June, 09 2010, 01:53pm EDT
Kucinich: "We Have Disassociated Ourselves from Nature"
We Must come to an Accounting of the Kind of Energy We Use and the Damage it Causes
WASHINGTON
Speaking on the House
Floor in support of H.Res. 1330, Recognizing June 8, 2010, as World
Ocean Day, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made the following
statement:
"I rise in support of the resolution to name June
8th as World Ocean Day, but for the last fifty days, and for the next
six months at least, every other day is going to be 'Ruin our Ocean's
Day.'
8th as World Ocean Day, but for the last fifty days, and for the next
six months at least, every other day is going to be 'Ruin our Ocean's
Day.'
"While we would like to think that this is all
about BP, I think that we have to go a little bit further. We have to
understand that we have been pursuing a way of life that is not
sustainable.
about BP, I think that we have to go a little bit further. We have to
understand that we have been pursuing a way of life that is not
sustainable.
"It is not sustainable for we, as human beings,
and it is not sustainable for our planet. So we can be here today to
talk about the oceans, and we should, but we have to keep in mind, Mr.
Speaker, that our oceans receive billions of gallons of runoff flows:
pesticides, metals like mercury and lead and massive amounts of
fertilizer, volatile organic compounds and countless other chemicals.
Even before the Deepwater disaster, this runoff caused the single
biggest dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
and it is not sustainable for our planet. So we can be here today to
talk about the oceans, and we should, but we have to keep in mind, Mr.
Speaker, that our oceans receive billions of gallons of runoff flows:
pesticides, metals like mercury and lead and massive amounts of
fertilizer, volatile organic compounds and countless other chemicals.
Even before the Deepwater disaster, this runoff caused the single
biggest dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Our oceans are absorbing the malfeasance of oil
companies, who are not only responsible for at least three separate
major, separate oil gushers as we speak, but are responsible as being
one of two major contributors causing climate change -- and we are
subsidizing them with taxpayers' money.
companies, who are not only responsible for at least three separate
major, separate oil gushers as we speak, but are responsible as being
one of two major contributors causing climate change -- and we are
subsidizing them with taxpayers' money.
"Our oceans are absorbing the malfeasance of coal
companies, the other major fossil fuel contributor to climate change.
For decades our oceans have been our repositories for the greenhouse
gasses that come mostly from the burning of fossil fuel. The result is
that oceans have grown more acidic. Coral is dying, underwater
temperature patterns are shifting, undermining entire ecosystems, and
there are signs that our oceans have reached the limit. Some studies
indicate oceans won't be able to absorb anymore greenhouse gasses out of
the atmosphere. That only increases the urgency with which we must act
to achieve a carbon-free and nuclear-free energy portfolio.
companies, the other major fossil fuel contributor to climate change.
For decades our oceans have been our repositories for the greenhouse
gasses that come mostly from the burning of fossil fuel. The result is
that oceans have grown more acidic. Coral is dying, underwater
temperature patterns are shifting, undermining entire ecosystems, and
there are signs that our oceans have reached the limit. Some studies
indicate oceans won't be able to absorb anymore greenhouse gasses out of
the atmosphere. That only increases the urgency with which we must act
to achieve a carbon-free and nuclear-free energy portfolio.
"The ultimate challenge that we have about
upholding the environmental integrity of our oceans comes because we
have disassociated ourselves from nature. We see nature as being out
there. We see nature as being not even a part of us. And because we are
avoiding our responsibility to protect God's creation, the price we are
going to pay in the future will keep getting higher: oceans that are
poisoned, a planet that is ruined and all of life threatened with
extinction.
upholding the environmental integrity of our oceans comes because we
have disassociated ourselves from nature. We see nature as being out
there. We see nature as being not even a part of us. And because we are
avoiding our responsibility to protect God's creation, the price we are
going to pay in the future will keep getting higher: oceans that are
poisoned, a planet that is ruined and all of life threatened with
extinction.
"So, we can keep temporizing about what is going
on in the Gulf, but the fact of the matter is that sooner or later we
must come to an accounting with the kind of energy we are using and what
damage it is doing to the environment, the human race and all other
life on this planet."
on in the Gulf, but the fact of the matter is that sooner or later we
must come to an accounting with the kind of energy we are using and what
damage it is doing to the environment, the human race and all other
life on this planet."
See the video here.
Dennis Kucinich is an American politician. A U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1997 to 2013, he was also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2004 and 2008.
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As Warren noted as the bill was flying through Congress, a number of Democrats—including Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and Jon Tester (D-Mont.)—were integral to the legislation's passage, which led almost immediately to more bank consolidation.
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One American intelligence expert urged the U.S. to maintain friendly relations with "barbarous, but long-standing allies" in the Middle East lest China fill the vacuum.
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While advocates of peace and a multipolar world order welcomed Friday's China-brokered agreement reestablishing diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, U.S. press, pundits, and politicians expressed what one observer called "imperial anxieties" over the deal and growing Chinese influence in a region dominated by the United States for decades.
