S/he is seldom painted in plain relief, but if you immerse yourself in Green literature long enough, the Ideal, the Vanishing Point from which the construction lines must radiate becomes clear. The invisible point that lends an appearance of depth to the perspective of that worldview, is most definitely a Person.
(from http://communities.ptc.com/blogs/hello_cad/)
Someone who uses little, contributes much, recycles everything, eats vegan and reads recycled counterculture books in the perpetual twilight of a low-energy globe; adopts needy non-European children instead of bearing her own, spends his/her free time advocating for those less fortunate, works with people for governments or NGO's, and is a leader, too, somehow.
S/he advocates for Peace, without taking sides. S/he plants things. S/he is the friend of the downtrodden.
But this ideal is not a Platonic Ideal, a phantasm of qualia that define the Perfect example of its type; no, this is a Vanishing Point, a righteous immolation of the Self around which the great wheel of an Ideology turns!
I think it's time to call Bullshit.
No human can actually do this, and the dissonance of real life is clear if you look at his/her transaction record.
Lots of short haul air travel, producing a greater CO2 footprint than the average. Nearly as much household energy use as the Average Bastard. Suspect vegan foods like Chia that impact poor communities.
Biodiesel, then No Biodiesel, then Biodiesel again. Unclear commitment to Renewable energy. Ambiguous position on Nuclear energy. Ignorance of Thorium.
Ignorance of agriculture in practice. Ignorance of animal welfare in practice.
Advocacy for Refugees from the Middle East, then advocacy against the Ritual Slaughter of animals.
Anti-Israel, but silent on Syria. Pro-headscarf, but unwilling to unpack the ideology that goes with.
No-one ought to feel bad for being done with this ideal. It is a recipe for discontent.
We do need to reduce CO2, it would seem.
So lets just DO that.
Solarize your house, and your hot water. Then stop fucking worrying about it. Really. Leave your damn lights on.
It's now OK.
Size your solar to your Air-con. Take the name plate rating on your AC, then add 100%. You will be right. It will cost less than a fancy watch.
Get an electric car, then stop worrying about fucking buses. Life is too goddamn short for that shit. A basic Prius is not that dear, and you can get plug in packs for them.
If we are going to fix our environmental issues, it is going to be with Science, not by Grasping the Social Levers.
I bloody guarantee it.
Thank God, a voice of reason. "Ignorance of agriculture . . . [and] . . . animal welfare in practice" is perfect - you're right that it's more an ideology than a considered evaluation of priorities.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder, if energy, water, & agriculture woes were solved or greatly improved, would the EcoSpartan wannabes be glad, or disappointed? Who would they then point fingers at; how would they show the world they were more caring, sensitive people? What would they find to complain about?
I think that many actually have a strong investment in the idea of Global Collapse, and are bitterly resentful of people who 'trivialise' 'intractable' 'issues' by demoting them to engineering problems. Fortunately, it seems to me that even biggies like Climate Change are not at all intractable from an engineering perspective; reducing emissions by 60% means that we need to move from Coal to Gas+Wind+Solar, and double the efficiency of our cars; considering that a BMWi8 gets 80MPG while performing like a supercar, means that the future can be rather fun.
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