Racism & hatred even in the war to save the planet
I was watching ABC TV’s 20/20 with Diane Sawyer walk the audience through the enormous impact that Golbal Warming is having on the planet. It was impressive. The images of the walls of ice collapsing in the arctic waters is unfortgetable and all too frequent a sight these days. But hearing a bird in the rain forests of the Amazon that once mimicked the sounds of the trees rustling in the wind, suddenly began mimicking the sounds of chain saws cutting down thousands of trees every month to satisfy the still unsatiable urge of the world for paper products.
Sawyer walked us through all kinds of challenges, challenges that cut across race, religion and ethnicity, even acknowledging almost matter-of-factly that Americans represent only 5 percent of the world, but consume 25 percent of the world’s resources. She said it so, softly. Like. Yeah. We know. So what? The answer is how do we make ourselves feel better about our lives by giving back to the environment.
For the past two years, in my home, we have been recycling paper, plastic, glass and cans. It’s gotten to the point where we have two separate recylcing containers, and we still dump two bags of garbage from the house every week. It’s not easy to recycle, and it is a nuisance. But it must be done. To help. I thought, maybe, I might even buy those funny circular bulbs that they claim can help reduce the use of electricity. If every home in American replaced one regular light bulb — invented by American Thomas Edison, we could be reducing the polution caused by 1 million cars in a year. Or something like that.
And I was really getting into it, until Sawyer said that if we work hard enough to save the planet, maybe, we could reliminate our dependency on Middle East oil by the year 2025.
The American dependency on Middle East oil. The symbol of evil. The true embedded hate and racism that is the spine of the American culture in which I live. WHo was it that created the oil fields? The sheiks? The Arabs? Or the oil magnets from Texas who built up these huge corporations that squeezed every possible ounce of oil and profit out of the Middle East until the Middle East fought back to control its own resources. And now that the Middle East has taken control of its own resource, suddenly, Americans don’t want to have to buy … yes, let’s say it, “Arab oil.” Because that is what the American effort to “save the planet” is really all about. Protecting Americans from those “Ay-rabs.”
It’s so pathetic. It makes me sick. Diane Sawyer. So soft spoken. So reasoned. And such a racist bigot.
The world isn’t being polluted because of Middle East oil. It’s being gourged and gutted by the arrogance of Americans who insist on driving these enormous SUVs and gas guzzlers, like the Hummer, a beast of a car that is a glutton for precious world resources.
Sure, ABC turned off its lights in Time Square in New York during the show for one moment. But Time Square burns more electricity than the entire city of Orland Park uses in one year. So even if every home in my neighborhood replaces all of American Thomas Edison’s energy ravenous light bulbs with the new circular bulbs that cost so much more and are making some American corporate robber baron rich, it won’t make a bit of difference.
What they really want is the schmucks. The regular people. The pedestrians to cut back on life so the rich, the powerful and the privileged can continue to burn up energy, consume the world’s resources at a luxuriously heinous pace. The whole idea is to make the stupid rest of us think that we are doing something, when in fact we are doing nothing. Because the people who have the power are doing nothing. I don’t care if every American house stops using gasoline, electricity, turns off their TV sets and stops using paper products, the world is still headed to envirnomental hell because the powers that be will not stop making profits on the consumption of natural resources.
So Diane, you slipped up. The real purpose of your plan to “save the planet” has more to do with protecting the big fat cats in American industry and undermine the hated, despised and disliked Arab World which is merely selling the natural resource of oil to Americans who slurp it down as fast as they waste water from their faucets.
I realized that all of the things I have been doing are really for naught, until the real problem, power imbalance, is corrected. When the rich and the wealthy who exploit our world are put in check. The monopolies not just in industry but the media, too, must be broken down.
Until then, the fact is the Polar Bear will become extinct. And Diane Sawyer, the highly paid spokesman for the power elite and media conglomerates can pretend that they really are trying to save the poor animals. When what they are really doing is trying to protect their own species of unconscionable natural rsource gluttons driven by their wealth and their power and their privilege. Those are the fires that are burning off our resources, not the little home owner like me, and especially not the Middle East which has a resource that every American gladly burns up but does so with anger because those damn Arabs dare to make us pay the market price.
This isn’t about saving the environment. It is about the rich and the powerful saving their lifestyles and staying rich.
– Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com
Join the Conversation
Is this a joke?
Of course America should aim for oil dependence. Do you think the Saudis, flush with petrodollars have been a benevolent force in Arab politics? It is they who funded the Wahhabist mosques and Islamic charities that have spread their fundamentalism and influence throughout the Arab world. You’re a Palestinian Christian, don’t tell me you are naive enough to think that the Saudis genuinely give a shit about you and your people (Palestinians of any stripe).
Furthermore reducing dependence on Middle Eastern oil can only be done by consuming less–and less consumption is the solution to the effects of global warming and carbon emissions. It’s a noble goal.
I really don’t think the sole goal of the American environmental movement is to reduce dependence on Middle Eastern oil, and I don’t think American environmentalists or Diane Sawyer is racist. You are far too cynical, and this post reads like a twisted conspiracy theory.
Can you even accept the fact that not all Americans hate Arabs?
The people who are recycling, who are urging people to save electricity, who are urging people to consume less gasoline, are doing so to save this planet for imminent irreversible damage. 50% of all species are reported to have changed at least some of their habits due to the effects posed by global warming. Global warming’s impact will be disastrous in low-lying areas of the Third World. Stopping global warming at all costs is a noble endeavor and must be done. And Guess What? A significant aspect of that, probably the MOST important aspect of that, involves cutting back the use of oil, which will, in turn reduce dependency.
Patrick,
Who do you think has been funding the PLO since the 60′s? And who is now funding Hamas? Saudi. If it didn’t care so much it wouldn’t shower them with financial support. Saudi has always emphasizes its support for Palestine.
I think Ray knows this better than anyone else, it’s not what he was implying in this post.
And a scary one at that. I can only imagine what the U.S would be demanding if it no longer needed Middle Eastern countries on its side, namely those in the Gulf. We’d be their puppets, mostly due to fear. I can see several Iraqs in the future… don’t tell me the U.S government knows any better if it proved otherwise in Iraq (and now in its childish threats against Iran.)
The threat exists and it’s getting bigger, there’s no need for conspiracy theories when we all know what the U.S is capable of, it has yet apologized for the grave errors it has caused in Iraq and it has very few reasons to shy away from threatening certain Arab states and Iran in the future.
You have to read the column, Patrick. I wrote, and I’ll bring the level way down here, that dependency from Arab oil has NOTHING to do with saving the planet. It has everything to do with racism and hatred from Americans who are, my best quote ever
— “the most educated people in the world and the least educated about the rest of the world.”
Dependency on Arab Oil? It’s a distroted way to describe the real reality. The Arab World should cut off the American gas-guzzling addict
Ray Hanania
http://www.hanania.com
…“the most educated people in the world and the least educated about the rest of the world…”
Excellent quote indeed; one which I have long searched for. It would be natural to assume that the people with the world’s highest living standards would be the most enlightened and knowledgeable, and that is what I thought till I set foot in America myself. The sad fact, instead, seems that their high living standards and creature comforts serve to increase their gluttony and girth more than their intellect.
Patrick,
The United States is not dependent on Arab oil. It gets more oil from Canada and Mexico each, than it gets from Saudi Arabia. It also gets its oil from other South American countries and Africa. What the Untied States is addicted to is the hundreds of billions of dollars that the Saudis invest in America. The United States is committing genocide in Iraq so it can control the flow of oil wealth from that country.