DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Sober Thinking
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Hydrocarbon Based Fuels Folly
*****************************************************
#Post#: 813--------------------------------------------------
"There’s a large body of work analyzing links from
capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy to climate
change."
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: January 30, 2023, 1:01 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-220922211810-2001879.png[/center]
Make Nexus Hot News part of your morning: click [i]here
HTML https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/
to subscribe.[/i]
Janaury 30, 2023
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-220922211808-20001173.png[/center]
[center]🦖 Fox Follows @LibsofTikTok to 👿 Attack
[shadow=navy,left]Black Climate Scientist [/shadow]who Dared to
Discuss [shadow=red,left]White Supremacy[/shadow]
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3/3-080222174458-3749234.gif[/center]
SNIPPET:
Dr. Puritty has a PHD in 🔬 Biological Sciences from UC
San Diego, she completed her bachelor’s degree at Howard
University (one of the top universities in the country, with
other distinguished alumni including Thurgood Marshall and
Kamala Harris), and she is the first author of multiple articles
in peer-reviewed journals. Not only that, but she also
understands what many others apparently do not: Climate change
is rooted in the intertwined and mutually-reinforcing
[glow=red,2,300]evils[/glow] of
[shadow=red,left]capitalism[/shadow],
[shadow=maroon,left]colonialism[/shadow], and
[glow=red,2,300]white supremacy[/glow].
All the way back in April 2022, [shadow=navy,left]Dr.
Puritty[/shadow] posted an educational TikTok in which she made
this complex topic more accessible. Referencing the popular book
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, she likens capitalism,
colonialism, and white supremacy to the three heads of a
monstrous dog guarding a trap door, behind which lies the
mystical philosopher’s stone. In Dr. Puritty’s analogy, “the
fart of this dog” symbolizes carbon dioxide, and the
philosopher’s stone represents the solution to climate change.
[shadow=green,left]Dr. Puritty states[/shadow], “White
scientists are telling us that the reason that every time we
send someone in to get the Sorcerer’s Stone, the cure to climate
change, from under the trap door, is to make the room smell less
like farts, instead of to get rid of the dog entirely.” In other
words, we should be focusing on the source of the issue, which
is capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy, rather than
making futile efforts to somehow eliminate climate change
without addressing these [shadow=red,left]oppressive
systems[/shadow] that constitute the inequitable,
🦖[shadow=red,left] fossil-fueled [/shadow]😈
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422182057.gif<br
/>status quo.
Read more:
👍
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164555-532108.png
HTML https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/20230130-google-daily-wire-oil-workers-lawsuit-3-gas-stoves-stories
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-240422194526-8592209.png[/center]
[center]
HTML https://www.greanvillepost.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Opposecapitalism5.jpg[/center]
#Post#: 821--------------------------------------------------
"... 📢 physics doesn’t grade on a curve." --
Bill McKibben 👍
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: February 1, 2023, 7:52 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[shadow=green,left]Bill McKibben[/shadow] from The Crucial Years
<billmckibben@substack.com>
Jan 31, 2023, 8:14 PM
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164718-540294.gif[/center]
[center]Melting Alaska wants to drill more ☠️ oil
HTML https://open.substack.com/pub/billmckibben/p/melting-alaska-wants-to-drill-more?r=9fqw4&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email<br
/>
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-080422121109.gif[/center]
#Post#: 859--------------------------------------------------
patterns of consumption — especially by the wealthy — need to be
targeted if we are to address the climate crisis.
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: February 16, 2023, 1:37 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-120422130903-68837.png[/center]
Feb 15 2023
[center]Industry-driven Affordable Heat Act is
[glow=brown,2,300]deceptive[/glow][/center]
This commentary is by [glow=green,2,300]Suzanna Jones[/glow]
👍, a resident of Walden.
A new report has just been issued, revealing that the 🎩
rich are disproportionately responsible for
[shadow=red,left]carbon emissions[/shadow]. The evidence shows
that the wealthiest among us, termed the “polluting elite,” are
responsible for the vast [glow=red,2,300]majority[/glow] of
carbon emissions.
