Tags
Anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD), Charlie Hebdo, Fossil fuel industry, Global power elite, Globalized capitalist economic system, Greenhouse gas emissions, Transnational corporations, War on Terror
Police Special Forces – Manhunt for Charlie Hebdo assailants
Northern France – January 8, 2015
Photo Credit: Francois Lo Presti / AFP
Terror struck Parisians on January 8, 2015, when jihadist gunmen targeted the cartoonists and writers of the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo for their profane depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.
We continue to kill each other in defense of our gods and our freedom.
How long will we persist in feeding on half-truths and fabrications dished out by the global minority power elite? How long will we persist in allowing them to manipulate tragic events to perpetuate fear of The Other? How long will we persist in responding to violence with more violence that makes our lives more insecure?
Our global “War on Terror” foments terror in distant regions under fire and propagates new generations of terrorists. In the name of our homeland security, we in the West now live in militarized police states under electronic surveillance of our movements and communications. Only those freedoms that serve the agenda of the global power elite are tolerated and promoted.
When are we going to wake up from our stupor? When are we going to realize that we are disposable pawns of the global power elite? When are we going to take action to end our state of chronic crisis?
While we are manipulated to fear, hate, and kill The Other, the profit-driven transnational corporations, run by the global power elite, are destroying our planet’s ecosystems that support human life. In pursuit of continual economic growth – which means more money in their coffers – they destroy natural habitats and contaminate our air, water, and soils. We are not without guilt. As voracious consumers, we are collaborators in their plunder and destruction.
We delude ourselves that we can continue on the path of our globalized capitalist economic system without self-destructing. We delude ourselves that we are not responsible for Earth’s climate disruption. We delude ourselves that we are separate and above the natural world.
We have come to a period in our civilization when we must end dumping greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. We urgently need to come together as members of the human species to work towards transitioning to life-sustaining societies. We cannot allow the power elite of the fossil fuel industry to frame laws intended to phase out our use of fossil fuels and transition to clean renewable energy resources.
In February, I will introduce a new weekly blog feature: Climate Disruption – Thought of the Week (up to 50 words). My goal is to spread awareness of the greatest challenge of our times, share success stories at home and abroad in addressing anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD), and offer resources for individual involvement in making the transition.
To fail to act now is to condemn our children, grandchildren, and future survivors (if any) to a world of widespread chaos.
Reblogged this on Guyanese Online.
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I appreciate your continued support, Cyril.
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Rosaliene, this was an excellent article and most timely. I’ve been reading your articles over the years on Guyaneseonline, and I must compliment you for your continuing efforts to hone your journalistic skills.
I’m in total agreement with your thoughts. Obviously, there is a need to create more awareness about the delusions in society, the continual destruction to our environment as a result of deliberate pollution for corporate profits, and to recognize the fact that the best way for us to peacefully coexist is not to fight for religious, political or economic superiority, but to respect one another’s religious beliefs or secular convictions, and to boldly fight our rights to pursue and protect our freedom.
Rationalization for heinous acts of violence, vengeful retaliation involving the innocent in response to persistent radical acts of terror and ruthlessness, the persecution of children and deprivation of their education; these are all evidence of injustice.
As we all know, “an eye for an eye will eventually make us blind.” And as Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Do keep on writing and best wishes for success with your blog and literary endeavors.
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Thanks, Deen. Thanks, too, for your continued support and for sharing your views and experience in this shared journey we call life.
Peaceful coexistence, at all levels, has been a great challenge for humankind. I agree with you that we need “to respect one another’s religious beliefs or secular convictions.” Based on that same respect, we should also avoid provoking others.
“An eye for an eye will eventually make us blind.” In another sense, we have indeed become blind.
Have a blessed Sunday.
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Richest One Percent to own half of world’s wealth by 2016, says Oxfam.
http://news.yahoo.com/oxfam-says-richest-one-percent-own-more-rest-001746708.html
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You might be interested in a new book (I have not read it) about the acquiesence you describe: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316185434/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER/ Also, in yesterday’s NY Times, there was a guest editorial from a scientist on the question of climate change. It seems that Fermi posed a question around 1950, asking why (given the countless numbers of star systems and planets) there has been no evidence of any advanced life form such as ourselves. One response to this is to raise the possibility that there have been such life forms, but they have reached the same kind of climactic impass as we now confront, and failed to surmount it. The scientist raises this as only one possibility, but I had never encountered such a notion before. Chilling.
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Thanks for the book recommendation, Dr. Stein. I haven’t read Steve Fraser’s book but watched an interview with Bill Moyer in December 2014. If you missed it, you can check it out at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/28179-the-new-robber-barons.
Adam Frank’s NY Times article about the inevitability of climate change is also a new notion to me. If people cling to this notion, it will be another reason to continue on our current path and to do nothing. I think it’s a dangerous idea.
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It might be dangerous, Rosaliene. It certainly is shocking, but I think it might also be a wake up call. At this point it is speculative. I really doubt people would give up entirely in the face of possible extinction. Britain didn’t give up during the Battle of Britain. Many other examples could be mentioned.
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Here is a link to the column by the astrobiologist: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/opinion/sunday/is-a-climate-disaster-inevitable.html?ref=opinion
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Dr. Stein, thanks for sharing the link to Adam Frank’s article.
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Thank you for being a strong voice in the wilderness, Rosaliene. I appreciate this and also look forward to your upcoming feature: Climate Disruption – Thought of the Week. In peace and solidarity – Bruce
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Thanks, Bruce. I wish I could do more.
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Another excellent article, Rose
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Thanks, Angela.
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