Summer, yes the City of Angels has met the Demons from Hell! Reaping the unintended consequences...or is that the not even considered consequences...of an over industrialized world crying MORE, MORE, MORE not less, less, less! It is self immolation that has found the home of rampant consumerism (not just California but the whole USA) and is here to stay.
So, I certainly applaud your family's small e small c environmental conservation practices! It is so easy to rationalize that my little bit of waste is not worth the change in habits, the few extra steps, when the industrial complex, the billionaires still flaunt the use of resources thousands of times more than you or I do. Selling LESS as accomplishing more for our world could certainly use a good PR campaign!!!
Yes, Frank! Our family went to Palm Springs this fall and I was just so disgusted by the humongous lots full of water-sucking palm trees and Ironically, on those humongous lots were little signs everywhere saying keep your dog off my lawn. I’m like really? My dog can’t walk on your lawn, but you can suck up all this water and energy? As if your actions don’t affect the rest of us? Much more than a little dog. Smh.
You know Summer... I think that regarding the environment/the planet we live on and with, the real "greenies" are most often the people who spend more time in wild and wildish places. It may seem. like it's a liberal/conservative or blue/red issue but I think that's an illusion. Protecting the natural world doesn't translate from concept to action without that emodied sense that we are not separate from our environment. My sister's father in law recently passed at age 98. He was a 3 term Repuplican governor and US senator from Washington State. He was also one of our greatest earliest conservationists. He left DC politics in part because he wanted to be in Washington State where he could spend time in his beloved forests and mountains. A large portion of Olympic National Park bears his name. My daughter works in shoreline climate change mitigation for the state department of ecology and my son has an ecology degree and currently works as an arborist (because he can't stand sitting behind a desk). My kids were raised spending large chunks of time off grid in the woods of the Olympic Peninsula. I really think that this is the disconnect. If you live in a big city, even one surrounded by natural beauty (like LA, Seattle, San Francisco etc), I think it's much harder to make those daily choices to live smaller, to leave less of a trace, to be always mindful of how one's choices affect the ecosystems we live within. When you must cut and chop your wood to heat your home, shut down the water system during the winter so the pipes don't freeze, or carry in your water; when you watch king tides thrash the bluffs and hillsides adjacent to larger bodies of water, or carry a chainsaw in your car to cut downed trees every winter/spring to get to the cabin in the woods, it changes you. A person can't think of themselves in the grandiose fashion we're seeing everywhere these days. The LA fires are a testament to the power that is so much greater than human, but so are the floods, hurricanes, tsunamis etc that have been growing larger and more devastating every year. It takes great hubris to continue to ignore the fact that we're inviting disaster to continually "rebuild". Rebuilding is necessary obviously, but rebuilding taking into consideration the awesome power of the elements and the fact that we do have a choice about what, where and how big and that these things are relevant to the whole of planet earth... I'm not sure we've learned that lesson yet. But I sure hope this week moves the needle.
(I thought I'd write a few words in response to your post but clearly I had more than a few words🙄)
Well, I love everything about your comment so thank you so much for leaving all these words. It’s funny living up in Alaska. There’s so many conservatives, and yet most of them will fight to protect our fisheries. I know they disagree as to the cause of climate change and scoff at greenies who won’t allow a road to be punched in in order to save the wetlands or whatever. Meanwhile, the greenies that I know tend to travel more, thus leaving a larger carbon footprint, ironically, although they will carry their reusable bags to the grocery store and drive electric cars while others drive gas guzzlers or, more likely diesels. Again, they disagree as to the causeof global warming. And unfortunately, that seems to be playing out with LA. Such a bummer how DEI caused all those fires. 🤔 (sarcasm intended)
Just blame everything on DEI. (Sarcasm intended 😉). I commercially fished in Alaska and worked in a salmon cannery to pay my college tuition. I get it. I think the reality is that most people who really love “the outdoors” whether due to recreational interests or for commercial ultimately come around to being willing to change their behavior to protect their interests. It's those for whom "conservation" is an idea but whose life doesn't interweave with the reality of wild land who are less willing. I have some of the latter in my family.