Peter Newell, a professor of international relations at the
University of Sussex who has extensively studied emissions
sources, says this report shows that patterns of consumption —
especially by the wealthy
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422155724.png<br
/>— need to be targeted if we are to address the climate crisis.
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422145344-560693.png
Here in Vermont, the Affordable Heat Act is being considered by
the Senate. The stated goal of the bill is to reduce Vermont’s
carbon emissions. It is an industry-driven measure that, if
passed, will use market forces to induce Vermonters to abandon
heating sources other than electric, with the costs unjustly
passed on to homeowners and small businesses. Once again, a
tremendous burden is placed on working and poor people. :(
The bill is built upon a credit trading scheme, which, like the
Renewable Energy Credits, obfuscates emissions on paper while
allowing polluting and profiting to proliferate. Nowhere in the
bill is reduction in energy use directly encouraged. >:(
Well intentioned as it may be, this bill would further our
dependence on a profit-driven system that is failing us (power
outages, anyone?) while largely neglecting the real needs of the
biosphere. It enables us to believe we are addressing climate
change, while we deceive ourselves about the necessary economic
sacrifices we all must make.
The Senate is mandated to follow the emission reduction goals
set by the Global Warming Solutions Act. However, the metrics
used by that act are selective and questionable. This needs to
be remedied before lawmakers consider any legislation where
carbon emissions are concerned.
There are two primary methods of carbon accounting: sector-based
and consumption-based. Sector-based carbon accounting measures
emissions only by activities that occur within Vermont. If we
purchase something made in Vermont, the emissions connected to
it are accounted for.
But if we purchase something from California or China, the
emissions to produce it and transport it to Vermont are ignored.
Consumption-based accounting, by contrast, considers the total
carbon embedded in products and services that Vermonters use, no
matter their origin.
What difference does it make which accounting system is used?
The state of Oregon has conducted a study concluding that its
consumption-based emissions are almost 50% greater than their
sector-based emissions. It's safe to assume that number would be
at least that or even higher in Vermont because we import so
much of what we consume, and export relatively little.
Sector-based accounting, in other words, leaves consumption out
of the picture — so some people can still get on a plane in July
to go skiing in South America unaccounted for and guilt-free. It
also makes it appear that local products emit carbon while
imports don’t. All of this is absurd.
What can be done to meaningfully reduce emissions? This is
challenging for a number of reasons. Conventional economists
tell us that a healthy economy needs to grow, and policymakers
actually encourage consumption as a way to keep GDP increasing.
But it's becoming clearer that GDP growth doesn't correspond to
a rising quality of life — often the opposite is true.
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-090422150144.png
Alternative measures like the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)
would enable policymakers to choose paths that improve
well-being without increasing consumption. Although measuring
Vermont’s GPI annually was mandated by the Legislature in 2012,
it has never been implemented.
Another hurdle to reducing consumption — especially among the
“[glow=red,2,300]polluting[/glow]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622202719-1406786.gif🐷<br
/>elite” — is that the wealthy wield more political power than
the
rest of us. Their interests often align with the corporations
and developers that, in many cases, are the source of their
wealth. Campaign donations and hired lobbyists ensure that the
consumption machine runs unimpeded.
Calculating our emissions using a consumption-based method would
at least make it clear that our emissions depend not just on
what fuel we use to heat our homes and power our vehicles, but
on our overall levels of consumption. Policymakers could make
more effective decisions with the appropriate information. The
Global Warming Solutions Act should revise its metrics.
A more fundamental problem is that we rarely look at the crises
we face from the perspective of the biosphere. If the goal is to
stop the negative impacts of modern life on the climate, then it
is modern life, or “progress,” that we should limit, no matter
how challenging that is to our sense of entitlement.
We need a[shadow=green,left] conservation ethic[/shadow] — one
which encourages us to drastically reduce our overuse of, and
[glow=red,2,300]impact[/glow] on, everything. Instead, we try to
protect our comfortable modern existence, which depends on an
💵😈🎩 economy based on
💰🐘🦕🦖🐍 growth, extraction
and
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422182057.gif<br
/>exploitation
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622210450-1415528.gifhttps://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-010922192452.gif.<br
/>And that is what’s [shadow=red,left]killing[/shadow]
☠️ the planet.
