(This article
was first published on the Yahoo Contributors Network on December 7, 2013)
Preventing an Existential Threat to Life and Planet Is
Imperative
According
to a recent study, 90 corporations cause two-thirds of global warming
emissions. This however attempts to blame a few for the failures of so many. But
why look at someone else to pin the blame on when all we need to do is look at
ourselves. In this case our own attitudes and behaviors.
It is not that these companies do not share a huge chunk of
the blame, they do. But they need us to perpetuate their production of coal and
oil. Corporations are in the business of making money. They accomplish that by creating
a need (in this case a market for oil and coal). They are not in the business
of looking out for the wellbeing of people or the environment. They are only in
business to make a profit and make money for their stockholders, which they
will always view as superseding common good.
If consumers continue their demand for the products of coal
and oil, the corporate incentives will not change, the status quo of burning
fossil fuels will not change, the threat of global warming, and its climate
change consequences, will not change.
To those who say global warming is a hoax, based on bad
science, or we should not be concerned because up-and-down cyclical global
warming and cooling events have occurred since the beginning of time, should ask
themselves, what if I am wrong, what are the consequences?
It is not arguable that a polluted environment is better
than a non-polluted environment. It is not arguable that an atmosphere out of
balance with what nature intended is not a polluted environment, in this case
excessive atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. No one can successfully
argue that these are good things, or that there will not be consequences for
human health or the health of our planet.
So whether there is an impending climate crisis or not
really does not matter. An effort to prevent what could very well threaten our
very existence if we do nothing is imperative, especially when preventative
changes do nothing more than make life better. But to make changes we cannot continue
to blame government or company irresponsibility for what clearly is our
collective responsibility. Environmental improvements will only come when we
change our own attitudes and behaviors.
For those who take a defeatist attitude that we cannot
change the attitudes and behaviors of society should heed the advice of Noam
Chomsky who says,
“if you act like there is no possibility of change for the better, you
guarantee that there will be no change for the better. The choice is ours, the
choice is yours.”
Copyright © 2014 Horatio Green
