The Biggest Criminal Enterprise in History

[marmar]

from TomDispatch:


Terracide and the Terrarists
Destroying the Planet for Record Profits

By Tom Engelhardt


We have a word for the conscious slaughter of a racial or ethnic group: genocide. And one for the conscious destruction of aspects of the environment: ecocide. But we don’t have a word for the conscious act of destroying the planet we live on, the world as humanity had known it until, historically speaking, late last night. A possibility might be “terracide” from the Latin word for earth. It has the right ring, given its similarity to the commonplace danger word of our era: terrorist.

The truth is, whatever we call them, it’s time to talk bluntly about the terrarists of our world. Yes, I know, 9/11 was horrific. Almost 3,000 dead, massive towers down, apocalyptic scenes. And yes, when it comes to terror attacks, the Boston Marathon bombings weren’t pretty either. But in both cases, those who committed the acts paid for or will pay for their crimes.

In the case of the terrarists -- and here I’m referring in particular to the men who run what may be the most profitable corporations on the planet, giant energy companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, and Shell -- you’re the one who’s going to pay, especially your children and grandchildren. You can take one thing for granted: not a single terrarist will ever go to jail, and yet they certainly knew what they were doing.

It wasn’t that complicated. In recent years, the companies they run have been extracting fossil fuels from the Earth in ever more frenetic and ingenious ways. The burning of those fossil fuels, in turn, has put record amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. Only this month, the CO2 level reached 400 parts per million for the first time in human history. A consensus of scientists has long concluded that the process was warming the world and that, if the average planetary temperature rose more than two degrees Celsius, all sorts of dangers could ensue, including seas rising high enough to inundate coastal cities, increasingly intense heat waves, droughts, floods, ever more extreme storm systems, and so on. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175703/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_biggest_criminal_enterprise_in_history/

[MichiganVote]

1. The Road, it comes closer.

[raouldukelives]

2. K&R Terrarists fits nicely. The shareholders protect the host and the host profits them.

Picture Wall St like a giant ocean full of sharks. Shareholders & employees are like little cleaner fish that protect them from disease & pick out bits of flesh from the teeth to ensure the shark is in peak killing condition.

"They have nothing of harm to dread,
But liquidly glide on his ghastly flank
Or before his Gorgonian head;
Or lurk in the port of serrated teeth
In white triple tiers of glittering gates,
And there find a haven when peril 's abroad,
An asylum in jaws of the Fates!"

[JEB]

3. As close to legitamate drone target as you can get.

[ErikJ]

4. Koch bros. are the main kingpins in Climate denial politics.

They need to be stopped.

[GitRDun]

5. You missed a few

According to Forbes:

1). Saudi Aramco - 12.5 million bbls/day
2). Gazprom (Russia) - 9.7 million barrels per day
3). National Iranian Oil Co. - 6.4 million barrels per day
4). ExxonMobil - 5.3 million barrels per day
5). PetroChina - 4.4 million barrels per day
6). BP - 4.1 million barrels per day
7). Royal Dutch Shell - 3.9 million barrels per day
8). Pemex (Mexico) - 3.6 million barrels per day
9). Chevron - 3.5 million barrels per day
10). Kuwait Petroleum Corp. - 3.2 million barrels per day
11). Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (United Arab Emirates) - 2.9 million barrels per day
12). Sonatrach (Algeria) - 2.7 million barrels per day
13). Total (France) - 2.7 million barrels per day
14). Petrobras (Brazil) - 2.6 million barrels per day
15). Rosneft (Russia) - 2.6 million barrels per day
16). Iraqi Oil Ministry - 2.3 million barrels per day
17). Qatar Petroleum - 2.3 million barrels per day
18). Lukoil (Russia) - 2.2 million barrels per day
19). Eni (Italy) - 2.2 million barrels per day
20). Statoil (Norway) - 2.1 million barrels per day
21). ConocoPhillips - 2 million barrels per day
22). Petroleos de Venezuela - 1.9 million barrels per day
23). Sinopec (China) - 1.6 million barrels per day
24). Nigerian National Petroleum - 1.4 million barrels per day
25). Petronas (Maylasia) - 1.4 million barrels per day

The daily production of the five mentioned companies is 18.8 million barrels per day. As big as they seem, they produce a mere 21% of the top 25's 89.5 million barrels per day volume.