Thread by @SteB777

"Pollution is the physical manifestation of corruption."

Can there ever be a better example of something that is self-evidently absolutely true, but no one ever says or acknowledges?

https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1435133090817585155

Pollution is obviously something gone wrong. Yes, it can be an accident, sometimes the effect of pollution or a pollutant is not realised until later.

However, in an honest system, pollution would be immediately recognised as a problem, and the government, would act.

If a government allows pollution to continue, when it has an obvious deleterious effect on human health or the natural environment. Especially if the government actively participates in concealing the problem, covering it up - IT IS A CLEAR INDICATOR THE GOVERNMENT IS CORRUPT.

I should probably say the "system", because government often acts at many levels, national, local, and supposed official bodies, who are supposed to monitor and report pollution.

Anyway, with those caveats out of the way, if serious pollution continues, and the authorities allow it to continue, and assist in covering up the problem, then it definitely says the system, the authorities, the government is corrupt.

This is because the "social contract", which allows rulers to rule over us, is the primary role of the ruler is to protect the public interest and public safety. As the natural environment sustains us, by extension, protect it is in the public interest.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_co…

If any ruler, any government, flagrantly breaks that "social contract" to protect the public interest, then it loses its right to rule over us. It is a corrupt and oppressive entity, ruling over us and not fulfilling its most basic role to protect the public interest.

Not wanting to go too far off piste, this is why I argue, that in failing to protect the public from the climate and ecological emergency, governments have in effect, negated their legitimacy. They are fraudulent, in claiming their role is to protect us.

If a government, the authorities, protect vested interests, a minority profiting and creating great wealth for individuals, which is acting against the public interest to make a quick profit, then by definition, that government and the authorities are acting corruptly.

By necessity, a corrupt entity, fraudulently claiming it's role is to protect the public and the public interest, whilst actually protecting a minority of very wealthy people, harming the public interests, lacks any legitimacy.

Yes, things go wrong, nothing is perfect. But when that problem is known, and that government or governments do nothing to address the problem, and the situation continues to get worse, they lose their legitimacy.

In the 20th Century, the excuse of politicians was that okay, the system wasn't perfect, but at least things were getting better and progressing. That every decade, people had more rights, inequities were addressed, and generally things got better and more enlightened.

The trouble is, that whole model of everything getting progressively better seems to have ended sometime after about 1980. There is no exact date for it. There are ups and downs. However, we can now be pretty certain, that progressive state is now over.

At the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. The world's governments apparently agreed things had got out of hand with pollution and degradation of the natural environment, which sustains us. So they agreed to reverse this situation.
un.org/en/conferences…

However, by 1983, the UN was so alarmed at no progress being made on the Action Plan agreed at the 1972 UN Environment Conference, that they created the Brundtland Commission to look into it, and whose report Our Common Future was published in 1987.
sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/docume…

Our Common Future formed the basis of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. This was by far the biggest international summit (not just on the environment) and gathering of world leaders there has ever been. There has been nothing like it since.
un.org/en/conferences…

I lay this out as background, to prove that there is a 50 year history of governments apparently agreeing Re: pollution, that things had gone too far, and they needed to reverse the situation. The fact they have allowed things to get worse, indicates serious systemic corruption.

Most of this pollution breaches guidelines and laws, governments have put in place (maybe by multi-national or international agreement), supposedly to protect the public/natural environment.

Self-evidently circumventing the law, to act in the interests of wealthy individuals profiting from this breaking of the law, because said wealthy individuals or groups of them, donate money or support in some way those governments - is corruption pure and simple.

Therefore when @GeorgeMonbiot says "Pollution is the physical manifestation of corruption.", he is absolutely correct.

The only exceptions to this, is when the pollution is immediately recognised and governments attempt to stop it, apply the law and to stop it happening again.

When governments allow this pollution to persist and actually facilitate it, and both cover it up, and cover up its impacts, they are acting corruptly and breaking the "social contract", which gives them legitimacy.

@GretaThunberg @GeorgeMonbiot @ClimateHuman @JKSteinberger @Fridays4future

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