First I wanted to apologize if my semi-tongue-in-cheek message came
across as an attack on Glenn personally - I did not mean it that way.
It was just one of those days and I was blowing off steam. But the
gist of my comments (minus the sarcasm and/or cynicism) I meant.
>This is not per se an environmental issue, except as it relates to
the
>environment that modern man has created for himself. I am always
amazed by
>people who denigrate the energy companies and environmental
degradation,
>while driving their big cars, living in airconditioned homes, eating
food
>from the refrigerator which uses lots of energy, washing their
clothes in
>hot water (which took energy to heat) and jet away on foreign
vacations
>using that nasty old oil to fly safely. It always seems just a bit
odd to
>me.
I completely disagree with this statement. I strongly believe that the
only way to get individuals to chane their behavior is to change the
way society works. When recycling comes curbside people do it. When we
have to drive 35 miles to recycle, fewer do it (though I do!). It
would be possible but extremely difficult for me to drive a horse and
buggy or a bicycle everywhere I need to go, since our society is set
up without all the conveniences close by like they used to be (in
horse n buggy days). I will be the first to buy the new technology
(electric vehicles) when it comes available but no this won't solveall
the problems either. If I individually live a life without electricity
and a car, I will make no dent on the world. If I live in the world
but not of it, and I help influence others to respectfully care for
the earth and its finite resources, and I help encourage major change
in the way society operates, then I will have made a bigger
difference.
I grew up in a log home with no electricity, no running water, no
telephone, outhouse. We grew much of our own food.
I would love to live like that again, and actually we have plans to
live more like that one day again. But for now my husband is employed
by an oil company (he is a chemist). Yes the company contributes to
the problem. Yes I contribute to the problem when I drive or use AC.
But I would rather help initiate larger changes in society that look
to the future than *only* change my individual lifestyles.
Finally, the power of corporateions (due mainly to their lobbying
power) far exceeds the relatively few individuals votes who run the
corporations. This is why we have grandfathered emissions on
industrial plants here in Texas, who have stretched out the Clean Air
Act requirements for some 20+ years. Etc etc.
My best,
Wendee
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~~ Wendee Holtcamp -- wendee@greendzn.com ~~
~~ Environment/Travel/Science Writer ~~ www.greendzn.com ~~
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jul 15 2000 - 17:28:52 EDT