It is only a matter of time.
Perhaps not in your lifetime, but all logic and reason point to our eventual poisoning of the planet so much so that our numbers will decrease dramatically. Whether it's terrible climate change or a disruption in the balance of oxygen in the atmosphere, we are continually adding to the risk of major disruption.
The hourglass has been turned over, we just don't know how long the hour is.
How much mercury do you have to ingest before it's toxic? Well, that's a bit different for every creature, but at an eventual level, it kills all living things. So it is with the Earth. We have been pumping gases and chemicals into the atmosphere continuously and in increasing quantities since the beginning of the industrial revolution. I am the grown up when I say, "Hey, don't you think we ought to stop shitting in our own bed? I mean, eventually we won't be able to sleep there, right?"
To those who balk at the specter of climate change, and to those who pooh pooh the dangers of slashing the Amazon rainforests and decimating sea life, and especially to those who insist that the world continue burning fossil fuels until the very last drop is extracted from the earth, I say
PULL YOUR HEAD OUT!
So true. But it's tough in the doing - getting people to stop driving everywhere is one thing - but how to control the developing world? How do we get city planners to design cities that aren't reliant on the automobile? It's hard to make the connections between what we do and what disasters we are causing.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds familliar. Where have I seen this before?
ReplyDelete-EM-EM-EM-EM-EM-EM-EM-EM-EM-EM-EM-EM
Nope! Can't remember.
Bye
Can I work from home? Then I don't have to drive to work.
ReplyDelete(I had no idea you were such a tree-hugger. Go you!)
... and put it back in!
ReplyDelete... and pull your head out!
... and put it back in!
... and pull your head out!
... and put it back in!
What the hell - the world is coming to an end.
There is going to be millions of death before peoples wake up. And then the survivor won't care much they will want more power. Me, myself and I world we live it will never change.
ReplyDeleteI read in the paper this morning that they figure N. Americans won't change their energy consumption habits until gas is $1.60/liter (sorry, don't know gallons).
ReplyDeleteAnd despite Canada's criticism of the US for not signing onto Kyoto, we've managed to dramatically increase our production of greenhouse gases.
ReplyDeleteAnd dickey: Ahahahaha!
I was just getting down on talking to someone about this topic the other day. The person I was talking to was trying to convince me that the Clear Skies Initiative (Orwellian Speak) was going to be so good for the environment and that we are just coming out of a long Ice Age.
ReplyDeleteEw.
And the almighty wheels of the machine just keep on turning.......it is saddening and maddening, and often seemingly futile. When I see how few people are even taking the small steps in their own homes by recycling, reusing, or reducing it makes me wonder how bad things really have to be before people will POP their heads out!! Good one dickey! Peace-Devo
ReplyDeleteI want to see that new Al Gore documentary.
ReplyDeleteI am terrified about the havok we are wreaking on this planet. I do what I can with recycling and limiting consumption and waste, but each year the weather gets more unstable. How long before we all live inside domed cities hiding from the wasteland of a planet that we created?
ReplyDeleteHave you read the latest Vanity Fair? It's tragic and scary what we are doing to our Earth.
ReplyDeleteYes, CL, the sky is falling.
ReplyDeleteI hope we all make it the next 30 or 40 years. It's going to be a rough ride. After that, maybe it'll mellow out. I hope.
I tried to write this post the other day, and I just couldn't do it. kudos to you.
Here is an old clip on the CBC website where a deceased journalist I am particularly fond of made an award winning documentary of mercury pollution in 1970. Oh, he was my Dad.
ReplyDeleteWe always seem to use the collective "we" or "people" when we talk about what should be done. But what is AHK, me personally, doing about this except worrying, ranting, etc. I drive a high mileage car but could probably ride my bike most places I go. Inconvenient.
ReplyDeleteI go back and forth between wanting to rally the troops for one last effort (but also feel that this is probably hopeless) or else "party like it's 1999"
it sounds dopey but as much as i wanted al gore's win to count (ahem), perhaps he "lost" (wink wink) in order to save the planet.
ReplyDeletei hope he succeeds.
One of my personal failings is that I don’t pay enough attention to my own environmentally disastrous practices. It’s good to be challenged on it.
ReplyDeleteI read something about how the average American's ecological footprint is something like 22 acres per person (8.9 hectares).
ReplyDeleteIf everyone maintained themselves as middle class Americans, we would need 4.2 earths to maintain our present population of about 6 billion persons.
Supposedly by 2040, we will top 9 billion, assuming Peak Oil (specifically, the lack of oil to power our industrial society) doesn't reduce us all to a subsistence lifestyle of hunting & gathering and maybe a little agriculture before then.
@ Jason: That would be about $6.399 per US gallon at the pumps for us (by then, Canadian and US dollars should be at parity).
Or perhaps Red China will finally pull the plug on our economy by cashing out all thier dollars for euros or yen. :P
It's only a matter of time now before the resources deplete and through that depletion our air/soil and selves are poisoned.
ReplyDeleteBasically we're slowly doing ourselves in.
Me too @ mr. That Al Gore doing a PowerPoint presentation is a huge deal right now -- everyone's buzzing about it.
ReplyDeleteHere, here!
ReplyDeleteHave a good weekend!