Would they actually buy and sell it if it were on the market? How would you react if you were told that global warming will cause the death of untold numbers of people, but there was a way to utilize all the corpses by making a new Exxon oil product? What better idea than transforming dead people into oil and calling the new product Vinoleum. Is this not another brilliant example of the market-economy at its best?
Two individuals posing as representatives of Exxon-Mobil and the National Petroleum Council were the keynote speakers at a conference in Calgary, Alberta, where they introduced their "new" product. The attendees listened politely until the two imposters passed out "commemorative candles" to the audience. The candles were supposedly made from the flesh of an Exxon janitor, who had died as a result of cleaning up a toxic spill.
If you like guerrilla theater, you'll love The Yes Men But what might it say about us? How easy is it to get us to suspend disbelief under the right circumstances? Of course Exxon over the years has spent millions of dollars supporting various front groups that called global warming a hoax.
If our capacity to imagine doesn't go much beyond the exploitation of Alberta's oil sands and the development of liquid coal, a worldwide environmental disaster will likely increase significantly. Perhaps we could chat with Lee Raymond, the former CEO of Exxon and now the head of the National Petroleum Council.
Hm-m. But just possibly Mr. Raymond would be willing to volunteer himself for the betterment of humanity ... and he is a large man. Would he be a good test case for VINOLEUM?
No comments:
Post a Comment