I was reading through some blogs today and somewhere or other I heard about a Harvard Ted Talk titled, "It's the end of the world and we know it, I feel fine" after the song, one assumes.
The Harvard type was seriously wondering why it is that we are facing, well, basically, total ecological meltdown and we are all tripping around pollyanna-like feeling 'happy'. Future genearations may wonder the same damn thing, if they get the chance to be there.
Though I believe he was also wondering why it is we cannot really believe that this is a problem we have to respond to, beyond recycling our cans.
A good point.
I get what he's saying but I do, to some extent, wonder if he has really thought this over? The other option seems to be sticking your head in the oven. No? I mean really. If you look the evidence in the eye it is more than a wee bit depressing.
I mean, look at the blog here....yesterday, amidst now multiple explosions in NUCLEAR plants, I write a post about going for a walk in the sunshine.
Honestly, in some ways, what the heck was I thinking. But by the same token, one must get up in the morning, no?
We are hypocritical. Someone on the walk was overheard complaining about the ugly cell phone towers sited in this natural park. Yet, how many folks would be willing to down their cell phones now and forever so as to save energy, resources, contamination and ugliness in natural parks. I have to admit, I would be fairly willing to, for many reasons, yet I have a TON of handsets. I believe between Canada and here, including the kid's phones we have, for four people, 8 hand sets, one went through the wash and is dead. Indeed, I am now considering it rather more strongly at the moment. Another man commented on the disasterous garbage dump in the park, now covered, but which is an entire large valley filled with BCN's garbage. But how many of us had plastic bags with us?
Money where our mouths are, no? I didn't question how many people had SUVs, mutiple cars, etc etc etc. Though my virtue was thin on this too, while we don't own a car and hope to never again own one, primarily for ecological reasons, but also financial ones, I got a lift in one of their big fat cars.
Honestly.
Don't know what to think. Except maybe I need more sleep and I'd feel a little more Pollyanna-ish and a little less like I was channeling Eeyore.
Then there is the whole, 'nuclear energy is better than fossil fuels' and vice versa debate kicking up a notch in the US. Like, what the heck happened to investing in alternative energy BOYS!?!?!?!?!? I learned as a kid that when offered one of two items it was REALLY time to stop and figure out what the other choices are, there usually is another. And it is one that both parties are usually hoping you won't notice through the barage of their sound and fury.
Honestly.
4 comments:
It was Monday. It was Monday all day. We have become so used to our comforts, it's true that it's hard to not leave even a small carbon footprint if you work hard at it. I don't have any answers. I just try to live true to what I am learning. If you hear of any great notions, write them up, I would be glad to read about them. And while I drive a car, I never drive downtown, take public transport otherwise when it's convenient but I rarely even turn my cell phone on, let alone use it. I think we all have certain excesses but it's rare for one to have all the excesses. Or not. Who knows. Maybe I need to go and lie down.
Same feeling. A man who I think is wonderful, but made a huge amount of money by inventing chickens that do their thing better than any other kind to be part of ones food and who is now north of 85 , phone me today and recommended Lester Brown's book " A World on the Edge" I haven't ead it but it apparently recommends we don't increase the global population to 9 billion , just 8 billion. How I will discover.
BUT
We can't predict anything. At December 31, 2010 who said that the Arab world was going to be in turmoil 2 months later?
So Bob Marley has it right I think.
Seadog
Seadog
Yes indeed, it makes for a very good case of moving to the mountains and raising goats, getting a little bit Amish like..suddenly Armageddon does not sound so far fetched after all...
yes worrisome. I feel sort of freakishly radical, but I like the idea of lessening our impact as much as possible, I mean when you think about all the bizarre stuff we do to make ourselves more comfy, I do not think ANY of it is good for the environment...
Maybe more Likely than Unlikely Nomad after all
Bodhi...yes, going to lie down may be the short term solution. OMGoodness.
SeaDog, not sure I could read that one for a while. Though you may be right, GO BOB!!!!
Nomad....nomadic indeed, I read a book once, way back, called Goat Walking, all about leading a life with goats, as you might guess, walking around the countryside. Not sure that's the solution either.
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