I wrote the following article ten years ago, if you read it, can you tell me, what has changed for the better? If anything I believe it has got much worse, as the greed driven system of capitalism is still hell bent on profit and growth before human welfare.
We all know that the corporate greed machine is capable of and indulges in the rape and plunder of the planet, and those who are informed are aware of the thoughtless damage it will inflict on individuals in its pursuit of profit. However, how many are aware that it is also poisoning the world’s population and future generations it its drive to fatten shareholders bank balances?
In the years prior to World War 2 the annual worldwide use of pesticides was almost nil. At present it now runs at about 500 billion tons and increasing year on year. One result of this is that there are, in America alone, approximately 315,000 cases of pesticide poisoning a year. The symptoms of pesticide poisoning are varied and many, some being, memory loss, altered personality, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, headaches, wheezing cough, hyperactivity in children, liver damage, kidney damage, constipation, diarrhoea, severe muscle weakness, decrease sperm count, loss of sex drive and cancer. The worldwide death rate from pesticide poisoning is over 200,000 a year and rising.
The Environmental Protection Agency states that 30% of all insecticides, 60% of all herbicides and 90% of all fungicides are carcinogenic. Still the march of pesticide production and use thunders on, seeking ever wider and wider markets in search of ever fatter and fatter profits..
In her book “Silent Spring” published in 1962, Rachel Carson states, “Can anybody believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poison on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life.” Today we produce pesticides at a rate of more than 13,000 times faster than we did in 1962.
A recent study presented at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society stated, “Remnants of Prozac are flushed from the body and travel in wastewater that reaches streams and rivers — (and) cause female mussels to release their larvae before they’re able to survive on their own.”
It is now obvious that the corporate world, in its avaricious and never ending pursuit of profits, is poisoning the world. It is your children that are being slowly poisoned, being deprived of their full potential, being dragged into a life of illness and pain, being made intellectually inferior, and of course subsequent generations will suffer even more so unless we can call a halt to this insanity in search of profit.
Only when we destroy this insane system of profit before the welfare of the people, put an end to the stupidity and greed of the capitalist system and restructure our world on a basis of mutual aid and sustainability will this murder of future generations stop.
