Why you should care about The Power of Economics and Public Policy

"Atlanta (CNN)-Under increasing pressure from major corporations that do business in Georgia, Gov. Nathan Deal announced Monday he will veto a bill that critics say would have curtailed the rights of Georgia's LGBT community.

House Bill 757 would have given faith-based organizations in Georgia the option to deny services and jobs to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Supporters said the measure was meant to protect religious freedom, while opponents have described it as "anti-LGBT" and "appalling.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said the company "can't have a program in Georgia" if the bill were to become law. Disney said it would stop filming in the state, and Unilever said it would "reconsider investment" if the legislation were signed. Coca-Cola spoke out against the bill, as did Home Depot and several other Fortune 500 companies based in Atlanta.

The NFL said the bill could cost Atlanta the opportunity to host the Super Bowl. Time-Warner, the parent company of CNN, also opposed the legislation." 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/28/us/georgia-north-carolina-lgbt-bills/

So what's the big deal? What's key here is that major corporations used the threat of what is paramount to state economic sanctions to affect public policy. While business interests and their paid lobbyists have a long history of controlling public policy, often for just their own special interests, this is one of those moments where such influence was used for a more positive, depending on your politics, purpose. Is this just because that such an action was perhaps the right thing to do? Doubt it. Or, was this done because of the potential consumer backlash if they didn't do it? Something to consider.

Money talks is an old cliche but it is true. Look at the change in copmanies now willing to label, and support the mandatory labeling, of GMO ingredients in foods. How about Campbell's Soup announcement that they were eliminating BPA in their cans and General Mills eliminating artificial ingredients from their cereal products. Is this happening because corporations have suddenly developed a conscious--a sense of social responsibility? No, it's because, you, the consumer, have flexed your spending muscles and demanded change with your purchases.

Important is the fact that people can greatly affect public policy, not just by voting, demonstrating, petitioning, or lobbying, but by how they spend their money. This is, perhaps, the most effective way to make your voice heard.

THE BLACKENING OF AMERICA…AND THEN SOME

This is not about race; it’s about oil and lessons not learned, warnings not heeded, opportunities lost and a future that is black. Have you noticed that the news is filled with accusations, promises of investigations, commissions being formed, warnings of prosecutions and basic finger pointing? What is the subject of all of this attention? Obviously, it is the Deepwater Horizon on-going disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

There should be no need to recount the events or to even bring you up-to-date on the planet’s worst environmental disaster since the Biblical flood. Just turn on the news and get all of the latest. My concern is not the loss of entire ecosystems, how many millions of gallons of crude are destroying the entire way of life of the Gulf, how the spill will get to the East Coast and perhaps Europe, the senseless loss of wildlife along with their homes, habitats and breeding grounds, or the economic destruction of the Gulf. Rather, my concern is whether or not the finger is pointing in the right direction.

It is certainly easy to point toward BP. And, there is no question that at some point, they will pay the piper. There are also those who made faulty equipment and who failed to ensure that all such equipment would work at such depths. Of course, we do not want to forget those who issued permits when all facts were not known and compliances not guaranteed. Without doubt, heads will roll, jobs will be lost, and fines paid. One must remember, however, that those with financial power, at least historically, never really lose power of money.

America, and most of the world, is at the crossroad of a major crisis. But is the crisis oil spills or something more fundamental? Here is the crux of the matter; we have developed a universal culture of blaming others for our woes. As a result, we have a companion mindset that says problems like oil spills, climate change, refugees, peace, pollution and other pressing world problems cannot be solved by the common person because it is beyond the scope of their ability and power to do so. As long as we point the finger at another, we think we are free from guilt and not responsible for the solution of problems. But let’s be clear, our insatiable appetite for oil, power, and throwaway consumer goods has allowed the rampart rape and pillage of the very home on which we live. As long as our cars run, the lights come on, the food is on the shelves and we can get the latest disposable gadget, the purveyors of black gold can do as they will. Certainly someone is watching them and, if a problem occurs, ‘someone’ will deal with it.

