address the crimes and short comings of your personal life that were overlooked due to your ties with your father.

If you had not been born into such a wealthy politically powerful family, I have no doubt your life will have ended up an alcoholic wreck depending on the very charities your political party turns its back on, cowering from the police state you have managed to foster. You could very well have become a victim of the very egregious record number of Texas death row inmates you helped populate as Texas governor.

The best thing to happen to this country will be the collective departure of you and your administration from public office. It cannot happen soon enough.

You and your puppet masters may attempt to rewrite history, sir, but the majority of people in this country know you and Dick Cheney for what you really are, sad remnants of an old west mentality of shoot to kill and declare yourself as the moral, law-abiding authority.

White House paints rosy picture to protect us?

On October 23, 2007 Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Atlanta-based CDC told a Senate hearing that climate change "is anticipated to have a broad range of impacts on the health of Americans."

Her intention was to give the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee details of the effects that climate change could have on the spread of disease. But, the White House Office of Management and Budget severely edited her testimony removing specific scientific references to these potential health risks. The editing was so severe that her testimony was cut from 14 pages to just 4.

Why would the White House suppress findings from its own premier disease monitoring agency? What is the White House covering up? The very fact that the White House did remove finding from the report tells us that they are covering up something.

What was struck from the report was the broad range of health problems that could result from climate change which includes fatalities from heat stress and heart failure, increased injuries and deaths from severe weather such as hurricanes; more respiratory problems from drought-driven air pollution; an increase in waterborne diseases including cholera, and increases in vector-borne diseases including malaria and hantavirus; and mental health problems such as depression and post-traumatic stress.

She tried to paint a very depressing picture of the negative effects of global warming. She is trying to give us the worst case scenario without exaggerating. Finding out what we are facing is a very necessary factor in tackling a very serious problem. But George doesn’t want to face this problem. He would rather stick his head in the sand and pretend the problem is not real. He wants the problem to wait for the next president.

George has been denying the severity of climate change and he doesn’t want anyone to contradict him.

Doesn’t this sound like business as usual? If you are not going to tell him what he wants to hear then he doesn’t want anyone to hear it. He did the same thing with our military leadership, going through top generals until he found one who will mimic his rosy view of how the Iraq War is progressing. He reminds me of Nero fiddling away while Rome burns.

He is living in a fantasy world trying his best to ignore any and all negativity and surrounding himself with yes men who will tell him only what he wants to hear.

This choice of lifestyle is not healthy. In his position, this lifestyle choice is extremely unhealthy for the country.

I’ve written before about how Dubya doesn’t follow scientific studies because he doesn’t understand science speculating about how he was a failed science student in school. I now think the problem goes deeper and is much more sinister than this. In his mind he is an Emperor, a little Napoleon, if you will, who wants to decide what his public will hear and believe. He wants us to see only a rosy view of our world as long as it suits him. He will even go so far as to edit out scientific facts from a report that is attempting to prepare us for what our future holds so he doesn’t have to face the fact that it is taking place under his leadership.

New oceanfront property

One of the worst effects of global warming is nearer than we think. The world’s coastlines are going to change in as little as a few years. We have been hearing this cry for so long that most of us have become numb to the warnings. We think this change will happen so far in the future, certainly not in our lifetimes, that we don’t need to take the warnings seriously. Chicken Little ran around crying ‘the sky is falling’ and no one believed. Scientists have been telling us that global warming is real and no one believes.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published predictions this year that sea level rise will drastically alter coastlines around the world. Their predictions, based on data that was two years old, said the sea rise could total 20 to 60 centimeters, and we want to believe it won’t happen in our lifetimes. This estimate has turned out to be conservative. The Bush administration dismisses scientific conclusions as the stuff of science fiction stories and ‘blue-sky’ voodoo. This way he doesn’t have to deal with it. These scientists know their stuff. They are not given to exaggeration and hysteria. The rest of us cannot afford to stick our heads in the sand any longer.

On a recent visit to the Greenland ice cap in September of this year, scientists were shocked to learn that ice is melting at a far faster rate than previously thought. It seems that what we have been told, that it would take centuries of ice melt to change the worlds coastlines, needs to be adjusted to taking only decades or years.

If you have ever witnessed a large sheet of ice melting in the sun, either on a lake or in your backyard, you undoubtedly have noticed that it doesn’t just melt around the edges. Holes also form across the surface of the ice that allows melted water to flow down through the ice to the ground below. As enough water flows down those holes and underneath the ice sheet it acts as a lubricant to allow the ice sheet to move. The Greenland ice sheet has already developed thousands of these holes and it is moving. With an ice sheet that large you can imagine that the amount of water flowing down those holes have become very large waterfalls. Several are as big as Niagara Falls.

The front of this glacier is five kilometers long and 1,500 meters deep. Robert Correll, chairman of the Artic Climate Impact Assessment, tries to put it into perspective this way, “That means that this one glacier puts enough fresh water into the sea in one day to provide drinking water for a city the size of New York or London for a year." And this glacier is currently moving at three times the rate it did 10 years ago. This is very significant indeed.

As the glacier moves, chunks of ice, the size of small mountains, are breaking off and causing small earthquakes and creating waves that can sink small ships if they happen to wander too close.

Add the melting effects of this one glacier to all the other glaciers around the world such as Antarctic, the glaciers of Alaska, the Rockies, the Himalayas, or the ocean water itself expanding as it warms, and the magnitude should become clear. Hurricane surges, as we saw during Katrina, will be even more devastating as flood waters will reach even further inland. Whole cities and towns could be wiped from the face of the earth.

Bush can be decisive in using the military to take Iraq for his profit but he can’t use military might to stop climate change, therefore he is totally lost as to what to do. Too bad none of his cronies are scientists, then, maybe, he would believe them. Too bad there is no profit to be made for him to take global warming seriously, then we would stand a better chance at seeing some action taken to stop or slow down global warning.

All he has done so far is spout rhetoric in front of 16 of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters in Washington last month about how, along with terrorism, climate change is the biggest threat to the earth. But when it comes down to demanding something be done about it, he would rather put it off onto the next president by suggesting voluntary cuts in emissions. Since when does any corporation or nation do anything voluntary that will cost them money even if it is to help save our species?

America is the biggest user of fossil fuel in the world and creates more greenhouse gas emissions than anyone else. Therefore, we need to lead the way in curbing these emissions. Bush will not demand anything be done, because implementing the necessary policies to force his cronies corporations to clean up their act would damage his political party’s standings. Again, it would not be profitable enough for him to do anything, even if it means the very survival of our species.

Science tells us we need to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% if we are to stave off catastrophic climate change, Bush doesn’t understand science and so he chooses not to give it any importance. This way, by his narrow, feeble minded thinking, if it isn’t real it can’t hurt him.

He puts more faith in creationism than in science and his narrow view-point is once again endangering us all. He cannot hide from facts behind his faith. This threat of dramatic sea level rise is as real as he is blind to it.

So all of you who are living on the coastlines better trade in your homes for what will certainly become the new oceanfront property.

To learn more about climate change click here.