Aside from missing breaking news, it gives me time to ponder, to see where a story arc goes and to carefully weigh public opinion so that I won't look foolish in a week. I might be wrong, but it'll be the popular kind of wrong.One of the biggest pros to the wait and see style of current events writing is that some of this stuff isn't buried under a pile of other content that is shoved out into the Internet to mark special occasions - just wait for my Christmas spectacular on June 5th! - but rather, it gives me a little time to work on things or even try them out myself.
In this particular case, I'm talking Earth Day.
Ebjournal Revisited reminded me when I was going through his blog last night that I still hadn't gone anywhere near this topic, despite reading a whole special issue of Vanity Fair about it and saw An Inconvenient Truth all in the same 40-day span.
Carbon footprints, America's disproportionate usage of natural resources, the long-term impact of how we live today and what can be done to slow the bleeding - if you can find a hard copy of the issue, the must read is an essay titled An Ecosystem of One's Own.
Here's the kicker - Americans will continue to be the biggest culprits in pollution and over-using their share of resources as long as the alternatives are more expensive, more difficult to purchase and use and less available than their mass-produced brothers.
A friend of mine once claimed that he was a Democrat for the most Republican of reasons - it was better for him financially. I get that same feeling from America as a whole with the green movement. If I don't need to spend any more money off the bat, but I'll see a return to my wallet, then I'm on board. If it will cost me more and I'll need to wait a few years to see a return on my investment, I'll just take the cheaper, world-killing options.
Like most good things in life, the change has to be organic for consumers to go the extra mile. While immediate savings will get you a few steps down the path, it will take a strong connection to ecology and a commitment to living green to make larger changes. For the record, I'm no where near ready for those steps.
Most Americans - or I assume most of us - like our meat, like our cars and we're willing to budge on power because - for the wrong reasons - it can save money. I'll be interested to see how quickly ad campaigns seize on this and start shying away from the "Do your part" angle.
While people will pay a few extra cents on the dollar for recycled materials or low-impact light bulbs, most of us hit our threshold pretty quickly. If we have to give up a larger chunk of cash or sacrifice performance, that's where the line is drawn.
We want alternative fuels because gas is $3 per gallon. We want new light bulbs to save on our monthly bills. We're willing to save on electrical costs by unplugging unused appliances... as long as we don't have to reset our clocks every night.
Until we have that mental shift to make it worth our while to pay more or expect less, I can't see any real changes being made, but that's the American way, right?
So this is the part, where as a responsible citizen of the world, I'm supposed to implore you to drive less, walk more, build a compost pile and set up rain catch barrels to use in your new organic garden, but I won't.
I leave my TV plugged in and like that my TiVo is chugging along all day so I can watch the E! True Hollywood Story on Screech when I get home in my pickup and want to eat a steak from a cow that destroyed part of the rain forest and farted an extra three tons of methane into the air.
I'd apologize if I felt particularly bad about it, but I don't. And I don't think you should have to be shamed into it, either.
So, do what you're comfortable with - I'm sure that the dirty hippies of the world will lead the way and impassioned celebrities will scold you from in front of a humble mud hut about your carbon footprint when they just chartered two jets and a helicopter to airlift their personal chef, stylist, wardrobe and entourage into the middle of a jungle.
Start with a light or two and get your car tuned up. Turn off the water when you brush your teeth. Take public transportation if it suits you. Then? Go an extra step.
Buy another light bulb. Keep things cooler in the winter and open the windows in the summer, even for a few days. Then, eat your steak with a great sense of self-satisfaction - After all, Rome wasn't built in a day.
(Photo from NerdShit.com)
2 comments:
When I lived in the city of Chicago, you had to go through some wacky process to be able to recycle with some blue bags that no one could ever find. As a result, I never took the time to recycle. In Naperville, however, we have to buy a sticker for each load of garbage that we want to be hauled away. Meanwhile, anything that is put into our recycle bin will be hauled away for free. Needless to say, nothing got me to meticulously separate everything that could possibly be recycled faster than old Adam Smith. On the whole, people generally act rationally in their financial self-interest, so policymakers would be wise to implement measures that play into this basic human nature (as opposed to trying to go against the grain).
Exactly - until there are more towns and cities that take that approach, nothing is going to happen.
Then again, given the bad press the Prius has been getting, there's really no winning some days.
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