Raping Gaia–will She recover?
There are many important issues in the never-ending battle between the 99% v. 1%. One such issue is likely to affect the 1% just as much as the 99%–the environment human beings live in. Worldwide, many of the 99% live in poverty, experiencing war, famine, and filth without shelter and clean water. This could be the future of the 1% too—when Gaia suffers, we all suffer. Gaia, Mother Earth, or whatever you call Her, is currently being violently gang-raped by the 1% for power and profit. Her silent scream is what I see in the famous Edvard Munch painting.
The 1% and its power brokers, i.e. most conservatives, America’s GOP, and presidential candidate Mitt Romney, are notorious Gaia rapists on America’s most wanted list of environmental criminals who are repeatedly indicted for their sociopathic abuse and lack of concern for Mother Earth. To be fair, some born-agains, a large constituency of the GOP, have expressed concern about environmental issues. Even some Republicans revolted against Romney’s leadership and voted for tax breaks for wind farms, a small victory probably aimed at vocally environmental constituents they need to appease in order to be re-elected to a second term. Nevertheless, the political sycophants to the 1% generally turn a blind eye to Gaia’s rape.
The violation of our world is humanity’s original sin. Nomadic tribes hunted the wooly mammoth to extinction and we have continued to do that ever since then. Even now, “nature preserves” amidst the Texas draught-lands offer hunters the opportunity to shoot animals on the endangered species list. A zoo in Denmark allows animals to have offspring only to euthanize them when they become adults. The Chinese propagandize with their protection of the pandas while their old men try to keep it up with powdered gonads from lions and tigers. Elephant tusks are so popular that African nations can’t keep up with the elephants’ poachers either.
Let’s talk about water and draught and—horrors!—global warming. We are changing ocean currents, flora, and fauna with the junk our factories and power plants spew into Gaia’s atmosphere. Greenland is without ice and the Northwest Passage is open water. Polar bears will soon be on the endangered species list and probably should be already. There are great white shark attacks on the beaches of Cape Cod as the warmer waters there attract more fish, hence more seals and their fearsome predators. Vast regions of the world, including many parts of the U.S., lie parched on their way to becoming deserts. Extreme weather is a world-wide phenomenon and will probably continue for many decades.
Our cities lie smothering in their own pollution. China is the worst polluter—the price it pays for its fascistic capitalism?—but the U.S., led by the political stooges of the 1%, buck any international agreements that would succor Gaia in her struggle against the rapists. Most international business ignores Gaia’s plight. Organizations similar to The Nature Conservancy can’t buy up land fast enough to save the planet (yes, I’m a member—you should be too). The 99% must rebel—we cannot be bystanders to the rape of a planet.
One negative effect of the demise of the American space shuttle program—there are many—is that fewer astronauts will go into space. While other worlds are continuously being studied, this one is ours, and there’s no clearer way to see this than from space. The banner on my website is an artist’s rendering of that famous view of Earth from the Moon. “It was a jewel of a planet,” an alien visitor from the future might say one day. “How could they shatter such a jewel?” We might survive our proclivity to beat the crap out of each other—I’m not sure whether Gaia will survive Her rape. The world might very well end with Her whimper, not the bang of a nuclear holocaust.
Of course, Gaia fights back. She will fight for her life. She might be alive and fully recovered after we’re extinct. Humanity has not treated Her well and we might pay the ultimate price—and even deserve to pay it. I will never live to see how that story ends. No one alive today will see how that story ends. But our descendants will. Even the descendants of today’s 1%. It’s the epitome of greedy materialism and capitalism that they don’t give a rat’s ass about the environment and are only interested in increasing their riches. Yes, even their descendants will pay the piper. After the rape, sometimes justice prevails.
Voters should keep this issue in mind as they vote in 2012. One reason is that it’s about voting for a president who does care a bit about environmental issues, of course. Obama’s positions and record on environmental issues is better than Romney’s positions and record (he certainly wasn’t a major player in Massachusetts and his national and international environmental ideas are pathetic, to say the least), but your vote doesn’t stop there. You will be voting for congress people—Senators and Representatives—so learn about their positions and record. Make your choice for the candidate interested in helping Gaia. Tell friends and family about the SOB candidate who stands by and lets beautiful Gaia be raped by the 1%. You can make a difference!
And so it goes…
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