The Importance of Being Idle

Thomas Midgley Jr & The Road To Hell

So last night whilst reading Bill Bryson, I came across a scientist/inventor I hadn't heard of before, but we're all familiar with his work. His name was Thomas Midgley Jr, and he invented both leaded petrol and CFCs. In short, he was responsible for some of the massive environmental damage that man has wrought upon planet Earth during the twentieth century. Now, I'm not saying he was an evil man, quite the reverse, it seems he was genuinely trying to make life better for everyday folk with his inventions, its just that the road to hell is paved with such good intentions. Happily he died before he ever found out what damage his inventions did to the planet. I like to believe that such knowledge would've destroyed him.
There are however, some very very bad people in this story, and they are the companies which manufactured & sold, and still do manufacture & sell wherever lax regulation will allow, tetraethyl lead and CFCs. They KNOW that these things damage not only our health but our environment in quite catastrophic ways and yet if there's money to be made, they don't seem to care. I can't understand that mindset, it really is beyond my comprehension. I can understand a company making money out of something that it genuinely doesn't know is dangerous, but what I can't understand is its refusal to give it up when its proven beyond all doubt. I know they're clinging to revenue streams and blah blah blah, I don't care about the money, its the ethics of the situation I can't fathom. Its not just that I'm a Buddhist either, it's always been something that has been beyond me, like working in the tobacco industry, I just don't see how you do it, how you intentionally and legally inflict misery on people just to keep a roof over your head. People eh? The sooner we're extinct, the better.

posted by BadMonkey @ 10:42 AM