Apocalypse Now

Jan 20, 2008 18:31

I'm teaching an environmental science class this semester, which means that I'm up to my ears in utterly depressing stories of destroyed ecosystems and hopeless futures. I'm trying to keep things chipper, and focus on functional ecosystems as much as dysfunctional ones, and to emphasize possible solutions to our problems....but, man, there's not much you can do to put a happy face on peak oil or the biodiversity crisis. I don't look forward to telling the students, "Hey, kids--there's a significant chance that Western civilization will entirely collapse within your lifetimes." It's unvarnished truth, but it comes across as insane fearmongering, and it's a sad state of affairs when honesty sounds like nihilism. I will say this: it's made me a lot more serious about keeping the thermostat down, and cutting my phantom electrical load, and all that good stuff. (I'm going to start keeping my alarm clock unplugged until bedtime, at which time I will plug it back in, set it, and set the alarm. Why do I need to have a clock on 24 hours a day when I'm at home for 12 hours tops, and spend many of those hours asleep?)

On a related note, I saw "Cloverfield" this weekend. Ultimately just as ridiculous as any other giant monster movie, but I like the fact that you never find out what the hell the thing is. I also like the simple purity of death-by-getting-stepped-on, which almost looks slightly inviting compared to whatever the hell will happen if we don't get the peak oil thing sorted out. And we may very well get it sorted out, of course. Don't misunderstand--I'm not cutting my wrists as I write this or anything. But a 24/7 diet of this stuff gets under your skin. Yeesh. Enjoy your California produce and airplane flights now, is all I can say.
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