Saturday, October 23, 2004
Sign It!
Okay, let me just get this one out of the way, and we’ll all feel a lot better. I didn’t want to do a serious blog entry this week, but I am growing very tired of our nation’s attitude. I do not want this blog to turn into one of these boring and banal political blogs, but I do have a little bit of a grievance to air. But don’t worry, I’ll be as brief as I can, and I’ll try to put my Carl spin on it (as opposed to angry-liberal activist blogger spin… you can get that elsewhere). It will be like that joke that is told by so many woman stand-up comedians… you know, the “let me just do this one thing…” joke. Let me just type this one, and get it out of my system. Then you can go home, and I’ll play PS2 or fall asleep, baby. (Ever been called “baby” by a blog before, baby?)
The refusal of the United States to sign the Kyoto Treaty is embarrassing and wrong. Russia looks as if they are going to sign it finally. This means that 50% of the world’s greenhouse gases will be accounted for in some way. They won’t be eliminated, but the countries responsible for generating them will be making efforts to reduce further pollution, and therefore reduce destruction of our Earth. I don’t know all of the arguments against signing it, but I am sure they are similar to past arguments; that the cost of compliance would kill many businesses, or become taxing on the government. My answer to this is, that’s unfortunate, but businessmen can restructure, and laborers can find new jobs if needed. The damage we are doing to the Earth may not be reversible. We are being horrible stewards of our planet, and as Americans, we are being horrible examples to the world.
The United States, once again, is showing how decadent and spoiled we are. Our country is single-handedly responsible for between 35% and 40% of the pollution targeted by the Kyoto Treaty, yet we refuse to align with the goals set within it. How pompous of us. If we would fall in line, over 80% of the emissions in the world would be under scrutiny, leading to a slowing of degradation of our environment. But then we’d be expected to show self-restraint, conservation, and maybe even the dreaded “inconvenience. “
Americans are ridiculous in our waste and pollution. We have parlayed manifest destiny into the notion of “rights,” and we have grossly preached the gospel of self-indulgence. We have created a culture where convenience and leisure have become more valuable than all other factors. We drive way too often, for worthless reasons, and in cars far too inefficient. What’s worse is the fact that we hide behind the notions of “America’s love affair with driving” and freedom to defend our selfish actions.
President Bush made the decision to go to war with Iraq on the notion that they harbored weapons that could be used in major offensives against peace-loving nations in terrorism. He had a spurious case at best, but the point I want to make is that he found support to go to war based on these claims. The real truth is that the United States is damaging the future of all nations with its careless living; and that is much easier to confirm than hidden barrels of biological weapons. Our WOMD are our SUVS, over-packaged food, convenience items, gluttonous use of utilities, and wasteful luxury products. Are we not just as potentially dangerous as the Iraqi regime we have fought to eliminate? Are we not terrorizing the planet with our careless ways? Is it any wonder that we are so hated? It would be foreseeable to me that the world would align against us, because we are consuming, spewing, and sprawling at rates detrimental to everyone but us.
I am sick and tired of Americans living like the party is never going to end. We are killing our own planet, much as we are killing ourselves. We are a great nation with great opportunity, and yet our people cannot manage to eat healthily, stay away from pumping poison into their own bodies, or decrease the amount of waste and pollution they create. We are completely complacent to all the problems we could be solving or slowing; global warming, AIDS, tobacco, obesity… the list goes on and on. The average American is more worried about getting a flu shot this year (even though demand on not-shortage years is low) than the amount of destruction they are causing. Everything we touch we find a way to poison.
In Akira Kurosawa’s movie Dreams (I have mentioned it a few posts ago), there is a vignette about environmentalism. On a holiday meant to appreciate the beauty of nature in bloom, the spirits of peach trees that were razed return to haunt the humans that live where their forest once stood. A young boy stands “trial” in front of the spirits. They mock him for the ignorance of man, who destroys nature to suit his own whim; but the boy cries. He stood alone against his family as they cut down the orchard, crying as the ax fell. His plea to the spirits were as follows,
“Peaches can be bought, but who can buy an orchard in bloom?”
