I have been watching the remake of the Cosmos series.  A recent episode told the story of a young scientist who was given the task of measuring the amount of lead in a meteorite. The goal was to determine the age of the earth. It took him years to do and required the development of the super clean room as his test samples kept getting contaminated. He wondered what was going on so after successfully figuring out the earth’s age he turned his lead measuring expertise to the environment.

In the early 1960’s he measured the lead content in the oceans and found that there was substantially more lead in the surface waters than in the deep.  He concluded that the lead additives used in gasoline at that time was washing out of the air and ending up in the water.  It was well known that lead is poisonous to life so he sounded a warning that the use of the lead additives needed to stop.

The lead additive and oil companies refuted his claims.  They hired their own expert scientist who explained how the research was flawed or not definitive. They said that no other studies showed that the gasoline additives caused the lead increase even though it is obvious. that if you burn something into air it is going to end up in the environment.  They were able to continue to make profits at he expense of polluting the air and water until the early 1970’s.   That’s what these guys always seem to do. They dispute the claims against them, confuse the issues, and stall as much as possible. Once the studies are done, they challenge the results. There doesn’t seem to be any down side to using these tactics and there should be.

It’s happening again with the issues of climate change and GMOs. Now with the overwhelming evidence and scientific acceptance of climate change the discussion has changed to whether or not it is man made or not. The goal seems to be to continue to use fossil fuels until they run out. I imagine that some day a child will die from an allergic reaction to a GMO apple. I’m sure that food corporations will demand studies while continuing to produce such unhealthy food as long as possible.

I think that most people are giving up on the idea that anything can be done about these corporate behaviors. One of the goals of Pod Cities to assemble a large group of concerned citizens that will be able to shine a light on the stupidity and greed that will surely kill us off if left to run wild.