http://www.salon.com/2014/07/29/the_dark_truth_about_green_fuel_natural_gas_cant_save_us_partner/
This is quite a long article (which is why I'm not pasting the entire thing here), but well worth the read and certainly required reading in order to have context for this post.
The article above brings me back to a question that I have asked before, but that could probably only be answered after the fact: Have we passed the point of no return in the damage we have done to the planet as a whole? We have caused massive harm that, quite frankly, is incomprehensible. We cannot simply know every single plant or creature that has perished because of our actions, nor can we know of every mountain leveled or river made toxic. The planet is huge and our span of awareness is far too limited to be able to grasp the extent of the problem, at least our current level of awareness is too limited, who knows what our true potential may be. At this point in time our awareness is occupied with either trivialities or survival. We are most often most likely to be too preoccupied with our own lives and concerns to give too much attention to the troubles of others, be they green, four legged or scaled.
Obviously this preoccupation of ours is part of the problem - how are we ever going to undo the large scale damage we have done and rebuild a society with integrity if we are wrapped up in our own dramas and dilemmas. This is not entirely our fault, yet we are still equally responsible. There are people who designed the world system to be the way it is now in order to benefit themselves on a personal level - yet we allowed this to happen and accepted it as a way of life. This is not about blame though, we could waste away an eternity pointing fingers at each other and waiting for everyone else to "start changing first" - obviously nothing would get done and that would be the end of us.
We certainly have the capacity and ingenuity to create a world that gives every living thing the greatest chance to have a good life - more than that we have the capacity to create a world in which life truly has meaning and value. The way that the world is now, there is very little meaning or value given to much of anything except for things like money, possessions, opinions, beliefs and the like. No one can claim that this way of living has given much goodness to the world, but because we value these things we are loathe to part from them.
Using gases and other "green" fuels may be better than coal or oil in some respects (the reality is that there is not much that we know for sure), but it seems like in any case many of these green fuels have other side effects and are therefore not solutions to our problems, just stop-gaps (hopefully) to keep us going a little while longer (hopefully).
If we were to focus our attention, ingenuity and resources on creating sustainable solutions then I am certain we would be able to develop some real contenders. But if we continue to focus so many of our skills and resources on things like war, getting rich, being famous and whatever else seems to be important at the moment then our chances of survival and happiness diminish with each selfish choice we make.
This is quite a long article (which is why I'm not pasting the entire thing here), but well worth the read and certainly required reading in order to have context for this post.The article above brings me back to a question that I have asked before, but that could probably only be answered after the fact: Have we passed the point of no return in the damage we have done to the planet as a whole? We have caused massive harm that, quite frankly, is incomprehensible. We cannot simply know every single plant or creature that has perished because of our actions, nor can we know of every mountain leveled or river made toxic. The planet is huge and our span of awareness is far too limited to be able to grasp the extent of the problem, at least our current level of awareness is too limited, who knows what our true potential may be. At this point in time our awareness is occupied with either trivialities or survival. We are most often most likely to be too preoccupied with our own lives and concerns to give too much attention to the troubles of others, be they green, four legged or scaled.
Obviously this preoccupation of ours is part of the problem - how are we ever going to undo the large scale damage we have done and rebuild a society with integrity if we are wrapped up in our own dramas and dilemmas. This is not entirely our fault, yet we are still equally responsible. There are people who designed the world system to be the way it is now in order to benefit themselves on a personal level - yet we allowed this to happen and accepted it as a way of life. This is not about blame though, we could waste away an eternity pointing fingers at each other and waiting for everyone else to "start changing first" - obviously nothing would get done and that would be the end of us.
We certainly have the capacity and ingenuity to create a world that gives every living thing the greatest chance to have a good life - more than that we have the capacity to create a world in which life truly has meaning and value. The way that the world is now, there is very little meaning or value given to much of anything except for things like money, possessions, opinions, beliefs and the like. No one can claim that this way of living has given much goodness to the world, but because we value these things we are loathe to part from them.
Using gases and other "green" fuels may be better than coal or oil in some respects (the reality is that there is not much that we know for sure), but it seems like in any case many of these green fuels have other side effects and are therefore not solutions to our problems, just stop-gaps (hopefully) to keep us going a little while longer (hopefully).
If we were to focus our attention, ingenuity and resources on creating sustainable solutions then I am certain we would be able to develop some real contenders. But if we continue to focus so many of our skills and resources on things like war, getting rich, being famous and whatever else seems to be important at the moment then our chances of survival and happiness diminish with each selfish choice we make.
http://townhall.com/columnists/pauldriessen/2014/07/19/killing-marine-life-with-ethanol-n1863752/page/full
ReplyDeleteYes when you read this and the fact that thousands of Indians in Paraguay are dying from producing ethanol there is no easy solution!