June 1, 2009
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Why Defend Oil Companies?
Ken Saro-Wiwa was a political activist and organizer in Nigeria. He lead a non-violent crusade against Shell Oil company to prevent them from destroying and polluting their lands in the pursuit of oil. He was a Hero.
For his heroism he was arrested by the military dictatorship that ran Nigeria in collusion with Shell. He was forced to sit through a sham of a trial and then watch 8 of his companions get executed before he himself was hanged.
I don’t mean to paint all oil companies with the same brush. But the record of environmental attrocities commited by MANY oil companies to native lands is huge. Time and again multinational oil companies have shown a ruthlessness and blatant disregard for human rights that ought to have earned them universal condemnation all around the globe.
So tell me? Why is it that we should exert sooo much effort to ensure our measures to combat climate change, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and protect our environment don’t cut into the precious profits of these oil conglomerates?
Comments (4)
I don’t disagree with any of this, except the last bit. It’s not about profit. It’s about dependency. The use of oil doesn’t go down just because we stop drilling for it. If we really want to make a difference, we’ll stop using it, rather than trying to prevent the oil companies from extracting it. In this country, we prove beyond a reasonable doubt that we are capable of saying anything and doing nothing. The very existence of a “hybrid” Cadillac Escalade is proof that nobody truly wants to do anything about the problem. Using clean, renewable energy is the only solution to global cessation of fossil fuel depletion. Stopping the drilling won’t help. If we don’t dig for it, the chinese will.
@ginsu417 - Oh I completely agree with you. I did not mean to suggest that we should try to stop oil companies from drilling altogether. That’s virtually impossible. Rather I was simply pointing out the absurdity of not wanting to implement policies that reduce our demand for oil because it will hurt businesses like oil companies. Policies like gas taxes and cap and trade are seen as horribly evil even though we KNOW the end result will be, if they work, more renewable energy usage, a cleaner environment, and less oil dependency. That makes no sense to me. What makes Shell’s profits so sacred?
I don’t think it makes sense to let oil companies drill in already protected areas though. That’s like letting them do environmental damage where we already know damage will be caused. I mean we CAN let them but they should have to pay for the environmental damage that we KNOW they’ll cause. That’s just reasonable common sense to me.
what are we doing to each other? how do these company leaders sleep at night?
“Why is it that we should exert sooo much effort to ensure our measures to combat climate change, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and protect our environment don’t cut into the precious profits of these oil conglomerates?”
Because if we don’t the liberals will take over and censor talk radio while teaching our children it’s okay to be gay!
What, you some kind of left-winger or something?