Half of Everything

Suppose you had a big plate of delicious french fries, and a friend to share it with.  You both sit down at opposite sides of a table.  “I’ll give you half,” you say.  “That seems fair,” says your friend.  So you divide the plate in half and pick up your fork.

Your friend gobbles down all of his french fries in a hurry, as you pick over yours, one by one.  After a few minutes, he looks at your side of the plate longingly.  “I don’t have any more fries,” he says.

“You can have a few of mine,” you say.

“Okay.  Thanks.” and your friend takes half of the remaining fries.

And gobbles them down in a hurry.

And then stares at the remaining fries.  “I don’t have any fries,” he says.

“No.”

“Oh come on– look at all the fries you’ve got.  Is it fair that you get all those fries and I don’t get any?  How can you be so greedy?  I should get half.”

And so it goes, until there are no fries left.

And that’s how we get to drilling for oil in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve.  One of the last preserved natural regions in the nation.

Not for long!

When the oil companies started drilling, some politicians with good sense, including Theodore Roosevelt, realized that the public would like some areas of natural beauty to be kept free from the massive destruction caused by mining and oil wells.   So they said, you can’t have everything.  They set aside some remote areas like the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge to be maintained in their natural states.  And the oil companies got carte blanche to drill practically everywhere else.  The government was generous– to the oil industry.  You don’t like oil wells?  Tough shit.  They went up almost everywhere if there was oil.  But yes, even then, the government reserved a few areas for the pleasure of that part of the general public that appreciates natural beauty and wonder.

And then the oil industry used up their everywhere else and began to look longingly at all that pristine wilderness.

The clever carbon industry has realized that public perception is not very sophisticated.  The public doesn’t understand that areas that were set aside to be protected from industrialization are the half the government resisted handing over to the oil barons.  (It’s actually far less than half.)  The public doesn’t understand that the oil industry already ate half of the fries.   The oil industry says, how can you be so selfish?  Share your fries!

Eventually, of course, they will keep taking the half the public stupidly offers them until there are no halves left: just a world full of arid, polluted, wasteland.

The owners of these industries have the means to live in luxury somewhere else.    But if you happen to live in one of these protected areas, you are screwed.

They will promise to preserve the environment, to clean up their mess, and provide good jobs for a lot of people for a long time.  And you believe them?

It is very important for the conscientious citizen to understand this important fact about the oil barons:  there are absolutely no consequences for them if they are lying.  The executives who decide to lay waste to millions of acres or allow alcoholics to captain their vessels, or scrimp on safety equipment face no personal consequences at all.  They never have.  Their corporations will pay fines which will not come out of his bonus.

I repeat: the executives of these companies face no consequences at all for even the most reckless, criminally destructive behaviors.

Think about it– when is the last time you heard about a corporate executive going to jail for lying, for fraud, for polluting the environment, for breaking government regulations?

But the public should not be spared.  We elected the assholes who do the bidding of the oil companies.  And we refuse to accept any plan to address global warming if it involves the slightest personal sacrifice.

We want a plan that reduces our carbon emissions without reducing our carbon emissions.

Only people like Doug Ford and Donald Trump can work such a miracle.