Environmental Blame Game- Remember, it's always someone else's fault!
The more mainstream environmentalism becomes, the more ridiculous it gets. Back when I was growing up, the environmental movement stressed a certain amount of personal responsibility- reduce, reuse, recycle, turn off the lights when you're not using them, don't run the water when you brush your teeth, etc. I used to have a book aimed at kids called something like "101 Ways Kids can save the Earth" or something (even though I've come to despise the term "save the Earth"- it's so pompous and arrogant, given that the planet itself isn't going anywhere and life has rebounded from far worse ecological disasters- the Permian extinction says "hi".) It was just a bunch of simple, eco-friendly things kids could do in their everyday lives.
Is there even anything like that today? For all the "trendy" factor green has, all I see is a bunch of finger pointing and demands that other people do something. I've seen climate change get pinned on everything from divorcees to fat people to video gamers. People praise politicians who set goals so far into the future that they'll never have to be held accountable for them. People in the cities campaign to get animals like wolves released in more rural parts of the country, then demand that the people living there suffer the consequences, oblivious to the fact that wildlife is just as natural to the places where the cities whose conveniences these "environmentalists" enjoy now stand. People think that they can just buy whatever useless crap they want as long as the company plants a tree or puts out "less" waste than the competition.
Well, you know what? Everyone can shut up, because like it or not, everyone's part of the problem. All of the unnecessary products we buy- the material it takes to make it, the process that makes it, the infrastructure that transports it, the packaging; the things we use that unnecessarily use energy, like computers, music players, TVs and video game systems (many don't suck too much juice alone, but they add up!); the choices we make, like taking the car out for the night instead of walking or staying home- honestly, our whole lifestyle is environmentally unfriendly, and if anyone REALLY gave a damn about the environment they'd be willing to make REAL lifestyle changes. But the mainstream "greens" have made it abundantly clear that they'll do anything for the environment except change.
Because, hey, we can always blame someone else, right?
Is there even anything like that today? For all the "trendy" factor green has, all I see is a bunch of finger pointing and demands that other people do something. I've seen climate change get pinned on everything from divorcees to fat people to video gamers. People praise politicians who set goals so far into the future that they'll never have to be held accountable for them. People in the cities campaign to get animals like wolves released in more rural parts of the country, then demand that the people living there suffer the consequences, oblivious to the fact that wildlife is just as natural to the places where the cities whose conveniences these "environmentalists" enjoy now stand. People think that they can just buy whatever useless crap they want as long as the company plants a tree or puts out "less" waste than the competition.
Well, you know what? Everyone can shut up, because like it or not, everyone's part of the problem. All of the unnecessary products we buy- the material it takes to make it, the process that makes it, the infrastructure that transports it, the packaging; the things we use that unnecessarily use energy, like computers, music players, TVs and video game systems (many don't suck too much juice alone, but they add up!); the choices we make, like taking the car out for the night instead of walking or staying home- honestly, our whole lifestyle is environmentally unfriendly, and if anyone REALLY gave a damn about the environment they'd be willing to make REAL lifestyle changes. But the mainstream "greens" have made it abundantly clear that they'll do anything for the environment except change.
Because, hey, we can always blame someone else, right?