Not wishing to overshadow Nathan's fresh post below (check it out!) I thought this little gem too good to hide from the blog board. check out the image - a little bit of genius! and who says those marketing hacks don't deserve all that dollar!
Right! It's Friday, I thought I'd end the week by pasting together something akin to a parable in order to link the best proverbs that I could find relating to the general enviro-movement. The waffle in between is merely to link the passages together, which may have been better presented in bullet point form. Indeed it is perhaps a hinderance. But alas, the weekend awaits and I must go.
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"It seems to me that we all look at Nature too much, and live with her too little."
Oscar Wilde, "De Profundis", 1905
Whilst an eloquent, poetic even, portrayal of our interaction with nature, Wilde is perhaps ignorant of the true impact that the recently passed industrial revolution was having on the global environment. To live with nature is surely to be one within it and one who interacts with it and thus we must surely live with nature (as the 'natural' world) now more than ever before in that our influence upon it has grown ever larger and more damaging. Whilst we look upon nature and observe her beauty, our ignorance is our bliss. However:
"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit."
Edward Abbey (1927-1989)
Indeed, we strive for unspoilt wilderness. Its very concept is defined in that it impassions us with a sense of romance, of serenity, of peace. Although it is oft used to promote sense of loss, of singularity, of isolation, it is this very return to the state of nature, as defined by Locke, that embodies perhaps our most fundamental concept of us, we, human kind, the greatest ape. But does the model of society, of culture fit with this ethos? Perhaps not within the fragmented communities of our cities, towns and villages. But we need not travel far back to find social peoples to whom nature offered such comforts. In perceiving the future loss, they wrote strong proverb, to warn, to take heed:
"Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time. "
Anonymous
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. "
Navajo Proverb
The concept of sustainability appeared to be one borne into the very notion of nature and within a guiding principle for the societies of the recent past. But when was the break point reached? At what point did we retreat to Wilde's ignorant observer?
" Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money."
Cree Indian Proverb
"When the well's dry, we know the worth of water. "
Benjamin Franklin, (1706-1790), Poor Richard's Almanac
Both of the above quotes are interpreted from an economic standing as a call for the costing of natural resources. They attack the ignorant observer in that to observe nature, to garner transcendental enlightenment from its wilderness without paying or appreciating its price, to see nature as source and sink and not as the fundamental envelope within which the system of society and culture exists. The observer locates himself as exogenous to nature looking inward, manipulating. Yet he is drunk on influence and if he were to look up would see nature expand far beyond his realm; encompassing through a complexity unbounded.
"Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. It's called "rain". "
Michael McClary
At which point the realisation is made. Our influence derives from the exploration within the wilderness of complexity; not from some transcendental enlightenment. We must reassess our position, to one within the system of nature, not one of influence upon.
"Energy Policy will be and should be driven by environmental policy in the future."
Timothy Wirth, U.S. Senator, February 20, 1991
And thus our collective energies as a species are encompassed by the environment from which we feed. Nature is both source and sink, it is the also background, the stage upon which we are set. This requires a dramatic shift in our observation of man within nature, but to be enacted by whom?
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead (1901-1978) quoted in John M. Richardson, ed. Making it Happen, 1982
Mead clearly ignores the global changes wrought by the mass populous in our addiction to energy, but perhaps provides us with hope, a vigor recharged. Escape form Wilde's ignorant observer is our quest and we must not back down. The time to leave nothing but footprints passed, we have taken many pictures and have killed far more than time.
