Schreiner’s Media Landscape

It’s always interesting when someone vehemently and convincingly claims innocence of a crime for years then abruptly admits they indeed committed the offense and want to get the punishment over with as quickly as possible. That’s what’s happened in the case of a West Valley City mining operation that finally ‘fessed up that they dumped deadly selenium into some of Utah’s signature waterways including Great Salt Lake.

There are a number of environmental criminals still running around free and claiming innocence: chief among them Crandall Canyon mine owner Robert Murray. But as independent media coverage, resulting public outrage and political pressure grow, hopefully more of these liars, thieves and environmental murderers will meet justice.

Now let the investigation of the Bush Regime into its protracted efforts to destroy America’s natural places begin. And so too- the claims of innocence.

Thanks to the incompetence, arrogance and lack of caring by the Bush Regime and then Republican-led Congress, Gustav rides into New Orleans looking more like John Wayne then the black-hatted villain. I’m sure the Republicans don’t feel that way. They thought all along THEY were the good guys. Now that Bush, Cheney and other top right-wing knuckleheads have conceded defeat at the hands of Nature, perhaps the inappropriately, self-titled “conservative” element of American society understands better that the environment is an ISSUE and not just something they can kiss off, hand over to the oil, mining and real estate industries and expect everything to turn out okey-dokey.

But given their track record and moral learning curve involved, my guess is they understand- not. Don’t let W’s standby mode in Texas fool you. This is about APPEARANCES NOT ACTUAL ACTION. WAY-HAYYYYYY TO LATE (apologies to Dr. Perry Cox), Bush doesn’t want to appear again like an incompetent, arrogant loser and Cheney- well, Cheney DOESN’T WANT TO APPEAR AT ALL. BTW: anyone see Cheney lately?

The good news is that even if Gustav isn’t as destructive as feared, he’s still done his job on America’s Radical Right. Bush and his ilk may not “get it”- but they’re getting it anyway.

Even the mainstream media are reporting and lamenting what appears to be the senseless but calculated demise of federal support for renewable energy. The renewable industry admits the final attack on American independence launched by the Bush White House with Cheney’s Big Oil task force behind them is going to be Katrina-esque in scope. We can only hope that President Obama and an enlightened Congress can resurrect renewable energy tax credits before Bush and Company destroy more jobs, environment and hopes that the United States can ever be anything more than a fading empire again.

I don’t consider myself a member of either party. But clearly, one party appears much more ready to make America more energy independent and environmentally responsible while the other is satisfied with enslaving Americans to foreign terrorist governments, wealthy multi-national corporations, deteriorating air, water, environmental and climate destruction, and economic doom. Maybe there is a clear choice for president this year…

It’s hard to explain why one human and his underlings are so pathological, ruthless, ignorant and destructive. There are many theories and books on why our not-soon-enough departing emperor is so violent, jealous, stupid and out-of-touch. He had problems with his father, did poorly in school, and screwed up everything he did his entire life. Yes, before the White House this poor, little rich kid ruined several oil companies and a baseball team but it’s hard to tell if he ruined Texas. Then there were the drinking, drugs, bad driving and general floundering that molded him into the dangerous loser who’s left our country in the same shape he left his other tragic ”endeavors.”

But it’s still difficult to understand why he wants to ruin the environment. His minions’ rush to rewrite America’s environmental laws to destroy more wildlife, Nature and anything in the path of developers, drillers and digging machines appears to be a form of punishment of his opponents rather than sound policy. I suppose like most twisted psychopaths, he hates and fears his opponents and seeks to torture then kill them- in this case, environmentalists. So it’s probably about politics or jealousy or his mental instability. Something other than hating the Earth.

Either way, he’s punishing the American people and the world again- the same folks who elected this idiot TWICE and who’ve been rewarded with economic disaster, terrorist paranoia, endless wars, loss of respect around the world and a nation even more divided in just about every social and economic category. We know Hitler’s problems began when he determined that he wasn’t a terrible artist- it was that everyone else was wrong.

Despite his privileged childhood- perhaps because of it- W (we won’t even start on Cheney) appears to be taking revenge on those who laughed at, pushed around and, in W’s mind, caused him to be a failure. His pathetic cockiness, mockable swagger and and pathological cluelessness all indicate he believes it’s not him- but that everyone else is wrong.

There was a character on Saturday Night Live back in the 1970s played brilliantly by Dan Aykroyd named Irwin Mainway. Mainway was a sleazy salesman who pitched dangerous and outrageously diabolical products such as “Bag O’ Glass” and “Teddy Chainsaw Bear” as being harmless and fun. But nothing is funnier than reality and Shell Oil has done Irwin Mainway one better (apparently hiring him to not only develop the product but write the script as well). Shell came out with a print ad in the United Kingdom claiming that their development of oil sands would “secure a profitable and SUSTAINABLE future.” I guess they either believe that nonsense or they thought no one would catch it.

The World Wildlife Federation did catch it and filed a complaint with the British organization overseeing advertising in the UK. They ruled that the ad is misleading and does not back up its environmental claims. In their defense, Shell quotes a 20-year-old report by some obscure ”World Commission of Something” that defines something as sustainable if it is ”development which meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Shell’s not allowed to run the ad anymore but claims it was only going to run it a short time anyway- in the UK. If they start running it in Utah or elsewhere in America, you’ve been warned. Just remember Irwin Mainway and it will seem a lot funnier instead of pathetic- which it is.

