Request! A Post About The Environment
Mar. 13th, 2008 05:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crankyoldmanRequested by first_seventhe because she clearly wants to get me in trouble. Sorry for the spam, I just have nothing to do atm.
So, um, alright. Just to get it out of the way, I don't believe in global warming.
BUT, before anyone starts yelling at me, this doesn't mean you should go around in a gas guzzler and litter and shit. I'll even be so bold as to say I'm probably a hell of a lot more environment conscious than a lot of the annoying yuppie hippies that I usually hear crap from (which doesn't include anyone on my f-list, mind you). I think the main problem with how we treat the environment is how we treat ourselves, that is, single-serving. Our cars, food, lives are very much me-centered. Think about it.
I only dislike global warming theory because most times, there are huge glaring scientific errors of thought that sort of make me stop listening to them. Like, for instance, that when the ice caps melt, the water level will go up. Now, I may suck at thermodynamics and chemistry, but ice has MORE volume than water, which is why when shit freezes in the cracks on streets it sucks when everything thaws, because it makes the cracks bigger. That's just one example. My biologist sister who knows a helluva lot more than I do about such things is even more vocal than I am about it being false.
I do think we are jackasses about waste, though.
I live in a dorm, which means I get to see some of the most lazy wasteful people in action. Come on, you can't walk down the frigging hall to throw a can in the specially marked can recycling bin?! Shit, I've been recycling since I was about, well, five, and we lived in THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. We didn't have curbside trash pickup, let alone recycling pickup. Sorting through our recycling so that the local recycler place wouldn't reject it was actually a chore in my household. I actually can't throw a can away without feeling... really really bad. It's been conditioned into me. Want to make a bad first impression on me? Throw a can in the trash. I nearly got up in someone's face over them doing this (and in this case THE FUCKING RECYCLE BIN WAS RIGHT NEXT TO THE DAMN TRASHCAN).
It's alright to be worried about our dependency on petroleum, but whatever you do, don't trade your car for a hybrid. Making hybrids involves a caustic process that may very well poison your drinking water. I happen to like not dying from the water, personally. Get a catalytic converter for your lawn mower instead. And if you REALLY want to end the dependency on oil, just stop buying plastic materials.
Really. Most oil is actually used to make plastics, not power cars. I'm not kidding you.
I guess what I'd really like to see is people being less... stupidly hypocritical about the environment. You know? Like when I see an environmental plate on an SUV I sort of wish bad things on them. Or people that get all uppity and shit about other people needing to change their lifestyles. You know what? People won't give a rat's ass unless you give them a cheaper alternative. Welcome to capitalism. I also really am rather annoyed by people that go back completely to nature. That's not helping! That's not progress. Sure, some things we could go back to (like maybe being able to pay attention to one thing at a time) but completely backpedaling is totally not going to do shit for what's going on. If you can take the principles from way back and make something that's new, cheap, effective? THEN you've made a difference.
Hell, I don't even think my finicky recycling and general attempts to get by on public transport and bikes and walking is doing anything more than making myself feel better.
So I guess in short, my thoughts on the environment is that we are idiots about taking care of it because we like everything personalized. But since my faith in humanity is lost when it comes to socialism, we just have to be smarter about the shit that can be thrown away and being aware of where it goes. Also, to stop drinking bottled water and get yourself a filter. REALLY.
...And I'm totally never mentioning this again.
first_seventhe because she clearly wants to get me in trouble. Sorry for the spam, I just have nothing to do atm.So, um, alright. Just to get it out of the way, I don't believe in global warming.
BUT, before anyone starts yelling at me, this doesn't mean you should go around in a gas guzzler and litter and shit. I'll even be so bold as to say I'm probably a hell of a lot more environment conscious than a lot of the annoying yuppie hippies that I usually hear crap from (which doesn't include anyone on my f-list, mind you). I think the main problem with how we treat the environment is how we treat ourselves, that is, single-serving. Our cars, food, lives are very much me-centered. Think about it.
