Skip to main content

If the shoe fits ...


Greedy Lying Bastards pretty much sums it up.  This is a recent documentary that chronicles the attempts by so-called "energy companies" and  industries to dismiss global warming.  There are some pretty shocking figures cited, such as the $67 million Koch Industries has spent over the last 15 years in its campaign against global warming.  The documentary also looks into the Supreme Court decision on Citizens United that now allows for unlimited corporate contributions to political campaigns, essentially allowing industry to buy Washington and state legislatures, where these multinational companies successfully fight against environmental regulations.

You have to wonder at what point does the cost to discredit the large body of scientific analysis that has shown that global arming is occurring exceeds the cost to pursue renewable forms of energy.  Already, we are seeing a big dispute over the costly process of fracking to unlock a few more drops of oil from the earth's crust and the impact this has on ground water.  It ceases to be a global warming issue, but rather a simple environmental issue that immediately affects everyone.  However, these are the same corporations who fought against regulations against asbestos and other toxic materials and processes, so what can you expect.

To the filmmakers' credit, they try to reach across the political divide, interviewing persons like Christine Todd Whitman, who found herself fighting against the Bush administration, as head of the EPA, over ground water contamination and global warming, but was able to successfully reduce the allowable levels of arsenic in ground water from 50 to 10 particles per billion, as had originally been suggested by the Clinton administration, but had initially been blocked by Bush.

Comments

  1. That's a powerful trailer. There's also a good review at the Post.

    One thing I noted somewhere is that the Koch Brothers are looking at the LA Times/Chicago Tribune now that the papers are out of bankruptcy. Nothing like having your own papers to keep up the messaging war.

    I'm sure the film will be at our local independent theatre at some point. I'll try to see it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sadly, the Lithuanian government is seriously considering a deal with Chevron that would allow fracking in the lowlands of the country, which is also the nation's largest supply of fresh water,

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/energy-environment/chevron-intent-on-european-shale-gas-buys-lithuanian-stake.html

    I love the way Magness describes Lithuania as a "good host government" like Chevron is some form of parasite ever seeking new "hosts."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chevron is a form of parasite seeking a new host and governments welcome it with open arms. In the 1980s, many of the oil companies were also seriously investing in alternative energy because it appeared that the end of oil resources was at hand. Now it seems like they are determined to suck out every last drop while they can, the future and planet be damned.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer.  Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions.  I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters.  Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs.  Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77.  I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not.  Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud.  -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!