Environment..green or no green

Schools kids all over Europe and United States are drilled in their heads about being a good environmentalist, the merits of recycling, the evils of plastic and the need to protect everything green.  Many nations have stringent laws around this. The debate about how humans have irrevocably shaped the future of the planet rages on. 

One thing is clear: our output has reshaped the fragile climate, and the nature will respond back in its own way, it always comes back a full circle. The temperatures of the planet is going up, whether the bleeded conservatists want to believe it or not. It is causing certain life to end and other to begin. Less than 1% of all water in the planet is usable and billions need it every day, it is only getting sparser. Then why is there such a debate and the resistance to do something about it?

Well, we only care about us.

China argues, inspite of it now being the largest energy consumer, that US "polluted" its way to prosperity and wants everyone else to stop doing so, from a different economic perch. A similar view is shared by all developing nations.  US lawmakers themselves think onerous taxes are only going to make this recovery stunted and so no restrictions should be put of any sort, and would use anything to debunk scientific research to the contrary. We as citizens only want to do the part that is convenient. In other words, we may want to throw a bottle of plastic away, but in a developing world you may not be able to find a trash bin of recyclables, or trash bin, period. So what do we do? We throw it on the wayside just like anybody else. And there in lies the rub. We only do what we can, not what we should. And so do nations, industries and communities.

Take the oil spill from the Gulf.  At one point the economic and ecological devastation will last for decades. But still we want the drilling to continue, inspite of the risks. Hunger trumps environment.

At this stage, all can do is watch events unfold and shake our heads. We hope it doesn't effect us in anyway, our livelihoods and the like. In fifty years, earth would a far more difficult place to live in - there is no debate on that. Technological advances may help, but the golden years of "balance" is just about ending, and period of "excesses" about to begin. Till then, we hope our air conditioning continues to work in the heat, and our refrigerators keep the beverges cold, irrespective of how much freon is bad for the "environment".  After all, we come first.

The Oil Spill

So we had an uncontrolled spill for about 80 days, before BP figured out one way things did work vs. many ways that didn't (including shoving golf balls and asking public to come up with ideas). It was sad to see a company with billions in their disposal to not have the intellectual capital to come up with innovative solutions to plug the leak. But that is the state of all capitalistic endeavors, who really cares about people: they only care about themselves, much like we care about only us. Lets be truthful here. Its me, my family, my community, my ethinicity, my neighborhood and then my country. Its very simple.

We have a Governer (Jindal is thy name), who is smart enough to know whatever he is doing is scientifically useless, but politically priceless. He is doing "something" vs. portraying the government is doing "nothing". He sees this as the golden opportunity to ressurrect himself from the disaster of a speech from a few years ago. He simply cares about himself.

We have a Government, which at one point got concessions from BP, but only the other hand did not show any visible committment to solving the problem, even as the oil gushed out of control. It was they did not have ideas either. We have a president (BHO) who thinks he can talk his way out of a problem, unfortunately wrong. Governance is not speech making. That is why governers make good Presidents and senators do not. It is just a fact. In this case, as much as Government wants this problem to go away in a critical election year, where they want to focus on other legislative priorities and show that they are fighting for the common man - the common man is feeling the contrary. The mood is sour and getting worse, no one wants to invest in anything, and wants someone else to do that first - whether it be lending, small business hiring, purchasing a house, purchasing a car, as the definition of discretionary spending has expanded and no one wants to do anything that falls into that category. So, in the end the Govt. does care about its seats and preserving it, but is having a tough time doing it.

This brings me to the final point: the nation has an abundance of natural gas (and yes, its own excavation has risks, as detailed in a funny movie, Gasland) that can last for centuries, and the vehicles that run on them are cleaner and quieter than current gasoline driven cars, but the lobbies just wont allow it. They care about themselves, and they have something most don't - a lot of money. And so it goes. The spill may be over, the true work begins, and its longer term impact will last for decades. The marine and other acquatic life never could form a union, and we don't really care about them, unless of course it poisons our own food.

In the end, we only care about us.