General Discussion

phantom power

(25,966 posts) Fri Jul 10, 2015, 12:58 PM Jul 2015

the planet is dying and half of our political process is being paid to pretend it's not happening

Anyway, this comes on the heels of the remarkable revelation that scientists in the employ of Exxon Mobil were fully aware in 1981 of how carbon dioxide could be the ruination of the planet—so much so that the company refused to tap a huge natural-gas field in Southeast Asia.

The email from Exxon's in-house climate expert provides evidence the company was aware of the connection between fossil fuels and climate change, and the potential for carbon-cutting regulations that could hurt its bottom line, over a generation ago – factoring that knowledge into its decision about an enormous gas field in south-east Asia. The field, off the coast of Indonesia, would have been the single largest source of global warming pollution at the time. "Exxon first got interested in climate change in 1981 because it was seeking to develop the Natuna gas field off Indonesia," Lenny Bernstein, a 30-year industry veteran and Exxon's former in-house climate expert, wrote in the email. "This is an immense reserve of natural gas, but it is 70% CO2," or carbon dioxide, the main driver of climate change.

Yet the company kept funding climate-change denialists for nearly three more decades. Please tell me how doing something like this—and there are plenty of people like the Koch Brothers who still are doing it—won't one day be counted as a crime against humanity? And it's not as though we didn't have lengthy previous experience with the damage that can result when scientists whore themselves out to industry.

Analysis of public statements issued by the tobacco industry sources over the past five decades shows that the companies maintained the stance that smoking had not been proven to be injurious to health through 1999. The public statements of the tobacco industry are in sharp contrast to the private views expressed by many of their own scientists. The tobacco documents reveal that many scientists within the tobacco industry acknowledged as early as the 1950s that cigarette smoking was unsafe.

This really should be the only issue in 2016—that the planet is dying and half of our political process is being paid to pretend that it's not happening at all.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a36337/climate-change-liars/

10 replies

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the planet is dying and half of our political process is being paid to pretend it's not happening (Original Post) phantom power Jul 2015 OP

I wish it were only half. More like two thirds. nt Erich Bloodaxe BSN Jul 2015 #1

To be accurate, it's not really the planet dying, just LIFE on the planet. MH1 Jul 2015 #7

That's what I was going to say Hydra Jul 2015 #9

Surreal concept that most don't want to wrap their distracted minds around. nt Mnemosyne Jul 2015 #2

Our leaders playing the fiddle while the world burns. hunter Jul 2015 #3

They don't care and it was beyond ludicrous to ever believe a monstrous conglomerate Rex Jul 2015 #4

The Business World is the modern day clergy. Doesn't this show how immense their power is? AZ Progressive Jul 2015 #5

If anything needs said, it's this over and over again. skip fox Jul 2015 #6

There are Profits To Be Made hifiguy Jul 2015 #8

We are in the time of the sixth great extinction SoLeftIAmRight Jul 2015 #10

Erich Bloodaxe BSN

(14,733 posts)

1. I wish it were only half. More like two thirds. nt

Reply to phantom power (Original post)

Fri Jul 10, 2015, 01:00 PM

Jul 2015

MH1

(17,600 posts)

7. To be accurate, it's not really the planet dying, just LIFE on the planet.

Reply to Erich Bloodaxe BSN (Reply #1)

Fri Jul 10, 2015, 04:50 PM

Jul 2015

In case anyone wants to be a stickler.

Hydra

(14,459 posts)

9. That's what I was going to say

Reply to MH1 (Reply #7)

Fri Jul 10, 2015, 08:13 PM

Jul 2015

As George Carlin pointed out, the Planet is fine. We're ****ed!

Mnemosyne

(21,363 posts)

2. Surreal concept that most don't want to wrap their distracted minds around. nt

Reply to phantom power (Original post)

Fri Jul 10, 2015, 02:55 PM

Jul 2015

hunter

(38,313 posts)

3. Our leaders playing the fiddle while the world burns.

Reply to phantom power (Original post)

Fri Jul 10, 2015, 04:00 PM

Jul 2015

And most the rest of us dancing, and a few of us overwhelmed by the magnitude of changes to come.

People of the future will not speak of Nero and Rome. They will speak of our time.

I still watch it all going down with a sense of curiosity and wonder.

Like Fred Kwan dropped out of space onto the transport deck in Galaxy Quest, commenting, "That was a hell of a thing.." as the rest of the crew still stands shaking in their boots, unable to move, unable to speak.

There's still plenty of positive things to be done, but one thing's for sure: We ain't ever going back to the way things were.

Rex

(65,616 posts)

4. They don't care and it was beyond ludicrous to ever believe a monstrous conglomerate

Reply to phantom power (Original post)

Fri Jul 10, 2015, 04:04 PM

Jul 2015

has a 'soul' or bothers to worry about the planet. They don't care about life, they care about dead presidents.

Some folks will never understand that one simple fact.

AZ Progressive

(3,411 posts)

5. The Business World is the modern day clergy. Doesn't this show how immense their power is?

Reply to phantom power (Original post)

Fri Jul 10, 2015, 04:06 PM

Jul 2015

Just like the power of the clergy long ago.

When you give so much power to money, shouldn't it be reasonable then that money would have the power to purchase anything, including the government and people's minds?

Doesn't this show how evil greed and immense money in the hands of a few is?