Annnnd...just a brief commentary before I dash off to the grocery.
Please believe me when I say I am the most anti-green person you will ever meet. I'm sooo the opposite of green, I'm like....deep, dried, ox blood red. I would own 3 Hummers if I could afford them, one in each of my favorite colors.
I really don't buy it. This B.S. about saving the planet is just another clever marketing scheme from all corners of the industrialized world. If it looks like greed, and sound bites like greed, and texts like greed...it's probably an enterprising capitalist.
Now, before we replay the famous "Frankenstein" scene where all you tree huggers (and I say that with the utmost love & affection) come thundering after me complete with torches and blood hounds, just hear me out.
We cannot destroy this planet. As much as our over inflated, gas guzzlin', pelt killin' egos would like to convince us otherwise -- it simply isn't possible. Oh, let me be clear -- we can kill off our own species and every other life form that inhabits this little patch of universe with us...that's a certainty given our love of and fascination with split atoms. But I promise you -- we could nuke this very nurturing, benevolent planet of ours repeatedly for millennia...and eventually...she'd recover and be good as new.
Having said that, I completely understand why everyone is so quick to jump on the bandwagon to hang all the execs at BP in light of the recent oil spill debacle. And how throngs of people would love to see Mr. Hayward tarred (literally) and feathered (possibly), with his head on a pike (I'm betting a resounding, "YES!").
Was BP negligent? Absolutely. Did they know about the faulty equipment for months before the crisis occurred? All evidence seems to indicate as much. Should they be held accountable? Without question. And is Tony Hayward one of the most insensitive, undiplomatic, polarizing individuals on the globe? Obviously.
But, we are all culpable. The minute we sold our convenience desiring souls to the habit inducing petrol Gods...we all became BP. And every other oil conglomerate became our extended family. Anyone who uses a laptop (me at this very moment), or drives any form of automobile, or mounts a rubber tire onto their mountain bike, or covers a baby's cute little tush with a diaper (organic or disposable) is a close relative of BP. Until we take a hard, serious look at what we're willing to change and sacrifice, and until we're ready to genuinely seek out alternative forms of energy...Tony is and remains our brother.
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ReplyDeleteI hear you, Cath. And I agree with you -- there are no simple answers. And certainly the "Legal Bribing Committee" in Washington (also known as lobbyists) has a stranglehold on any resonable alternative to the issue.
ReplyDeleteMy point is just that we've grown so accustomed to a certain way of life that we are never going to walk away from. We want a beautiful, clean planet, but we're not willing to sacrifice the things in our life that we (the collective we) really don't need (i.e., Ipods, cosmetics, Louis Vuitton luggage) in order to get there.
I was at the store the other day and noticed all the "green" products lined on the shelf next to the traditional products. So now we're producing twice as many products as before, with twice as much product disposal and waste and we're paying at least 3 times as much for that product (that you can't convince me is ANY different from the traditional product other than the lovely "green labels.") So how is this helping the planet? In my opinion, it's not, it's actually making things worse. The marketing machine on Madison Avenue has tapped into our post industrial guilt and is laughing all the way to the bank. No surprise there.
That's not to say that we should just blantantly abuse the planet, either. My comment about the Hummers was somewhat facetious (but only slightly - I would own one if I could - but not three.)
Another issue is that the US and a few of the select industrialized nations are willing to hop on the "green" bandwagon because we have the wealth and influence to do so, (although it took the US almost 150 years to get here), but what about India (one of the biggest offenders in terms of world pollution), South America, Africa? Do we really believe that living a green lifestyle will ever be their fist priority when they can't even stabilize their governments and save the lives of their AIDS ridden populations? It doesn't seem likely.
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ReplyDeleteI'm glad you have a place to vent and I agree with you. I think you said it perfectly...you can't save the planet, but you can set an example and contribute in other ways. I think the only area where we don't intersect is that I don't believe the planet needs saving (the human species, yes -- and this may be more semantics than anything). I'm glad your contributions make you feel better...they make me feel better too. I love you for wanting to take on all the greedy, unscrupulous, unethical bastards of the world.
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