Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Newsvine
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiWe're a Nation of Lemmings
Listening to the endless stream of cars passing my house every day, and knowing, from watching them from my mailbox, that they are almost all carrying just one person, either commuting to work or running some kind of errand, I know we are headed for disaster.
Two days ago, there was a report by Agence France Presse about the ongoing destruction of the world's remaining wetlands (60 percent have already been destroyed by man over the past century), and how they contain within them an amount of stored carbon equal to all the carbon currently in the atmosphere. Global warming and property development are drying out those remaining wetlands, causing the release of that carbon, which will more than negate even the most radical efforts at reducing carbon emissions from power plants, factories and automobiles.
There are also credible, well-researched reports that even a few more degrees of temperature rise in the arctic regions of Siberia and northern North America will melt the permafrost and release as much 400 gigatons of methane gas trapped in frozen clathrates for millennia -- the release of which would cause global temperatures to soar to levels not seen in 250 million years (methane is 20 times as potent a global warming gas as CO2). Vast regions of Siberia are already bubbling with releasing methane as the permafrost line moves north.
Now I grant that our corporate media, ever focused laser-like on important stories like Britney Spears' return to the stage and on the latest gaffe of one or the other presidential candidate, have not been very interested in alerting the masses to these disasters now in progress that could end humanity's run on the planet (along with exterminating most of the rest of the life on the planet too). But that said, at this point everyone has surely heard enough, and witnessed enough in person of the dramatic changes taking place in the earth's climate, to know that something scary is going on.
And yet, people are not just going about their business as usual -- they are actually, for the most part, complaining not about the lack of highly energy-efficient transportation, the lack of alternative and less energy-wasting public transit, and the lack of government funding for a crash program into researching carbon-free energy solutions, but rather about the high price for carbon fuels. People are clamoring for solutions to make gasoline cheaper!
Years ago, back in the 1970s during an Arab-led oil embargo, when gas prices soared, there were mass campaigns to organize car pools. No such campaigns are being organized today, and if any are they don't get any media attention. Instead we read that geologists are saying that massive quantities of untapped oil reserves exist in the far north.
Now the last thing we should be wanting to do is take that nicely sequestered carbon out of the ground and burn it into CO2! But that's what many Americans want done. Screw the climate! We want our cheap gas!
There are so many things we could be doing right now to reduce carbon emissions -- as individuals and as a nation. Turning off air-conditioners would be one. Why should entire houses be cooled by central air? Cool one room and use it for the hottest part of the day if need be. Live downstairs during the hottest months and close off the upstairs when it gets too hot. Ditto in the winter. There's no need to occupy and heat an entire house when it gets really cold. Most Americans' homes are way too large anyhow, but if you need that much room, use it when it doesn't require all that extra energy to heat and cool. (When I lived in Cambridge, England as a kid, we used to sleep in unheated bedrooms under cozy comforters, and then in the morning, I'd go down and light a fire in the living room where we'd be during the day. It would be cold as hell until the fire started, but not for long.) Share rides. Plan errands so that many things get taken care of on one outing, instead of in multiple run-outs. Use bicycles. I have yet to see, on my own bike rides in down or when driving anywhere, someone who is actually riding a bike on some errand-carrying a load in a basket or in a backpack. The only bikers I see are people dressed like Tour de France racers out for some exercise. What's the matter with using bikes for a purpose, instead of the family car?
I'm not trying to criticize, or to say I'm more ecologically virtuous. I'm looking at this as an unprecedented disaster that is dooming my kids, or their future children, to a life of strife, misery and maybe even catastrophe. If I don't take serious action -- and I don't just mean individual life changes, but political action -- to try and save their world, I am guilty of a serious crime. And so are we all.
What the hell happened to any sense of shared responsibility, not just for society, but for our own offspring?
Most decent parents are ready to sacrifice in their lifestyles in order to send their kids to college, or to help them out financially when they are starting out as young adults. But for some strange reason nobody seems ready to sacrifice at all when it comes to rescuing their collective future. This makes no sense.
And yet, this is what our mass culture has done to us. As a nation, as a people, we cannot think beyond our own noses. We cannot even think about the need to act in our own and our children's interest.