Critics of such concepts as the Law of Attraction like to point to such disasters as genocide, disease, oil spills, rape, and a wide range of other seemingly disasters and argue that “certainly people do not attract these things to themselvesthey are much too horrible.” Ah, the pointing figure syndrome strikes again. Clearly, people do not let dictators rise to power. Clearly, we do not let nations commit genocide. Clearly, we do not so over consume so there is food for all. Clearly, we do not consume the majority of the world’s energy resources. Clearly, we treat all with respect and dignity and help all in need so there is no need for crime. Clearly, oil companies are greedy and they get away with all sorts of machinations, but that’s not our problem. Clearly, someone else is always responsible for the troubles in the world and there is nothing we can do about it.

In way, all of the above are what are called “memes.” If you haven’t done so, I highly recommend reading “The Virus of the Mind, by Richard Brodie. A ‘meme’ is a unit of information in a mind that influences events such that more copies of itself get created in other minds. A virus of the mind is something that infects people with memes which, in turn, influence the infected people’s behavior in such a way that the virus spreads. Dictators are experts in the use of memes to alter public behavior, as are corporate advertisers. After all, look at all of the new diseases that exist and look at all of the stupid things people buy because they are convinced they must have those things. This is how those who ‘know’ use the Law of Attraction to get rich. This all brings us back to the oil spill in the Gulf. The reason that the oil rig is there in the first place is because we have been convinced we must have oil; that we must get it at all costs so the Arabs can’t control us or turn off their supplies, and that even if there is a disaster, it happens and there is nothing you can do about it because you really need the oil.

When we point the finger, we must discover that we are pointing in a mirror. We let ourselves be controlled and manipulated by the masters of memes. We bring into our lives that which someone else says we must have. As a result, the Law of Attraction is fulfilled and we attract what we deserve, what we think, what we fear. There is a growing sense of futility, an emerging blackness in the American psyche. It is a mind virus that is spreading everywhere. Biologists tell us that one of the leading causes of evolution is environmental stress. There are those who also say that humanity is on the verge of a spontaneous evolution. While change does not require negative stress, it does seem that humanity only rises to the occasion when we are faced with disaster. Such disasters are now happening in the environment, the economy, in religion, education, politics, and in nearly every aspect of human life. Many forces are flowing together in what appears to be an interesting 2012 scenario. Perhaps we will wake and discover that we do not have to “suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” Perhaps we will discover that if we can create such gross injustices to ourselves and the place that we live, then we also have the ability and the power to create a world that makes sense.

The following is a list of major oil spills and disasters. Perhaps if we recall that the Gulf is not the only place that we have allowed such destruction, we will wake up and end the madness.

Oil Spills and Disasters

The following list includes major oil spills since 1967. The circumstances surrounding the spill, amount of oil spilled, and the attendant environmental damage is also given.

1967-March 18, Cornwall, Eng.: Torrey Canyon ran aground, spilling 38 million gallons of crude oil off the Scilly Islands.
1976-Dec. 15, Buzzards Bay, Mass.: Argo Merchant ran aground and broke apart southeast of Nantucket Island, spilling its entire cargo of 7.7 million gallons of fuel oil.

1977-April, North Sea: blowout of well in Ekofisk oil field leaked 81 million gallons.

1978-March 16, off Portsall, France: wrecked supertanker Amoco Cadiz spilled 68 million gallons, causing widespread environmental damage over 100 mi of Brittany coast.

1979-June 3, Gulf of Mexico: exploratory oil well Ixtoc 1 blew out, spilling an estimated 140 million gallons of crude oil into the open sea. Although it is one of the largest known oil spills, it had a low environmental impact.
July 19, Tobago: the Atlantic Empress and the Aegean Captain collided, spilling 46 million gallons of crude. While being towed, the Atlantic Empress spilled an additional 41 million gallons off Barbados on Aug. 2.

1980-March 30, Stavanger, Norway: floating hotel in North Sea collapsed, killing 123 oil workers.

