I just figured it out.
I always thought it was really weird that so many big business owners (and politicians dependent on big business owners for contributions) refuse to “believe” in climate change and the science that says humans are responsible. It’s so obvious. It’s been made abundantly clear by scientists all over the world. How could they be so stupid?
Stupid? Maybe not.
I was listening to a radio program about Puerto Rico where someone pointed out that after the hurricane Puerto Ricans are being pushed out of Puerto Rico (or dying) just as the people of New Orleans were pushed out after Hurricane Katrina. Big business is moving in.
I remembered the book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein.[i] She told about the teachings of Milton Friedman, an economist who wanted to “return” to pure capitalism, a place with no government regulations and no trade barriers. The only way we could get there was to “deliberately inflict painful shocks” (Klein, p.60). You could move in on a country after a foreign invasion, or after a disaster, and privatize – basically take over the economy.
This is actually taught as good economics at many universities around the country.
This works great for the rich.
Not so much for the middle class and poor. Klein points out that, “some of the most infamous human rights violations of this era [50’s through maybe today?], which have tended to be viewed as sadistic acts carried out by antidemocratic regimes, were in fact either committed with the deliberate intent of terrorizing the public or actively harnessed to prepare the ground for the introduction of radical freemarket ‘reforms.’” (Klein, p.11)
And then the big corporations move in.
We’ve seen it in Nigeria. How about this Newsweek headline: Oil Spills in Nigeria Could Kill 16,000 Babies a Year.[ii] That was Shell Oil.
There’s the devastating war on Yemen. One million people with cholera. Who benefits? Saudi Arabian big corporations and their allies. Who are their allies? Guess.[iii]
When Hurricane Katrina happened many people were shipped out of New Orleans and still haven’t been able to return. Wealthy business owners took advantage of the chaos and confusion to privatize the government services (many schools were closed and replaced with charter schools, often operated by private companies, for instance), to buy up the land from the devastated home owners, etc. – in other words, to rip the people of the area off.
Now it’s happening in Puerto Rico.
It’s called Disaster Capitalism.
How does that relate to not believing in Climate Change? Were both hurricanes a result of Climate Change? Probably at least the greater size of them can be attributed to Climate Change, but that really doesn’t matter. We know that Climate Change is going to bring more extreme weather, more disasters all over the world.
What about the supposed stupidity of the big business men and politicians?
This is what I finally figured out.
It isn’t stupidity. It’s duplicity.
Just as Exxon knew about – “believed in” – climate change forty years ago and hid that knowledge from the rest of us,[iv] I believe that all these corporate dudes and right-wing politicians understand that climate change is happening, and know that it’s a result of human behavior, but are lying to us about their “un-belief” so they don’t have to look like selfish cruel despots when they refuse to stop it from happening.
If we allow climate change to happen, there will be more and more opportunities to move in on people devastated by disaster, steal their homes, their land, their communities, and enrich the rich. Bonus? Lots of poor people die and the rich don’t have to deal with them anymore.
Appalling isn’t it?
Disgusting, ugly, mean, and immoral.
Sinful – from the point of view of any of the major religions.
[i] Klein, Naomi, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine
[ii] Gaffey, Conor, Newsweek, http://www.newsweek.com/nigeria-oil-oil-spills-neonatal-mortality-702506
[iii] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/12/21/one-million-people-have-caught-cholera-in-yemen-you-should-be-outraged/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7eae815d3873
[iv] Schwartz, John, New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/23/climate/exxon-global-warming-science-study.html
“They found that Exxon’s climate change studies, published from 1977 to 2014, were in line with the scientific thinking of the time. Some 80 percent of the company’s research and internal communications acknowledged that climate change was real and was caused by humans. But 80 percent of Exxon’s statements to the broader public, which reached a much larger audience, expressed doubt about climate change.”
In my book, The Earth Woman Tree Woman Quartet, the protagonists, who have shape shifted to the form of one of their Tla Twein (see former post “Exploring Our Tla Twein”), are trying to bring humans back into the sacred Dance of Life, the Tsin Twei. The Tsin Twei is in danger from many directions, but they all lead back to one place — corporate malfeasance.
You can order print versions from Powell’s Books or your local independent bookstore, or purchase print and ebook versions at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Want to explore your own Tla Twein? In the fall I will be presenting a workshop in Oakland, CA where we will move and sing, write and create art work in search of the reason our particular Tla Twein call us. Contact me at connie@deephum.com for more information. Put “Tla Twein Workshop” in the subject line.