Seventeen years ago, I had occasion while living in Shanghai, China, to visit a rural area in Anhui Province that the year before had been devastated by a flood so huge that the entire region had been not just flooded, but put deep underwater. As I neared a county seat town that was my intended destination, the bus I was on passed a dike-building project. Thousands of peasants were laboring by hand, with shovels and wheelbarrows, to erect a 50-foot wall of earth to keep the river in its banks in the event of another such flood. I got off the bus and, with my travel companion, started walking towards the project. When we were spotted, thousands of those workers dropped their shovels and ran towards us. It was a terrifying moment to have so many people heading towards and surrounding us, but they were very friendly -- just curious because none of them had ever met a westerner. We began talking with them, and learned that they were all peasants who had left their fields to build this colossal new Great Wall of dirt. They brought us to the worksite and showed us how they would bring their wheelbarrows to the base of the dike, and then attach a cable, which was connected to a winch operated by those ubiquitous one-cylinder, two-stroke kerosene tractors used across rural China. The winch would whip the barrow up the steep hillside, with a peasant running up behind keeping it upright. At the last minute, the peasant would flip the barrow, dumping the dirt and releasing the hook. Then he'd be off down the hill to collect more dirt.
What struck me, besides their ingenuity, was how all these thousands of people had left their own fields to labor for the collective good that year.
I tried at the time to contemplate my fellow Americans doing the same thing, and couldn't for the life of me imagine it.
Now we're in that moment. We know the flood is coming, but no one is willing to join the brigade to take preventive action.
No. Buying a Prius is not taking action. Neither is upgrading the insulation on your house or buying carbon offsets when you fly. We need, as a nation, to commit to seriously ending our addiction to fossil fuels, to rapacious development and the concomitant destruction of forests and wetlands. We need to end our nation's imperialist policies and to instead devote the trillion dollars a year spent on war to saving the planet from ourselves.
A good start would be seeing that people "get it." That would mean communities starting to organize around improving mass transit, arranging for carpooling, and demanding climate-saving action from our political leaders.
I'm not optimistic.
Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist. His latest book is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006 and now available in paperback). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
58 Comments so far
Show AllListen to Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and all the other right-wing bloviators. They absolutely deny global warming and refer to those who do believe in it as various kinds of idiots, morons, retards, loonies, whackos, and Chicken Littles . These people have millions of admiring, fawning, believing listeners, who believe every word they say without question like it's Holy Gospel. If the human race is going to save itself from itself, it can only happen if there is absolute unity of purpose. We are nowhere near to that. Half this country can't even be bothered to vote in a Presidential election, and of those who DO vote, (allegedly)half voted twice to install the biggest, the greediest, most arrogant, money and power-hungry gang of thieves, thugs, crooks, shysters, and whores in history into the halls of power. Turning around that kind of entrenched, bone-deep stupidity would be difficult in the best of circumstances. With the likes of Limbaugh, Coulter, O'Reilly, and Hannity reinforcing it daily, it is impossible.
The human race had a great run. The good news is that we will leave a detailed record of how we blew off life in the the most beautiful place in the universe. I wonder what those who discover our relics, be they evolutionary or extra-terrestrial, will think of a race that was so smart, and in the end, so stupid.
Mr. Lindorff,
My comment could stand correction, without a doubt. Yet I know your direction. After Katrina there was damn little local "wage-paid" help, as I am certain you are aware. At one time in this country, perhaps.
As to the difference between Communism, a la Mao, and military-fascist, either will pay wages when necessary to prevent the unsettling of the peasants. The U.S. does the same thing. Although I believe we are more military-fascist than democratic republic. And, really, when it comes down to "local help" defines communism conceptually much more eloquently than poor Marx's model having been twisted by every, never mind...Lenin, Stalin, Mao. Those are the billboard models.
Other than that, my daughter is fluent, also.
Believe me, this reposte is not about one-up-manship. I am hoping I have provided more articulation for my view. I realize that there is a reaction to the word "communism,' especially when uttered by a Westerner. Intellectually inclined people assume that all Americans are ignorant, illiterate, beer-swilling "commie-haters." And probably with good reason. But do me a favor and try to jump that stereotype. Because, believe me, the world see us as Corporate Pigs, not as honorable, humanitarian people reaching out to aid the poor, the enslaved etc. ad nauseum.