1983-Feb. 4, Persian Gulf, Iran: Nowruz Field platform spilled 80 million gallons of oil.
Aug. 6, Cape Town, South Africa: the Spanish tanker Castillo de Bellver caught fire, spilling 78 million gallons of oil off the coast.



1988-July 6, North Sea off Scotland: 166 workers killed in explosion and fire on Occidental Petroleum's Piper Alpha rig in North Sea; 64 survivors. It is the world's worst offshore oil disaster.
Nov. 10, Saint John's, Newfoundland: Odyssey spilled 43 million gallons of oil.

1989-March 24, Prince William Sound, Alaska: tanker Exxon Valdez hit an undersea reef and spilled 10 million–plus gallons of oil into the water, causing the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
Dec. 19, off Las Palmas, the Canary Islands: explosion in Iranian supertanker, the Kharg-5, caused 19 million gallons of crude oil to spill into Atlantic Ocean about 400 mi north of Las Palmas, forming a 100-square-mile oil slick.

1990-June 8, off Galveston, Tex.: Mega Borg released 5.1 million gallons of oil some 60 nautical miles south-southeast of Galveston as a result of an explosion and subsequent fire in the pump room.

1991-Jan. 23–27, southern Kuwait: during the Persian Gulf War, Iraq deliberately released 240–460 million gallons of crude oil into the Persian Gulf from tankers 10 mi off Kuwait. Spill had little military significance. On Jan. 27, U.S. warplanes bombed pipe systems to stop the flow of oil.
April 11, Genoa, Italy: Haven spilled 42 million gallons of oil in Genoa port.
May 28, Angola: ABT Summer exploded and leaked 15–78 million gallons of oil off the coast of Angola. It's not clear how much sank or burned.

1992-March 2, Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan: 88 million gallons of oil spilled from an oil well.

1993-Aug. 10, Tampa Bay, Fla.: three ships collided, the barge Bouchard B155, the freighter Balsa 37, and the barge Ocean 255. The Bouchard spilled an estimated 336,000 gallons of No. 6 fuel oil into Tampa Bay.

1994-Sept. 8, Russia: dam built to contain oil burst and spilled oil into Kolva River tributary. U.S. Energy Department estimated spill at 2 million barrels. Russian state-owned oil company claimed spill was only 102,000 barrels.

1996-Feb. 15, off Welsh coast: supertanker Sea Empress ran aground at port of Milford Haven, Wales, spewed out 70,000 tons of crude oil, and created a 25-mile slick.

1999-Dec. 12, French Atlantic coast: Maltese-registered tanker Erika broke apart and sank off Britanny, spilling 3 million gallons of heavy oil into the sea.

2000-Jan. 18, off Rio de Janeiro: ruptured pipeline owned by government oil company, Petrobras, spewed 343,200 gallons of heavy oil into Guanabara Bay.
Nov. 28, Mississippi River south of New Orleans: oil tanker Westchester lost power and ran aground near Port Sulphur, La., dumping 567,000 gallons of crude oil into lower Mississippi. Spill was largest in U.S. waters since Exxon Valdez disaster in March 1989.

2002-Nov. 13, Spain: Prestige suffered a damaged hull and was towed to sea and sank. Much of the 20 million gallons of oil remains underwater.

2003-July 28, Pakistan: The Tasman Spirit, a tanker, ran aground near the Karachi port, and eventually cracked into two pieces. One of its four oil tanks burst open, leaking 28,000 tons of crude oil into the sea.

2004-Dec. 7, Unalaska, Aleutian Islands, Alaska: A major storm pushed the M/V Selendang Ayu up onto a rocky shore, breaking it in two. 337,000 gallons of oil were released, most of which was driven onto the shoreline of Makushin and Skan Bays.

2005-Aug.-Sept., New Orleans, Louisiana: The Coast Guard estimated that more than 7 million gallons of oil were spilled during Hurricane Katrina from various sources, including pipelines, storage tanks and industrial plants.

