The climate and the human condition

The human condition includes many or most people on planet Earth (1) living on the edge of survival, and (2) allowing corrupt demagogue tyrants to lead their societies to ruin if they believe there is profit enough in it. That includes essentially all or all laissez-faire capitalists everywhere. These days, corrupt demagogue tyrants and laissez-faire capitalists are leading us all to hell on Earth.

The New York Times writes:

Congo to Auction Land to Oil Companies: ‘Our Priority Is Not to Save the Planet’

Peatlands and rainforests in the Congo Basin protect the planet by storing carbon. Now, in a giant leap backward for the climate, they’re being auctioned off for drilling.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, home to one of the largest old-growth rainforests on Earth, is auctioning off vast amounts of land in a push to become “the new destination for oil investments,” part of a global shift as the world retreats on fighting climate change in a scramble for fossil fuels.

The oil and gas blocks, which will be auctioned in late July, extend into Virunga National Park, the world’s most important gorilla sanctuary, as well as tropical peatlands that store vast amounts of carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere and from contributing to global warming.

“If oil exploitation takes place in these areas, we must expect a global climate catastrophe, and we will all just have to watch helplessly,” said Irene Wabiwa, who oversees the Congo Basin forest campaign for Greenpeace in Kinshasa.

Congo’s about-face in allowing new oil drilling in environmentally sensitive areas comes eight months after its president, Félix Tshisekedi, stood alongside world leaders at the global climate summit in Glasgow and endorsed a 10-year agreement to protect its rainforest, part of the vast Congo Basin, which is second in size only to the Amazon.  

Congo has taken note of each of these global events, said Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, the nation’s lead representative on climate issues and an adviser to the minister of hydrocarbons.

Congo’s sole goal for the auction, he said, is to earn enough revenue to help the struggling nation finance programs to reduce poverty and generate badly needed economic growth.  

“That’s our priority,” Mr. Mpanu said, in an interview last week. “Our priority is not to save the planet.”

One thing that is pretty certain, oil companies (OCs) could not care less about anything that impairs profits. If an OC sees enough threat to profit, then they will probably take the minimum action necessary to relieve the threat. In America, taking minimum action mostly means quietly bribing politicians ("campaign contributions") and hiring public relations firms (sophisticated professional liars). That is the most profitable way forward.

In jolly old America, OCs always act to subvert any government effort to serve the public interest by defending the environment. OCs also routinely try to deceive the public into a false belief that they are on our side. The OCs are on their side, not ours.

It's always a discouragingly huge, effective con job by pro-pollution interests. In America, our government gets subverted and the public gets deceived and screwed. It's a win-win for polluter OCs. OCs profit from polluting. The environment and non-wealthy people get poisoned. It's also a win for corrupted politicians who get re-elected, e.g., corrupt Joe Manchin and the almost the entire Republican Party in congress.

For what it is worth in terms of corruption, Transparency International ranks Congo as 162 out of 180 countries on Earth. It's a kleptocracy.