But most of us make these mistakes because it doesn't promote our cause or we, simply, don't know the person and could care less.
I mean, face it. You thought I was attacking when all I did was examine. That's fine. But I won't get down on my knees metaphorically or literally. Not to you or Bush.
And I still worry about my daughter being caught up in a Chinese "cultural cleansing."
Helping my fellow Earthlings smacks of 'socialism' and therein lies the problem. These false notions injected from childhood on.
Well those selfish, stupid and nasty people sure are dominant in Cumberland, MD and the surrounding Allegany County, MD and nearby Mineral County, WV.
And practically all of them drive very large SUVs. Photos of their children appear on a regular basis in the newspaper being awarded this or that degree or business scholarship. Their kids never seem to join the military, yet these are the very people who wave the flag with fervor and bad-mouth the small handful of more enlightened folk of this area.
They're raising thousands upon thousands of dollars to build a new high school sports stadium to replace the perfectly good high school sports stadium yet if the local UU Fellowship advertises a meeting to discuss global climate change it has to be canceled due to lack of interest. the local newspaper actually runs letters to the editor (on a regular basis) written by people who claim that global heating doesn't even exist, and that the planet is actually cooling. The local Chamber of Commerce recently applauded efforts by the 1st Maryland Congressional district to block any attempts at curbing greenhouse gas emissions because of the detrimental effect it would have on two local businesses--the coal fired power plant and the paper mill.
The local Republican Congressman, Roscoe Bartlett, refuses to reveal his income taxes, apparently having to do with some questionable real estate deals. And were you to read this Cumberland Times-News carefully, you'd think that all the current problems we now face were recognized a decade ago by the Republicans who
have been working steadily over the years to fix them but have simply been prevented from doing so by the Democrats. Republicans have, for example, ALWAYS opposed fraudulent mortgage lending practices by large banks....
It's a sorry situation around here. No wonder people are writing books about Cumberland, MD. home of the 372nd MP Company of Abu Grahab infamy. This has got to be one of the most corrupt places in the U.S. They even appointed the retired CEO of a major US corporation as their mayor. Every so often yo see his photo in the paper looking like an Israeli life insurance salesman.
anbaric_lite, you are right. And the ones who won't lie down will be the ones who are happily consuming now. Because they have a sense of entitlement. You just know that the ones who have the hummers and the SUVs and the swimming pools and the enormous air-conditioned houses now are the ones who, when things start going bad, will metaphorically - and maybe literally – start shooting those they blame, screaming that they don't deserve to be treated like this and saying that their children should be protected above all others.
And you know what the sad thing is. They'll probably win. Because they're selfish. And stupid. And nasty. And all that is good and right and unselfish about the human race, all that has beauty and worth and dignity, will be lost for generations because these people will be more dominant than they have been for a long, long time.
Of course, we could avoid all that. Blowing up hummers and SUVs would be a good start. With their owners in them. Bit of grief, and some of us going to jail, now could save a lot of grief in the future.
OK, I'm up to it. I live in a manufactured home with two older dogs and a cat. Tomorrow I'll leave the air conditioning off all day and by evening we'll all be dead of heat stroke. So you won't be hearing from me again on CD or anywhere else.
"The financial and political crises in Amaerica are coming together in a perfect storm. It will not be pretty, but in crisis there is always opportunity for change. That change will come from an awakening of the masses and not from a lot of fatalistic moaning."
Agreed, Dreamjoehill.
The perfect storm is beginning to hit us, yet I find no value in hand-wringing and moaning about how doomed we are. If that is the case, then that is the case. I choose to go down fighting with a modicum of grace.
Notice that I said "go down fighting." This is the good fight. THE good fight. We are starting to see and feel the tipping point and we have a choice of pissing and moaning about it or trying, however quixotically that may be (and I'm not convinced it is), to steer us in a different direction.
This is why I find the political threads and posts so inane. They all point to changes coming from someone else. It won't. It never has and never will. It must come from us. It must come from individuals like you and me. That is the only way change has ever come. The only way. Waiting for someone else to fix our problems harkens back to the halcyon days of childhood. Well, we are children no longer. It sounds trite, but it is true: We are the ones we have been waiting for. What we do matters as much as what we don't do.
