RyanHarne.com

I have seen An Inconvenient Truth multiple times and have read Ishmael even more, a book that details a greater, underlying trouble facing civilization. The past two or three years of my life, I have regularly refreshed my personal stance on the environment and have done whatever possible to reduce my non-biodegradable waste and increase my recycling. Recently, I have been occasionally addressing these cultural habits, always expecting to be hopeful but nevertheless forcing me to become downtrodden and tragically dismembered from my positive outlook.

And what have I concluded in this time, these years of observation, contemplation, and patience:

No one cares.

Frankly, if I don’t constantly remind myself of environmental concerns, I forget to minimize my electric usage and so on. The marketing environment that exists in America is so consumer-centric that addressing climate change is not possible if corporations continue to value quarterly profits. Some companies try to appear “green” by having some eco-friendly advertising, like when Chevrolet was touting their FlexFuel vehicles in 30 second tv bits. And where is this FlexFuel? Are the gas stations nationwide expected to modify or add tanks to incorporate this ethanol mixture? You’ve got to be kidding me to expect that transition - gas stations scrape by on half-pennies, not dollars & cents.

Most people would consider this a pessimistic view, and, given the cultural tendencies to define hopelessness as pessimism, I would have to agree. However, I define my feelings as resulting from the inevitability of our American culture. Just about every consumer product that is designed, is patented, and is manufactured hopes for accelerating sales. Slowing or stagnant sales are a sign of the need to rebrand, redesign, or replace. Everything our consumer culture embodies encourages acceleration and abhors constancy.

Unfortunately, our environment has a conflicting opinion. While sudden change are prone to occur in nature on the long-term scale, the day-to-day consensus is that the environment prefers normalcy. Our Earth transformed rapidly some billions of years ago but has more or less stayed constant in the past 2 billion years. The natural evolution that served our planet well requires an imaginably slow change that is definitely not compatible with iPod sales or stock exchanges.

So, what’s next for America? Oh, nothing new, to be sure. Our nation has great experience in recent years of forgetting what’s going on. Rapid-fire marketing and entertainment keeps our minds off of present concerns and focuses our attention on the latest news on Dannielynn and hot holiday items. The Iraq War is now under the rug, except for those invovled first-hand; I’m sure it will return to the headlines come primaries and the upcoming presidential debates.

Finally, what’s my point with this unnecessary rant? My point is to offer a bit of redirection and recollection aimed at providing something better for the new generation. Yes, I’m an insignificant blogger but there are dozens of us, I’m sure. I don’t worry about myself in connection to the results of climate change, but I am concerned for the kids growing up today, more pampered than ever and more brainwashed by mindless child-directed advertising that, once again, gets their mind off of important issues. I think about my baby nephew and the world he will experience if we continue to leave the A/C on at night when the temperatures start to freeze, when we leave lights on in every room of the house to feel “safe” (and incandescent lights, at that!), when we throw away #1 & #2 plastics which are accepted at 99% of our nation’s recycling facilities and drop-offs. I hope my nephew doesn’t have to attend a required university course on “environmental responsibility and how to wear your protective face mask when the sky looks purple”.

So, let our actions not concern ourselves but rather those who will experience the various ramifications of our current, viral consumer culture. I try to remember this every morning, but I know how incredibly difficult it is to keep it on the tip of your tongue. Responsibility is often a treasured feature in this society, I’m not sure why we turn it off when considering the environment.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 7:33 pm and is filed under , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.