2006-June 19, Calcasieu River, Louisiana: An estimated 71,000 barrels of waste oil were released from a tank at the CITGO Refinery on the Calcasieu River during a violent rain storm.
July 15, Beirut, Lebanon: The Israeli navy bombs the Jieh coast power station, and between three million and ten million gallons of oil leaks into the sea, affecting nearly 100 miles of coastline. A coastal blockade, a result of the war, greatly hampers outside clean-up efforts.
August 11th, Guimaras island, The Philippines: A tanker carrying 530,000 gallons of oil sinks off the coast of the Philippines, putting the country's fishing and tourism industries at great risk. The ship sinks in deep water, making it virtually unrecoverable, and it continues to emit oil into the ocean as other nations are called in to assist in the massive clean-up effort.

2007-December 7, South Korea: Oil spill causes environmental disaster, destroying beaches, coating birds and oysters with oil, and driving away tourists with its stench. The Hebei Spirit collides with a steel wire connecting a tug boat and barge five miles off South Korea's west coast, spilling 2.8 million gallons of crude oil. Seven thousand people are trying to clean up 12 miles of oil-coated coast.




2008-July 25, New Orleans, Louisiana: A 61-foot barge, carrying 419,000 gallons of heavy fuel, collides with a 600-foot tanker ship in the Mississippi River near New Orleans. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel leak from the barge, causing a halt to all river traffic while cleanup efforts commence to limit the environmental fallout on local wildlife.

2009-March 11, Queensland, Australia: During Cyclone Hamish, unsecured cargo aboard the container ship MV Pacific Adventurer came loose on deck and caused the release of 52,000 gallons of heavy fuel and 620 tons of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer, into the Coral Sea. About 60 km of the Sunshine Coast was covered in oil, prompting the closure of half the area's beaches.

2010-Jan. 23, Port Arthur, Texas: The oil tanker Eagle Otome and a barge collide in the Sabine-Neches Waterway, causing the release of about 462,000 gallons of crude oil. Environmental damage was minimal as about 46,000 gallons were recovered and 175,000 gallons were dispersed or evaporated, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
April 24, Gulf of Mexico: The Deepwater Horizon, a semi-submersible drilling rig, sank on April 22, after an April 20th explosion on the vessel. Eleven people died in the blast. When the rig sank, the riser—the 5,000-foot-long pipe that connects the wellhead to the rig—became detached and began leaking oil. In addition, U.S. Coast Guard investigators discovered a leak in the wellhead itself. As much as 25,000 barrels (1,050,000 gallons) of oil per day were leaking into the water, threatening wildlife along the Louisiana Coast. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared it a "spill of national significance." As many as 1,000 people and dozens of ships and aircraft were enlisted to help in the cleanup. BP (British Petroleum), which leased the Deepwater Horizon, is responsible for the cleanup, but the U.S. Navy supplied the company with resources to help contain the slick. Oil reached the Louisiana shore on April 30, and there was widespread consensus that the spill would dwarf the Exxon Valdez in terms of environmental damage.

Source: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001451.html

HOW TO POISON YOUR CHILDREN-LEGALLY!

Many are destroying our children with poison and they are doing it legally! If the scenario that follows represents your way of life, then you are doing it, too. You have a baby and feed it milk in a warmed up plastic bottle. You give it plastic teething toys to bite on. All of its toys are made from plastic and they frequently find their way into baby’s mouth. After a certain amount of time passes, the child graduates to a “sippy cup” which is also often heated. Cereal and mashed fruit and vegetables are heated in a plastic bowl. When you take the child out its food is packed in plastic containers. It is given water and milk from plastic containers. As a parent on the go, food is often quick heated in plastic containers in the micro wave. In school, all of the food products consumed are bought and stored in plastic. The hot dog is topped with condiments, all packaged in plastic. All of the food products in the house are in plastic containers. If this is your life, you are poisoning your child and yourself.

