I heard this morning that we, tax payers, are supporting a chunk of money from the stimulate-us bill to go to people who have been driving beater cars. They get to trade up and get credit back up to $2500.00. A co-worker heard it was $4500.00. Either way, they get the cash if the trade in a junker for a vehicle that is more 'green'. Ok, I think the green thing is going way to far. It's a hoax anyway. This got me to ranting... Here it is...
Green cars will have no impact on the environment. Not because of the fact that when you get more per gallon, you justify longer trips, thus using the same amount of fuel you would have if you had a guzzler and restricted your travel. I think that many of you believe that global warming is real. I believe there are changes taking place because they always are. Always. Global warming/climate change is not caused by humans. That's right. It's not your fault. It's weather. We tend to believe that its our fault because its all over and because if Al Gore said so, I guess its true.. Like when he invented the Internet. Remember that. Anyway.... Fact is, going green is an industry like any other. There is a ton of money to be made by scaring people into 'going green.' Does that mean we should be wasteful and pollute? No. Does that mean we shouldn't recycle and reuse? No. We have to live here so it might as well be clean and efficient. Should we conserve, opposed to waste, natural resources. Of course we should. Many 'green' things are coincidentally just smarter. I replaced almost all our light bulbs with the new ones. They cost more, but will save me from having to change them when the regulars burn out (apparently, the new ones last 7-9 years). That is worth it and smarter to me. Why do we think we are hurting the planet. Answer: because we can not fathom how big the planet truly is, we feel like we are making and impact or hurting the planet if we do anything that is not green. We basically believe what we hear, much of which is junk science. However, we are too small to make an impact--even every person on the planet altogether can not hurt Earth. Its arrogant, conceded and self-righteous to think that we are powerful enough to hurt the planet. Earth pre-dates our existence, and will outlive us. The climate changes are part of the cycle of the atmosphere. We only have weather data going back a couple hundred years. The earth is like 4 billion years old--how do we know what weather cycles occurred before we were here? Its common sense to acknowledge that we are subject to what the earth gives us to deal with, not the other way around. Both our size and duration on this planet are microscopic. We have been on the planet a fraction of a second, relative to its existence. In that fraction the population has grown, but is still very, very small compared to the land mass available on the planet. If every family in the world moved to Texas, California, Colorado, and Alaska, every family would have a .7 to .9 acre lot. The rest of the land on the planet would be undeveloped. Of course, some of the remaining land would have to be developed to sustain us. But not much. If you spread those families across the globe and develop all the land necessary (as things are now) we only use about 3% of the land available on the planet. That number may not be accurate (wiki). The planet is roughly only 29% land, 71% water. So, to think that humans can have an impact on the planet by using a small percent of what's available is insane. Not to say that congested cities aren't polluted, they are, but those are geographically contained problems. Should cities be cleaner? Yes, of course, don't be stupid. If you want to live somewhere, you have to live in the conditions you create (the old 'you made your bed' rationale). But that still doesn't affect the planet as a whole. The earth is more powerful than any humans will ever be. Period.
Oh, and if you think you are being green when you take shorter showers, use less materials, and recycle, etc. Think again. That can't even begin to compare to how less of a certain resource your would use if you omitted one thing from your diet: meat. Yes, eating meat is one of the most wasteful things you can do with regards to our water supply. If you eat meat, you are contributing to the waste of water 30 fold compared to a non-meat eater. Each persons share of water per day is around 123 gallons. That takes into consideration averages used for everything we do. Cleaning, washing clothes/dishes, cooking, drinking, etc. Basically, everything we do uses some sort of water. To raise a cow, it takes approximately 2500 gallons of water per pound. If you eat a 1/4 pound burger you've just contributed to the use of 3000 gallons of water because that's how much it takes, everything considered, before it finally it makes it to your mouth. Go Green!!
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