Mark - email
It’s depressing. The whole thing. The fact that we seem on the brink of truly far-reaching changes in climate, and the fact that our government (or whoever it belongs to) ignores the evidence and says it would be too hard to do anything anyway. So let’s all just get our fiddles and start playing.
Friday: 26 October 2007 @ 08:31:42
bev - email - url
Yes, we’re boiling frogs that no longer have to worry about their pond freezing. It is depressing. Having just returned from a month of wandering through places where it seems that literally thousands of people are touring around in motor homes the size of large buses, or fifth wheel trailers pulled by huge pick-up trucks or even larger transport trucks, I feel very discouraged about human commitment to the environment. As it was, I felt guilty enough tripping around in a compact car while tent-camping with my friend. Definitely couldn’t live with myself if I were burning through gas at a gallon every few miles. One would hardly guess that oil hit $92 a barrel today, would they?
The ocean data is pretty scary – should be scaring the hell out of everyone. However, I guess it’s difficult to penetrate the fog created by the latest gab on Britney and Paris.
Friday: 26 October 2007 @ 11:43:04
Wren - email - url
And some folks are concerned about Second Life because it separates people from reality.
Friday: 26 October 2007 @ 18:40:12
Wayne - email - url
Mark - it’s very depressing. I can understand the enormous difficulties faced by countries with huge populations and only recently emerging ability to attempt improvement. But it’s shocking and shameful to realize how far the United States, with its enormous command of resources, has fallen. I suppose it’s really only Europe that has any comparable capability and the comparison of productive effort between the US and Europe is what puts us to shame.
Bev - I hardly missed a beat when I heard oil prices go above $90 a barrel, until I thought about it a bit. And then I recalled just a couple of years ago being shocked at the increase above half that, and the sneers that came from those in response to fears that it might go above $100 a barrel in the near future. Well, that’s what’s happening.
I do think we have to look to personal choice and preference as the key to solving these problems. But they’re also a barometer for how seriously these problems are seen. As you say, as a barometer, those personal choices seem to be telling us that all too many aren’t taking these problems seriously. All that is viewing the problems through a lens looking mainly at the United States (especially), and I suppose there would be those who would cry “unfair”. I just got through looking at the GEO-4 report and it’s hard to accept the unfairness objections when the US with its less than 5% of the human population is at the top of every measurement of resource usage and at the bottom of every measurement of mitigation effort.
Wren - it’s for sure that there’s some operation of a point of view there that I don’t get at all! When the Bush Administration now admits that there’s a climate crisis and *still* refuses to respond, you have to wonder.
Saturday: 27 October 2007 @ 07:46:24
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