Why are we catering to Big Oil's demands?

It’s a simple concept, not rocket science, yet we just don’t seem to “get it.” Our inherent cognitive limitation is a pervasive problem in human reasoning, manifesting itself in a myriad of ways.

If you consume more calories than you burn, you’ll gain weight. Knowing this, why are so many of us obese. Accumulating new debt before you’ve paid off the old is counter-productive, yet we, and our government, continue to do so. We know government suppresses, and lies to us, yet we still believe and re-elect them. When they tell us mass concentrations of C02 in the atmosphere is not a problem, we believe them and go about our merry way. I don’t think our government, since its inception, has been up-front about the consequences of our American way of life, and what it’s doing to this planet.

I would ask my government for a truthful response to the following: why is it that we are one of only two nations that did not join the rest of the world in the Kyoto Protocol effort?

We are the second biggest contributor to air pollution in the world, yet only 25 percent of the global population. Shouldn’t we be setting a commendable example?

Why are scientific reports and documents, regarding climate change, heavily edited before they reach congress?

Why do we cater to “Big Oil” companies, who thrive on our dependence upon their environmentally “unfriendly” product?

Why did we bail out an auto industry who makes the most inefficient vehicles in the world?

Is it our inability of understand simple concepts? Or, is it that we are denied the right to know the severity, the uncensored details of what is actually going on with this planet we call home?

LAURIE WADKINS

Priest River