Take the power back: Death of the West
The Western way of life is at its endpoint.
In less than five years the world
will face massive oil shortages; even with
the horrific expansion of Alberta's tar
sands, drilling in the Arctic, and every
other devastatingly problematic “solution”
they create. We hit the peak of oil production
a few years ago, and are now beginning
what is bound to be a very bumpy
ride down.
There simply is no oil left to drill, it has all been burned and released into our atmosphere, giving us cancers, asthma and now runaway climate change. But it's not just oil — everything is at its peak. Coal companies are blowing up entire mountains in order to get the last few seams they contain. Nuclear power is said to be a solution by industry and government, but uranium is also a fossil fuel that is in very limited supply and by no means sustainable or renewable.
Anything producing toxic waste that stays radioactive for millions of years is not green, clean, safe or sustainable, regardless of what nuclear industry ads tell us.
Any way you cut it, this way of life we take for granted is about to come crashing down. Our way of life is based on the access to massive amounts of fossil fuels, which are getting harder and harder to extract. People think that we'll just find more resources to extract, but this is foolish. We've taken nearly every “resource” we could from this planet and used them to desecrate it.
Think of oil; buried deep in the ground for thousands of years serving a purpose in stabilizing the planet's climate. Now it has been sucked dry and used to pave over fertile soil, facilitates massive transportation and extraction of other resources, and is burned into our air and spilled into our water. Oil's been turned into plastics and all sorts of toxic products that can never be broken down, and also used as fertilizer for industrial agriculture, killing the earth beneath it. In addition, let us not forget the western world's addiction to oil has been the leading cause of wars, killing millions.
Looking back in history, the last few generations will be seen as the most shortsighted and foolish societies to have existed on this planet. Our parents' and grandparents' generation will be forever known as the all-time fuck-ups that ruined this planet for everyone that came after them. But they didn't create these problems, they just drastically accelerated the process that had already begun hundreds of years before them with colonization, industrialization and capitalism.
The earth is being murdered; and the individuals most responsible for murdering her have names and addresses. Some of those addresses are within walking distance of you right now. Luckily for the murderers, nobody knows their neighbours anymore, and they have governments and police officers protecting their “rights” to murder the earth. The fight for survival is going to get really ugly in the near future. Once “democracy” can no longer be manipulated to produce the results the real power-holders want, the mask of “democracy” will come off in the west, and the ugly face of fascism will reveal itself. All the more reason to attack power and those who wield it, right now.
In any case, if we do manage to survive the mass extinction we are currently causing, the western way of life will die. It is useless to invest anything in this sinking ship. Invest yourself in your communities, organize collectively, learn how to produce and conserve food, start learning how to defend and provide for yourself and your community now and you might stand a chance later.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
There simply is no oil left to drill, it has all been burned and released into our atmosphere, giving us cancers, asthma and now runaway climate change. But it's not just oil — everything is at its peak. Coal companies are blowing up entire mountains in order to get the last few seams they contain. Nuclear power is said to be a solution by industry and government, but uranium is also a fossil fuel that is in very limited supply and by no means sustainable or renewable.
Anything producing toxic waste that stays radioactive for millions of years is not green, clean, safe or sustainable, regardless of what nuclear industry ads tell us.
Any way you cut it, this way of life we take for granted is about to come crashing down. Our way of life is based on the access to massive amounts of fossil fuels, which are getting harder and harder to extract. People think that we'll just find more resources to extract, but this is foolish. We've taken nearly every “resource” we could from this planet and used them to desecrate it.
Think of oil; buried deep in the ground for thousands of years serving a purpose in stabilizing the planet's climate. Now it has been sucked dry and used to pave over fertile soil, facilitates massive transportation and extraction of other resources, and is burned into our air and spilled into our water. Oil's been turned into plastics and all sorts of toxic products that can never be broken down, and also used as fertilizer for industrial agriculture, killing the earth beneath it. In addition, let us not forget the western world's addiction to oil has been the leading cause of wars, killing millions.
Looking back in history, the last few generations will be seen as the most shortsighted and foolish societies to have existed on this planet. Our parents' and grandparents' generation will be forever known as the all-time fuck-ups that ruined this planet for everyone that came after them. But they didn't create these problems, they just drastically accelerated the process that had already begun hundreds of years before them with colonization, industrialization and capitalism.
The earth is being murdered; and the individuals most responsible for murdering her have names and addresses. Some of those addresses are within walking distance of you right now. Luckily for the murderers, nobody knows their neighbours anymore, and they have governments and police officers protecting their “rights” to murder the earth. The fight for survival is going to get really ugly in the near future. Once “democracy” can no longer be manipulated to produce the results the real power-holders want, the mask of “democracy” will come off in the west, and the ugly face of fascism will reveal itself. All the more reason to attack power and those who wield it, right now.
In any case, if we do manage to survive the mass extinction we are currently causing, the western way of life will die. It is useless to invest anything in this sinking ship. Invest yourself in your communities, organize collectively, learn how to produce and conserve food, start learning how to defend and provide for yourself and your community now and you might stand a chance later.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
