Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Koch-ing the Climate: Exploiting the Tar Sands

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Koch-ing the Climate: Exploiting the Tar Sands

Click here to access article by Andy Rowell from Oil Change International.

Just last week I watched a re-run of the 2011 PBS TV special entitled, "Deadliest Tornadoes", which was heavily funded by David Koch who also sponsors other NOVA science programs along with Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Lockheed Martin Corporation.

The show's focus was all about solving the problem of advanced warnings which is currently only about 13 minutes of lead time. At one point in the program the narrator made the emphatic statement that tornadoes are a "freak of nature and they cannot be stopped". Another questionable statement made was that we can expect more destruction from tornadoes simply because there will be more population growth and buildings to destroy. Only at that the end of the program there was a very brief general statement that global warming could be a factor.

Clearly David Koch had a material conflict of interest in sponsoring a program on this subject and the results were evident. But, this is "business as usual" for all media in the US whether commercial or government media--the latter is clearly controlled by the One Percent and reflects their interests in coverage of major issues.