I wonder why conservatives don't see the importance of conservation?
Today the price of oil broke the $70 per barrel mark. Most experts agree that we will see $75 in the next few weeks. The reasons for this are varied and debated. A fact that goes without question, is that oil executives in companies like Exxon are currently seeing record multi year profits. General Motors used to be the largest company in America. Instead GM is now facing the possibility of bankruptcy and the whole state of Michigan is feeling this economically. There once was a saying "So goes GM ... so goes the market". Presently GM is going down the toilet. Guess where this country is going.
This year the largest Fortune 500 company in America is Exxon. Do you think this is coincidence during a Bush presidency? While these fat cats watch their money rolling in, who is it that suffers? Is it the poor, who are forced to live in an environment of rising gas prices and overall cost of living? Is it the middle class, who has seen record heating costs for their homes and small businesses? It is corporate America, which must raise the price of goods and services like air travel and factory produced products? Perhaps it is all of these groups. However, I have very little sympathy for any of these groups and I will tell you why. They all sit by and watch it happen, and they do nothing about it. Even the poorest person, with the smallest voice, can do something about this situation by speaking up. Instead, most Americans are more concerned about what is currently in their closet or on their television.
I feel a great deal more sympathy for the Polar bears are starting to die off in The Arctic due to global warming effects. Most are drowning because they are now forced to swim up to eighty miles in a day to reach their food sources. Food used to be available to them for nine months out of the year. Drifting ice sheets now limit that source of nourishment to six months a year. Polar bears are excellent swimmers, but that eighty-mile distance is deadly even for them.
The Western Arctic is one of the fastest warming regions in the world, warming at a rate of 0.75 degrees C per decade for the past three decades, several times the average global rate. Norwegian studies have found the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by sea ice has declined 5.5 per cent since 1978. The Arctic is seen as an early indicator of the impacts of global climate change, caused primarily by the burning of oil, coal and gas.
As I’m sure some of you know, polar bears can’t vote. They don’t drive cars. They don’t own large homes. They don’t manage factories. They simply rely on us to not be idiots. That reliance will most likely be their demise.
Some of you will say, “Screw the polar bears!” The fact is, yes you are, but you are also screwing yourself. What’s even more palpable is that you are screwing your children, and their children after them.
I really think this film below is one of the most important films to be made in years. I think everyone in America should take the time to watch the facts presented in it. The scientific community has been aware of these facts for years. Now it is time for you to be aware of them as well. The polar bears will thank you, and so will your grandchildren.
2 Comments:
Great post. I've watched the price of gas go up 20 cents the past week and yet it has nothing to do with it being a finite natural resource. I've always thought gas *should* be expensive. If this country had $3+ gas for the past ten years perhaps nine out of every ten vehicles I see on the road wouldn't be a god damned SUV.
My mother, not the most internet-savvy, spent an hour trying to find Exxon Mobil distributors and is now boycotting them. Simple thing to do, yes, but if enough people joined in it might make them at least pause.
Yes, you can call me an optimist. (Or a fool.)
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