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filkertomOfficial site, Wikipedia page.
I've long since given up hoping that people will realize that every day should be Earth Day (or Womens' Day, or Black History Month, or any of a number of other things that have to be flagged so that people remember their various issues and meanings). This is the only frickin' biosphere we've got. Us, humans, that is. I'm not a save-the-planet kinda guy, because the planet will be just fine (mad science notwithstanding). However, our ability to stay alive on it is becoming more compromised every day, as is the biosphere's ability to repair itself. Some think we've reached any number of sub-tipping points already -- as the Vorlon said, "The avalanche has already started; it is too late for the pebbles to vote."
That's why there need to be pollution controls and regulations and SuperFund cleanups and zoning and wind-farming and solar energy research and CFL bulbs and water conservation and a billion other things great and small to make sure that we can continue as a species on this planet, at least until we colonize a few other planets.
And that's why the polluters who try to end-run around all those things, discourage them, deny global warming, and the billion other things they do to claw at as much short-term profit as possible, disgust me. Most likely, they think they'll be able to afford clean air and water, even if other people can't.
It doesn't work that way. Certainly not for the long haul. For we are all inescapably the same in one respect:
Rich, poor, Republican, Democrat, male, female -- your skin color, your upbringing, your religious persuasion or lack thereof (as they used to say, race, color, or creed) -- none of it matters five days after you run out of potable water, or five minutes after you run out of breathable air.
We are all human. And we live or die as one.
Go green. For all of our sakes.
I've long since given up hoping that people will realize that every day should be Earth Day (or Womens' Day, or Black History Month, or any of a number of other things that have to be flagged so that people remember their various issues and meanings). This is the only frickin' biosphere we've got. Us, humans, that is. I'm not a save-the-planet kinda guy, because the planet will be just fine (mad science notwithstanding). However, our ability to stay alive on it is becoming more compromised every day, as is the biosphere's ability to repair itself. Some think we've reached any number of sub-tipping points already -- as the Vorlon said, "The avalanche has already started; it is too late for the pebbles to vote."
That's why there need to be pollution controls and regulations and SuperFund cleanups and zoning and wind-farming and solar energy research and CFL bulbs and water conservation and a billion other things great and small to make sure that we can continue as a species on this planet, at least until we colonize a few other planets.
And that's why the polluters who try to end-run around all those things, discourage them, deny global warming, and the billion other things they do to claw at as much short-term profit as possible, disgust me. Most likely, they think they'll be able to afford clean air and water, even if other people can't.
It doesn't work that way. Certainly not for the long haul. For we are all inescapably the same in one respect:
Rich, poor, Republican, Democrat, male, female -- your skin color, your upbringing, your religious persuasion or lack thereof (as they used to say, race, color, or creed) -- none of it matters five days after you run out of potable water, or five minutes after you run out of breathable air.
We are all human. And we live or die as one.
Go green. For all of our sakes.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-22 02:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-22 03:29 pm (UTC)My thoughts:
They did not go into it in detail, so in my thinking, should we have been paying $8 a gallon for gas as it's 'true price'? Would that rise the cost of milk to also $8 a gallon? With cheap transportation we have allowed large conglomerations of food production to become further and further from us. How close are you to a significant dairy plant. Dairy farm? How far does milk travel to go from farm to plant to distribution to grocery store back to the homes near that farm? Now think the same for bread or beer. How far to the nearest significant bakery? Or brewery?--and I don't mean brew-pub. Since nearby plants/distribution centers have closed up thanks to ecomonics of scale and cheap transportation, what happens when transportation becomes expensive but former processing/baking/etc plants no longer exist? The price goes up. The 'slice' of solution needed did not seem to address de-centralizing food processing so that a future transportation cost can be offset by having less miles on our food.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-22 04:02 pm (UTC)-- Lester Brown
Essentially all highly profitable economic activities are profitable because they externalize costs while internalizing profits.