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-160223150140.gif<br
/>
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-090822164630.gif
Facing this is our greatest challenge.
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-160223150526.jpeg
HTML https://vtdigger.org/2023/02/15/suzanna-jones-industry-driven-affordable-heat-act-is-deceptive/
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-140822180957-19142401.png[/center]
#Post#: 881--------------------------------------------------
Hydrocarbon Hellspawn: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet
Pollution
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: February 25, 2023, 12:23 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://earthtrack.net/sites/default/files/u10/oilchange%20logo.jpg
February 24, 2023
Today is the one year anniversary of Russia’s devastating
invasion of Ukraine. Amidst the tragedy and humanitarian crises,
the last year has really driven home just how dangerous the
fossil fuel industry truly is. The very same oil and gas
companies that have financed Putin’s regime – via huge stakes in
Russian oil and gas projects – used the instability caused by
the war to rake in unprecedented profits.
Below is a powerful piece
HTML https://priceofoil.org/2023/02/24/first-anniversary-of-ukraine-war-is-a-grim-reminder-to-stop-dependence-on-unstable-and-war-driven-fossil-fuels/<br
/>about the anniversary of the war written by one of my
colleagues, [glow=green,2,300]Andy Rowell[/glow]. It brings the
fossil fuel industry’s role in the war into stark focus, and
makes a clear case for today’s anniversary to be a wake-up call
to end our dependence on war profiteering fossil fuel companies.
In solidarity,
[glow=green,2,300]Elizabeth Bast[/glow]
---
Today is a gruesome milestone. A year after Russia’s brutal and
bloody invasion of Ukraine, the ripples of war have spread
across the globe. Tens of thousands of civilians have been
killed, along with over a hundred thousand Ukrainian and Russian
soldiers. Millions of Ukrainians were displaced from their homes
and homeland. Meanwhile, one hundred million people worldwide
have been forced into extreme poverty by spiraling energy and
food costs.
The invasion was fundamentally fossil-fueled, although Putin
predictably blamed the U.S., Europe and NATO for the war. Putin
could only invade sitting on a massive stockpile of petrodollars
to fund his war chest. Revenues from oil and gas projects backed
by European and U.S. companies financed Vladimir Putin’s regime
to nearly USD 100 billion since 2014. In a briefing published
last March, OCI and other groups highlighted how European and
U.S.-based corporations have “spearheaded large oil and gas
projects that filled Putin’s coffers.”
Eight companies — BP, Shell, Wintershall Dea, ExxonMobil,
TotalEnergies, Equinor, OMV, and Trafigura — have been
responsible for over USD 95 billion to the Russian government
via their stakes in Russian oil and gas projects and companies
since 2014. BP alone was responsible for 80% of this total.
The war has been highly lucrative for the fossil fuel industry
as it has raked in vast, eye-watering profits. An analysis by
Global Witness assessed the 2022 annual profits of five of the
largest oil and gas companies: Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP
and TotalEnergies. Together, “their total profits add up to $195
billion in 2022, nearly 120% more than the previous year, and
the highest level in the industry’s history,” said Global
Witness.
Such profiteering has been widely condemned. In June last year,
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the oil companies
“have humanity by the throat”, in what was described as a
blistering attack on the industry. Last October, US President
Joe Biden accused the sector of “war profiteering”, adding:
“Their profits are a windfall of war, a windfall for the brutal
conflict that’s ravaging Ukraine and hurting tens of millions of
people around the globe.”
The US LNG industry has also been quick to exploit the war,
looking to ramp up exports and locking in European consumers to
decades of gas consumption. In the first eleven months of last
year, U.S. LNG exporters boosted shipments to Europe by more
than 137%, according to an analysis by Reuters.
However, Europe’s LNG demand drove global spot prices to
all-time highs. Such has been the growth and profiteering that
the US is set to become the world’s largest LNG exporter this
year. Cheniere, the largest producer of LNG in the US, saw its
cash flow increase from $1.75 billion in 2021 to an estimated
$6.53bn last year. However, the volatile high LNG prices and
supply disruptions have “earned LNG a reputation as an expensive
and unreliable fuel source, undermining the prospects for demand
growth in key markets,” according to one analysis.
