Back on September 12, 2007, I spotted an article (here: http://urltea.com/1hpo) that had the headline:
The appalling fate of the polar bear, symbol of the Arctic
This is the kind of headline that just makes my eyes roll. Once again, don't get me wrong--I don't think Polar (or any other bears) should be extinct, but the first thing I thought of when I read this headline was this: "Who the hell cares about fricken' bears when humans are dying all the time??"
Now, the article is about more than just environmental issues. Here's a cutting:
Polar bears – the very symbol of the Arctic's looming environmental disaster – are crashing towards extinction as a result of global warming, the US government has found. The admission, the result of a massive investigation by the Bush administration, could force the President finally to take action against climate change.
The development comes at the end of the most momentous week in the human history of the Arctic, which is warming faster than anywhere else in the world. Satellite observations have revealed that its ice has shrunk to much its lowest ever level, raising fears that it had reached a "tipping point" where it would melt irreversibly, disappearing altogether in summer in less than 25 years, with incalculable global consequences,
And a separate Independent on Sunday investigation has found that polar bears are being shot in alarming numbers by rich trophy hunters from the US, Europe and Japan, even as their increasingly fragile habitat melts beneath them. Campaigners know that climate change and pollution are the biggest threats to polar bear survival, but believe that stopping sports hunting is symbolically important. Former US presidential candidate Senator John Kerry is leading the fight.
Of course, John Kerry "leading the fight" makes me roll my eyes again, but this story does actually, if indirectly, get to my position on the environment and animal rights.
Personally, I feel like the environment and the animals are not the things we should be trying to save. It's ourselves. All of the things we're doing to them we're doing to ourselves, also. Brutal deaths caused by rich white people? Yeah, that's what the Iraq war is all about! You think the average GI would be cool with killing Iraqis if there hadn't been all that rhetorical build up by rich white folks?
Of course not!
So, why was there all of that build up? It wasn't because of Iraqi WMDs (duh) and it wasn't because of Saddam's role in 911 (he didn't have one), so what was it for?
The oil is definitely a layer of the reasoning-onion, but it's a layer pretty close to the surface. Head past the the oil and you see all the money that is made on a war--the arms, the shells, the vehicles, the support crews (food, health care, entertainment, etc)--there's a lot of money to be made there. Then, don't forget Blackwater mercenaries--I've heard that there are STACKS of them over there. Of course, we're supposed to call them "contractors" but they're really mercenaries. Then there's the consultants who make money off of recommending certain contractors to certain politicians. I'm just assuming they get big finder's fees. Also, you can't forget all the money, Cheney, Bush and friends will get in the private sector after all of this is over--the lecture circuit, the books deals, the consultant deals from companies like the Carlyle Group, will likely make each powerful white man whose name you know millions of dollars (this includes honorary rich, white man Condoleezza Rice).
What's the unifying factor here?
Greed.
But you can't stomp out or regulate a concept like greed (any more than you can stomp out terrorism) but you can regulate the system that uses greed as fodder. That's capitalism or corporatism. I'm not sure which is the better word to use here since the lines between their definitions and their practical applications have blurred dramatically as of late. Regardless, it's this system that allows and even encourages these rich "white" folks to keep exploiting the rest of us and the environment and the animals that live in it.
Is it the individual car owner who is causing global warming? No. It's all those damn cars out there. Well, who made those cars? Giant car companies. Why won't they make only cars that don't pollute? Because it's too expensive.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
See that? These guys own multiple homes, drive gorgeous cars and they don't want to give up any of it because they're greedy as hell and don't really care about the environment or the very animals that live in it (like us humans).
And how many other industries pollute because it's cheaper than not polluting? How many industries don't pay what their employees deserve? Hell, even those guys organizing the polar bear hunting expeditions are greedy bastards.
So, if we can put a cap on businesses that put the bottom line on top and moral and legal behavior well beneath that, I bet all of our environmental woes would go away.
Greed is not good. Greed does not work. And ultimately, corporatism/capitalism will eat itself alive from the inside unless it scales back its extremism.
Orignal From: POOR WITTLE BEARS DYING IN THE ARCTIC!
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