Ordinary citizens will have to take matters into their own hands before any progress is seen, a good start would be to nationalize all foreign owned/operated oil wells - most recent example: Argentina
World News
By Dallas Darling
05/05/2012
In 1962 when
Rachael Carson, an
American biologist, wrote in her book,
Silent Spring, how man has acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world and "The most alarming of all man's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials," chemical corporations labeled her as a "crank" and "an emotionally disturbed miscreant." When she claimed that pollution was for the most part irrecoverable; "the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible," and that "In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world-the very nature of life," conservative pundits and reactionary political leaders called her an "environmental extremist" and a "leftist anti-American radical."
 |
| Alaska one of the most polluted states in U.S. |
And when she revealed how "strontium 90 was being released through nuclear energies and explosions into the air, where it then indiscriminately rains or drifts down on the earth as fallout, lodging in soil, entering into the grass or corn or wheat grown there, and in them takes up its abode in the bones of a human being, there to remain until his death," and when she meticulously documented how DDTs and other man-made toxins were "being sprayed on croplands or forests or gardens and lie long in soil, entering into living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain of poisoning and death," large commercial agribusinesses and even more chemical industries launched a massive million dollar public relations campaign to smear and defame her, claiming her findings were "nonscientific" and "utter nonsense." These powerful corporate entities also threatened her with numerous lawsuits, death threats, and attempted to suppress her scientific findings through courts.(1)
Two years later, Rachael Carson died, crucified by a cancerous environment and tumor that had spread throughout her, one that had been recreated by a harmful, toxic and stress-filled corporate-military-state.
 |
| Logging, mining and oil extraction have reduced natural trout habitat in California old-growth forests (above) by 95% and existing streams and native trout are dying from erosion, insecticide and artificial fertilizer pollution; native trout are the "canary in the coal mine" and are endangered throughout the state |
It is too bad, then, that
Republicans and ultra-conservative pundits, backed by an aggressive corporate-military-state and legions of lobbyists, attacked and condemned Al Armendariz for using the term "crucify" in describing how he would like to pursue non-compliant oil and gas companies. In a
2010 video, Armendariz, head of the
Environmental Protection Agency's office in
Dallas, Texas, suggested crucifying oil cartels that have little disregard for environmental laws and regulations, that ignore the dangers of hydraulic fracturing and pollute underground water systems, that emit enormous amounts of deadly toxins and gasses into rivers and the air, and that endanger the safety and health standards of their workers. After resigning, Armendariz admitted he used a poor choice of words. But he also maintained that crucifixion was applicable to modern corporate polluters and how they produce toxic environments that adversely impacts all of life.
Regrettably, the
Obama Administration distanced itself from Armendariz's crucifixion statement, claming the concept of crucifixion is in no way an accurate representation of the way the
EPA has operated. But maybe it should be, especially when considering how modern corporate conglomerates have replaced militant and colonial-like empires. In fact, some corporations and multi-nationals have not only become extremely violent and abusive towards the
Earth and its fragile ecosystems, often causing a distorted, mutated and tortured existence among mammals, birds, and fish, but towards humankind.
Carson warned of a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth, making it unfit for life. She also said it should not be called "insecticides," but "biocides."
Today, the new poison is corporaticide, its imperial leaders and their distorted sense of proportion, and would-be architectures of the present and future that promote suicidal overproduction and consumption and waste.
Corporaticide crucifies anyone who challenges or questions the reign of market-place terror, like Carson and Armendariz who were symbolic of millions of conscientious environmentalists. Corporaticide is not only man's war against the Earth and nature, but it is a "few" men's war against the rest of humanity. Corporaticide mirrors a triumphant, but dystopian, vindication of
Darwin's principle of the survival of the fittest, attempting to evolve a super race of beings immune to the "collapse of the moment" and invincible to the realities of the present and future. Corporaticide contaminates not only the air, earth, rives, and seas with dangerous and even lethal over consumptive practices and usury, but it produces a world of "haves" and "have-nots." Still, Corporaticide accumulates in the value- and ethical-like tissues of humankind. Man's total being becomes contaminated, leading to a possible collectivized extinction. Sociologist
C. Wright Mills described it as certain members of the corporate classes that not only "sell their time and energy but their personalities as well."
Conspicuous consumption of the working classes follows close behind. Through persuasion and propaganda and always trying to "catch up," both are conquering the Earth and its web of life through resource and market wars.