As oil and gas companies revel in their excess profits, hundreds
of millions have suffered the consequences of rising energy and
food costs. According to the UN, the cost of food rose by 50%
last year.
But that is not all. The devastating effect on the environment
of Ukraine has also been labeled the “silent victim” in this
war. Some estimates put the ecological damage around USD 50
billion. An estimated two million hectares of forest have been
destroyed. A hundred and sixty nature reserves, 16 wetlands and
two biospheres are threatened by destruction. And an unknown
number of birds and animals have been killed too. There are
growing calls for the Russian government to be tried for crimes
of ecocide.
There are many lessons from the war. But one is very simple. As
my colleague, Lorne Stockman, Research Co-Director at OCI, says:
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine one year ago is a wake-up call to
stop dependence on unstable and war-driven fossil fuels, and
instead transition to reliable renewable energy. Oil companies
are fueling and profiting from this crisis while the rest of the
world has suffered dire consequences.”
Stockman adds: “The world needs a managed phase-out of fossil
fuels and a just transition towards renewable energy
[glow=teal,2,300]before[/glow] it’s [glow=red,2,300]too
late[/glow].”
AGelbert COMMENT: It's the Social Darwinism, stu__d!
The Polluter Ideology (SEE: Social Darwinism), is the
"justification" the Hydrocarbon Hellspawn have for their war
profiteering, price gouging, polluting, profit over people and
planet modus operandi. The pernicious influence of Social
Darwinists continues to be an existential threat to all of us.
"Greed is Good", "Might is Right", "Losers Finish Last", "It
doesn't matter how you play the game, but whether you Win or
Lose" (etc. you get the morally bankrupt Social Darwinist
"Evolutionary Advantage" of "Apex Predators" Idea).
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-080223161340-22062214.png[/center]
--- Quote ---
> "Darwin’s theory of evolution posited the natural world as a
place where the fittest survive and the less fit decline and
die; if this is indeed the case, thought Darwin’s contemporaries
(and indeed many of our own), then who are we to battle nature
herself? Why should we not let the less-fit die? Indeed, why
should we not hasten their demise if it will profit us — the
survivors, the fittest— economically, geographically, or
politically?" [glow=teal,2,300]Dr. Olufemi Oluniyi[/glow]
--- End Quote ---
Read more:
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/sound-christian-doctrine/darwin/msg876/#msg876
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622202540-1395150.gif<br
/>Although the transition to 100% Renewable Energy sources is
not
taking place at the speed required to avert immense climate
havoc and millions of human deaths, never mind all the mammalian
vertebrate species the fossil fuelers and their bought and paid
for politicians are dooming to extinction, I think we will get
there much sooner than the hydrocarbon hellspawn expect. Here is
a quote from around 2016 of a great journalist from Truthout
(who sadly died in 2022 of a heart attack) that encapsules the
fact that, though we supporters of a 100% Transition to
Renewable Energy have caring, reason, logic and common sense on
our side, the polluters will fight us all the way.
--- Quote ---
> "There is a terrible desperation to the increasingly pathetic
rationalizations from the climate denial camp. This comes as no
surprise if you take the long view; every single undone paradigm
in history has died kicking and screaming, and our current
petroleum paradigm is no different. The trick here is trying to
figure out how we all make it to the new paradigm without dying
right along with the old one, kicking, screaming or otherwise."
- [glow=teal,2,300]William Rivers Pitt[/glow]
--- End Quote ---
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-250223131556.jpeghttps://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-020422164021.png[/center]
#Post#: 991--------------------------------------------------
The TRUTH ☠️🥵 about fossil fuel
💰🦕🦖😈 subsidies
🤦‍♂️
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: April 10, 2023, 5:29 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-250422171003-10991587.jpeg[/center]
[center]The
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422182057.gif<br
/>TRUTH ☠️🥵 about fossil fuel
💰😈🦕🦖
[glow=green,2,300]subsidies[/glow].