The average consumer has been led to believe that all of these plastic products are safe. The plastic producers claim they are safe and the government has sided with big money. There have been some stories in the news about the danger of some plastic products but as a whole, the industry still maintains that their products are of little or no danger. There are, however, some keys pieces of information that has not received adequate news coverage. According to a study by the University of Rochester, many plastic products contain endocrine disruptors. These disruptors get into the system by drinking out of plastic bottles and they mimic the action of female hormones. Called polyethylene terephthalate, this substance increases female hormones in boys and leads to increased risk of cancer and early onset puberty in girls. The average boy today has a sperm count half that of his grandfather.

An early red flag about the dangers of plastic was raised in 1999 by ABC’s 20/20.
Bisphenol A, (or BPA), was the chemical singled out in this particular. In laboratory tests, Consumers Union found that small amounts of the additive BPA leach out of the plastic baby bottles and end up in babies milk. “The effect that is of concern here is a disruption of the developmental process. This could affect intelligence. It could affect behavior. It could affect learning ability. It could affect reproductive ability, fertility many years after the exposure occurs." One cannot help but wonder if the growing ADHD epidemic is connected to the use of plastics.

In an article by Jeremy Jacquot called, “Chemical Found in Plastic Linked to reproductive disorders,” BPA has for the first time been linked to female reproductive disorders in a strongly-worded statement released by 38 scientists and published online in the journal Reproductive Toxicology. “After reviewing close to 700 studies, the scientists determined that people are regularly exposed to BPA levels that exceed those harmful to lab animals — singling out infants and fetuses as the most vulnerable. The statement was accompanied by a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) study that found that uterine damage caused by BPA exposure in newborn animals might predict a host of reproductive disorders in women — including endometriosis, cystic ovaries, fibroids and cancers.”

In December 2007, CNN’s Health Watch noted that, “There is little dispute that the chemical can disrupt the hormonal system, but scientists differ markedly on whether very low doses found in food and beverage containers can be harmful. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration sides with the plastics industry that BPA-based products do not pose a health risk.” The report noted that, “With more than 6 million pounds produced in the United States each year, bisphenol A is found in dental sealants, the liners of food cans, CDs and DVDs, eyeglasses and hundreds of household goods.
Citing multiple studies in the United States, Europe and Japan, the chemicals industry maintains that polycarbonate bottles contain little BPA and leach traces considered too low to harm humans.
But critics point to an influx of animal studies linking low doses to a wide variety of ailments -- from breast and prostate cancer, obesity and hyperactivity, to miscarriages and other reproductive failures.” The report noted that Phthalates, found in everything from PVC (water pipes) to shampoos also has a link to a full slate of diseases and birth defects. A recent CDC study showed that phthalates were found in a test group that they studied and that levels once touted as safe, were, in fact, not. According to the CNN report, “Studies have shown that BPA leaches out of polycarbonate containers and metal cans, and have linked exposure to BPA to cancer, impaired immune function, early puberty, obesity, diabetes, and hyperactivity, among other problems.”
According to an article in the California Chronicle, “More than 150 government-funded studies have shown health effects in animals at extremely low doses of BPA--sometimes 2,000 times lower than the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) safe levels.
This flies in the face of conventional wisdom when it comes to establishing a so-called "safe level" of exposure to BPA. According to the Environment California report, the assertion that harm can be caused only by high levels of a chemical is outdated thinking. If not revised to take into account the latest findings, such thinking could result in great harm to public health.”

The U.S. government seems to stand alone on the poisoning effects of plastic. Japan and the E.U have now banned certain plastic containers and the San Francisco, Maryland and Canada have joined the anti-plastic movement. It all comes back to, who do you trust? There is little doubt that these plastic products are killing us and poisoning our children. Our government has been silent as it wants “more testing.” All one has to do is to talk to any school system and ask them about behavior problems. Have we just become a nation of poor parenting, or is there something more sinister occurring? Add to this issue other environmental stresses placed on our youth by poor nutrition, fast foods, high energy drinks and environmental degradation and there can be little doubt that we are poisoning our children-legally.