The Fox Nation is featuring a story about an initiative at the United Nations to protect the environment and it is, not surprisingly, creating a flurry of outrage.
The item, which links to an article on Canada.com, is titled “U.N. Proposal Would Give ‘Mother Earth’ Same Rights as Humans,” and describes the draft document that seeks to create parity in the environmental debate.
“The bid aims to have the UN recognize the Earth as a living entity that humans have sought to ‘dominate and exploit’ – to the point that the ‘well-being and existence of many beings’ is now threatened.”
The article quotes supporters noting that there are plenty of advocates for commercial and state interests that seek to exploit natural resources and that this initiative seeks only to provide balance by creating an advocate for the welfare of the planet.
The outrage expressed by the Fox Nationalists is typically hypocritical of those who defend corporate power over individuals. They have no problem with Supreme Court decisions that define corporations as persons, but to do the same for the Earth is something they regard as unthinkable. Never mind that corporations are notoriously insensitive to the harm they cause to the planet and its inhabitants. And forget that the Earth and its ecosystem is something we all rely for our existence.
The only voices the right believes should be heard are those who oppose the environment. And the real shame is that these rightist eco-terrorists are actually successful in persuading some Republicans and Tea Baggers that Climate Change and other risks to the environment are hoaxes and nothing to be concerned about.
How does this draft document and it’s supporters define domintation and exploitation of the Earth?
Incidentally, has it occurred to anyone that humans in general, of nearly every culture ever invented, have viewed the Earth as a living thing for thousands of years? Where do we imagine the phrase “Mother Earth” comes from? Since the Earth is, in fact, the ONLY place in the entire universe where we’ve seen life, this viewpoint doesn’t seem at all farfetched to me.
As to exploitation of the Earth’s resources, look out a fucking window. Do you see healthy, pristine wilderness? Not likely. Oh, wait…turn the light off. NOW you can see outside. That was just your reflection there. Anyway, you still don’t see pristine wilderness, because THERE ISN’T ANY. Not in America, not in Australia, not in Belize, Cambodia, fucking Antarctica; anywhere you look, human influence has changed the surface of the world. Only a complete idiot could fail to see it.
However, some might argue that this influence is natural, since, well, nothing unnatural exists in nature, by definition. All organisms exploit the resources of their surrounding environment in order to obtain the organic compounds they need to survive and procreate (even as I type this, I’m aware of the eminent paraphrasability of it. But I’d eat my own balls, without salt, if Glenn Beck even read this article in the first place). But we are the only organism exploiting the environment for purposes unrelated to survival, such as generating billions of kilowatt hours of electricity by burning fossil fuels for the purpose of powering entertainment devices. Do we really NEED to be able to have a text conversation with a person sitting within speaking distance? Need it bad enough to say (in our text) “nayo, I nvr rly liked polar bears n e way”?
Suppose we treated our parents this way, forcing Mom to run on a treadmill for hours every day in order to power a handheld video game. Lock your sister up in the basement and starve her to death so she can’t compete with you for Mom’s energy.
Ugly, right?