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-080422121157.gif[/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/2676LzY9CsU[/center]
Just Have a Think 491K subscribers 139,458 views Apr 2, 2023
The fossil fuel industry received more than a TRILLION dollars
in direct subsidies in 2022, and some say if the impacts on the
climate and environment were factored in, that number would be
nearly six times higher. But, if we take the subsidies away,
asks the fossil fuel industry, then how will people be able to
afford to heat their homes?
Come and see me at the Fully Charged LIVE Shows in the UK this
April and May, and get a 20% discount on your tickets with this
exclusive Just Have a Think discount code
FCLJHT20
which you can use at their booking website
HTML https://fullychargedlive.seetickets
.c...
Help support this channels independence at
HTML http://www.patreon.com/justhaveathink
Or with a donation via Paypal by clicking here
HTML https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...
You can also help keep my brain ticking over during the long
hours of research and editing via the nice folks at
BuyMeACoffee.com
HTML https://www.buymeacoffee.com/justhave...
Video Transcripts available at our website
HTML http://www.justhaveathink.com
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-080223161332-22021922.png<br
/>
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-080223161420-2212450.jpeg[/center]
#Post#: 1039--------------------------------------------------
As a handy reference for litigators, regulators, investors, and
all who are affected by climate change, below is an A to
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: May 11, 2023, 6:26 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-250422171828-11961874.png[/center]
May 10, 2023
[center]An [glow=red,2,300]A[/glow] To [glow=red,2,300]Z[/glow]
Of [glow=red,2,300]Fossil Fuel Industry Deception[/glow]
HTML https://cleantechnica.com/2023/05/10/an-a-to-z-of-fossil-fuel-industry-deception/[/center]
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-110822211151-18391633.png
[/center]
#Post#: 1056--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fossil Fuels: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet
Pollution
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: May 20, 2023, 3:55 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-200523165743.png
#Post#: 1134--------------------------------------------------
Guyana, 😈 Exxon, and the Making of a New
🦖☠️ Petro State
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: June 21, 2023, 2:45 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
The Class Struggle
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
[center]Guyana,
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-120422122619-680240.png<br
/>Exxon, and the Making of a New
[glow=red,2,300]🦖☠️ Petro
State[/glow][/center]
SNIPPETS:
“Guyana taxpayers are currently exposed,” Tom Sanzillo, director
of financial analysis for the Institute for Energy Economics and
Financial Analysis, said. “The potential consequences for Guyana
are [glow=red,2,300]catastrophic[/glow].”
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-110422205203-6511164.gif<br
/>
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-110422141413-627726.png
That’s because Exxon’s drilling project in Guyana is the
[glow=maroon,2,300]riskiest kind[/glow]: deep-water offshore
drilling, which involves intense pressure bearing down on
complex equipment. The conditions are similar to those that
preceded the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010, which spewed
oil and gas throughout the Gulf of Mexico, costing BP $69
billion.
Exxon’s own environmental impact assessments indicate that such
a [glow=red,2,300]disaster[/glow] in Guyana could send
oil[glow=maroon,2,300][/glow] to the beaches of 14 different
Caribbean islands, most of which depend on fishing and tourism —
and all of which could hold Guyana liable for damages. The costs
would be astronomical, which is why the permits for offshore
drilling in Guyana require not only an independent liability
insurance policy from Esso, but also an unlimited financial
guarantee from its parent company to cover costs that exceed
those covered by insurance. ... ...
In Guyana, it’s become hard to distinguish where the 🦖
oil
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622210450-1415528.gif<br
/>[glow=red,2,300]company[/glow] ends and the
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622202719-14071062.gif<br
/>government begins. [glow=maroon,2,300]Exxon executives[/glow]
join the [glow=maroon,2,300]Guyanese president[/glow] in his
suite at cricket matches, and the vice president regularly hosts
press conferences to defend the oil company.
[glow=maroon,2,300]Vincent Adams[/glow], a Guyanese 😈
petroleum engineer and former head of the country’s EPA
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164519-508103.gif,<br
/>has been one of the agency’s harshest critics.