What I hope is that those who consider themselves conscious and at all enlightened will wake up to the fact that they MUST change. WE all must change. It starts with each of us as individuals. Ah, but that is the rub, isn't it? Personal change is very difficult. It requires us to honestly challenge our assumptions and beliefs and change what is false. Are we up to it, fellow "progressives"? Are you?
matti--Wow, what's wrong with working for the collective good?! Isn't that what we all should be doing?
While your premise is correct and needs repeating over and over, we must do more! First and formost we need a leader -- not a political leader as we know where they get there agendas -- but a leader from the private sector, who has credibiliy, experience, courage, power,grass-roots organization, etc.
We can join WE, AlGore's new organization and even T Boone Pickens' new organization. The latter is an oil man who is obviously scrared-to-death that something is going to happen that will affect his industry, but he has some good ideas about at least a short term solution. If enough people joined and prodded him to include electric vehicles in his NG vehicle solution, he might just do it.
These organizations are good because a lot of members make good suggestions and serious readers can make a difference. Suggestion: Everyone reading this message go to your favorite auto dealer and tell them that you will not buy another vehicle until it is an all-electric, reasonably priced vehicle. Or better yet write a letter. If a few million people did this, it might speed-up the time table for getting these to market. Thanks Dave, for the great article.
And everything exists…
Nothing exists.
Dave, and readers,
Have a look at:
AERO (Advanced Energy Research Organization)
and
The Orion Project.
Info online.
Mordechai Shiblikov July 25th, 2008 2:19 pm
"What the hell happened to any sense of shared responsibility, not just for society, but for our own offspring?"
Now there's a good question.
Dreamjoehill July 25th, 2008 2:20 pm
You seem to have some very good points to make. I certainly agree with the note on apolyptic articles lately.
Some nice commentary by many.
ladybug July 25th, 2008 3:03 pm
Perhaps our current economic problems, which are assuredly going to become worse will help us towards your goals. Help people realize that a couple does not need a 3500 sq. ft. house. Nor 3 cars. Nor a lot of the rest that is truly just junk.
I wouldn't go as far as you would, I have no intention of giving up my A/C in Texas, but we do very well without many things our neighbor's just have to have. Lets hope.
dubet,
I agree with you that "we need to learn to live with less".
I do not agree that means we must favor "less" leadership, too, in the form of McCain.
Elections MATTER, even if we've been hoodooed (Diebold) before.
THIS IS NO TIME TO GIVE UP.
The troops should come home whether there's water on the ground or not.
A sure sign that were doomed: I was a Lowe's waiting in line and next to me I was a whole pallet of mosquito killers for the yard. Reading the box I was stunned to see that these diabolical devices attracted the pests by simulating the human breath!....That's right....they spew out CO2 !!!! It works on a propane tank and one machine is supposed to cover an acre! The irony of it is too much...And how in the world can something like this be approved for sale in this day and age? Oh, that's right....THE FREE MARKET !!!!! Goodbye Humans..........
Big business found out that entertainment makes more money selling to the lowest common denominator and kids with disposable income.
Check box office records. Films like Scary Movie, bring in far more money than more intelligent critically acclaimed films.
When even avenues like NPR have gone to the wayside, try and figure a way around this and we take a big step forward.
When I was a teen, it was embarrassing amongst many I knew to be a conformist and not an individual.
In a free society, i see no easy answer at this time.
ezeflyer July 25th, 2008 3:08 pm
"Why don't We the People become the lawmakers?"
1. you'd need the current government to enact this. Good luck...
2. you'd a revolution. Hate to say it but i'm guessing the right wingers and kooks have more guns there.
I'd take the step of moving to a more representational multi-party system first. I agree with the greens, just not in the next 3 months.
Two comments. First in answer to the first comment on this string, capitalism comes in various forms. American capitalism has no redeeming features and seeks to kill off any collectivist thinking, but if you look at Europe, which is purely capitalist, you will see near universal support for collectivist thinking--excellent mass transit in and around cities, support for quality day-care, national health plans, etc.
As for my china example, I lived in China and Hong Kong for six years and speak the language fluently. My colleague on my trip to Anhui in '92 was a fellow journalist, also fluent in China. We are not Maoists, and there were no "hidden guns" forcing peasants to join in building that dike. They did it because they were given wages to work by the local government, and because they all knew if they didn't build the dike, their lands and homes would be washed away again in a few years.
