It shouldn't be so easy to trash a whole planet.
That's redundant because whatever harms the planet is also harmful to people, but I digress.
Right now we are enabled, encouraged even, to do as much harm as we want. Not to worry, no one is responsible.
The buck increasingly stops in some billionaire's pocket, and they are so far removed from their evil deeds that they seriously think their hands are untarnished.
That is planet-destroying denial.
Did we really think that a system based on individual greed and profit would somehow end up doing good things?
If we were serious about cleaning things up, all the really harmful stuff would be hard to do or get, completely inconvenient, and very expensive.
Flying, for example, should be hard, inconvenient and expensive.
Taking a train, on the other hand, should be easy, ultra-convenient, and cheap.
If actions like that didn't stop the madness, then harmful things should be made outright illegal.
That may sound drastic, but I think that ecocide should be illegal, and not just immoral.
Thou shalt not kill... the planet.
I agree. I want the railroad system to thrive again. I want things that are healthy for the planet, and things that help physical and mental health, to be widely available and affordable. I want there to be incentives for the hesitant.
ReplyDeleteHell, make it like LEDs. People didn't want to change, but they don't have a choice now, since that's all you'll really find at any hardware store. They're inexpensive and plastered with 'this will last you 13 years and only cost 64 cents per year, as opposed to lasting 6 months and costing at least 3 bucks in energy coats per bulb'. Verbatim, but you get it, haha.
Roughly 30% if the north american population actively wants to harm others. That includes resisting progress that would save us all. They would set themselves on fire in the hopes that a few sparks would burn someone else. We need to fix this mentality, somehow.
LEDs are an excellent example of moving toward less harmful things. And yet there was a small contingent that fought it all the way.
DeleteIt is their right, apparently, to waste electricity on technology from the 1800s.
I think what they meant to say was, "I'm SCARED!"
Change is good... but it can be scary at first.
You are so on with this bit... but alas, I am in love with the spring and hopeful it all works out somehow, even if it is the loss of the human species. Very impressed by the power of Linda and your words on this post...It's like hangin' wit ya and shootin' the shit around. Miss you madly. Keep up the good work kids! You never know what a well placed punch to the head will do to those who so desperately deserve one. Much Love, Mike
ReplyDeleteHey Mike,
DeleteWe do miss our chats whilst looking out at the bird life on Sooke Harbour. Hope you are able to keep your "Fist of Doom" from twitching too hard. We have to forgive them for they know not what they do. Or do they?
I keep hoping that air travel will once again become the exception rather than the rule - that it becomes something one has to think about and plan for rather than just hopping on a plane like one would hop onto a bus. When I think of "the romance of travel" my mind doesn't go to flying, it goes to moving through the countryside on a train or down the highway on a Greyhound bus. I was a bit of a Greyhound adventurer in my youth (looooong time ago) - pull a few dollars out of my bank account on Friday afternoon, pack my backpack, find a bus going somewhere I hadn't gone before - often just a small town somewhere up the road I had heard about - spend a day or so wandering and talking to folks, then take the return trip with hopefully enough time to waltz into the office on Monday morning with no one the wiser. To anyone out there within my range of acquaintance back in those days, now you know the reason for those enigmatic Monday morning smiles.
ReplyDeleteThat is a beautiful tramping style story. Wonderful. I know some people hated taking Greyhound. I loved it. So free to not have to worry about anything concerning being responsible for a private automobile. Cars must be the most boring forms of transportation in the world of getting around. They are insular, when everyone knows the best thing about traveling is the people you meet. Again, I love your story. Thanks.
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