Between struggling with whether to use solar panels for
energy at our home, and reading something about university students picketing
for divestment from fossil fuel stocks, my brain has been kicked into high gear
about the whole climate change issue.
Okay, so that’s an exaggeration, but I’ve had a thought here
and there about it. Finding out about the recent huge anti-fuel protest march
in NYC has almost made me spend an entire five minutes ruminating on the
subject.
If I sound flippant and like I don’t care about our planet,
I do care. Thing is, not only is the whole controversy based on conflicting
theories (not facts, only theories), but also now the whole thing has gotten so
out of whack that they’re blaming cows for the greenhouse effect.
First of all, after the previous four winters (and it looks
like the trend will continue this winter), I refuse to believe in “Global
Warming.” Another impending Ice Age is more likely. Or, maybe the global
warming trend of the past few decades is now turning, so that the
planet’s climate is going back to what it was in the 1970s and earlier.
You know, that’s natural, for the earth to go in cycles like
that: colder for a few decades, then warmer, than cooling back down. So do I
not believe that greenhouse gases are causing a problem? Sure! I believe they
are increasing my risk of lung cancer, and piling up Lord-knows-how-many toxins
in my body that might cause me to die young. This is one reason I wanted to
move out into the middle of nowhere.
Are they causing climate change? Honestly, I don’t know. And
I don’t think anyone else can honestly say they know, either.
But my biggest angst with the whole climate change debate
isn’t about “experts” trying to convince everyone else of their certitude one
way or their other. Rather, it’s the hypocrisy of the people in the movement.
Hot dogs, anyone?
A growing number of people are at least trying, if not
sticking with, veganism. Part of that has to do with the unfortunate bill of
goods they’ve been sold about how animal farts are melting the polar ice caps.
But I wonder: how many card-carrying environmentalists have given up meat and
dairy? How many of those afore-mentioned marchers took advantage of the many
NYC street vendors selling hot dogs?
And that brings me to the quintessential example of
anti-fossil fuel hypocrisy. Few of those involved in the recent protest walked,
biked, or drove a solar-powered electric car to it. No. Some of them actually flew in a plane. To protest the extraction
of fossil fuels from the earth.
Then they went home to their oversized houses, and do you
know what they did? They cooked some meat from their upright refrigerator on
their electric range while charging their smartphone, did a load of laundry and
dried it in a clothes dryer, then drove their kid to soccer practice…six blocks away.
I know, I know. Not everyone who protests against fracking
and coal and proposed pipelines lives like a mini Al Gore. But most do.
Understand, I’m not mad at you if you use a clothes dryer or
a refrigerator. However, I’m not thrilled if you’re the “average American” when
it comes to electricity use, and then get upset when the world’s health must be
compromised in order to keep up with your energy usage.
It’s easy to protest pollution with signs. But change never
comes by doing things the easy way. Walk the walk, or stop talking. All that
hot air is killing the planet.