Full article:
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164647-5372345.gif
HTML https://ongoingclassstruggle.blogspot.com/2023/06/guyana-exxon-and-making-of-new-petro.html
AGelbert COMMENT: 🌞👍 Excellent article. The
🦖 polluters appear to be stupidly, but 😈
greedily, doubling down 🥺. But, in order to stop these
🦍 intellimorons from further trashing our world, we need
to overcome the [glow=red,2,300]HYDROCARBON HELLSPAWN[/glow]
HAPPY TALK 😇 [glow=red,2,300]Capitalist
Propaganda[/glow]. 👈
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-250422170948-1092787.png[/center]
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-250422170946-10911309.jpeg[/center]
🤦‍♂️ The support by much of the
populace for the unending irrational adherence by
🦖🐍🦍🐉 polluters to the despicable
profit over people and "planet" (i.e. ALL of the other high
order mammalian vertebrate species populating the biosphere)
"business model" boggles the mind. 😬
I just had a back and forth with an otherwise rational
individual named Randy Webster. I'm posting part of that thread
here to provide readers with some debate points when trying to
talk sense into that 💵 sort and also to show how
dangerously irrational too many people out there ARE at present:
June 17, 2023
World Economic Forum Explodes The Profits Vs. Sustainability
Myth
By [glow=green,2,300]Steve Hanley[/glow] 👍
SNIPPET:
Business leaders who wish to incorporate more sustainability
goals into their business planning must now also face growing
🦖👿 political pressures designed to enforce the
status quo. Recently, 23 🐘😈 Republican attorneys
general notified economic leaders they may be guilty of
antitrust violations if they insist on making ESG policies part
of their business decisions. Inquiring minds may wonder why such
concerted action is not racketeering, and yet there has been no
discernible pushback from the federal government. 😟
We ignore long-term trends at our peril. That’s the real bottom
line.
Full article: 🧐
HTML https://cleantechnica.com/2023/06/17/world-economic-forum-explodes-the-profits-vs-sustainability-myth/
Randy Wester > AGelbert
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622153109-13691906.gif<br
/>17 hours ago
"You know, when former Google big dog Eric Schmidt, who knows
EXACTLY how much help the working homeless in the USA NEED NOW,
can go out and buy a yacht..."
Last time I used Google it was still free.
Don't you think providing a free catalog of all the information
ever made publicly available, and a directory of local
resources, and maps, is of some help to the working homeless?
Plus a free email account, plus free file editing tools that can
be used to write a resume, and free online data storage for
documents.
These seem like things that would be handy to have.
AGelbert > Randy Wester 16 hours ago
When YOU are the product, NOTHING IS FREE. Pretending otherwise
is par for the course for those, like you, that think Eric
Schmidt and his Social Darwinist ilk are "part of the solution",
rather than the truth of the matter (see below):
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-240422195023-942923.gif[/center]
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-120422122316-6601865.bmp[/center]
Randy Wester > AGelbert 8 hours ago
Alphabet makes a profit selling you to their clients by way of
presenting advertising. But don't pretend that they give you
nothing in return.
A job ad, is an ad, and someone paid for you to sre it.
AGelbert > Randy Wester
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-100323192446-23171225.gif
You seem to have difficulties with the subject matter. 😕
Let's try again:
1. TPTB are mainly populated by [glow=red,2,300]Social
Darwinists[/glow] who care nothing for virtually everyone else.
Because of said [glow=red,2,300]socially destructive
ideology[/glow], the [glow=maroon,2,300]parasitic modus operandi
of TPTB[/glow] constitutes an [glow=red,2,300]existential
threat[/glow] to human civilization[glow=teal,2,300] and much of
the other high order mammalian vertebrate species in the
biosphere. [/glow]
2. Rather than addressing the above [glow=red,2,300]unethical
behavior by TPTB[/glow], you attempted to change the subject by
pointing out that internet users, like me, are beneficiaries of
Google products. I never denied that; I simply said they were
not free, as you erroneously claimed. You then continued the
distraction based argument (anything to keep from talking about
ethics, eh, Mr. Webster?) by stating the obvious fact that
someone does pay for it. At that point, we see a bit into your
"might equals right" ideology. That is, as long as someone makes
a profit from selling a service that appears to be "free", but
actually makes a few clever people billionaires that can buy
abandoned 67 million dollar yachts instead of act to help their
underpaid working poor fellow citizens, it's "progress". That is
[glow=red,2,300]fascist progress towards tyranny[/glow], not
"progress".
