Is it just me, or do some of you feel like this whole green movement is just a charade? It feels to me like people have taken on the cause of combating global warming as a new trend akin to beanie babies. People think that it’s cool now to be green. They go out an buy their hybrid car, make sure to recycle their plastic bottles, and post a “Green Leaf” on their Facebook page, and there you go, they saved the world and look down upon all of the other sub-humans who don’t recycle. Well guess what, you ain’t helpin’ shit either buddy.
Let’s start with your hybrid car. The problem with hybrid cars is that they still burn fossil fuel (less of it than a normal car I will admit), and they are still cars! Ten years ago GM came out with the EV1; an electric car that could get 200 miles per charge, more than 400 with a battery upgrade. So all of you out there that are patting yourselves on the back because you saved the world with your hybrid, stop, you didn’t save the world, you’re just making the death of Earth slow and lingering instead of quick. If you really cared you would take the time to do some research to find an electric car, and to pay a premium for that electric car. Look, I can even help you get started, go to these links: http://www.vectrix.com/Portal/1/Language/47/Page/1/Home_(US).aspx
http://www.eaaev.org/eaaevsforsale.html .
And here is the real rub; even if you buy a hybrid or full electric car, you are still buying a car! A car still needs roads to be driven on, factories are still needed to build hybrid and electric cars, toxic batteries need to be disposed of, and by encouraging people to continue using cars we will make no progress towards ending suburban sprawl. Quite simply put, if we are going to solve the crisis of global warming, we need to fundamentally change our culture. We need to stop being a car culture, because the developing world is trying to become like us, and if 4 or 5 billion people all decide that they want cars, even electric ones, then this whole world is paved. It is simply not possible for so many people to own cars. Just the amount of new roads that would need to be built is mind boggling, not to mention all of the suburbs that will inevitably pop up in new car cultures.
This is the big thing that people do not seem to understand about global warming yet, that we will all have to make some very real and very substantial sacrifices in order to solve this crisis. It’s not going to be enough to buy a hybrid, to remember to unplug your phone charger, and throw a plastic bottle into the recycling bin. If we really want to see change a substantial number of people will have to give up their cars, all people will have to give up bottled water (sorry you fitness water freaks, you may be helping your body, but your fucking the planet, you selfish pricks), and we will all need to push our phone companies to provide us with more energy efficient phones.
As for recycling, that has it’s problems as well. First off most communities around the country, and the world, still do not recycle, and those that do do so in a really inefficient and pointless way. Most communities that recycle do not offer mixed bin recycling, and only recycle a narrow range of items. To top it off recycling and waste companies send out separate trucks to pick up recycling, thus emitting more greenhouse gases. And the recycling process itself can be toxic. For example, recycled paper needs to be bleached to remove any ink. What is to be done with this waste? And as William McDonugh, creator of the “cradle to cradle” protocol (more about this later) said, “… recycling is often downcycling.” Often recycled products are created from superior materials. For example, a plastic bottle will not be turned into another plastic bottle, it will be downgraded into some sort of soft plastic matting for a playground, and often that matting can be recycled no further and is disposed of. We need a recycling process that does not degrade the quality of the products. This is where William McDonugh comes is. He created a technical protocol called “Cradle to Cradle.” This protocol certifies how much material in every product can be broken down organically or returned to the technical process. This is a protocol that should be taken just as seriously as the Underwriter Labs protocol (that little UL label on the back of all your appliances, that is certification that your appliance will not blow up and burn down you house). How about some federal subsidies for Mr. McDonugh? You can see what this is all about at the following link, http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/104.
Disposable products, this is a scourge that will need to end. Think of how many disposable plastic forks, cups, bottles, bags, ect. you might use in a week. All of these products are petrol products, derived from oil. Just turn down that bag when you only buy a couple of items easily carried in your hand; buy a hard plastic water bottle instead of bottled water. Most bottled water comes from the tap anyway. There is no reason for you to pay a couple of dollars for something that is freely available and clean. And how about the unthinkable, not using a napkin sometimes and using your pants instead! How many times have you used a napkin for one little piece of finger food with a bit of grease on it? No one will notice if that little bit of grease ends up on your jeans. Or you could just lick your finger, but then some germ-nazi might freak out and have to Lysol everything.
As for all of those people my age out there who are putting little environmental boy scout badges on their Facebook profiles (myself included) that’s very cute, but really quite useless. We can do a lot more. First off, we can all make it a point to find a place to live, once we stop mooching off of our parents, where we will be within walking distance of our work, important stores, and social gathering sites (bars, parks, etc.). And if we can’t find a pedestrian friendly place to live, try to find one with good public transportation. We can also instill green practices into our children (those of us who have kids at this point anyway, more of us will in the coming years, God help us all).
All of this is only a fraction of what will need to be done if we are to take this crisis seriously. I haven’t even touched on our overconsumption of food, the use of chemical fertilizers, clear cutting forests, strip mining, and the myriad other ways in which we are killing the planet. All of this is not impossible, and it can accelerate progress, not stifle it as some would have you believe. It will be hard, and it will take commitment and sacrifice, but we in the United States needs to lead the way. We are the global hegemon, we are obligated to set the example. Unfortunately this is where the worry sets it, will we set the example? Looking at the 2008 election I have no hope in any of the Republican candidates, and even the energy policies put forth by the front-runners in the Democratic field are fair at best, but probably don’t go far enough. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to invest in clean coal technologies! (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/energy/, http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/energy/). Even if you could sequester all of the gases emitted from the burning of coal you still have to do something with those gases; and besides the gases you still have the fact that you need to continue mining coal! The mining of coal is one of the most environmentally ruinous things that humans do; if anything we need to work towards ending the use of all fossil fuels, not doing things that will prolong their use. I will admit that Obama and Clinton’s proposed energy policies are ambitious compared to what is conventionally offered by politicians, but they pale in comparison to what Denis Kucinich would do (http://www.dennis4president.com/home/). But unfortunately he has no chance, which is a shame since he typically is said to have done the best by the audience after most Democratic debates.
We need to urge the ‘08 presidential candidates to propose very radical and ambitious policies towards combating global waring and environmental ruin. People always ask me why I just complain and don’t offer any solutions. Well I don’t have any solutions, but here are a few suggestions. How about requiring that ALL automobiles (cars, SUV’s, trucks, anything with an internal combustion engine) get an average of 55 miles per gallon by 2015, and 100 by 2025. This can be done. Right now the standard for average fuel economy of a passenger car is at 27 miles per gallon, the same place it has been since 1985. And that standard, 27 miles per gallon, was a doubling of average fuel economy standards from ten years prior. My 1990 Honda civic, which is obviously not a hybrid, can get 45 miles per gallon if I drive it well. Why aren’t there non-hybrids out there NOW that can get over 80 miles per gallon? My nearly 20 year old car gets almost 50! And how about giving tax breaks or subsidies to people who buy hybrids, bigger ones for people who buy full electric cars, and even larger ones for people who find ways to give up using their cars, and the biggest ones to people who can eliminate car use altogether. Here’s a crazy idea, cut our military budget. We would still be spending more than Russia (ranked #2 in the world in terms of military spending) by almost 100 billion dollars per year if we were to cut our military budget in half. Imagine what a few hundred billion a year spent on alternative energy research and investment would do to our economy! It would be like the post-WWII economy on steroids!
In short, this is a really big crisis, we need to work really hard to change things or we die. People are aware of it now, but people were also aware of the plight in Tibet 15 years ago.