I am well aware China has problems, but Communism isn't one of them. If anything, China has become a military-fascist state. Communism is dead. But when it comes to something like that flood, or the recent earthquake, the central government is not the main force taking action. It is local people.
Dave Lindorff
www.thiscantbehappening.net
Where is Kem Patrick? This is the time for his entry. Ta-da!
Let's go Kem!
We each make up our own little (and major) lies behind which to hide from the truth/our responsibilities. Taking an honest look and being a real adult requires too much effort and integrity. Let's keep those eyes closed as we turn the planet into a toilet for our children and their children to vomit over. We won't be there, so we can just look out for good ol' number one! Hooray for me - aren't I special (and comfortable)!
Ordinarily, I find Lindorff's articles to be rather agreeable, much as this one. I need to indicate a disagreement about Chinese "peasants," laboring for a common cause with an allusion, by the writer, of an altruistic humanity. Lindorff overlooks the weight of loaded weapons he cannot see.
No I am not a rabid, paranoid Communist Chinese hater. My oldest daughter has been living there for almost ten years. I do know however that the cycling of cultural cleansing is a very real, and deadly, event. I also know that this 6000 year old culture is opaque in it's sophistication compared to the "enlightened" western European cultures and the Americans. That's pretty old wisdom compared to our infantile concept of transparency in government. That in itself speaks to distrust. I am sure the Chinese people are well versed in that concept, or posturing if you will allow me that human frailty.
Please do not misconstrue these boiled down statements to place any of these concepts as being relevant to the Bush administration's policies. Obviously, the Chinese culture has a deeply rooted concept of "peasant" citizenry and highly evolved structural honor icon that was shaped and encoded through those six thousand years of warring feudal tribes. And that is one of the strongest reasons for the indecipherable Asian "face."
So...Thanks David Lindorff for another provocative article.
Here's to Hope and our better sense of humanity.
matti,
So, pulling together to build a levee to save your community from flooding is evil communism, right?
All of you distressed people need to see "Wall-E!" It will give you hope that there are some of us out here who know what the stakes are and are willing to make the hard choices!!!
I think teamplayermania is a big part of this lemming like behavior.
Cooperation is essential. Corporate teamplayermania, however, is a corruption of that. It has to do with following the cues of the "successful" people. What that usually means is leading a highly consumerist lifestyle: Soccer Moms, golf, Blackberries, naming kids Madison or Grace, SUVs, vacationing in Cabo, etc.
The Kinks sang about this sort of person. You know the song, "Well Respected Man"?
yummmmm, just keep givin those masses their prozac...and they won't give a damn about anything.....Thank you pharma for making these "end times" go down easy
Doom n Gloom 4:58,
Maybe "soilent-green" isn't people, but greenback dollars.
I agree with those posters who speak of the role models NOT showing the way. Many of us who post here do ride bicycles, recycle, eat little to no meat, buy from consignment shops, etc. The problem is the entire population NOT getting this message. Even if a few celebs showed "that it's cool to shop at thrift shops" it might catch on. But as RICH M noted, due to who controls media and what their motives are, the necessary examples for more ecologically sane practices will almost never be shown or offered. This slows down the massive wake-up process substantially. Al Gore has done his part, and awakened souls are making lifestyle changes; but in terms of reaching the masses, TV/movies are the "drug" that could inject the "therapeutic serum" far more quickly than the trickle down effect of one good role model in a community of thousands of consumer-driven clones.
Reagan started this downward spiral and the past 27 years have led us to this mess. We were encouraged to consume and never sacrifice. When the towers came down we were told to shop. The generation of greed, fear and self-entitlement has left the nation and environment on the verge of collapse. What a legacy from the me generation.
But is a "discussion website" requiring electricity (some of it from burning "fossil fuels") to power the servers (encased in plastic with chips mounted on plastic) information cables (wrapped in plastic, installed by gasoline-burning machines, themselves with many plastic components) and home computers (also full of plastic) part of the Solution, or part of the Problem?
Seems to be a bit of a blind spot there.
Also anyone else old enough to be slightly "weirded out" by an article that first praises the "Chinese Peasants" for their willingness to work for the "collective good" and then calls for the "end of our nation's Imperialist policies"?