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Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, a think tank in Washington, D.C., called the deal a sign of "a battle of narratives for the future of the international order."
CNN's Tamara Qiblawi called the agreement "the start of a new era, with China front and center."
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"The U.S. is supporting one side and suppressing the other, while China is trying to make both parties move closer," Wu Xinbo, dean of international studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, told the Times. "It is a different diplomatic paradigm."
Murtaza Hussein, a reporter for The Intercept,tweeted that the fact that the agreement "was mediated by China as a trusted outside party shows shortcomings of belligerent U.S. approach to the region."
While cautiously welcoming the agreement, Biden administration officials expressed skepticism that Iran would live up to its end of the bargain.
"This is not a regime that typically does honor its word, so we hope that they do," White House National Security Council Strategic Coordinator John Kirby told reporters on Friday—apparently without any sense of irony over the fact that the United States unilaterally abrogated the Iran nuclear deal during the Trump administration.
Kirby added that the Biden administration would "like to see this war in Yemen end," but he did not acknowledge U.S. support for the Saudi-led intervention in a civil war that's directly or indirectly killed nearly 400,000 people since 2014, according to United Nations humanitarian officials.
U.S relations with Saudi Arabia have been strained during the tenure of President Joe Biden. While Biden—who once vowed to make the repressive kingdom a "pariah" over the gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi—has been willing to tolerate Saudi human rights abuses and war crimes, the president has expressed anger and frustration over the monarchy's decision to reduce oil production amid soaring U.S. gasoline prices and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Nevertheless, the Biden administration is currently trying to broker a peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel following the Trump administration's mediation of the Abraham Accords, a series of diplomatic normalization agreements between Israel and erstwhile enemies the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The United States, which played a key role in overthrowing Iran's progressive government in a 1953 coup, has not had diplomatic relations with Tehran since shortly after the current Islamist regime overthrew the U.S.-backed monarchy that ruled with a brutal hand for 25 years following the coup.
Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative in the Middle East Programs for the Atlantic Council, urged the U.S. to maintain friendly relations with brutal dictatorships in the region in order to prevent Chinese hegemony there.
Panikoff wrote in an Atlantic Council analysis:
We may now be seeing the emergence of China's political role in the region and it should be a warning to U.S. policymakers: Leave the Middle East and abandon ties with sometimes frustrating, even barbarous, but long-standing allies, and you'll simply be leaving a vacuum for China to fill. And make no mistake, a China-dominated Middle East would fundamentally undermine U.S. commercial, energy, and national security.
Other observers also worried about China's rising power in the Middle East and beyond.
New York Times China correspondent David Pierson wrote Saturday that China's role in the Iran-Saudi Arabia rapprochement shows Chinese President Xi Jinping's "ambition of offering an alternative to a U.S.-led world order."
According to Pierson:
The vision Mr. Xi has laid out is one that wrests power from Washington in favor of multilateralism and so-called noninterference, a word that China uses to argue that nations should not meddle in each other's internal affairs, by criticizing human rights abuses, for example.
The Saudi-Iran agreement reflects this vision. China's engagement in the region has for years been rooted in delivering mutual economic benefits and shunning Western ideals of liberalism that have complicated Washington’s ability to expand its presence in the Gulf.
Pierson noted Xi's Global Security Initiative, which seeks to promote "peaceful coexistence" in a multipolar world that eschews "unilateralism, bloc confrontation, and hegemonism" like U.S. invasions and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
"Some analysts say the initiative is essentially a bid to advance Chinese interests by displacing Washington as the world's policeman," wrote Pierson. "The plan calls for respect of countries' 'indivisible security,' a Soviet term used to argue against U.S.-led alliances on China's periphery."
The U.S. has attacked, invaded, or occupied more than 20 countries since 1950. During that same period, China has invaded two countries—India and Vietnam.
"The Chinese, who for years played only a secondary role in the region, have suddenly transformed themselves into the new power player."
New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker also published an article Saturday about how the "China-brokered deal upends Mideast diplomacy and challenges [the] U.S."
"The Americans, who have been the central actors in the Middle East for the past three-quarters of a century, almost always the ones in the room where it happened, now find themselves on the sidelines during a moment of significant change," fretted Baker. "The Chinese, who for years played only a secondary role in the region, have suddenly transformed themselves into the new power player."
Some experts asserted that more peace in the Middle East would be a good thing, no matter who brokers it.
"While many in Washington will view China's emerging role as mediator in the Middle East as a threat, the reality is that a more stable Middle East where the Iranians and Saudis aren't at each other's throats also benefits the United States," tweeted Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
"Unfortunately, the U.S. has adopted an approach to the region that has disabled it from becoming a credible mediator," he lamented. "Too often, Washington takes sides in conflicts and becomes a co-belligerent—as in Yemen—which then reduces its ability to play the role of peacemaker."
"Washington should avoid a scenario where regional players view America as an entrenched warmaker and China as a flexible peacemaker," Parsi cautioned.
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