09/15/2023
I am regularly aghast at articles describing the effort and intent of the fossil fuel industry. They intend to keep pumping oil basically until it’s all gone without the slightest genuine regard for the fate of civilization and all life on this planet.
They know exactly what they’re doing and they simply don’t care. Worse than that, they demonize those of us trying to prevent catastrophe. They have formed groups and think tanks designed to spread denial, delay, and confusion, all aimed at prolonging and increasing profit. The fact that they are already killing people doesn’t raise one ripple of conscience.
I have a problem processing this level of greed. Historically, the powerful have often been this cavalier with the lives of those without power. All one has to do is consider those who have started wars. They throw the innocent sons and daughters of the poor into the mouths of cannons where they are ripped to shreds. That continues to this day. (Just look at the Russian invasion of Ukraine.)
But the difference between climate change and wars is that the fossil fuel industry is destroying civilization as well as the habitability of the entire planet.
And they don’t care.
To me this is evil. In coming to this realization I recall a particularly good definition of that word.
“Evil is the willful abuse of any sentient being, that is a being that can feel and interpret pain.”
They know what they’re doing. They know they are hurting or killing millions around the world, and that they will kill perhaps billions, and yet they continue. Their actions are easily found in the less compromised media.
The rest of the media landscape spouts either outright lies or skillful misdirections or delay designed to hinder the public’s growing call for large scale action. A case in point is the worldwide climate protests scheduled for this weekend. Very few of the US media outlets are covering it. None of the majors are at the time of this post.
We cannot let this stand. When our children and grandchildren ask what we did about the mess we are leaving, what will we say to them?