3. Thus you reveal to all concerned that you are quite satisfied
with the 🎩😈 status quo, while in total denial
of the increasing ☠️ threat to the biosphere that
🦖 it causes. That is an irrational position based on
confirmation bias.
4. We have some very, very, VERY serious environmental problems
that ALL those clever [glow=red,2,300]billionaires[/glow] you so
admire ARE, according to the FACTS, not wishful "markets will
solve all" thinking, [glow=red,2,300]ACCELERATING[/glow] the
degradation of the [glow=green,2,300]biosphere[/glow].
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-090822164630.gif
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-250422171939-12182319.png[/center]
You think it will all "work out" because of, what?, Darwin? You
are either kidding or enjoying a long bath in that river in
Egypt.
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-170422152855.jpeg[/center]
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-310323152852.png[/center]
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-140822180859-1905986.jpeg[/center]
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-250422163000-1042753.png[/center]
#Post#: 1249--------------------------------------------------
What the Fossil Fuel Industry Doesn't Want You To Know | Al Gore
| TED
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: August 19, 2023, 11:43 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]What the
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-120422122619-6812456.gif<br
/>[glow=red,2,300]Hydrocarbon Hellspawn "Industry"[/glow]
Doesn't
Want You To Know | Al Gore | TED[/center]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/xgZC6da4mco[/center]
349,336 views Aug 7, 2023 #TEDCountdown #TEDTalks #TED
In a
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622153109-13672051.gif<br
/>blistering talk
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422144605.png,<br
/>[glow=green,2,300]Nobel Laureate Al Gore [/glow]looks at the
two
main obstacles to climate solutions and gives his view of how we
might actually solve the environmental crisis in time. You won't
want to miss his searing indictment of fossil fuel companies for
walking back their climate commitments -- and his call for a
global rethink of the roles of polluting industries in politics
and finance.
Countdown is TED's global initiative to accelerate solutions to
the climate crisis. The goal: to build a better future by
cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, in the race to
a zero-carbon world. Get involved at
HTML https://countdown.ted.com/sign-up
#Post#: 1280--------------------------------------------------
They don’t have anything against you personally; it’s just
Profit Over Planet Pollution
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: September 2, 2023, 4:27 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]
HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-190623175536.png[/center]
Commentaries are opinion pieces contributed by readers and
newsmakers. VTDigger strives to publish a variety of views from
a broad range of Vermonters. Commentaries give voice to
community members and do not represent VTDigger’s views. To
submit a commentary, follow the instructions here.
August 31, 2023, 6:00 am This commentary is by
[glow=green,2,300]Walt Amses[/glow], a resident of North Calais.
[center][glow=green,2,300]Walt Amses[/glow]: The
[glow=maroon,2,300]☠️ Real[/glow] Price of
Oil[/center]
[move]The planet is at a tipping point. Hopefully, someone is
listening.[/move]
The images of people in Maui fleeing toward the safety of the
ocean as an apocalyptic, hurricane-driven firestorm bears down
unfolds like a horror movie, as it becomes clear that losing a
step or two might be the difference between life and agonizing
death.
By all accounts, this wildfire exploded like a bomb, speeding
through Lahaina without warning — another vengeful environmental
revolt, the latest in a series of climate hellscapes heralding
the arrival of this week’s new normal.
As the death toll exceeded 100 last week, and over 1,000
unaccounted for, officials expected the number to rise
significantly as the grim task of sifting through tons of
debris, much of it reduced to ash, searching for remains,
dragged slowly on.
The recovery is tediously prolonged, becoming painfully apparent
that the same blast-furnace heat that melted steel reduced
bodies to brittle shells, so fragile they easily crumble, or
even wisps of powder scattered ritualistically over the places
they loved by Pacific breezes, as they might have been by
distraught loved ones.
