B&G’s Excellent Adventure

What keeps me up at night

April 30th, 2007

This and other Peak Oil arguments. Do I believe in all of it? I am not a scientist to form comprehensive opinion independently but I understand enough of what they’re talking about to be quite depressed about the issue. The only plausible source for optimism is hope in technology and innovation which might or might not deliver. People have been predicting the doom for humanity for centuries– we were going to run out of food, mysterious diseases would wipe us out by 1990 etc. etc. Nothing like that happened so far but the problem persists: there are too many of us using up Earth’s resources too quickly– unless the population or consumption (or both) will start decreasing, we will run out. Right?

In the meanwhile, what do I do? Incremental changes to my own lifestyle seem like a drop in a bucket, going off the grid completely will still not persuade the other 6 billion of people to do the same. Reducing amount of water my toilet flushes or biking to the local food co-op seem insignificant in a world where people use disposable everything and drive their SUVs from their homes to the corner store. In fact, I am a bit annoyed by the gentrification of the environmentalism in this country– popular media would make you believe that if you change to more efficient light bulbs and start recycling pop cans, you have saved the planet! That’s definitely a step into the right direction but it is not coming close to mitigating the damage we are imposing onto our planet. I have entertained the idea of never flying again and getting rid of my car but unfortunately, these changes would make existence in the current social infrastructure almost impossible. Should I turn into a crazy Greenpeace activist or join a political lobby? Move to Kansas and compost my poop? Change my career path and try to invent a new way to capture renewable energy? With looming crisis so large and options for meaningful action so limited, I feel so hopeless that I might as well do nothing. (faulty reasoning, I know…)

Can someone make me feel better about this issue? (and I don’t mean smoking/snorting/swallowing anything to make me forget about the whole silly thing ) Sometimes, I feel that being ignorant is better for one’s happiness.

Categories: Uncategorized |