Yeah, I know what you mean. Hey, have you ever been asked: “What kind of person are you- not wanting them?” “How could you?” or something like: " Never heard of that.?"
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As an employee of MSHA who also works with OSHA, Black lung, mesothelioma, silicosis, and cancers related to benzine and other organic carcinogenic chemical compounds are indeed considered diseases related to occupation. But since the establishment of occupational radiological standards, there is NO statistical evidence of disease from leukemia, aplastic anemia or other radiation related diseases attributable to permissible radiation exposure among nuclear workers in the non-soviet world - including Japan.
Or, in other words, you really need to worry more about stuff under you kitchen sink or in your garage or naturally seeping from your basement floor (radon) than anything in a nuclear power plant.
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The bigger we are
The harder we fall
Monbiot is spot on in much of what he writes here, but leaves out half of the equation.
Consumption is a massive issue, and must be massively reduced. But “demand” is not the key driver of “the system” that Monbiot refers to, it is a manipulated function, largely driven by the needs of the “supply side.” Capital. Which also, not coincidentally, steers the war machine.
The war machine is itself among the largest Earth-destroyers and carbon polluters. The Pentagon is the single largest institutional producer of greenhouse gases.
If we are to change the system, we must face down capital, and stop the war machine.
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Well, webwalk, the circle is unbroken, the center cannot hold,
slouching toward Bethlehem to be borne. The worst full of’ passion and fury.
Seek Joni Mitchell again to translate.
Au contrare, US war machinery, jets, ships, cargo transport, is not the most carbon polluter world wide, by far. Armed forces protect more polluting activities, shipping, trucking, rush hour personal vehicle home-to-workplace struggle driving, flights by the minute fixing anything ?
Here’s a couple articles citing figures on US military carbon footprint:
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And what happened to Rudolf Diesel. Mysteriously ‘vanished’ on a ship sailing over to the UK to discuss the first setting up of a factory to start producing his new vegetable driven vehicles. Accident? I think the verdict was suicide.
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Judging from the comments I think a lot of people have missed the point of this article. It’s not about fossil fuels, but consumerism, acquiring stuff, of which we’re all guilty and being trapped in a system that depends on its survival for encouraging and expanding this. It’s making a political point more than anything with the US, the inventors of Black friday as the chief drivers of this aspirational lifestyle.
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“doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore?”- Carol King
The General Ideology is consumption and material acquisition. It’s been that way for a long long time but never so much as the past 200 years. Advertisements creating ‘needs’ are a cornerstone of capitalistic methods. The internal combustion engine, consumerism to satisfy self image needs, jet travel, plastics and war machines and war have taken it to a whole other level. Plastic whirlpools the size of Texas (I kid you not) swirl in our oceans in multiple locations breaking up into particles that destroy marine life and poison the fish we eat. The Dutch ride in bikes by the tens of thousands, The Germans too ride bikes as do the Danish in the hundreds of thousands. Americans are beginning to wake up but there is hatred of socialistic solutions in America. Mass transit unlike Europe is starved in America. I hope we do the right thing, it all starts with every individual to cut back consumption and burning fossil fuels.
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You are right. He disappeared from his cabin on the night of Sept. 29, 1913. His body was discovered several days later by a Dutch ship. It is a great unsolved mystery to this day. Many at the time suspected foul play.
And you are correct to point this out. Thanks for reminding us to stay “on topic”. It’s easy to go off on several tangents, because of the inter_connectedness of all of this!
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I said this the other day, but I’ll repeat it. This year’s Black Friday bullshit seems, sounds desperate. It started even earlier than ever and was strident right from the beginning. The news crawler this morning said something to the effect that “after a bad year, retailers pinning their hopes on Black Friday.”
If, as I suspect, the success of this year’s BS is even less than last year’s we will hear much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and much soul-searching (while advertising deep discounts and must-buys all the while) by our lovely, ever-so-helpful corporate media. Looking at the whole mess, the machine doesn’t even have to rely any more on their paid advertisements - all the pretty talking heads are on non-stop about it because they know, as do their masters, that if this whole sick scheme collapses they may be out on the street trying to sell their looks for other purposes.
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Yes, the US military consumes a lot of fuel oil, but compared to international air travel, air freight, trans-oceanic shipping, cross-country trucking and perhaps most of all our personal vehicles, I have to calculate the later - all who drive, fly and purchase commodities manufactured in Asia - as higher quantity consumers of fuel oils. It puts the onus on everyone to do their share, and in so doing, reduce our military ventures overseas meant most of all to secure oil supplies and protect shipping lanes.
Thanks, pretty depressing and disgusting.
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i think the key word in the assertion is “institutional.” As a single institution / organization / entity, the assertion is, that the US military produces more greenhouse gas than any other single institution / organization / entity.
Obviously not more than some entire categories, like “transportation” or “agriculture.” And obviously not comparing it to states, so not more than the USA, or more than China.
And i agree that everyone must take every step, and consumption is very significant, and we can and should exercise our own power by sharply reducing our own consumption. Thus my first sentence begins “Monbiot is spot-on in much of what he writes here…”
But i stand by the rest of what i wrote as well. Consumption in large degree is driven by powerful “supply side” machinations; the “supply side” (capital) is the primary driver of war as well; and while we need to exercise our own power to ramp down consumption from the demand side, we also absolutely need to see, and face, and stop, capital and its war machine.
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Thanks for the heads-up, never heard about Diesel’s death before.
Monbiot has many incisive comments, but neglects the drivers of most human problems: human nature and massive overpopulation. Even if socio-economic systems could be jiggered to a steady state per capita throughput, the addition of a billion people every 12 years or so is destroying the habitat for us and other larger fauna and flora. We displace habitat ( plus toxics it) for other life forms excepting human parasites and things that thrive on our waste.
Absolutely right on! Not really a tough one to figure out, but, unfortunately, a tough one to accomplish.
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Good clarification about fuel consumption and which “institutions” consume the most. Still, my argument about transport and travel are closer to personal responsibility than are faceless corporate capitalism and uncontrolled military ventures.
A fuel consumption study of Costco produced an estimated 70% reduction if the example outlet became a regional distributor to local retailers. A small fleet of vans distributing to local retailers reduced fuel consumption of the daily average 5000 personal cars on the longer distance trips to Costco. This thinking leads me to support a carbon tax, or gas tax with the proceeds directed to low-emission transport technologies, EVs, mass transit EVs, pedestrian/bicycle infrastructure, urban/suburban planning that reduces distances between home and “institutions” of occupation, education, commerce, healthcare, entertainment, cultural amenities.
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