But even one of the worst tragedies of its type is not big
enough to transcend American politics, with theatrically aghast
Republicans — who routinely write off thousands of gun deaths to
“freedom” — quick to blame President Joe Biden for a mountain
bike ride and time at a Delaware beach, even as praise poured in
for the White House’s rapid deployment of resources to the
stricken island.
Hawaiian Gov. Josh Green thanked Mr. Biden for sending emergency
relief so quickly: “We’re honored to have the President jump to
it so fast. In six hours he approved the presidential
declaration (of disaster). It was incredible. Within six hours!
And so that opened up FEMA and amazing support for recovery.”
Echoing Green, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said in a statement:
“Recovering from these devastating fires will take significant
time and resources and we need all the federal support we can
get.”
While the GOP’s sudden concern for human suffering might easily
be dismissed as an exercise in the sleight of hand necessary to
deflect attention from their likely presidential nominee’s
deepening legal quagmire, far-right politics does play a major
role in the dangerous situation facing not only Hawaii but the
rest of the nation and world as well.
Conservatives have propped up the fossil fuel industry for
decades, profiting handsomely while suppressing any indication
that petroleum products play a role in global warming, which
ExxonMobil knew over 40 years ago would “lead to dramatic
environmental effects by 2050.”
Capitalism, left to its own devices, rewards massive greed
massively and the oil industry reflects perfectly how making
money transcends all else, including human lives.
As reported in The New Yorker, while gas prices soared last
spring to well over $4 per gallon and people struggled to pay
bills, Big Oil’s profits were through the roof, with major
producers ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips all earning,
after taxes, profits of over $5 billion — and that’s only the
first three months of the year.
They don’t have anything against you personally; it’s just
business. But as we are learning perhaps too late, the financial
dividends of oil extraction are dwarfed by its extensive
devastation of the natural world.
The tar sands of northern Alberta are challenging to describe in
size and scope; words feel insufficient and seem like an
exaggeration. Imagine a gouged-out hole in a pristine boreal
wilderness covering over 54,000 square miles, roughly the size
of Florida, visible from space. The oil extraction project
going on there for decades is a filthy degradation of the earth
where sludgy deposits of bitumen, mixed with sand, clay and
water are — eventually — converted to usable, synthetic oil
through a hugely expensive and environmentally disastrous
process, leaving enormous loads of toxic waste as well as water
and air pollution.
A riveting new book that reads like fiction but isn’t, John
Vaillant takes us to the center of the tar sands, Fort McMurray,
600 miles north of the border, “an island of industry in an
ocean of trees,” connecting, according to a Guardian review,
“all those trees and that industry in an increasingly deadly
symbiosis.”
In “[glow=red,2,300]Fire Weather[/glow]: A True Story from a
Hotter World
HTML https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/61966364,”
the author
outlines how one of McMurray’s byproducts is the very climate
change that came home to roost in 2016 when a gigantic,
fast-moving wildfire took the area by complete surprise, similar
to the fate suffered in Maui last week.
The same familiar circumstances were at play in the forests
around Fort McMurray as in Hawaii: rising temperatures, dropping
humidity and strong winds leading to fires of unusual intensity
that caught officials unaware, leading to the mass evacuation of
nearly 100,000 people in Alberta and the desperate flight toward
the sea in Lahaina.
Created by climate change, according to Vaillant, these
conditions have led to an atmosphere “more conducive to
combustion than any time in the past 3 million years.”
The price the world pays for oil extends far beyond the gas
pump. Previously safe places are no longer safe. Fire and water
inexorably march through communities like a merciless, invading
force bent on obliterating any illusions of safety we continue
to harbor.
We’re no longer shocked by reports of blistering temperatures
lasting for weeks on end; tropical downpours more likely in a
monsoon; and the threat of rising tides, 100-degree ocean water
and a planet at the tipping point.
Earth is screaming. Hopefully, someone is listening.
HTML https://vtdigger.org/2023/08/31/walt-amses-the-real-price-of-oil/
*****************************************************
Page 2 of 3
DIR Previous Page
DIR Next Page