Plan B

Well, V took me to see Plan B.  It's a documentary of Lester Browns attempt at bringing the environmental issue to light.  V's boss was there and introduced the film and afterwards there was a Q&A session.  That was fun.

I kind of got wrapped in the whole economic and political issue that seems to be stalling any attempt at fixing the problem.  You see, I'm simplistic in nature.  If doing something hurts, don't do it.  It's that simple.  Well, it seems that people are just too wrapped up in money and politics that they don't see the point that when the time comes, this world will no longer be able to sustain life.

In the documentary, they used Haiti as an example of how the Economic Factor affected the Social Factor.  Haiti was completely deforested (only 2% of the trees remain).  With no trees, soil erodes and you start to loss productive top soil.  With no trees, soil erodes and wipes out roads and towns, killing hundreds.  All these issues cost money -- money Haiti doesn't have.  Yet, the Economic Factor; the Political Factor was fine with this because they were getting the kick-backs and the benefits of the trees.

Then, Mr. Brown mentioned December 7, 1941 and how the following year Detroit automobile factory's changed from automobile production to war material production.  He asked if they changed from civilian to military production in a matter of months, shouldn't we here in the present be able to change from fossil fuel consumption to renewable energy consumption as easily?

Well, the first thing is, the American people were brought together by a world war, and they went from producing gas-guzzling, motorized civilian cars to gas-guzzling, motorized military tanks.

The question would be, what if you had asked the oil tycoons (oil being necessary for the war effort) to stop producing oil and instead to produce corn syrup (only necessary for the pancakes).  In effect, this is exactly how the conglomerates look at environmental concerns.  They don't see the effect.  All they see is the money they make now as opposed to the money it will cost them to retrofit production.

So...Taking all these things into consideration.  What exactly can we do?

Let's get back to the Factors:  If A = B and B = C then A = C.  Right?

If the Social Factor is affected by the Economic Factor and the Economic Factor is directed by the Political Factor, then Social devaluation is directly affected by Political indifference.

In essence, shouldn't the Economic and Political Factors be removed from the equation?  Shouldn't the people have a Will, the power given to them by the Declaration of Independence and empowered by the U.S. Constitution, to say, if you protect the corporations over the people, then you have broken the contract with that people.  And shouldn't we be able to act because of the illegality of such a country?