I have been obsessing about global warming for years, mostly in my mind, and mostly by telling myself to take my mind off it, because I truly cannot do anything about it. But it is disconcerting to read Time's cover:
"BE WORRIED. BE VERY WORRIED. Climate change isn't some vague future problem--it's already damaging the planet at an alarming pace. Here's how it affects you, your kids and their kids as well."
When will people (legislators) get it in their thick heads that their lack of action is killing the Earth, a gift from God, filled with unique, amazing-looking, awe-inspiring, mechanically-perfect wildlife that has gone about their jolly old way until we cause them to suffer and die. How can people not just take one look at just one frog or butterfly and not be enchanted enough to do something.
Maybe I am just clinging to the world as I know it, maybe we as a human race need to progress into a world that doesn't give a care about freakin animals, and huge natural disasters that kill millions, and even less land to live on, and disturbing environments that haven't changed in 1000 years. People going around with their blinders on, doing what we need to do to get what we want. We are stupid enough for it.
So sometimes I just scream, Freaking global warming, and terrorists, and freaking nuclear weapons, gonna freaking kill us all, why don't people care about PEOPLE? Do people realize that it's not just ice caps and penguins and rain forests, we are talking about PEOPLE, our children, who will die, having breathed pollution, never having truly seen nature as we have, having to survive natural disasters, never seeing a white Christmas, never knowing the sky to be blue.
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Two years ago I got into an argumentative discussion with someone I sat next to at work. I said gas should be more highly taxed in the US so people will stop wasting it, we can rely less on other countries for oil, global warming will be less severe, and the taxes can be put to environmental uses. He, a huge, white, shaved-head, deep-voiced Floridian thought I was being absurd, because it would cost too much for him to drive up to visit his mom, and overall travel would be too expensive, etc. OMG, idiot, why can't people in this country see travel as a privilege and not a right? Why can't they see everything we have, every one of our freedoms, as a privilege?
2 comments:
I STILL have that email where you related to me that incident with your co-worker.
Here's Bill Maher's take on it: http://media.putfile.com/Bill-Maher-Earth-to-America
Personally I feel that the reason is pretty simple (albeit sad). Newsflash: people generally JUST DON'T THINK THAT OFTEN ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD. I'll fully admit I'm one of this category. If you just asked me to reel off the problems that I feel that are most pressing to the world right now, I would probably mention AIDS, population explosion, poverty, cancer, terrorism, third-world deficit and child abuse all BEFORE I mention greenhouse gases. If that sounds bad, I’m sorry. It could well be just me who's selfish, and many ppl (like you) are actually more caring about the environment than I am, and I represent a minority. (Ha I think you should watch the movie Before Sunset where the main actress has a huge strop when Ethan Hawke starts suggesting he doesn’t think that much about the environment.)
BUT, either way, I think it's a good sign to feel angry in the first place. To me anger is really underrated in these times because so few of us realise it’s the thing that most often propels ppl to try fix the world. That I may “prioritize” other things to get mad about over you or someone else’s concerns is another matter. No one has the “supremo” ranking. I only don’t get people who feel NEUTRAL about stuff, people who hold no opinions. You have to be either really dense or completely passionless to have NO opinion about any of the unlimited amount of crap that’s going on in the world. That I can’t stand.
V.Li:
Once again, I'm gonna be my agreeable self: I agree with you.
I just think environmental stuff is connected to a lot of other more pressing problems, like how ppl think there's probably a whole bunch of cancer cures in the destroyed rain forests, and the whole oil issue being such a determining factor in world relations, and general pollution ruining people's overall health...
Sometimes I try not to think about the environment because of what you said, like other things are more important. For example, if I had a choice to make a charity donation to a poverty org or an enviro org, I'd probably choose poverty. So even someone who DOES care finds it hard to care enough.
But I think it's obvious that individuals should do what we can do, like drive better cars and recycle, and legislators should do what they can do, which is a lot. A really good argument for doing things for the environment is that it usually saves a lot of money too, so ppl, it's not that hard.
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