I’ve updated my linkyland sidebar. So many links now. But they are all the goodstuff, yahuh.
Prep for the Rumpus proceeds apace. There will be smoke, and possibly mirrors, but not at the same time. And the dancing, yes yes.
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From The Onion:
I’m Doing My Inconsequential Part For The Environment
As human beings continue to wreak havoc on the ecosystem, with seemingly no awareness of the long-term effects of our shortsighted actions, we seriously jeopardize the fragile balance of life on this big blue marble we call Spaceship Earth. Now is the time to take steps toward creating a cleaner environment, however insignificant and useless those steps may be… Together, we can make an unbelievably negligible difference.
Discuss.
5 thoughts on “The Onion Challenges Us”
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Well… here’s an example of why I think this is slightly misguided. It’s a nice local example of what happens when a bunch of people do something small: http://www.electricitycommission.govt.nz/pdfs/opdev/elec-efficiency/Mainpower-data-anal.pdf. This was also in a rural area, so effects would probably be bigger in an urban area.
On the other hand, trying to do anything environmental on an individual level for example, not owning a car, is massively discouraging when the entire Western world seems hell-bent on living the way it does around you (NZ has the highest car ownership rate in the world), GHG emissions from China grow the same amount per year as total GHG emissions from Australia, and the average government could do more for resource usage by mandating materials and energy efficiency in new and existing buildings than the average citizen could do in several years of recycling plastics.
I suspect that because so many people don’t actually do anything, the few people who do actually do something appear to be pissing in the wind. But if 100,000,000 people (i.e one third of America’s population) actually did something that changed something by 0.000001 percent, together they would change something by 100 percent.
I’d also like to comment on raising awareness and social responsibility (to all get one another to do small stuff) Here’s something I wrote recently while I was feeling frustrated. I’m posting it here because it seems relevant to the issue at hand, in terms of why people feel like they’re pissing in the wind when they do the so-called small stuff:
“Quite often it seems that it doesn’t actually matter what you do, as long as you have the right personality to go with it, or you are seen to do the right thing. Even if ‘the right thing’ is actually completely counter-productive. Basically, I can not buy consumer goods, not own a car, use as many eco friendly cleaning products as I like, give money to charity, grow my own vegetables etc, but if I’m not charismatic enough, it appears to all count for sh!t all. May as well get back on that L’Oreal you deserve it just going to give myself a treat I spend my Saturdays shopping my wee heart out treadmill, because it’s not like even those who espouse an alternative either live up to it, or respect those that do.”
And on another hand, beating yourself up because you live in the Western world is not a constructive solution to any problem either.
Anyway, I could keep going, but I’m sure there’s plenty of other people willing to ‘discuss’.
best side bar EVER. i talk, of course, about how i’m referred to as hottie perm. bless you.
A selfish perspective:
We’re all going to have to deal with environmental problems sooner or later. This is as close to a global fact as you can get. The current oil crisis points the way.
Those of us who are already being somewhat environmentally conscious will have less problem adjusting than those who are not, because we will have to adapt our lifestyles less.
E.g., when nobody can use cars those of us who already do not drive will be less disadvantaged.
We will also be able to say “Quit your moaning, you had your chance to try and change things” to those who are currently f**king things up for everyone.
And maybe — just maybe — environmental damage will become a capital crime, and all of us greenies can toast each other’s health while the rest of you take a one-way ticket to Hell courtesy of the hangman’s rope. Nice knowing y’all.
Consider the problem raised in the Onion piece as one of marketing:
Communicating reasons to engage in small local action is harder than communicating reasons why it isn’t worth the effort.
Does this mean the attitude encapsulated in the Onion piece will always predominate?
It seems simply a matter of perspective and framing.
“The problem” already exists, and is portrayed as enormous, but there is no perception that it was caused over a large period of time as the cumulative result of many small actions of many people.
Thus there is no perception that a “solution” could be the result of the cumulative small actions of many people over time, since those actions seem negligible confronted with “the problem”.