I have children whom I love dearly. I want to pass along good habits and ideals to them. My thoughts have never been of a very environmental nature. There is one area that is starting to drive me absolutely insane and that is this green movement. I am all for “doing your part to help the environment” but I see this turning into a circus or a joke the more it gathers momentum. Let me give you an example. Where I work the people I do support for print a great deal of reports. These reports range from standard financial statements to various sales and ordering reports. I bet I hear “this report is going to kill a tree” 15 times a day. It’s so casual. They don’t even mean what they are saying. What they are really saying is that they wish the report would print faster.
Even the media is poking fun at something that should not be a laughing matter. Flipping around on the TV every morning you hear endless mocking stories about pre teens that nag there parents to flip light switches off or take fewer hot showers. The news anchors joke and laugh like it’s all a big, fun game. Actions speak volumes no matter what a person or business is trying to accomplish. I feel we need less emphasis on the fun and games of this subject and more analytical fact based information. Honestly, I could do without this subject being in the news at all (thanks Al Gore).
Personally, I don’t recycle a damn thing. I do my best to turn off the lights and TVs when I am not using them. I try not to leave energy leeching devices hooked up to the wall. I don’t do these things because I see Laurel, Hardy, Abbot and Costello on “the View” telling me it’s the right thing to do. I do these things because IT WILL MAKE MY BILL SMALLER. I am sick of hearing whiny environmentalists telling us how the world will never be the same because of us. I am tired of listening to factoid after factoid about how we are causing the hastened destruction of this world. The most horrible ridiculous ploy I hear is that we “must protect the environment, so that we don’t leave a mess for our children”. This statement really pisses me off.
I want to say three final things. If we were the brightest, most sophisticated, intelligent, non “carbon footprint” emitting creatures ever evolved from the humble Trichoplax, the world would still be intrinsically changed by our presence. You can NEVER go back to the “way it was when man first arrived” on the evolutionary scene. Even IF everyone started doing EVERYTHING that ALL the scientists say we should do to “save” the environment, glaciers will still melt at alarming rates, landfills will still exist, greenhouse gasses will STILL build up at frightening rates, and natural resources will still dwindle at ever quickening paces.
Time is bitch, and she don’t wait around for ANYONE, not even we arrogant humans, that assume the whole world began and will end with us.
One thought on “Environmental Dissonance”
So does this mean you’re going to stop taking your lunch in the cloth green bags? 😉