organic a natural home UGLY AMERICA "...the American people's use of energy is a reflection of the strength of our economy, of the way of life that the American people have come to enjoy." — Ari Fleischer – Press briefing, Washington, D.C., May 7, 2001
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environment STORYwe're buttheads but don't worry, Gee Duhbya, Dick and Ari say its OKMay 18, 2001 The Resident's "Energy Plan" came out yesterday. Developed under the guidance of recent-oilman Dick Cheney and with absolutely no input from any environmental groups, its not surprising the plan is focused heavily on fossil fuel development. The Produce-Consume plan is simply to keep increasing energy production using whatever fuel is necessary while placing no limits on consumption. The idea is that we will just keep producing more and more energy to fuel the "American Way." While its difficult to see how this will help our long term energy needs without polluting us right out of existence, it's easy to see how the plan will benefit Bush Pioneers in the fossil fuel industries who had tremendous input in it. The United States is home to 5% of the world's population yet we consume nearly 25% of the worlds energy. If the rest of the world used energy at the same rate we do, the world would have to produce 5 times as much energy as it does now and consequently 5 times as much pollution. North America uses more than TWICE as much energy per capita than Europe. If we were as frugal with energy as those poor, austere europeans who have so little, we would have more than a 100% energy surplus right now. We are far and away the most wasteful society on earth and rather than being embarrassed, our government is damn proud of it. Wasteful use of energy is a sign of our economic strength they say. Basically we're remarkably selfish buttheads. But luckily for us, its cool! At least that's what Gee Duhbya, Dick and Ari say anyway. In a recent White House press briefing, Ari Fleischer, the Bush Administration's press secretary, basically said, using as much energy as we want is "The American Way". It always has been and we want to keep it that way. His statements, which mirrored Cheney's of a few weeks ago, were as remarkable for their candor as for their unabashed arrogance. We use energy and shamelessly pollute the earth simply because we can. And no one can stop us because we have the most money. When Fleischer was asked,"So Americans should go on consuming as much more energy than any other citizens in any other countries of the world, as long as they want?" He replied, "The President believes that the American people are very wise and that, given the right incentives, they will know how and they will make their own right determinations about how much they can conserve... ...the President also believes that the American people's use of energy is a reflection of the strength of our economy, of the way of life that the American people have come to enjoy. And he wants to make certain that a national energy policy is comprehensive, that includes conservation, includes a way of allowing the American people to continue to enjoy the way of life that has made the United States such a leading nation in the world. We as Americans should be ashamed. We're the leading nation all right. When it comes to energy consumption and waste, no other nation even comes close. Sometimes I wonder why the rest of the world puts up with us. If I were anywhere else in the world I'd probably hate America too. I just wish I could tell the rest of the world who share this planet with us, that the brain trust in Washington do not speak for all Americans. Unfortunately they speak for a lot of us. We're selfish buttheads, face it. I just wonder how Americans would feel if the shoe were on the other foot? What if the countries surrounding us were consuming energy five times faster than us and creating energy shortages in our country while sending us only their pollution? I'm pretty sure we'd be happy and just say, "Well that's their way of life. Thats how they've always done it. no one can fault them for that." It could happen. – dave © Copyright iriguchi 2001 |
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