what goes around, comes around...
"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences. "
-- Winston Churchil, 1936
Sunday night we went and watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.
At the end I shed tears of sadness at what will happen to this planet and to humanity. Unlike Al, I think we'll do too little, too late. What's already in train is enough to trash the planet.
Go see it if you get the chance. It will change your life. This is quite simply THE most important film of this time.
There's also a book by the same name, from which I will be sharing insights and information with you in due course.
Goodnight all...
-- Winston Churchil, 1936
Sunday night we went and watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.
At the end I shed tears of sadness at what will happen to this planet and to humanity. Unlike Al, I think we'll do too little, too late. What's already in train is enough to trash the planet.
Go see it if you get the chance. It will change your life. This is quite simply THE most important film of this time.
There's also a book by the same name, from which I will be sharing insights and information with you in due course.
Goodnight all...
posted by The Editor at
11:29 PM
14 Comments:
It is sad. And I agree. We are more shortsighted the larger our aggregations. a person or a family or maybe even a village can foresee and forestall but this is a problem unsolvable by any aggregation less than the collective industrialized and emerging economies...an aggregation with the effective net intellegence and foresight of a snail.
I will be putting my money where my moroseness is. I am scouting land in places that won't become desert, offer a bit of wind or water power and fertil soil...far from cities if I am lucky but development patterns have always seeded big cities by ports or good farmland so the picking is slim.
We have been over this topic before on your blog...it will keep coming back until either everyone wises up or we can blog anymore for lack of fuel in the generators.
Have a nice day :(
We are, quite simply, the most wasteful, the most decadent, the most spoilt, the most exploitative, the most selfish, the most arrogant, the most supercillious, the most deluded, the most dishonest, the most murderous culture on the planet at this time. Is it any wonder that other cultures hate us with a vengeance?
And like all spoilt and arrogant people, we are, short of some calamatous consequence, incapable of mending out ways. sadly the coming calamity will also spell "curtains" for most if not all human life on the plantet within about fifty years. (I'll provide the scientific projections for this soon.)
I blogged some time ago about the Amazon being cleared for Soy Bean cultivation but it's not for food, it's for biofuel. Now they want to clear part of the Amazon rainforest for a giant oil pipeline to Columbia without a care for the consequences of an oil spill.
Interesting program on SBS last night about the photo of the Tankman in Tianamen Square and how China has changed since then and not for the good.
Oh, Gerry, Gerry, Gerry,
We saw that one too, over a month ago. It's sad, and more sad. I left it feeling sick to my stomach, knowing that not enough people will change things soon enough. The friend with whom I discussed the movie afterwards--a fellow who has similar pro-environmental views to us--saw hope and light and thinks that enough people will voluntarily come 'round, changing their lifestyles and saving the world from global warming. Yet frustratingly, that same fellow yesterday argued with me about a local church's "impressive" sponsorship of paying >$2000 to send a member down to Peru to help some poor people put roofs on their houses. It makes the churchmember proud and gives him a feeling of helping his fellow man, but it also gives $2K to American Airlines and puts I-don't-know-how-much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. My argument was that $2000 would have paid for a hell of a lot of Peruvian roofing shingles and a hell of a lot of LOCAL Peruvian labour. My friend argues that the man came back a better person and is more likely now to spearhead efforts here where poor people also need help; my retort is that the man was already a good soul and a church-paid vacation to help him feel good about himself is something I will consider next time I am asked to go to a church fundraiser. There is a way to help people far-away without getting a free vacation out of it.
My sister pays to send her kids on a jet halfway across the country to do similar church construction projects for poor people, when the carbon dioxide output and materials/labour costs could be reduced if they'd only have done something LOCALLY ; the rest of the $ could be sent to the local church in that distant state instead so they can help their own local church members.
I know, I know, Kurt is known for going off on tangents and giving you information overload :) But really it all ties into the global warming thing because it's about INDIVIDUAL choices in the end: a choice for a rich dude whether to own three houses that must be heated/maintained/cooled whether someone's living there or not; the choice for a middle class person as to whether to buy a plastic tricycle for your grandkids that ends up in a landfill after a simple irrepairable but crucial plastic cotter pin breaks, or let them play instead with chalk on the concrete sidewalks and with tin-can-and-string telephones and make tents on the front porch using old sheets and clothespins; or the choice for an asshole American with too much money whether to buy a modest automobile or a Hummer.