Some of you may be aware that The Great Global Warming Swindle was shown on Australia's ABC TV earlier this week - their website for it is here. Hindsight is always 20/20, so ABC did what Channel 4 should have done which was to host a panel discussion of experts immediately after the screening, similar to the Question Time format here in the UK. At the moment, I can't find the panel debate online (link to it in the comments if you have it), but YouTube has a selection of bizarre comments that were raised by the audience:
As you can see, it ended up being Question Time on acid. One guy seemed to be claiming that the earth was much younger than we expected, two-three others brought up an enviro-eugenics link, and another seemed to claim he learned under the teachings of conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche. And we finished up with one woman trying to get the CEO of WWF Australia to claim there were too many people on the Earth! What a waste of everyone's time. The panel only answered a few questions, because most of the audience were happy to spout their nonsense. Crickey magazine explains that the reason for this is that the crowd was full of the LaRouchite Citizens Electoral Council - they claim 18 out of the 80 audience members.
/Thanks to DeSmogBlog for their recent coverage of TGGWS in Oz.
BP's Statistical Review of World Energy, published last week, brought up the usual peak oil discussions among the usual groups. BP says we have "proven" reserves to last us 40 years at current production. But what next after that?
For the answer, up stepped two reps seemingly from ExxonMobil and the National Petroleum Council (but actually from the culture jamming group The Yes Men) who during their presentation at the Gas and Oil Exposition in Calgary announced in front of a shocked crowd that they have invented a way of converting dead corpses into a new oil, Vivoleum.
They said the end of petroluem would be a disaster for the world, but because current energy policy is only leading to climate change, "with more fossil fuels comes a greater chance of disaster, but that means more feedstock ... fuel will continue to flow for those of us left." Oh thank the lord!
At which point they started distributing sample Vivoleum candles around the room to a bemused crowd. My favourite quote is: "150,000 people already die from climate-change related effects every year ... That's only going to go up - maybe way, way up. Will it all go to waste? That would be cruel."
Too funny. It didn't take long for them to get escorted out. Anyway, read more about it here, and see pics here. Pranks like this I think are a great way to get media attention, and are simply clever as hell. Kudos.
For another example, check out one of them getting onto BBC News 24 pretending to be a Dow Chemical rep taking full responsibility for Bhopal and promising serious compensation for the victims here. Sheer genius. Dow, of course, quickly denied such compensation or apology.
Updated 16 July 2007: Thanks to gus, here is the Youtube link for the prank.
Now that spring has leapt upon us, and winter inhibitions are stripped off, its time to talk about leeerve. We all know that choosing your life partner is about as big a decision as you will ever make. However… what about the impacts this has on the environment. You see, the trouble with green types, is that they like going out with other eco-worriers. It may make for a long and happy relationship, but it won’t make for another green.
So, following on from my last posting, take the transformative approach to dating and learn to love those ignorant and belligerent eco-assholes that don’t recycle, fly to Barcelona every other weekend and think climate change is made up by Margaret Thatcher. It’ll be tough to start with, but you can gently educate your new loved-one in the ways of a low-impact lifestyle. Soon you’ll be full of pride at the farmers’ market when he whips out his reused carrier bags for the organically-grown local veg he’s cooking you dinner with: without you, he’d be scoffing chicken nuggets, most likely. You
may even change a career in oil exploration into renewables. The possibilities are endless…
And what a difference you’ll have made by choosing him/her over, say, violaswamp from New Hampshire who’s hobbies include killing chickens, going to bed early, weeding and it would appear taking the cows for a walk. She’s looking for a man that wears the same clothes for a few weeks “at least”. (Don’t all apply at once, gents.)
I know of several successes, so give it a go! Just hope that they don’t go and pour creosote into a stream to spite you if you break their heart.
Disclaimers: I realise that this has a rather evilgelical ring to it, but you must remember that it is tongue-in-cheek despite the fact that I reckon its true and I accept no responsibility for stress caused by a finding a Rustler’s (“0-tasty in 70 seconds”) Microwave Burger packet in your recycling bin.
Mark from flet.org sent in a link for a sample complaint letter to Ofcom regarding Channel 4's Great Global Warming Swindle. The link is here, for those of you who are interested. Ofcom's website for complaining about programs is here. I would urge readers to write in with their own complaints, using the above letter as a basis.
