The Eleventh Hour - continued
Noel found a book for me at the Library. It's called "Eaarth" (yes, that's "Earth" with 2 a's), and the theme of the book is a continuation of "The Long Emergency" and "The Eleventh Hour". I'm only 15 pages into it and I'm depressed. But I need to read it. I need to know what might be coming in the future. Because I want to survive it in some comfort with the skills that I need in place.
Our situation is, truly, dire (if you really want to know the details, read the book - but most people just don't want to know). And we've allowed ourselves to get here. Our greed, our inertia, and our blinders (what keeps us from wanting to know) have kept us from seeing the truth - if these guys are right. And I suspect they are.
But, really, even if we don't want to see it, our world is changing. And if we are going to survive with any quality of life, we have to open our eyes and see it. Truth be told, my life in Northern Alberta will probably still be quite livable. I suspect we will adapt and will be able to feed ourselves and hopefully not freeze in the winter time. But not Bangladesh, not the small island communities that are already under water, not coastal communities. They won't be able to survive where they are. They will either move or die. That's the stark truth.
And why haven't we done anything about it? Because the economy has been considered more important than our environment. Because our governments operate on the greed of large corporations. The money to get elected (because money IS what it takes to get elected) comes from the large corporations. And they only support your party if you support their greed. That's the truth of it. Our world is run by greedy, uncaring multi-nationals - whether we want to admit it or not. Our system has failed us beyond belief.
I went camping this weekend with a bunch of Beavers and their parents. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love being out in the bush and camping. Noel told me I was "in my element". I am not an expert camper, but my Guiding skills from 25 years ago are still with me. And they were with the other 40-something ex-Guider. But I weep for the generations behind me. Not because of the world they are going to inherit (although that is exceedingly sad), but because they are going to have no survival skills at all. Some of their parents can't even survive without electricity for 15 minutes. How are their kids going to know how to manage when our energy consumption is hugely reduced?? What a shocker they are in for.
I'm trying hard not to be depressed about it, but rather to set my life up to slowly be more sustainable. If there is no food at the grocery store for any period of time (yes, folks, I believe that time is coming when we will have food shortages - not sure when, but it will come), I want to be able feed us. I want to own the property that is supporting us. I want to be sure that my life can be livable without many of the "mod-cons". I've discovered that there is little I can do to influence my government or the majority of the people out there. I'm trying to do my little bit to influence my blog readers (and not to depress you too much), and to encourage more awareness, but I have a very small sphere. As an individual I can do very little aside from taking care of my family.
So that's where I stand. I think I see what's coming (God! I hope I'm wrong). I hopefully can tell a few people to get ready without sounding like Chicken Little. And I can take care of my people. That's about it.
That will have to do.
Our situation is, truly, dire (if you really want to know the details, read the book - but most people just don't want to know). And we've allowed ourselves to get here. Our greed, our inertia, and our blinders (what keeps us from wanting to know) have kept us from seeing the truth - if these guys are right. And I suspect they are.
But, really, even if we don't want to see it, our world is changing. And if we are going to survive with any quality of life, we have to open our eyes and see it. Truth be told, my life in Northern Alberta will probably still be quite livable. I suspect we will adapt and will be able to feed ourselves and hopefully not freeze in the winter time. But not Bangladesh, not the small island communities that are already under water, not coastal communities. They won't be able to survive where they are. They will either move or die. That's the stark truth.
And why haven't we done anything about it? Because the economy has been considered more important than our environment. Because our governments operate on the greed of large corporations. The money to get elected (because money IS what it takes to get elected) comes from the large corporations. And they only support your party if you support their greed. That's the truth of it. Our world is run by greedy, uncaring multi-nationals - whether we want to admit it or not. Our system has failed us beyond belief.
I went camping this weekend with a bunch of Beavers and their parents. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love being out in the bush and camping. Noel told me I was "in my element". I am not an expert camper, but my Guiding skills from 25 years ago are still with me. And they were with the other 40-something ex-Guider. But I weep for the generations behind me. Not because of the world they are going to inherit (although that is exceedingly sad), but because they are going to have no survival skills at all. Some of their parents can't even survive without electricity for 15 minutes. How are their kids going to know how to manage when our energy consumption is hugely reduced?? What a shocker they are in for.
I'm trying hard not to be depressed about it, but rather to set my life up to slowly be more sustainable. If there is no food at the grocery store for any period of time (yes, folks, I believe that time is coming when we will have food shortages - not sure when, but it will come), I want to be able feed us. I want to own the property that is supporting us. I want to be sure that my life can be livable without many of the "mod-cons". I've discovered that there is little I can do to influence my government or the majority of the people out there. I'm trying to do my little bit to influence my blog readers (and not to depress you too much), and to encourage more awareness, but I have a very small sphere. As an individual I can do very little aside from taking care of my family.
So that's where I stand. I think I see what's coming (God! I hope I'm wrong). I hopefully can tell a few people to get ready without sounding like Chicken Little. And I can take care of my people. That's about it.
That will have to do.
Great post, Sandi. Not sure if I'm ready to read any of those books yet. Too sad. I agree with you that the big issue here is corporate responsibility (or rather irresponsibility) We can continue to do our part for the environment, but when big corporations continue to package every single piece of merchandise in styrofoam and plastic, it places the entire onus of environmental responsibility on an individual or a municipality. Most people don't enjoy spending at least an hour per day sorting recycling, or reading every label at the grocery store to ensure the product is local and as little packaging as possible. And many municipalities don't have the tax base or community support to bring in recycling programs. I would love to see one mega corporation like McDonalds or Starbucks step up to the plate and swear off single use plastics. And only then will I see a glimmer of hope for change.
ReplyDeleteI started to feel pretty down about the environment as soon as those single serving coffee machines became main stream. How are we as a society more environmentally conscious when people are choosing in masses to use a single plastic flavoured container per cup of coffee?
In the meantime, I am one of the few who are rooting for gas prices to continue to increase. May be one of the few ways for people to stop depending so much on fossil fuels...