This means that any attempt to change the system to one that is not inherently self- and future-destructive will run against the (short term) interests of the most powerful people in the world.
More subtly, it also means that, in order for such a transformation to take place, people will have to give up on the idea of getting very rich, quickly. Making a killing is not the same as making a living, and is not compatible with a world in balance.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-22 04:16 pm (UTC)I wonder if their money will last long enough to supply their grandchildren?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-22 04:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-22 05:30 pm (UTC)My other green resolution this year is to set up a rainwater catchment and storage system to water my garden and my fruit trees.
Oh, and I'm working on a better system to transport food purchases- I use reusable bags for carrying the whole order, I have cloth produce bags, but flours and stuff are still going in disposable bags (which I then reuse for cat litter scoopings). Taking my storage containers to the store doesn't really work because they are seldom completely empty when I restock. And I buy LOTS of bulk stuff: most shopping runs are a half gallon each of black beans, rice, pinto beans, oatmeal, flour, lentils, navy beans, then also a quart each of several kinds of nuts, nutritional yeast, etc. There's got to be a better way to do this.
And I'm going to try my hand at baking bread again. It's the most processed food I buy on a regular basis, I know I can make it myself, I just am really bad at it now.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-22 05:40 pm (UTC)You want to get instantly good at baking bread? I swear by Cooks Illustrated's Almost No-Knead Bread 2.0 (http://www.thedinnertoast.com/2011/02/almost-no-knead-bread/). (Originally posted at cooksillustrated.com (http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?docid=11829), if you're a member.)
And, regarding your rainwater needs: While it's not on the market yet, I would be remiss if I did not mention a little something coming soon from a friend of mine: the unBarrel (http://www.unbarrel.com/?p=9).
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-22 06:34 pm (UTC)That reminds me, I should go tomorrow and drop off some cat food and the bags.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-22 06:48 pm (UTC)I almost ALWAYS have a chicco bag on my key ring. Not only are they useful for toting purchases, they're also great for tossing discarded sweatshirts into.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-22 07:47 pm (UTC)Shit may roll downhill, but cream always rises to the top.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-22 09:14 pm (UTC)While I really want humanity to 'get off this rock' - to live, thrive and survive - there seem more and more cases of collective lemming-like environmental destruction going on. It might be that we deserve to become a cautionary tale for rabbits, when they evolve to take over the world after we've killed ourselves off - but we could be so much more. [shakes head]
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-22 09:52 pm (UTC)My first thought was, "What, did God make more when I wasn't looking?"
And then I realized what was probably meant: "We're not going to run out of oil in my lifetime."
I suspect the "thinking" about air and water follows similar lines.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-22 09:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-23 12:03 am (UTC)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenic_petroleum_origin
Please note, however, that this is a widely discredited theory.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-23 12:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-23 12:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-23 02:56 am (UTC)Personally, I LOVE when braindeads bitch about gas prices even as they stuff a couple of C-notes' worth of unleaded into their Ford Mastodon or Humjob3. Gee, what part of "8 mpg" didn't you understand when you bought this elephant to ferry Dashleigh and Miffleigh to soccer and ballet? (Europeans have been paying the equivalent of $5-$8/gallon for decades, much of it taxes; the result, fuel-efficient cars and the best public transportation in the world.)
There is another elephant in the room when conservation talk crops up: Children. As in Having None. Bemoaning the loss of ecosystem even as you announce the imminent birth of your fourth carbon-footprint approaches cognitive dissonance - yes, Al Gore, I'm looking at you.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-23 01:42 pm (UTC)Yep. And these are the people who're normally all about letting folks face the consequences of their own bad decisions. Y'know, like being born as an Undesirable.
And while I'm child-free myself, almost militantly so, I don't know that I'd argue that having children is in and of itself environmentally harmful. Yes, you've got another warm body consuming resources, but you've also got (en potentia, at least) another advocate for the environment.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-28 03:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-28 03:57 pm (UTC)*eyeroll*