People are Ignorant and Perhaps Deserve What is Coming
I haven’t been posting much lately. Why? Because the more I look around, the more I realize that very few people are really and truly dedicated to making significant changes, to really moving the ball on climate change and emissions reductions. Here in the United States, we have elected officials who care little about passing effective legislation. In fact, it’s the corporate world that is making the greatest effort as it seeks competitive advantage and cost savings.
In 2008, we’ll be lucky to choose from a whopping field of TWO candidates, neither of who will have a developed, effective climate-protection plan. And you know what? Those who profess concern for the ruinous effects of global heating will vote for one of these people irrespective, placing their lifelong conditioned voting reflex above their avowed concerns.
Read THIS SHORT ARTICLE, WHICHÂ DISCOURAGES ME MORE THAN A LITTLE
Song ‘o the Day? YOU are probably guilty of knee-jerk voting, am I right? You don’t deserve a song today, because you’re the problem, not the cure.
Todd,
I understand discouraged, believe me, I do. I don’t blame you a bit. I do suggest taking heart and continuing to act as though your courage is pushing you. Maybe this will help.
I just published my first Squidoo lens on Lester Brown’s Plan B 2.0. It’s a start on my longstanding commitment to get the word out. I’d be interested to know whether you and anyone else interested think it can help motivate others. There’s a guestbook for that purpose.
Like Al Gore says, Todd, this is a bottoms-up, grassroots movement. We can’t depend on our “leaders” to solve the problems. But we are the ones making choices about the transportation we use, the foods we eat, the packaging surrounding the stuff we buy. We are the ones with the real power to make the changes. When enough of us vote with our pocketbooks, the politicians wake up and listen.
Lester Brown tells us how to go about it in his book and on the Earth Policy Institute web site.
Hang in there, Man!
Tod, I, too, get discouraged, but I usually just “drop down,” not out. I can’t imagine not doing something to make things better.
What has helped me stay involved, at least on some level, are historical examples of when a handful of people have made a difference.
Consider the slave trade, which was norm until just 15 people got together in a print shop in England in the late 1700s and vowed to stop it. They did within a generation, against all odds (at that time 3/4ths of the people in the world were either slaves or serfs).
I learned about this by reading Adam Hochschild’s “Bury the Chains,” which I blogged about here:
http://gailjonas.blogspot.com/2007/05/on-this-day-two-hundred-and-twenty.html
I’m glad to see you posting even if you’re discouraged. I frequently tell people to check your blog.