Is this "MaoistDreams" now?
Does Dave Lindorff have a "Little Red Book" in his back pocket?
Is criticizing this article "Counter-Revolutionary"?
I'm kinda joking around here, but it does seem an odd resonace to the other "blind spot".
Who exactly was Mr. Lindorff's "travelling companion" when he met these "peasants" none of whom had "ever met a Westerner"?
Were they connected in any way to the Communist Party of China?
I know this article is not about "politics" per se, but I just find it very odd when people discuss being in the "People's Republic" as if it is "just another place" not a tightly controlled authoritarian society.
-matti.
But is a "discussion website" requiring electricity (some of it from burning "fossil fuels") to power the servers (encased in plastic with chips mounted on plastic) information cables (wrapped in plastic, installed by gasoline-burning machines, themselves with many plastic components) and home computers (also full of plastic) part of the Solution, or part of the Problem?
Seems to be a bit of a blind spot there.
Also anyone else old enough to be slightly "weirded out" by an article that first praises the "Chinese Peasants" for their willingness to work for the "collective good" and then calls for the "end of our nation's Imperialist policies"?
Is this "MaoistDreams" now?
Does Dave Lindorff have a "Little Red Book" in his back pocket?
Is criticizing this article "Counter-Revolutionary"?
I'm kinda joking around here, but it does seem an odd resonace to the other "blind spot".
Who exactly was Mr. Lindorff's "travelling companion" when he met these "peasants" none of whom had "ever met a Westerner"?
Were they connected in any way to the Communist Party of China?
I know this article is not about "politics" per se, but I just find it very odd when people discuss being in the "People's Republic" as if it is "just another place" not a tightly controlled authoritarian society.
-matti.
Thank you, Dave, for your righteous indignation that comes out so loud & clear in this piece. YES, I DO mean that sincerely: I appreciate your anger and frustration and willinglness to let some emotion show in your writing instead of making it all academic and polite and tidy. Get fired up, people, or get burned up.
Good thing zero point energy is getting ready to arrive. See the work of Steve M Greer.
I can't wait until Kem Patrick shows up, this should make his week.
Oh man, Paul Ehrlich is my hero! I haven't read "The Dominant Animal," but it's on my short list now. There's another great book that I read and reread: Ronald Wright's "A Short History of Progress." Given our history (and prehistory), Wright doesn't hold out much hope for the future of our species, but it's a riveting read.
Paul Ehrlich yesterday on the Diane Reum Show said that we are in the middle of a crisis and he's not sure if a crisis is enough to motivate people to action today. His new book is titled The Dominant Animal. For those of you who do not remember him, he wrote The Population Bomb forty years ago.
Given the corruption in Washington I cannot foresee how the governmental system we are operating under can function given the speed of change. The Government is outmoded and dominated by tunnel vision corporatists. I guess money is power until all thats left to do is eat it. Maybe then somebody will get it.
You know the saying- In a long term, we are all dead.
So why to worry in what state we leave Earth for the future generations?
Screw others, I am the most important and you better do not ask me to limit myself for the commond good - that is the American way!
dreamjoehill,
I live in a very progressive city and everywhere I see people with a 2 year old in the stroller and a newborn in a carry-sling. WTF? Dont these people know that overpopulation plus overconsumption is the number one problem on earth today?
But nnnoooooo! - they have their ego-need to "fulfill" themselves by having children. It's insane
One of my favorite books is "Entropy" by Jeremy Rifkin. As the good looking guy at the beach always says, "ladies, please, there's only so much of me to go around".
Ever try to change the mind of someone close to you, like your own flesh and blood? Not gonna happen.
I say, science and greed got us into this mess, so let the "intelligent ones" find, and banish the greed gene, then we can all live in contentment.
What is a wealthy person to say to a child who died of hunger, if they were to meet on the other side? "Uh, been here long?" AWKWARD!
Good riddance to the lemmings?
ClassAct, do you really think the "lemmings" will just sit in their houses and apartments and die quietly and nonviolently?
dreamjoehill, it's one job of societies to assess risk and make change. You put sensational language to a basic job of governments and communities. Big problems are put in stronger terms and need stronger solutions. It's part of growing up and joining in your community, the large one and the small one.
