I just saw a car commercial where they make fun of a guy using VR, calling him a loser, while the handsome guy and his gorgeous GF rush off into the wilds in their new SUV. It’s kind of strange to think in most ways I agree with the message and certainly would have been behind such a thing ten years ago, but now, with all my current knowledge, I can’t help but think things such as, “Those nature lovers will pollute as much as VR guy does in an hour during their first 2 minutes of driving.”
Maybe it’s bad for my mental health, but I can’t help but notice all these things now.
- Some of the most environmentally minded people I’m friends with happily fly across the USA several times a year without blinking.
- People I know with solar panels on their house, who drive electric vehicles, get pissy when they find out someone is coming to their dinner party who refuses to eat beef.
- I write a bunch of environmentally based WildernessPunk articles about pollution all summer, but then drive my family to Colorado.
I’ve talked about some of these issues before, such as we all have our little pet projects which make us feel better about ourselves and remove our guilt while perhaps making us feel superior to our neighbor. One of mine has always been bike riding. Yep, I rode my bike throughout six full winters in Flagstaff. Four of those while owning a Forerunner. Sure, that’s cool, but does it cancel out the air conditioning I now use in Tucson? Maybe it bought me some good karma, but it’s getting eaten up quick.
I’m not trying to come down on people for doing something I do myself. I’m more interested in investigating the phenomenon of why our minds work this way. Why do some of the most environmentally minded people I know disregard their knowledge and goals so quickly when it comes to their own behavior and needs?
- Sure, driving is one of the worst things I can do to the environment, but I have kids and of course I need to get to work. What do you want me to carry a dozen bags of groceries on my back for two miles? Get real…
- Of course, one plane flight equals the yearly United Nation’s goal for what a single person should be polluting in an entire year, but I’m not just going to blow off taking a vacation.
- I’m an environmentalist, but my daughter is just being crazy when she says she wants to be a vegetarian.
Why is it so easy for us to disregard our own ethics and knowledge? “We all need to stop driving so much, but of course I’m not going to blow off my road trip.” Why are the vast majority of people like this? Are we all just exceedingly selfish? Do we think these rules apply to everyone but us?
Some people want to blame the government or corporations. But how many people do you know who are saying, “Thank goodness the gas prices are going up, this is probably cutting down on a lot of pollution.” Sure, the billionaires and the gridlocked governments could be doing more, but only a naïve idealist should be waiting for them to kick anything into gear. Some billionaires might donate half a percent of their wealth to something so they can have a self-congratulatory banquet and maybe some governments might spend .03% as much as their military budget on a few token programs, but maybe the one thing the mega-rich oil company CEOs and I agree with is it must come down to personal responsibility and choice.
In the end… even when an evil bastard like tRump is in office, we are still voting every day with our wallets.
So yeah, corporations care about profits more than life and politicians just want to line their pockets and egos… yadda yadda yadda… But I think the biggest culprit is not the corps, the governments, or the individuals. In the end the real villain is our culture.
Allow me to break this down, while I throw myself under the bus. I just wrote an article where I outline how crappy it is to drive and now, I’m driving over a thousand miles to take my family on a road trip.
- Do corporations care? (Great he’s buying loads of gas, and spending loads of money to support various businesses-Win!)
- Does the government care? (What a good American helping support our economy while engaging in a traditional American value-Win)
- Did any of my friends even hint that I might be acting like a hypocrite going against what I had said just a week earlier? (Nope, not a peep. The friends I visited were happy to see me and the friends I left wished me a good time.)
So again, it isn’t politicians, corporations or even individuals slowing me down or causing me to think twice. Why, because being responsible to the environment or your pledge to it, isn’t part of our culture.
Right now, for the most part being a ‘good’ person = being anti-environment. Let me give you a few examples.
- My mother is getting older, I should fly home to visit her. = I’m a great son
- My kid just joined a soccer league, I’m going to be busy driving him all over this summer and need to order him some gear on Amazon = I’m a great dad.
- My wife loves Colorado so I’m going to drive our family there this July. = I’m a nice husband.
- I love nature so much I’m going to drive to a new mountain I have never hiked this weekend = I’m a nature lover.
What if we changed this?
- I should be spending time with my aging mother, but I’m too selfish not to live where I want to.
- Whatever my kid wishes to do is more important than any other concern. We are both too selfish to consider anything other than our desires.
- Screw my ideals, they aren’t as important as me having a good time.
- No matter what I believe, or know is right, is not going to make me behave any different than any other American?
Probably one of the biggest similarities between a tRump loving MAGA shirt wearing right wing Evangelicals and the Prius driving They/Themer is neither one is calling their friend out on any of the real environmental crimes they commit daily. Sure, at best, someone might suggest you buy an electric car, give you shit for not recycling, or tell you hunting helps protect the environment, but this is all pennies on the dollar crap. Okay, right, if you maybe do this and that you’re cutting down 3% on the damage you are doing to the Earth…amazing.
The bottom line is doing whatever the hell you want, no matter your ideals, is part of American culture. A part, which a few people give a token blurb against, but almost everyone embraces no matter what side of the political aisle you like to sit in. And if any leftist wants to claim they are better than the right because they bought an energy efficient dishwasher, they should remember that poor people use less resources and then go fuck themselves. Just so they don’t feel left out, if anyone on the right says they love America, their first step should be to drive a little as possible and put solar energy panels on your roof, unless you like giving billions of hard-earned American dollars to the fascist theocratic countries of the Middle East. Personally, I think anyone who buys a monster truck should be forced to have an ‘I heart Islam’ bumper stick affixed over their license plate.
Have I gotten my point across? Have I proven I’m as bad as the next guy? Is there a place we can go from here?
Let me try to throw this out there. Perhaps, changing our culture should be our first step in the country and is probably more important than riding your bike to work or being a vegetarian.
Okay Boneman, how do you propose we do this?
- Carefully choose which of your hobbies, tasks, and requirements are the most important while keeping an eye on their Negative Environmental Impact.
- Stop feeling superior and think we’ve done our part by picking one or two positive choices while still engaging in thirty negative ones.
- Create a culture which encourages pro-environmental choices instead of traditional values and stereotypical self-congratulation.
- Give prestige and status to people making positive choices while calling people on thinking it is okay to do whatever they wish and still consider themselves decent folks.
- Be more impressed with the guy who made his own supplies out of dumpster dived materials than the dude who spent 400$ to have the same thing shipped from China.
This article could go on for 10 more pages, but then what would I write next week and aren’t we both burning fossil fuels by writing and reading this?
Lastly, don’t hate me, and try not to think of me as being a hypocrite for taking my family on a road trip. At least I’m knocked off any high horse I might have found and realize I’m no better than anyone else. I’m there with the rest of you struggling somehow to make this all work for more than another 20 years.
“I’m not telling you what choices to make, I’m just telling you every decision you make is an environmental choice.”
Alex
Bone
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