Trans-Pacific Partnership: Alarmed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement won't get enough votes, its top promoters -- the Koch brothers and Exxon Mobil among them -- now resort to fear tactics: We either support the TPP or China will steal this coveted wealth bonanza! Echoes of the myth of Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction" and our falling for it should ring in our ears today. Without a massive and unlimited production of fossil fuel, the TPP remains just a negotiated agreement. China, the most polluted of countries, lives with the costly consequences of the heavy, fossil-fueled industrialization of its cities. As such, China will be first to see the tremendous market potential, and have the wealth to fund research and development, of clean, renewable energy -- the same market the intimidating power of Big Oil has forced our government to abandon for decades.
We're at a crucial fork in the road, perhaps the last we'll have of our human journey on Earth: Follow money down a short, dark road of no return, or take the other one, curvy and full of challenges, but promising a future that includes us on this small, precious planet.
Nancy Leaper Tracy
Southwest Portland