This report illustrates how a government agency of the US ruling class functions--to serve their interests while pretending to serve ours. Officially it is an agency whose purpose is as follows:
The mission of EPA is to protect human health and the environment.
EPA's purpose is to ensure that:
- all Americans are protected from significant risks to human health and the environment where they live, learn and work;
- national efforts to reduce environmental risk are based on the best available scientific information;
- federal laws protecting human health and the environment are enforced fairly and effectively;
- environmental protection is an integral consideration in U.S. policies concerning natural resources, human health, economic growth, energy, transportation, agriculture, industry, and international trade, and these factors are similarly considered in establishing environmental policy;
- all parts of society -- communities, individuals, businesses, and state, local and tribal governments -- have access to accurate information sufficient to effectively participate in managing human health and environmental risks;
- environmental protection contributes to making our communities and ecosystems diverse, sustainable and economically productive; and
So far the history of their performance reveals that the main interest of this government agency is far more directed to serving the needs of British Petroleum Oil Corporation. See this, this, and this.
- the United States plays a leadership role in working with other nations to protect the global environment.
The sharp contrast between official purposes of federal agencies and their actual performance is hidden as much as possible by the propaganda organs of the ruling class, mass media corporations. These organs are a major weapon against any form of popular power.
If the localization movement accomplishes anything else, it must establish independent grassroots media to counteract this brainwashing. The freedom and democratic nature of the internet is precisely why actions are now being undertaken to exert greater control over it by government and corporations.
Yet, I have not seen any evidence that localization organizations such as Transition Towns regard the development of an independent media as of any importance. Hence, it is easy to conclude that such localization efforts will largely serve to aid the capitalist ruling class by helping ordinary people to survive on less while the rich wage wars, consume ever greater amounts of fossil fuels, and destroy the Earth's habitat. If these trends continue, it seems to me that in the next 30 years the world will increasingly look like this: small islands of the rich living behind powerfully guarded gated communities that are surrounded by huge oceans of the poor everywhere in the world.