3 posts tagged “environmentalism”
There we go, rolled over ten thousand miles on the odometer this morning. This is since May 2005, minus the winter of 2005-2006 when I rode my fixed gear for three months without the cyclocomputer on it.. So it's right about 100 commuter miles a week for two years. At an optimistic 20 miles per gallon on the Allroad, that's 500 gallons of gas I didn't burn, 11000 pounds of CO2 not added to the atmosphere. At three bucks a gallon, it's $1500 "saved" (really: redirected into bike goodies!)
It happened to roll over at a particuarly scenic spot, so I stopped and grabbed a couple of pics to "commemorate" the event.
There were several annoying things about the global day of really concerned rock-n-roll on Saturday, most of them ably laid out by Jim Kunstler, but the thing that annoyed me the most about the whole charade is this "live earth pledge" BS where people commit to:
I will change four light bulbs to CFLs at my home.
I will ride public transit or carpool one or more times per week.
I will shop for the most energy efficient electronics and appliances.</td>
I will forward a Live Earth email message to 5 friends.
I will shut off my equipment and lights whenever I'm not using them.
Add my name to the Live Earth pledge.
OK, six action items, two of which are no-brainer clickthroughs (add the name and send the email), two of which the even moderately crunchy people likely to be on the website are probably already doing (turn off the lights and carpool once a week), and the remaining two of which involve doing more shopping! Is this really the best they could come up with? I'd argue that this in fact harms the cause of reducing carbon output by providing both a moral balm to soothe people's troubling guilt about over-consumption -- which might spur them to real action -- as well as minimizing the scope of the problem by making it seem like, "well if everybody just went there and clicked the boxes everything will be OK!" Maybe this is a limitation of Al Gore's technocratic roots or politician's eye to the art of the possible, but wow, this seems like a pretty low bar.
If you click through to the seven point "Live Earth Pledge", things get a little better, but just a little:
1.To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;
2.To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become "carbon neutral;"
3.To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2;
4.To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation;
5.To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal;
6.To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests; and,
7.To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century.
Of all of these, #2 and #6 are the only ones that might involve some effort on the part of the pledge-ee, assuming they bother to a) read them and b) do what it says. The "Demand", "Fight", "Work" points are nice and all, but safely nonspecific; "Buy from and support" are more soothing balm to worries that we might not be able to consume our way out of trouble -- "But it says its eco-friendly right here on the package!"
Clearly, in a utilitarian sense, it's better for people to be thinking about these things than blindly oblivious to them; it's better to sign the pledge and buy some low-watt light bulbs than to carry on with Happy Motoring. But I can't shake the feeling that given such an enormous megaphone, it would be enormously better for the guy who "used to be the next President" to start talking about some of the deep, structural changes we're going to have to start making in how we live once the cheap energy runs out and the long-term costs of the past sixty years of the American Dream start making themselves felt.
Here are some folks who are making some changes on the order of magnitude I'm talking about:
No Impact Man
90% Reduction - Riot for Austerity
Eat Local Challenge / 100 Mile Diet