I only dislike global warming theory because most times, there are huge glaring scientific errors of thought that sort of make me stop listening to them. Like, for instance, that when the ice caps melt, the water level will go up. Now, I may suck at thermodynamics and chemistry, but ice has MORE volume than water, which is why when shit freezes in the cracks on streets it sucks when everything thaws, because it makes the cracks bigger. That's just one example. My biologist sister who knows a helluva lot more than I do about such things is even more vocal than I am about it being false.
I do think we are jackasses about waste, though.
I live in a dorm, which means I get to see some of the most lazy wasteful people in action. Come on, you can't walk down the frigging hall to throw a can in the specially marked can recycling bin?! Shit, I've been recycling since I was about, well, five, and we lived in THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. We didn't have curbside trash pickup, let alone recycling pickup. Sorting through our recycling so that the local recycler place wouldn't reject it was actually a chore in my household. I actually can't throw a can away without feeling... really really bad. It's been conditioned into me. Want to make a bad first impression on me? Throw a can in the trash. I nearly got up in someone's face over them doing this (and in this case THE FUCKING RECYCLE BIN WAS RIGHT NEXT TO THE DAMN TRASHCAN).
It's alright to be worried about our dependency on petroleum, but whatever you do, don't trade your car for a hybrid. Making hybrids involves a caustic process that may very well poison your drinking water. I happen to like not dying from the water, personally. Get a catalytic converter for your lawn mower instead. And if you REALLY want to end the dependency on oil, just stop buying plastic materials.
Really. Most oil is actually used to make plastics, not power cars. I'm not kidding you.
I guess what I'd really like to see is people being less... stupidly hypocritical about the environment. You know? Like when I see an environmental plate on an SUV I sort of wish bad things on them. Or people that get all uppity and shit about other people needing to change their lifestyles. You know what? People won't give a rat's ass unless you give them a cheaper alternative. Welcome to capitalism. I also really am rather annoyed by people that go back completely to nature. That's not helping! That's not progress. Sure, some things we could go back to (like maybe being able to pay attention to one thing at a time) but completely backpedaling is totally not going to do shit for what's going on. If you can take the principles from way back and make something that's new, cheap, effective? THEN you've made a difference.
Hell, I don't even think my finicky recycling and general attempts to get by on public transport and bikes and walking is doing anything more than making myself feel better.
So I guess in short, my thoughts on the environment is that we are idiots about taking care of it because we like everything personalized. But since my faith in humanity is lost when it comes to socialism, we just have to be smarter about the shit that can be thrown away and being aware of where it goes. Also, to stop drinking bottled water and get yourself a filter. REALLY.
...And I'm totally never mentioning this again.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
*couldn't keep quiet*
Date: 2008-03-13 10:11 pm (UTC)I liked your point about how the solutions that people are offering aren't solutions at all because I agree with you 100%. I hate small-scale environmentalism and volunterism (aka, I voluntarily choose to buy more fuel efficient cars, etc.) because it's been pretty much universally shown not to work.
My older brother has a theory about all of this (this is what Arseneau siblings do when they get together; they talk science and politics. XD). Vincent happens to be a history major and he wrote a dissertation on emancipation history in England. He likes to compare it to the climate change problem now. In essence, during the emancipation movement, people were beginning to see slavery as a problem and they wanted to do something but, unfortunately, the entire British imperial system relied on the slave trade. They needed someone to help them redefine their system.
So, that's kind of where I see us as a society right now. We need a roadmap for change. That, unfortunately, is not something that scientists are particularly good at. Even if we say - well, we need to move towards more sustainable technologies, impose carbon taxes etc. etc. ... well, scientist might have a certain amount of respect but I don't think that we have what you could call a social capital. Scientists don't lead revolutions.
The idea of change is already building a social capital though. (The US primaries interest me for this exact reason.) And I think that a real, definitive change will happen soon - within our or our children's generation. It's just a question of stress in the system. We're going to have to adapt to this new environment eventually.
