Lucy Komisar
|
“Kyoto” tells how fossil fuel industry & its control of US gov't have brought world to brink of climate catastrophe. “Kyoto.” Written by Jose Murphy and Joe Robertson,
directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin. As the 30th international conference on climate change takes place in Belém, Brazil, — which the U.S. refuses to attend — this Royal Shakespeare Company production at Lincoln Center in New York is a devastating exposé of how the American government run by the corrupt Democratic and Republican uniparty has brought the planet close to destruction. It is a brilliant play, telling you more than you will read in the American corporate media. An ironic point is made when at the break, an announcer says “Intermission drinks will be provided by the Koch Brothers.” They are of course the multi-billionaire owners-supporters-financiers of fossil fuel destruction of the planet. And also the bought name of the K&!xh Theater across the Lincoln Center plaza that was once called the New York State Theater, a name to which it should return unless the people who run Lincoln Center like honoring a family committed to destroying the planet so they can have a few more baubles. (And drinks were not free!)
The powerful message of this play is that climate catastrophe is being caused by the multinational coal, oil, gas corporations and their servants in governments, especially the U.S. This story of COP 3 (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in 1997 highlights the corrupt Clinton and Gore destruction of an early chance to save the planet. Yes, the corporate Democrats did it. The mesmerizing play by Jose Murphy and Joe Robertson directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin is based on transcripts of the meetings. The villain is Don Pearlman (the perfectly smarmy Steven Kunken), now deceased, no tears, an oil lobbyist who represents the fake astroturf NGO The Climate Council financed by Koch and his corrupt “let’s kill the earth” collaborators. Also known as The Seven Sisters, the nickname for the cartel of leading oil companies, Anglo-Iranian (now BP), Royal Dutch Shell (Shell), Standard Oil of California (Chevron), Gulf Oil (Chevron), Texaco (Chevron), Standard Oil of New Jersey (Esso, then Exxon, then ExxonMobil) and Standard Oil of New York (Mobil, then ExxonMobil). He works with the U.S. representative (Kate Burton, who could play any aparatchik). If you look at reports of the current meetings, “plus ça change.” Pearlman was a lawyer, also a CIA guy, who later would join Patton Boggs, big time Deep State law firm. One of the people who run the U.S. policy leading the world to destruction. The action of the play takes place between 1989 and 1997. The main events are in the last year. The play is set at the round table meeting of a few dozen delegates. Don’t think it really matters but audience members are given delegate and press name tags. I collected one from Bangladesh, obviously no power, and another from The Guardian, a pretend liberal publication that supports the Deep State whenever it counts, viz Russiagate. The issues of the meeting would be targets and timetables and different standards for developed and developing countries. Developed countries having used their global warming practices to build their economies are now virtuously demanding that developing countries they had ruined give them up. Those countries say no.
The representative of Tanzania (Roslyn Ruff) says, “Yours are emissions of luxury. Ours are emissions of survival.” The representative of a small island nation (Taiana Tully) says,
“There is one country among us with less than five percent
of the world’s population, responsible for over a third of
its greenhouse gas emissions. It prides itself on world leadership,
but has shown none at these talks. I’m only sorry that its
distinguished delegate does not consider our survival a matter of And then the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel runs a story about Perlman as ‘The High Priest of the Carbon Club’. A photo of him with the Saudis. His wife Shirley says, “They know your history. Who you work for. They make you out to be a kind of Machiavelli.” Indeed. And there’s a moment when we see the black-suited corporates whose “make me the money” decisions threaten destruction of the world.
The U.S. is looking for a “market mechanism,” emissions trading. SAUDI ARABIA (Dariush Kanshani): “What is emissions trading?” USA : “I’m glad you asked. It’s a very simple market-based idea. Textbook cap-and-trade. We set a cap on the total amount of carbon the world can emit, then from that amount allocate per-capita tradable allowances to every developed country. Countries who reduce their emissions more quickly can sell their surplus allowance to countries who for whatever reason are going more slowly.” DON (To audience.): “Translation: a loophole that allows rich countries to keep doing whatever the hell they want.” One of the Americans’ scams was to insisted that the year zero for target date for emissions go back only to 2010 instead of 1990. A massive 30 percent increase. And corporate media promoted the climate-deniers.
GORE (Daniel Jenkins): “We came to Kyoto to find new ways to bridge our differences. In doing so, however, we must not waver in our resolve. The United States is committed to a strong, binding target that will reduce our 2010 emissions by 30% from what they would otherwise be.” Raul ESTRADA of Argentina (the very fine Jorge Bosch) who would be the chair of the convention: “But that isn’t a real number! What’s your real number, Al?” DON (who understands it all, speaks an aside to the audience.): “He’s right. It’s not a real number. Confused? Raul is realizing that a large amount of a large number is not necessarily larger than a small amount of a smaller number. Still confused? Keep up. Let’s break it down. When a country talks about CO2 cuts, they mean compared to their 1990 levels. Why? 1990 was the year of the First Assessment – remember Geneva? Act 1. We went there three times! I literally said ‘remember this one’. No? Wow. 1990 is year 0. The baseline year that everyone agreed to. Apart from Al. Al’s using 2010 as his baseline. But why does it matter? Well, between 1990 and 2010, America’s emissions will have massively increased. In fact, they’ll have increased by about… 30%. So a 30% cut of their 2010 levels actually means a 1990 cut of…”
ESTRADA Zero. An observer: “All the discoveries our scientists are making today, the Seven Sisters got there decades ago. 1959! Before we’d even reached the moon. By the 70s, they’d correctly predicted temperature rises to the exact degree. And in 1979 they were presented with plans to prevent it all. Which they then buried. They knew. And they hid it. They’re still hiding it today. Isn’t that kind of scary….” In 2001, Pearlman helped prevent the United States from ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. So how does the Deep State-aligned media deal with such a play? A New York Times critic with zero foreign policy background trashes it, refusing to deal with the events it describes. Quelle surprise! Please ignore that as well as most NYT Deep State foreign policy stories. Remember Russiagate? This is the most important play you can see this season. Essential to understanding the current climate conference in Brazil. And the malevolent role the United States has played in the effort to save the planet from destruction.
Visit Lucy’s website http://thekomisarscoop.com/ |
| museums | NYTW mail | recordings | coupons | publications | classified |