Consumerist practices become addictive and habitual, as do manufactured preemptive wars. Such wars lead to lengthy military occupations and produce contaminated "throw away societies," where even some people, specifically the poor and the oppressed, and some nations, those considered underdeveloped or less modern, are discarded and completely destroyed. Like Carson and Armendariz, humankind must again understand and experience the wonder and mystery of ancient forms of life. Workers and specialists must ecologically work together in a shared environment, recognizing and honoring diverse species of the Earth.
 |
| All animals in Alaska, including these Grizzly bears, have been impacted by toxic waste site pollution that ranges from the North Slope to Southeast |
Perhaps a new vision and grammar is needed for conscientious environmentalists, especially when confronting a corporate-military-state. Whether it be McDonaldization, the process whereby the principles of the fast-food restaurant, with its processed and toxic foods and momentary service, are coming to dominate more and more sectors of
American society as well as the rest of the world,(2) or Chevron-imperialism,
British Petroleum-imperialism and Exxon-imperialism, all of which have rapaciously ravaged
Nigeria,
Ecuador,
Iraq,
America's
Gulf Coast and mainland, and many other parts of the Earth, including crucifying millions of humans and mammals and birds and fish through wars and illnesses and different types of cancers and mutant genes; both conscientious people and environmentalists must learn to establish rational and steward-ship like limits for the conservation of the resources they need. To undo its lethality against the Earth and its apocalyptic mindset towards the fragile web of life, humankind must acquire the ability to re-imagine
Nature. In other words, humanity is here to serve Nature and Earth, instead of Nature and Earth serving humanity. If this does not happen, corporate-military-states will continue to march into local communities and impale a few suspected environmental political rebels and social bandits, prophetic reformers and messianic pretenders, and slaves, along with the poor and oppressed. There will be more extremely violent and public spectacles of crucifixion, like the BP
Disaster in the
Gulf of Mexico and the preemptive wars and lengthy military occupation of Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Survivors and spectators of those crucified by corporate-military-states, will not only be overshadowed by hundreds of hanging insurgents, but they too will be nailed to a "delayed" cross of cancer, a cross of chemicals, a cross of deadly illnesses, and the crucible of fracking.
 |
| Biologists have found high levels of PCB's in predators like this Denali wolf |
The fracturing of the Earth and its web of life, along with the continuous burning of fossil fuels and other damaging environmental practices like dam-building, "greenhouse gas" emissions, unsustainable forestry, unregulated urbanization, and inadequate testing of agrochemicals,(3) cannot continue. Rapid economic growth, mass production and consumption, and profitability and wealth has limits. They also cause the utter collapse of ecological and biological systems. It can also be deadly, especially as toxins and gasses and chemicals are pumped into the air, water, soil, and wildlife, and then erratically rain down on creation, and as consumerist and wasteful values are infused into the veins and tissues and organs of humankind. Environmental, social, political, and ethical degradation takes many forms, as does crucifixion. The crucifixion of the Earth and "all" of its inhabitants, whether immediately or delayed, is occurring. Perhaps it is time to crucify, or put to death, the crucifiers, or systems and organization of exploitation and violent usury. Otherwise, A "silent spring," a "strange stillness," will occur.
Spring will come unheralded by the return of the birds and humankind. The early mornings will be strangely silent. At the same time, and recalling
Albert Schweitzer who said, "Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation,"(4) Should not Environmentalism, as a belief and religion, be on equal footing with the other great monotheistic and enlightened faiths? After all, there is only one Earth, of which, humans were initially called to be stewards of.
Dallas Darling (darling@wn.com)
Dallas Darling is the author of
Politics 501: An
A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and
Action, Some
Nations Above God: 52 Weekly
Reflections On Modern-Day
Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of
John's Apocalyptic
Vision, and
The Other Side Of
Christianity: Reflections on
Faith, Politics,
Spirituality,
History, and
Peace. He is a correspondent for
www.worldnews.com. You can read more of Dallas' writings at www.beverlydarling.com and wn.com//dallasdarling.
(1) Dicanio,
Margaret B.
Encyclopedia of American Activism:
1960 To
The Present.
Lincoln, Nebraska:
ABC-CLIO,
2005., p. 85.
(2) Pieterse, Jan Nederveen. Globalization And
Culture.
New York, New York:
Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.,
2004., p. 49.
(3) Armesto, Felipe
Fernandez.
Ideas That Changed
The World. New York, New York:
Fall River Press, 2009., p 385.
(4) McCarthy,
Timothy Patrick and John Mcmillian.
The Radical Reader: A documentary History Of
The American Radical Tradition. New York, New York:
The New Reader,
2003., p. 354.
Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5th Estate.
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