THERE ARE WORDS AND THERE ARE ACTIONS
Words: President Obama has declared April 6-12 to be National Public Health Week. Not exactly a name that inspires party hats and kegs, but the stated purpose of this newly minted occasion is purportedly to convince the public health system along with the private sector and local governments that it is critical for them to mitigate the impacts of global warming on public health.
Actions: President Obama forced the EPA to kill three investigations that had determined that fracking had contaminated groundwater in three different states. As a result, fracking has proliferated unchecked throughout the U.S. Obama approved of Hillary Clinton spending much of her time as Secretary of State opening up foreign shale oil and gas plays for U.S. companies around the world.
Obama, with the help of “Big Green” environmental groups, is pushing to convert electric generation from coal to cheap natural gas, a move that, in reality, will delay the world’s conversion to actually clean, renewable energy sources.
Obama is pushing for LNG exports for U.S. oil and gas companies, which will cause more drilling here while delaying the deployment of renewable energy sources abroad.
Obama’s enthusiastic support for natural gas — which for all you nonscientists out there comes out of the same damn hole in the ground at the same time as oil more often than not — has given cover to the oil and gas industry to triple the known reserves of oil here and around the world. This massive surge in Earth-killing oil production is being hidden behind the pretty blue flame of natural gas, which is itself being image-wrapped in the lie known as “clean energy.”
Clean energy is the code word for when planet-killing methane is being packaged with wind and solar and sold as “clean” by politicians and environmental groups who place fundraising from rich people in the oil and gas business ahead of the Earth’s survival.
Thanks in part to the industry’s faux push for natural gas, we now have enough oil to guarantee the destruction of the world by way of global warming several times over, and we owe it all to the actions of politicians like Obama and his political peers on both sides of the aisle who have grown powerful and fat feeding at the tit of the oil AND gas industry.
Words are cheap. It’s the actions that are killing us.
DISLIKE THIS
Comparing your humdrum day at the office with barely a window to glance out at the ongoing drizzling rain, the mounting traffic and the mediocre dinner that awaits your assembly in the big-box store down the road to the photos of everyone else’s sunny beach vacations, smiling faces and newly acquired husbands, wives or babies can cue depressive symptoms, according to research from the University of Houston.
“It doesn’t mean Facebook causes depression, but that depressed feelings and lots of time on Facebook and comparing oneself to others tend to go hand in hand,” says researcher Mai-Ly Steers.
Which is really just one more reason not to buy that fancy new watch from you know who. Or, reason to buy the watch first and make sure to post a selfie to your wall immediately.
