Kurt Cobb - "Free speech and the fate of humanity" (June 29th)

A couple of exerpts (which I'm just posting to offer a preview) -

James "Hansen, speaking before the U. S. Congress last week, said that the CEOs of fossil fuel companies should be tried for 'high crimes against humanity and nature.' He said they deserve this fate because they know full well that continued burning of fossil fuels threatens the stability of the climate and with it civilization. Yet, they purposely confuse the public to forestall the day when limits will be placed on carbon emissions from such fuels."

"One could argue that ours is not an open society, but rather one dominated by corporate power and that it is corporate power that must be reined in as part of the process of moving toward a sustainable society. But once again we are faced with the time problem. How long will it take for the normal processes of a nominally open society to bring corporate power to heel? 10, 20, 50 years?

The path for most people interested in creating a sustainable society is to start creating one. But will the powers which are working against such a society make those efforts moot?"

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A related post -
"Climate criminals?"

And at the end of this post --
"Reducing oil prices" --
I also touched on similar issues while discussing anti-democratic rationing, as well as anti-democratic environmental constraints.

Toban Black
(http://tobanblack.net/blog/?p=254)