I know Will mentioned this music vid a few weeks ago, but I thought it would be worth drawing some attention to it. There's no harm in watching it without sound if you don't have headphones handy.
We all know that the children are our future, and that there is a strong probability of today's kids seeing some fairly serious effects of climate change. But gangs of ruffians breaking into people's homes to change lightbulbs?!
It may seem a extreme that these modern-day Dickensian urchins might undertake direct action against the energy unconscious, but children could be a vital catalyst for change. It is frequently asserted that because people don't believe - or want to believe - that climate change will affect them in their lifetime they do not take action. Understandably, people discount the future beyond their death fairly strongly. Today's kids will probably not have the luxury of ignoring the problem, or waiting for magic fixes, and so are in a powerful position to influence their future by exerting their influence now. The only problem is that they cannot reasonably be expected to fully understand the science, make sacrifices for tomorrow, or be held responsible for their actions.
What interests me is where niche markets exist for developing environmental technologies and ideas by involving children who will then carry these values and experiences into adult life. Here are a few ideas for discussion:
Typically, people associate carbon rationing with impairments on their freedom and reductions in the quality of life. However, when travelling home this Christmas, I found the train journey from London via Brussels and Cologne to Bremen, Germany, most enjoyable and definitely preferable to a flight, when you have the time. That Heathrow had to cancel thousands of flights at the same time due to bad weather was only an ironic side to it...
But lets start at the beginning. Regular Ryanair passengers are familiar with early morning proceedings to get to the airport for a 6AM flight to the middle of nowhere somewhere in Europe. Either you bite the bullet and sleep over at the airport (how relaxing!) or you get up at some ridiculously early time to get the night bus to get to Liverpool Street to get the Stansted Express to get to the check-in an hour before the flight starts which is then usually delayed over the Christmas period. My 6AM train was still early, but it was late enough to get the first underground to Embankment and walk over the Charing Cross footbridge, enjoying a last sight of the magically lit city as it was still slumbering in the winter fog.
Arriving 20 minutes before scheduled departure, check-in was swift, the seat reserved and the Eurostar left on time. Having made it this far, I thought I deserved a little nap, and following the quiet but regular humming of the train, I wandered off to dreamland again. Sleeping while on the train can be so relaxing, and when I did wake up the odd time I was able to marvel at the beauty of the French country-side awaking in a cold winter dawn, with the occasional farmer already out on his field. And the next thing I notice, we are already pulling into Brussels central station, on schedule, with the morning having firmly arrived.
What better way to pass the 30-minute changeover time between trains than to treat myself with a feshly brewed coffee and some warm Belgian pastry? Not even being able to finsh my breakfast, I was on the train again, this time the high-speed Thalys from Brussels to Cologne. After dozing off once more on the train, I was finally able to do a little bit of work on the table in front of my seat - being able to spread out your stuff is another big plus of train travel over flying! Thus, in little more than two hours, I arrived in Cologne, ready for a big lunch and coffee with an old friend of mine whom I called to meet on the way.
There was even time for a short walk, hence, it was already late afternoon, before I finally boarded my Intercity train to Bremen, dusk settling over the countryside again and Christmas lights glowing everywhere. And at 7PM local time, I finally arrived home, just having to make a short walk from Bremen central train station to the pre-Christmas dinner table at home.
It might take longer to take the train than to fly (but not even that anymore - Brussels is 2hrs 30 minutes and Cologne just over 5 hours away - inner city to inner city), but you actually see the places you pass along the way and it certainly gets you into the holiday mood much more relaxingly! From Britain, the Eurostar can be used as the entry-point to the whole European train network, connecting either in Paris or in Brussels with almost every other surrounding country. The best place to look for such connections is probably Raileurope.co.uk, which offers you train links between all the large cities on the continent, or Deutsche Bahn, which has an easily searchable full European timetable, even including all inner-UK trains!!
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