Going into a lengthy post about a fraction of my politcal views has inspired me to rant about another taboo topic to openly discuss:
The business of ecofriendly vs. convienence of business
It boggles my mind that people are able to say things like "Al Gore invented global warming" and "The Green House Effect is all propaganda", and make themselves believe it. Why? Is it so hard to imagine that the shit we pump into the air is harmful to our lungs? Of course not. Every single one of us has driven down 225 through pasadena at some point. Did you have your windows down? Hell no you didn't. The air quality sucks. You can't breathe that shit for five minutes without feeling nausious. Last time you were driving behind a car with a bad exhuast, you fought to breathe, and quickly got out from behind that motherfucker. Probably flicked him off as you sped around him. Maybe even considered running his ass into the tree on the side of the road. That shit hurt your lungs and eyes. If you had a kid in the car, you were definately considering the tree...
Drive down 146 past the Texas City plants. All you smell is sulfer. Remember in 2005 when the BP plant exploded? Bet you watched that on the news as all that black smoke plummed into the air. Sure, that didn't do anything the least bit harmful to the air quality. 53 people in the surrounding areas within 15 miles with pre-existing respiratory problems died within two days. Maybe some weren't connected. I can assure you most were. I was there. Ground Zero. I personally loaded dead, blackened charred bodies from the explosion to trucks, pulled from the wreckage by hazmat crews. It hurt for me to breathe for months afterward.
Look at LA in the 80's. Remember how smoggy it was? No, too young? well, me too. But read up on it, it was bad. What fixed it? Emission standards, "green" economics.
Look at China today, if you can see through the haze that is. Their smog levels now are worse than LA ever was. They are the fastest growing economic market in the world, and they are destroying themselves in the process. Olympic runners are refusing to practice in China (virtually unheard of for athletes not to practice before the BIGGEST 'sport' event in the world) because they are afraid the practice runs will destroy their lungs before the actual medal races.
TB, menengitius, COPD (cronic obstructive pulminary disease), pneumonia, and other respiratory diseases and viruses are on the rise, and are becoming more and more deadly. People who've never smoked a day in their life are developing Stage 3 (terminal) lung cancer in a matter of months... a trend that only increases in number every year. The polar ice caps are melting in front of us. You can WATCH it happen. It took millions of years for the ice to melt to the point it was ten years ago. Ten years later, twice as much is gone.
But change is inconvienent. It costs money. We LIKE our way of life as is. So rather change and burden ourselves, we say its political propaganda. Politicians, whose pockets are stuffed with money from oil industries and high polutant factories, say its all hog wash. That Al Gore invented it. That it does not exist.
History just repeats itself.
Socrates made a radical claim once that was unpopular with the big business, the church. socrates generated a formal problem by simply asking "Is the pius loved by the gods because it is pius, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?" Well, They locked him up in his house for years till they finally just killed him, or more accurately, let him die when he could have been helped. Apparently he still wouldn't stop talking. Its the same thing.
The point? Sounds alot like 'truthiness' to me. Does global warming exist because we say it exists, or do we say it exhists because gloabal warming exhists? OR is it right to not care because big business makes lots of money?
*Quick note: I AM NOT comparing Al Gore to Socrates*
But change happens. Slowly, but it does. Begrudgingly. Maybe, just maybe, there is something to all of this. Suddenly it has a name. Now, "green" is a referrence to more than just that evil devil weed. Conservation, eco-friendly, green. It's becoming cool and progressive. It's a trend, and for once, a good one. On the rise too. That is, until its a nucence. Until you have to go out of your way. There's always an excuse once its a burden.
"Only when all the fields are paved, all the rivers dammed, and all the forests cut down, will we realize we can't eat money." -unknown (to me)
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