Who indeed? America; shame on YOU, and shame on US. Sign the Kyoto Treaty and start working with the rest of the world instead of against it. Stop ignoring the mess we are making of the Earth, and let’s reevaluate the lifestyles that are marching us straight to ruin.
Thanks for indulging me. See ya! Baby.
The refusal of the United States to sign the Kyoto Treaty is embarrassing and wrong. Russia looks as if they are going to sign it finally. This means that 50% of the world’s greenhouse gases will be accounted for in some way. They won’t be eliminated, but the countries responsible for generating them will be making efforts to reduce further pollution, and therefore reduce destruction of our Earth. I don’t know all of the arguments against signing it, but I am sure they are similar to past arguments; that the cost of compliance would kill many businesses, or become taxing on the government. My answer to this is, that’s unfortunate, but businessmen can restructure, and laborers can find new jobs if needed. The damage we are doing to the Earth may not be reversible. We are being horrible stewards of our planet, and as Americans, we are being horrible examples to the world.
The United States, once again, is showing how decadent and spoiled we are. Our country is single-handedly responsible for between 35% and 40% of the pollution targeted by the Kyoto Treaty, yet we refuse to align with the goals set within it. How pompous of us. If we would fall in line, over 80% of the emissions in the world would be under scrutiny, leading to a slowing of degradation of our environment. But then we’d be expected to show self-restraint, conservation, and maybe even the dreaded “inconvenience. “
Americans are ridiculous in our waste and pollution. We have parlayed manifest destiny into the notion of “rights,” and we have grossly preached the gospel of self-indulgence. We have created a culture where convenience and leisure have become more valuable than all other factors. We drive way too often, for worthless reasons, and in cars far too inefficient. What’s worse is the fact that we hide behind the notions of “America’s love affair with driving” and freedom to defend our selfish actions.
President Bush made the decision to go to war with Iraq on the notion that they harbored weapons that could be used in major offensives against peace-loving nations in terrorism. He had a spurious case at best, but the point I want to make is that he found support to go to war based on these claims. The real truth is that the United States is damaging the future of all nations with its careless living; and that is much easier to confirm than hidden barrels of biological weapons. Our WOMD are our SUVS, over-packaged food, convenience items, gluttonous use of utilities, and wasteful luxury products. Are we not just as potentially dangerous as the Iraqi regime we have fought to eliminate? Are we not terrorizing the planet with our careless ways? Is it any wonder that we are so hated? It would be foreseeable to me that the world would align against us, because we are consuming, spewing, and sprawling at rates detrimental to everyone but us.
I am sick and tired of Americans living like the party is never going to end. We are killing our own planet, much as we are killing ourselves. We are a great nation with great opportunity, and yet our people cannot manage to eat healthily, stay away from pumping poison into their own bodies, or decrease the amount of waste and pollution they create. We are completely complacent to all the problems we could be solving or slowing; global warming, AIDS, tobacco, obesity… the list goes on and on. The average American is more worried about getting a flu shot this year (even though demand on not-shortage years is low) than the amount of destruction they are causing. Everything we touch we find a way to poison.
In Akira Kurosawa’s movie Dreams (I have mentioned it a few posts ago), there is a vignette about environmentalism. On a holiday meant to appreciate the beauty of nature in bloom, the spirits of peach trees that were razed return to haunt the humans that live where their forest once stood. A young boy stands “trial” in front of the spirits. They mock him for the ignorance of man, who destroys nature to suit his own whim; but the boy cries. He stood alone against his family as they cut down the orchard, crying as the ax fell. His plea to the spirits were as follows,
“Peaches can be bought, but who can buy an orchard in bloom?”
Who indeed? America; shame on YOU, and shame on US. Sign the Kyoto Treaty and start working with the rest of the world instead of against it. Stop ignoring the mess we are making of the Earth, and let’s reevaluate the lifestyles that are marching us straight to ruin.
Thanks for indulging me. See ya! Baby.
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