By GAREN YEGPARIAN
OK–so I lifted the title and the idea for this piece from Aram Saroyan’s (William’s son) April 23 interview with Maria Armoudian on KPFK. But the idea is so compelling it bears repeating.
During the interview–Saroyan used that line to segway into pointing out we’re on the verge of the biggest genocide in history. The victim? All humanity. The perpetrator? Why George "Dubya" Bush’s administration–of course.
Inquiring minds might ask "how?"
Simple–the vast majority of policies it advocates or adopts are planet unfriendly:
Rejecting the Kyoto Protocol for the reduction of CO2 emissions
Promoting more fossil fuel production and consumption–and conversely not assisting the development of renewable energy sources
Blocking improved fuel efficiency standards (you’d save money that way too!)
Implementing policies destructive to plant and animal life on public lands–
And the capper–starting a disastrous war with its attendant environmental destruction
A United Nations study last year found the human resource-consumption "footprint" on the planet to be greater than what the planet can sustain. In other words–we’re using stuff up faster than it can be replenished. We’re exceeding the planet’s carrying capacity.
So what happens when we start running out of resources?
What happens when the rapid global warming we’re causing starts creating more extreme weather–hotter–colder–wetter–drier? Remember–that "warming" means there’s more energy in the system–so more things are bound to happen. Just imagine feeding a two-year-old waaay too much sugar–and you get the idea.
What happens when food production becomes at best erratic?
What happens when things start getting priced out of reach?
Sure–disturbances–riots–wars will happen. But net–PEOPLE DIE! And in massive numbers. And it’ll be genocide–"cause we knew and did nothing about it." That’s intentional.
The Armenian connection? Lest we forget–we too are human and just as subject to this greatest of plagues as anyone.
The often overlooked notion remains: How can we–as first hand sufferers of the horrors of Genocide sit idly by? How can we not act to change course? Have we no conscience? How can some of us support genocidal Bush–a four-time Armenian Genocide denier?
Let’s all get out there and do anything in our individual or collective power to banish Bush to whatever quadrant of hell spawned him.