We need to become aware of all the things to do to begin a sustainable life-style. How many realize that a heavy meat and dairy diet is one of the biggest impacts on the environment. Each pound of beef takes 5,000 gallons and 75 bushels of grain to produce. VERY inefficient. So, that, the materials used to build ones home and the amount of gasoline burned are the THREE BIG ONES. See www.earthsave.org for dietary facts. And, for nutrition data take a look at http://www.nutritiondata.com/ . Just plain science... spinach and romaine lettuce actually have more complete proteins than meat; check it out. We'll all have to begin using more energy and food from local sources and mass-transit HAS to come about. Our transportation fuel burning is just plain stupid. Hopefully we'll have new sources of energy (that surpass even wind, geothermal and biomass) before we extinct most of the planet. Its going to be close!
Good riddance to the lemmings.
Do we really need leaders? Why can't we lead ourselves direct democratically? With modern communications and information at our fingertips who needs politicians to make decisions for us?
Why don't We the People become the lawmakers? Here is how you do it:
www.nationalinitiative.us
Dreamjoehill,
I think you are right, but as long as people in this country feel offended everytime you tell them it is not their sacrosanct right to consume like pigs, change won't come.
So I think the author is not being fatalistic or elitist, he is just telling it as it is. I know truth is hurts.
It seems that the only way Americans will change their consumerists ways is when something extreme happens, otherwise, why bother thinking about the future or your fellow humans?
I so agree with what you're saying. What we're missing, however, is any leadership. Remember how Carter got us to put on sweaters? The last seven years we've been repeatedly told: don't worry about it, go shopping, spend your money, support the economy. All this while our treasury is being looted, our food is being contaminated, our water supply is being polluted by drugs and fertilizers; well, you get the picture.
We need a leader that calls us to do what's right, for the good of all of us. We need our Congress to stop for a second and say to themselves, is this good for the country? Is this good for our citizens? Our leaders have been so busy taking care of themselves, they have lost sight of the end of the world that is surely coming soon.
daniel david, i appreciate your enthusiasm, but I must say that my previous experiences with the political process, particularly the last one, in which I caucused and doorbelled and believed, that saw diebold deciding outcomes and ms. 'off the table' pelosi win the speakership, have left me beyond frustrated, and, with all due respect, I don't see things changing even if Mr. Obama becomes president...we have to learn to live with less...that is all there is to say...we will need food that grows where we live...I would suggest the destruction of existing roads, parking lots, etc. and the focused planting of regionally sustainable crops, and soon...how do we pull that off at a local politics level? Before we sever our power\money\energy\electricity infrastructure, we will need to already have growing food and drinkable water available...beyond that, much of the transition will be cultural...learning to not think of our lives as daily sacrificing of almost every hour available to school, then work, with only the odd vacation day, reserved far in advance, to actually live the way we were intended, grazing and drinking and resting and mating and exchanging molecules with our world...the biggest hurdle I see is healthcare, as that is a very difficult moral and ethical knot to untie, although our current system is far from perfect...certainly, there are alternatives to current medical practices...but, nevertheless, it must become cool to be 'natural', and uncool to be 'industrial'...unless we can make that mental and spiritual change, we will not survive ourselves...my ultimate fear is we will not be allowed to pursue this course...perhaps if we all agreed to no longer financially support this government or the vendors of numerous products...the life we've created sure is easy, but it sure is bad for the future, and I don't think Obama, or any others in the world of government, really mean to change it as it needs to be changed...
the pace of change, among societies as massive and clumsy as this one, is pitifully slow. given that the pace of oncoming global climate change will not just pass us, but "lap" us several times over, i too find it a bit discouraging - not really for myself, because i don't believe the worst will have manifest in my lifetime (i give myself 40-50 years max. so i could be wrong on this). but most definitely for my kids and theirs and all the others of the world of generations to come. i sometimes wonder if, with all our technical wizardry and inventiveness, if our invention of the nation-state hasn't been our undoing....projecting hatreds, rivalries, fueding, warring of the tribes onto an entity so out-of-control/insanely bloated and seriously unable to avoid inflicting the untimate "collateral damage" - but the rest of the world be damned, right?