A great new collection of essays “A Passion for this Earth” advances many new, optimistic approaches to getting the emerging pro-Earth movement out of its anti-media, politically-anchored, isolationist doldrums and into the mass market and consciousness. Scientist Carl Sarfina argues that environmentalists’ efforts failed in the 1970s, despite the same evidence of human excess and damage we have now, because they failed to make environmentalism a VALUE.

To really motivate most Americans to do anything, they need to be INSPIRED he says, not just presented with a lot of irrefutable evidence in a dull and often judgmental and combative package. That’s why the radical Christian right-wing took over the ideologically-adrift Republicans and hijacked America’s sense of what is true and good. “Getting anywhere requires both a destination and navigational equipment” Sarfina writes. “Factual findings can suggest the destination. Values are the moral compass.” What is the compass? Sarfina suggests media- getting the word out, prosletyzing, just like the Christian Right: a blueprint environmentalists have ignored or avoided because of their own petty prejudices and ignorance.

In his essay “Fools’ Paradise,” Ronald Wright reprises Jared Diamond’s analysis of the Easter Island eco-disaster in “Collapse” by invoking the anthropological concept of “ideological pathology.” That’s essentially a society committing suicide by eating itself to death instead of going on a diet to live healthier and longer. Wright like Sarfina, believes media, communication and, in Wright’s case history, are the keys to understanding our dilemma and what we must do to avoid Easter Island’s fate.

“Archaeology is perhaps the best tool we have for looking ahead. Unlike written history, which is often highly edited, archaeology uncovers the deeds we have forgotten or have chose to forget. It also offers a much longer reading of the direction and momentum of the human course through time.”

Media and communication are essential to the re-emerging Earth movement to not repeat the mistakes of the 1970s. Self-righteousness, confrontation, and politicizing environmental consciousness fail to make stewardship a MORAL VALUE and INSPIRE PEOPLE to do it because it’s the right thing. All the evidence, facts and political wrangling over the past 30 years failed to prevent the crisis we now find ourselves in.

Persuading the American people of the urgency and need for Earth-consciousness and action will require, as Sarfina wrote, a mass media attack along the lines of what’s happening on this blog and all over the Internet: video, art, music, writing, theater, education. That, in a nutshell, is where I’m coming from. And as Sarfina’s “compass” would indicate, it’s where we’re all going. We just need to be able to read a compass and have the motivation to pick it up.

In 1988, I was a reporter/producer covering Jesse Jackson’s bus motorcade from Chicago to the Democratic Convention in Atlanta for the Gannett Broadcasting television stations. It was right at this time of year: the dead of summer driving through the hottest and most humid part of the country. One of my most vivid memories was standing in the parking lot of a church in Louisville, Kentucky where Jackson was delivering one of his many speeches along the way. It was the middle of the afternoon, 100 degrees, blinding sun. The newly-laid black asphalt felt like it was about 200 degrees- the surface of Mars or perhaps a giant frying pan. I remember thinking of the time that this didn’t make sense. Parking lot, road and roof surfaces should be more reflective and therefore less hot.

I may have been right then. But now, 20 years later, I may be wrong. Science Digest- the best source of news on environmental innovation- reports that researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Insistute have found a way to take the heat absorbed by asphalt surfaces and turn it into energy. This ranks high on the weekly renewable energy breakthrough list with MIT’s recent discovery of how to make solar panels produce energy even at night.

Now that’s brilliant. And hot.

Mark Thomas, a Mormon business consultant, sitting on a recent panel on the environment (that’s a headline in itself!) said some interesting things about his religion’s markedly disinterested position, according to this Deseret News article:

“I have a notion in the next few years you will see some surprises,” he said, advising people to stop and look around, and talk to their bishops and others about ways to save energy and help the environment. He believes creativity is the key to solving environmental issues. “With a small effort, we may save ourselves,” he said.

Important to note is the state motto of Utah is one word: Industry. It appears Mormon leadership wants us to believe the conspicuous absence of any environmental policy or commitment by the LDS is due only its monolithic lethargy, not its aversion to the concept of stewardship at the expense of holy, transcendent commerce. Also note that it will only take “a small effort (to) save ourselves” according to Thomas.

The talk is encouraging. But talk is hot air that won’t help power the Tabernacle’s sound system. Where are the solar panels on the churches? “You see the rumblings already started,” Thomas said. I just hope that’s not just another “earthquake” caused by one of “BS Bob” Murray’s coal mines collapsing on more of Utah’s hard-working, church-going worker bees.

Escorting the United States into Third World status would seem to be a hard job. But Utah’s U.S. Senators Orrin Scratch and Bob Blownit are doing their darndest. Besides overseeing the accelerating downward spiral of the American economy, endless war and the most incompetent and corrupt administration in history, they are making China the preeminent, world-leading nation by letting them SAVE THE WORLD FROM AMERICAN EXCESS AND IGNORANCE.

I’ll admit to being a harsh critic of the Chinese government. But their progress in renewable energy is enviable and responsible. They may emit the most CO2 now, but the biggest eco-criminal has always been the United States. So let’s give credit where credit- and discredit- is due. China, despite its brutal oppression and deception, is really trying to reverse the effects of its economic growth. Can America say the same thing?