Summer, yes the City of Angels has met the Demons from Hell! Reaping the unintended consequences...or is that the not even considered consequences...of an over industrialized world crying MORE, MORE, MORE not less, less, less! It is self immolation that has found the home of rampant consumerism (not just California but the whole USA) and is here to stay.
So, I certainly applaud your family's small e small c environmental conservation practices! It is so easy to rationalize that my little bit of waste is not worth the change in habits, the few extra steps, when the industrial complex, the billionaires still flaunt the use of resources thousands of times more than you or I do. Selling LESS as accomplishing more for our world could certainly use a good PR campaign!!!
Yes, Frank! Our family went to Palm Springs this fall and I was just so disgusted by the humongous lots full of water-sucking palm trees and Ironically, on those humongous lots were little signs everywhere saying keep your dog off my lawn. I’m like really? My dog can’t walk on your lawn, but you can suck up all this water and energy? As if your actions don’t affect the rest of us? Much more than a little dog. Smh.
You know Summer... I think that regarding the environment/the planet we live on and with, the real "greenies" are most often the people who spend more time in wild and wildish places. It may seem. like it's a liberal/conservative or blue/red issue but I think that's an illusion. Protecting the natural world doesn't translate from concept to action without that emodied sense that we are not separate from our environment. My sister's father in law recently passed at age 98. He was a 3 term Repuplican governor and US senator from Washington State. He was also one of our greatest earliest conservationists. He left DC politics in part because he wanted to be in Washington State where he could spend time in his beloved forests and mountains. A large portion of Olympic National Park bears his name. My daughter works in shoreline climate change mitigation for the state department of ecology and my son has an ecology degree and currently works as an arborist (because he can't stand sitting behind a desk). My kids were raised spending large chunks of time off grid in the woods of the Olympic Peninsula. I really think that this is the disconnect. If you live in a big city, even one surrounded by natural beauty (like LA, Seattle, San Francisco etc), I think it's much harder to make those daily choices to live smaller, to leave less of a trace, to be always mindful of how one's choices affect the ecosystems we live within. When you must cut and chop your wood to heat your home, shut down the water system during the winter so the pipes don't freeze, or carry in your water; when you watch king tides thrash the bluffs and hillsides adjacent to larger bodies of water, or carry a chainsaw in your car to cut downed trees every winter/spring to get to the cabin in the woods, it changes you. A person can't think of themselves in the grandiose fashion we're seeing everywhere these days. The LA fires are a testament to the power that is so much greater than human, but so are the floods, hurricanes, tsunamis etc that have been growing larger and more devastating every year. It takes great hubris to continue to ignore the fact that we're inviting disaster to continually "rebuild". Rebuilding is necessary obviously, but rebuilding taking into consideration the awesome power of the elements and the fact that we do have a choice about what, where and how big and that these things are relevant to the whole of planet earth... I'm not sure we've learned that lesson yet. But I sure hope this week moves the needle.
(I thought I'd write a few words in response to your post but clearly I had more than a few words🙄)
Well, I love everything about your comment so thank you so much for leaving all these words. It’s funny living up in Alaska. There’s so many conservatives, and yet most of them will fight to protect our fisheries. I know they disagree as to the cause of climate change and scoff at greenies who won’t allow a road to be punched in in order to save the wetlands or whatever. Meanwhile, the greenies that I know tend to travel more, thus leaving a larger carbon footprint, ironically, although they will carry their reusable bags to the grocery store and drive electric cars while others drive gas guzzlers or, more likely diesels. Again, they disagree as to the causeof global warming. And unfortunately, that seems to be playing out with LA. Such a bummer how DEI caused all those fires. 🤔 (sarcasm intended)
Just blame everything on DEI. (Sarcasm intended 😉). I commercially fished in Alaska and worked in a salmon cannery to pay my college tuition. I get it. I think the reality is that most people who really love “the outdoors” whether due to recreational interests or for commercial ultimately come around to being willing to change their behavior to protect their interests. It's those for whom "conservation" is an idea but whose life doesn't interweave with the reality of wild land who are less willing. I have some of the latter in my family.
💯 the communalist v the individualist. We sure have enough of the latter up here in Alaska!
Indeed!