My experience is that most people would rather risk the death of civilization than change their personal habits. When in the course of history have people sacrificed for the benefit of their society? When push comes to shove that is when. In most peoples minds we aren't there yet.
The End is Near! The End is Near! Perhaps we should all just dress in sackcloth and cover out faces in ashes.
Really, these type of global catstrophe articles appear on commondreams on a regular basis. The are filled with pessimism and hoplessness. They almost usually take more than a few nasty swipes at average Americans, in this article they are portryaed as stupid lazy lemmings.
There is much wrong with our culture and society, but this kind of anti-populist rhetoric accomplishes nothing but the venting of spleen. It also allows the author to feel quite intellectually superior to the unenlightened slobs.
And it is just plain stupid. We have no hope of accomplishing anything on the Left if we fall victim to this kind of elitist fatalism.
The financial and political crises in Amaerica are coming together in a perfect storm. It will not be pretty, but in crisis there is always opportunity for change. That change will come from an awakening of the masses and not from a lot of fatalistic moaning.
With an awakening will come a huge re-making of our economic system. That is what is required. Exhorting people to ride their bikes will not do it. it will require revolutionary changes in the way we do business in America. Protection of our environment must be built into the new more equitable economic and political systems.
Now, I'm not saying that an environmental catastophe is not imminent, I 'm just saying Don't Mourn, Organize.
"What the hell happened to any sense of shared responsibility, not just for society, but for our own offspring?"
It seems we always return to this same question: why do working people vote into power those who destroy their way of life and that of their children?
There's just nobody quite as good as Dave for being "not optimistic" while failing to note that the one bit of "organizing" actually underway is being done by Obama and his supporters (to win the agenda of government).
We have an author here wanting people to "get it" (he says).
That starts with the election of the most liberal of the two parties. Why can't he and half the other authors on here "get it" that you lose and you lose and you lose on these issues unless and until you get that done?
"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children."
Ancient Indian Proverb
How about we just legalize HEMP and allow it to replace oil. A renewable source of fuel will eventually force more people to cut down on excesses, unite and be more friendly to one another, and then we can talk about carpooling. After all, a renewable resource can never be taken for granted whereas non-renewable ones such as petroleum and nuclear can. WASTE NOT WANT NOT !
"The majority of people believe in incredible things which are absolutely false. The majority of people daily act in a manner prejudicial to their general well-being."
Ashley Montagu
"In individuals insanity is rare, but in groups, parties, nations and epochs it is the rule."
Friedrich Nietzsche
"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage."
John Kenneth Galbraith
"They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet or fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason."
Ernest Hemingway
"We are mad, not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what of war and the much vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?"
Lucius Annaeus Seneca - the Younger, Roman statesman, philosopher
I like the author's suggestions of what we should be doing-nixing the AC, carpooling, bundling errands, using a bike for what it's really for...
For example, if we were to bike/walk to errands/work/school, we wouldn't need expensive gym memberships/equipment. We'd need less REACTIVE health care. WE might actually meet our neighbors.
RICHM-you are correct. Mindless consumerism is not for the greater good. We can start living simply now, of our own accord, or be forced to do it abruptly in the coming years.
Dave is absolutely, positively right! BUT he's far too optimistic about the timing. I am 85 and diagnosed with four fatal diseases and I expect to die in the onrushing calamity
he describes before my two cancers, bone, and heart problems
get me.
Consumerism is antithetical to "laboring for the collective good." If attitudes that were amenable to "car pooling" or efficient mass transit were encouraged, it would negatively impact car sales. A capitalist society cannot tolerate this. Instead, it will unavoidably opt to encourage the kinds of attitudes that will maximize car sales.
Mindless consumerism is an attitude highly beneficial to maximizing sales. Independent thinking, on the other hand, is an attitude that might cut into sales. It's dangerous. It's a "threat." So, independent thinking has to go. Social awareness in general is a "threat" to consumerism. So, social awareness will also inevitably be discouraged, in favor of mindless conformism & consumerism.
If you're going to have a capitalist society, the capitalist class will determine the ruling ideas & values of that society. This class naturally perceives social justice, social solidarity, & high political consciousness of the masses as "threats" to their own interests. They will therefore see to it that these things are undermined, in favor of mindless conformism & consumerism.