Everyone I know is worried about climate change. But as this article points out - the disconnect in what we do as individuals and its impact on the environment, and on the polity which is responsible for affecting changes to policy for reducing this impact, is so high that most people shrug their shoulders, and, in essence, collectively continue to wait for environmental-doomsday.
I've personally started cycling, and am avoiding "upgrading" appliances, the car, etc for the heck of it. At home we try and reuse as much as possible. I try keeping the showers short and the buckets have shrunk in size. We're now also reusing the "waste" water from the RO filter.
Yet I so easily "forget" to switch off appliances at the socket - lots continue to run in standby. Our apartment's per capita consumption of energy is probably closer to levels in the developed world rather than the rest of India.
Why should fossil-fuel derived energy be cheap and plentiful (not a murmur when petrol prices dropped!)? Why should plastic be handed out with everything that comes wrapped in plastic at the store ? Why can't we calculate the real cost of these ? It should really really hurt to commute long distances in private cars - especially 1/2 people in a car.
I quite like the idea of growing some food on your own - as the article urges - and reconnect to the less specialized roles human civilization used to have. "But I have no time" is the easy one.
I guess human beings really have little time as a species - but looking beyond our noses isn't something we've gotten good at. We'll learn when the flooding happens even more often, and the hurricanes, or the out-of-turn snow, and droughts. Or maybe not even then.
Maybe its ok - whoever said we should never go extinct.
Edit:
For a while we've happily pointed fingers west saying "oh the US contributes 25% for 5% of the world's population" - no more - look at our meteoric "growth" on the pollution charts here.
I've personally started cycling, and am avoiding "upgrading" appliances, the car, etc for the heck of it. At home we try and reuse as much as possible. I try keeping the showers short and the buckets have shrunk in size. We're now also reusing the "waste" water from the RO filter.
Yet I so easily "forget" to switch off appliances at the socket - lots continue to run in standby. Our apartment's per capita consumption of energy is probably closer to levels in the developed world rather than the rest of India.
Why should fossil-fuel derived energy be cheap and plentiful (not a murmur when petrol prices dropped!)? Why should plastic be handed out with everything that comes wrapped in plastic at the store ? Why can't we calculate the real cost of these ? It should really really hurt to commute long distances in private cars - especially 1/2 people in a car.
I quite like the idea of growing some food on your own - as the article urges - and reconnect to the less specialized roles human civilization used to have. "But I have no time" is the easy one.
I guess human beings really have little time as a species - but looking beyond our noses isn't something we've gotten good at. We'll learn when the flooding happens even more often, and the hurricanes, or the out-of-turn snow, and droughts. Or maybe not even then.
Maybe its ok - whoever said we should never go extinct.
Edit:
For a while we've happily pointed fingers west saying "oh the US contributes 25% for 5% of the world's population" - no more - look at our meteoric "growth" on the pollution charts here.
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