Friday, August 11, 2006

The world's problems

Thomas Carlyle, "Every noble work is at first [seemingly] impossible." (adjective added by me)

Saw An Inconvenient Truth yesterday. Fact is, the problem of global warming is exceedingly inconvenient to deal with. Could the world really end in a hot way in a mere 50- 100 years? And we can halt the process by doing something about it now? It seems impossible to change our set ways here in America. It's just so wasteful and excessive how we live in comparison to people in other countries. 1 Ex. big honkin' trucks here.. vs. super fuel- efficient cars in Asia. Rather than rant on and on, I'd like to reflect on how huge of a task it'll be to get most people to be green. Funny how this sort of responsibility to our current home, the earth, has a phrase set apart for it: green. It doesn't imply a sense of normality or ethicality, but is considered an oddity and has been inducing the rolling of eyes and annoyance for a while now.

I guess the thing about some things is that those who are aware can't just be spiteful and wait until it's too late to say 'I told you so' to the non-carers, because then, it really is too late.

God, the world is just riddled with problems. Global warming, AIDS, wars in the Middle East, famines in Africa, lives still devastated by natural disasters, those are some of the big ones. There must be something more right than and between (1) not caring and going on with life as if nothing was happening and (2) being consumed by despair, choked, shocked, frozen . We (or at least I) are extremely privileged to be mostly untouched by them.. but really, who knows how long that will last?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I find your example ironic since China is the world's biggest producer of the so-called "global warming gasses."
-Andrew

Fern said...

Well, China is pretty big, you know, and the US does account for 1/2 of all the car- caused greenhouse gas emissions. Not to take any responsibility off China, but this is an American- made documentary aimed primarily at Americans.