Human Nature v. Going Green

I'm tired, but I will ramble out a few thoughts ...

It is human nature to follow the path of least resistance. Going green typically takes extra effort and more expense. Most people are in the mindset of doing things in the most expedient way, without regard to how it impacts other people, nature, or the future of their children. And thus, for the most part humans are little selfish rats.

When the economy sinks it's a mixed blessing for the environment. There is less greenspace getting slaughtered in the name of holy growth. But when money is tight, individuals, government, and companies are less likely or unable to "do the right thing," and focus, instead, on survival. It's like the extremely poor people of Haiti who move into the national parks of the neighboring Dominican Republic, and they damage the parks so that they can have firewood and farmland. While the individuals survive in the short term, the environment is knocked another notch down.

What can we do, oh great Goose?

All of us need to redirect our values and live a more simple life. We need to stop using "stuff" to fill the voids in our empty lives. We need to kick our addiction to materialism. We need to live a simple life, buy a small home, and eat low on the food chain (i.e. mostly vegetarian). We need to all just chill out, relax, and stopped being so obsessed with junk.

Let's tackle a few myths ...

• If something is old it is bad and needs to be replaced. Wrong, wrong, wrong! There is nothing wrong with having an older car or appliance. There is still great beauty in a 1998 Honda Civic. When your possessions break, repair them and keep on going. Don't bother trying to impress people because there is no one to impress and no one really cares.
  
  
• Don't buy into this prosperity religion, where they tell you that God wants you to be rich. Why would God want you to be rich when over half the world is desperately poor?
  
  
• You must have a big house. NO YOU DON'T. You don't need your bonus room and atrium ceiling. Just be happy with the home you have.

The myth of infinite growth ....

Our entire economy is based on the lie that our economy can grow forever. When the economy is growing, everyone is doing well, except for nature, which gets screwed. We have to switch our economy from an eternal growth model to a sustainability model. To make this work, every individual and company must do their part.

Yeah, yeah, I know. This is all really boring and no one really cares. I guess we'll keep doing what we are doing and slowly resign ourselves to the fact that the decades of rapid growth are over. We'll just have to learn to be poor, at least when the government can't give any more bailouts, and all our taxes are going to pay interest on debt. And, oh, the foreign countries bought all the treasury bonds to provide assistance to our national suicide. Yeah, yeah, right.