buy, buy, buy

does anyone honestly believe that global warming will be stopped? we've been told by scientists that at this point we cannot halt it, no matter what we do and still no-one can reach any sort of consensus on cutting emissions or somehow reversing the damage done.

the only economy in the world that can and would come close to doing anything is europe. they've just come up with a proposal to cut emissions by 20% by 2020. europe is the largest economy in the world but we are talking about only 1 economy here and a 20% reduction in 13 years. so far, the u.s.'s action to help cut global warming has been to move daylight savings time and there's been no word from china, india or russia.

the u.s. has stated that it would be too costly to cut emissions. i wonder how expensive it will be to build levees around entire cities and even states when the sea level rises. and who will be doing the construction? haliburton? multiply that figure by 10. maybe that's part of the plan. cheney would really be doing well then. hooray for cheney!

all native, earth based cultures based will be destroyed sending hundreds of millions, if not billions to already overcrowded cities in countries with no way to pay for the infrastructure to take care of these people. these people, as are all rural newcomers to cities will start their new urban existence squarely on the bottom of the totem pole due to the wonders of capitalism, with little or no hope of elevating their position, with the great american depression being a good example of that.

it would be smart for poor economies or economies that are putting money and effort into reducing emissions to put tariffs and/or sanctions on goods coming from polluting countries based on the polluter's contribution to global warming and potential damage to their respective ecologies. if europe or another economy drastically cut emissions, they could put billions of dollars or tariffs on american or chinese goods to cover the costs of coping with global warming.

countries could also sue economies like the united states to get this money as well. i can see this really happening in the not too distant future. these tactics could possibly put enough of a financial burden on polluting economies that maybe they would want to do something, but i doubt it.

ultimately, i believe that consumer capitalism is the heart of the problem. an educated environmentalist knows that environmentalism and unbridled capitalism cannot coexist. environmentalism relies heavily on government regulation and corporations rely on zero regulation. if the u.s. was to stop spewing out all the crap that it does and "save" our planet it's economy would be ruined. many major corporations would simply cease to exist. regulation goes against everything that the united states stands for - "freedom", the "freedom to do what i want." - roughly translated: "the freedom for individuals to make as much money as possible without any sense of collective responsibility." i read in an article on california's possible phasing out of incandescent light-bulbs of a woman who complained about the law being some kind of "big brother" attempt to take over our lives. while this person's attitude is rather overt and extreme, there is ingrained in the american psyche this attitude somewhere in the majority of the country's mindset. it's funny though how it takes the issue of light-bulbs for this lady to speak of big brother taking over her life, but that's another story.

there is a desperate attempt by some guilt riddled capitalists to make environmentalism something that people can buy. do they seriously think this will work? the three r's of environmentalism are reduce, reuse, and recycle. capitalism is based on the 3 b's, buy, buy, buy. "consume" is the keyword of consumerism.

we are heading more and more into the reality of everything in our lives being disposable. we own nothing. every little thing that enters our lives, from cars to cellphones to doritos is disposable. with this reality in mind, the earth is just another disposable item. i believe that folks believe that mars is our future. they think "we be living on mars some day." i've got news for you - we will never be living on mars. the only people who would ever live there are bush and cheney. not people like you and me. and besides, living in a bubble on another planet that hasn't any life and whose temperature dips down to almost -200 degrees at night isn't my idea of living. also, the atmosphere of mars is essentially what we are turning our atmosphere into. do you really think this will be better?

link | rss | share | posted: 2007-03-08 07:25:18