(Besides, peak oil will soon make this entire debate innevitable anyways. :p)
-T. pirate
Re: *couldn't keep quiet*
Date: 2008-03-13 10:32 pm (UTC)I just wish most people in our capitalist system realize that even more so than their vote, their dollar matters. Don't like how a company treats people? Don't buy their stuff! Don't like that they dump in rivers? Don't buy their stuff AND TELL EVERYONE.
Er, but yeah. I'm hardly an expert, I believe more than anything in personal responsibility and education.
~Cendri
Re: *couldn't keep quiet*
Date: 2008-03-13 10:50 pm (UTC)But, in recent times (past 20 years or so) our government's track record's been slowly declining. Sure, we signed Kyoto but we failed to meet it (and our current government wants to back out of it). Canadians have the second largest per-capita ecological footprint in the world and in a society as highly legislated as canadian society ... our environmental legislation is actually pretty weak. Pathetically so.
But don't ask most canadians about that. Most canadians would tell you quite happily that we take good care of our resources (and probably let some barb slip about the US - no disrespect intended from me!)
Plus, there's more oil in the Alberta tar sands than the fields of Saudi Arabia, fyi.
Truthfully, canadians have a collective myth problem. We like to think that we have a good track record environmentally (especially in comparison to the US!) but that's pretty much a lie. Our only saving grace is that we're a lot smaller that you guys - 35 million canadians is still a pretty small number. We only contribute to about 5% of the world's green house gas emissions.
Personally, I get a private chuckle whenever it comes up in conversion. My country-men don't really think things through. I could rant for a while about problems with the collective identity of most english-canadians.
(And our problematic need to define ourselves as not!american - sad, but true. Every one of our collective myths tends to be constructed as a direct contrast to the stereotypes of american society. Too bad half of them are wrong. :p)
Oh, Canada. You big hypocrite.
-T. pirate
Re: *couldn't keep quiet*
Date: 2008-03-13 11:12 pm (UTC)I generally like to extend an olive branch there.
I also would like to point out, Canada is smaller than the US. I also am mildly annoyed with the whole "at least we're not the US" attitude. Yeah, we screw up, but there's a lot of good done by Americans too. You can't really generalize like that. Really, I think the only difference is we Americans are generally louder.
But I know you're not silly about that. XD Else you would be turning your nose up to me ALL THE TIME.
~Cendri
Re: *couldn't keep quiet*
Date: 2008-03-14 01:32 am (UTC)That doesn't make it right though. And it's sort of fundamentally problematic. What's a canadian? not an american! ... so, it's an itallian? XD
Plus, I get a little miffy when canadians go on and on about social/economic/cultural problems in the US (because we get a surprising amount of american news in Canada). Hello, but it's none of our damn business! Stupid people creating false pedestals for themselves.
There's a lot of good done by americans too. Sometimes I want to shake people a little over that. I mean, it wasn't the CANADIAN GOVERNMENT that sent people to the moon. Where the hell would science and medicine be without the US? I mean, seriously people. :p
To be fair to my countrymen, I don't think that canadians think that americans are bad people. Like, they wouldn't walk up to you on the street and be like: pfft, american? You clearly eat children.
It's just that they buy into the stereotypes more than they should. Michael Moore movies do incredibly well in Canada. Why should we care if there's a problem with gun trafficking in the US? (Well, partially because most illegal firearms in Canada funnel in through Philadelphia but that's not the point! XD). I'm sure you see what I mean.
I take the view that people who are jerks happen to be jerks. I've met a lot of canadians who deserve a good kick in the teeth. As much as canadians LOVE to say - oh, we don't do that - we're CANADIAN. We're SOCIALIST. We're MULTICULTURAL -- it's not like the 49th parallel somehow divides us into a shiny utopia of moral rightness. XD
But, I have a pet theory that this is starting to change in Canada. I think that within the next 50 years there's going to be a quiet buyback of canadian identity to something that's more, well, legitimate.
(This only really applies to english canadians though. French canadians already had their cultural revolution. XD)
Oh, I do so babble on.
-T. pirate