So often in these discussions there are issues of reality vs fantasy. Take oil. We still need oil. Oil is not going away anytime in the near future and the poorer you are the more likely you’ll be depending on oil because newer more expensive equipment is what is using more green technology. Part of the reality is that we have to drive cars. Most of the nation depends on cars to get to and from work , stores and so on. As more green tech reaches reduced pricing more will use it.
The other argument I see all the time and it’s just stupid in my opinion is this. Rich people flying around in private jets is ok because poor people still fly in planes sometimes. Comparing the dude flying in a plane across the sea going on vacation once every few years is not the same as the dude who owns a private jet and flies all the time. I’ve worked on clients houses who are so loaded they are richer than everyone here combined. Even if the top 20 people in made 2 million a year, they would make more money than us in four months. I’ve been working on houses and their adult kids will decide to fly from Alabama to New York City on their private plane to get lunch and then eat it on the plane while flying to LA for a evening show. That kind of money and what they are doing to the environment is simply not the same as someone who flies once a year. Most people, don’t even fly once a year. They fly once every decade.
The other issue with things like environmentalism is not even centered on greenhouse affect. It’s urbanization and American lawns. Ultimately, the majority of people, in including the bulk of the rich are not going to change anything. I know they won’t change anything because they don’t already.
Look at one of the most basic concepts of being a good person.
Am I a good person if I drive around and kick stray dogs. Can I be a good person and also chain up stray dogs, repeatedly shave their fur leaving them cold all the time, and then kill them. Most people would say torturing stray dogs and cats is probably a sign of something really demented going on. But we all routinely contribute to same things. Myself included.
I love my cats more than the chickens that are killed that they eat in the form of their kibble cat food stuff. Hell I love my cats more than the kids of strangers on the street. I would try to save my cat instead of s kid in a crisis because I love my cat more.
When I go hiking in nature I am destroying bits of it. When I handle snakes and spiders, I’m stressing them out. When I march off a trail through a forest to forage wild mushrooms, I’m stomping down plants and so on.
So what we try to do is make up for all the crap we cause by doing something. We do try to reduce what we do. I won’t stomp through a meadow of rare flowers. I’ll rather stomp through an area with flowers that are not globally or locally threatened. I pick flowers from nature to bring them back and study them because I enjoy it. To help make up for that, I do what’s called Guerrilla gardening. I often spread native wildflowers across peoples properties. Like there are a lot of people who don’t maintain their yard. It’s trashy. Broken down vehicles all over. Grass going weeks without being cut. Wildflowers, native and non native, growing along edges. So I’ll walk into their yard and throw out handfuls of seeds. In city parks where there are lots of bushes and so on. I’ll plant native stuff without permission. Sometimes the parking lots at places like Walmart I’ll go to back areas where most people never are. Far out in the parking lot where they have those spaces with trees and shrubs and tons of mulch. No one pays attention or care. I’ll just go out there, move the mulch, dig new holes and plant like 10 native shrubs and spread wildflowers seeds all over it. I’ll stick in a sign that says wildflower project and have the corporate number for Walmart written on it and hammer it in. Then whoever sees it, just accepts it as reality and they will leave it alone. I’m just deceiving them hoping they are too apathetic and lazy to call the number. They rather just avoid it and it looks like it belongs there. I drove along ditches and just toss out seeds into then in the county.
For me I just stick to these things. If I want to help make the world better I focus on what I can do. I’m not going to save the rainforest or save elephants. I’m not donating my money to those projects, and outside of whining on social media sometimes about it, it’s just outside of my control and concern. But what I can do is this. I can choose to shop at the local farmers market. I can get my tomatoes most of the time from this Asian woman who sells them instead of at Publix. Though i can’t save African elephants or Brazilian forests, I can make sure that in my yard I use no chemicals. I am making the life of the ants in my yard better. I’m making the life of birds in my yard better. I’ve used berms and plants and divots to help make the water flowing back into the river by my house better. I’ve planted aquatic plants and helped support the bank and it helps the fish a little bit. It definitely made the life of some of the turtles in my backyard life better. I’ve created banks there and used fallen trees in spots and I see turtles sunbathing on them all the time.
Now we can all call our mayors. We can all go to Public hearings about what our state and town officials are going to do. We can talk to contractors who win bids. I know the wife of the man who routinely wins the bids to do the landscaping for the “beautification of our town.” It’s not a lot, but I’ve convinced him by convincing her to only use native Hollies and oaks when he uses Hollie’s and oaks. There is a spot where it use to be about 200 French mophead hydrangeas. They are not native. Now out of that 200 , about 30 of them are native smooth and oak leaf hydrangeas. The European Hollies are American ones.
I think bubble up effect will work better than just trickle down laws. If everyone can care about their own yard, and we all get our yards eco friendly and make our plates lore eco friendly full. Maybe there will be ways to make distant places safer .