Americans (and many others as well) aren't taught that their excess money doesn't need to be spent ON THEMSELVES (the greedy bastards) but that they have a responsibility to do better than that with their excesses. Aaaargh! You have turned me into a bear, your Bearship! No kittens will soothe me today!
BTW, my sister let it slip in the conversation that her children also enjoyed the beaches and the swimming in that coastal town to which she sent them on the church work camp outing. THAT (and the fact that they were going with friends) was the motivation; the "helping" bit is just so they can pat themselves on the back. I wouldn't have as much a problem with it if they would just see it for what it really is: a delusion, a rationalisation for an essentially selfish behaviour.
GreenSmile said "I am scouting land in places that won't become desert, offer a bit of wind or water power and fertil soil..."
Good luck in your search. I hope you find the ideal spot. Wish I had the means to do the same. :-(
JahTeh, go see An Inconvenient Truth if you haven't done so yet.
Kurt, yeah, it was the original Diogenes who said that there is no real altruism, but that all "altruistic" deeds were ultimately done for self-serving reasons. I agree with him.
Gerry,
I am not exactly a back-to-the-land person; I use electricity and all the modern conveniences in moderation.
But let me tell you: in a small back yard you can do a lot of the things GS imagines he will be doing on his future acreage. Since I started growing many of my own vegetables I cannot believe how productive the land is when given a chance. A small patch maybe 4 feet by 6 feet could grow enough green beans (bush beans) to freeze for a year. It's extremely rewarding and satisfying. If you have never been a gardener at all, I highly recommend such a beginning project. It's stupendous--really. Your spring is just coming on now isn't it.
The only thing the Bear would grow in his backyard would be shiraz vines but he'd never find enough virgins in the Blue Mountains to stomp the grapes into wine :P
Kurt, my partner does the gardening I just provide the brawn where it's needed. And she's developing quite a nice little plot. I have no doubt you're right about how much one can grow on a small amount of land.
My problem is that I think a major economic depression is looming and that millions here will be starving. In a suburb where many of your neighbours will be starving, I expect they'll help themselves, nocturnally, to whatever edible stuff you have in your garden. Hence my urge to get well away from populated areas and head for the boonies.
Alas, she won't go, so that's that. Best we can do is hope I'm wrong.
JahTeh, I haven't had a drop in about two weeks. And anyway, buxom wenches are just as good for stomping grapes and a lot more fun afterwards...
In my experience, running away to the boonies doesn't really work. It's simply a delusion which serves to make each day bearable for me. Selfish? Maybe. But it's got less environmental impact than most of the other selfish things that people do.
hey man. my word. i couldn't agree with you more. where does the laziness come from? and why do we hesitate so much to spend money on helping people or ourselves in the long run and throw billions of energy and time perfecting ways of killing people??? and so many people still don't know or even worse - don't care enough to do anything about it. why are people so f-ing slow?
Kurt, you're right, running away to the boonies is not the ideal answer. However, with regards to one's environmental footprint, I can see no way for anyone to live a "one footprint" lifestyle whilst being a busy little metro-aspirational, upwardly mobile, success-seeker, consuming his pointy little head off...
Nora, I'm not sure it's just laziness. I think it's hypnosis. Most people are hypnotized by their culture. It's our culture which needs to change. The hypnotics will then change also. I've tried telling hypnotised people that they're hypnotised. It just doesn't work. They just look at you pityingly and resume their hypnotic behaviour with renewed gusto.
that's a good analogy. d'u think it mean that we're all under some form or other of cultural hypnosis? and if it does then how does one have the right to accuse another of being in hypnosis?
Nora, yes, we probably all become victims of our cultural conditioning to some degree. Some of us have broken out of that conditioning only to fall into an abyss of meaninglessness. I don't know which is worse. Do I have the right to say to someone they are in a state of cultural hypnosis? I think I do. Is it an accusation? I don't think so.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
==========
<<<<< Home
==========