Sometimes you find yourself up against something you might not ever understand. It is in that moment that you just might discover the truth about who you really are.
I recently watched a video on youtube about how some very radical "a-la-droit" convervatives believe that environmentalists- collectively demonized as "the green dragon"- are staging a coup of social and political power using "false science" and "lies". I seriously doubt that there are many people that actually believe that the best available science in the world is some sort of hippie conspiracy, but for me, it raised some bigger questions...
The quote I have opened this blog with... "No single raindrop believes it is responsible for the flood" brings up something much scarier to me than a green dragon... a social ineptitude that some have called the "mob of the masses". Crowd Psychology is something long considered by eco-psychologists. How does one overcome apathy of the masses?
It is interesting to observe the complicated devices that people use to contribute to their apathy. A lot of people still don't believe that global climate change is even real- much less caused by man- because 'one of their friends one time was telling them how they saw on TV this one time how global climate shifts have recurrently been observed in geological records, and that the Earth is in some sort of "phase"'. This resolves a big problem- having to do something about it.
The big monster I face is this "kink" in human nature- a proclivity for inaction; apathy... In the face of this monster, the best that I can do is to provide a model for someone who has chosen not to succumb. Don't get me wrong - I'm no Colin Beaven, ("No Impact Man")- I'm just a regular guy, living in a small apartment near the University of Cincinnati, where I work and take classes. I am, in fact, going to use this blog to post direct measurements of my carbon footprint, starting on 1 Jan 2011, and continue until 1 Jan 2012. This number will be very important to me, and hopefully make an interesting statement to anyone who follows. I will essentially provide a "guide" for my followers who are interested in becoming more green. The real mission of this blog, then, is to show my friends and anyone who is interested some great ways to reduce your carbon footprint.
So, yeah- I walk, ride a bike, use public transportation, shop at local farmers markets, buy local and organic, recycle, reduce, reuse, compost, and don't eat meat... I'm still no superhero. I contribute still more ambient CO2 than the average world citizen... mostly from burning coal to provide electricity to my heater, refrigerator, and gadgets. Where do I go from here? Well, hopefully you find that an interesting question, and I look forward to the many things to come this year. Just maybe this blog site can be a useful tool in the hand of the "green dragon" and together, we can defeat the much larger monsters of apathy and climate change...
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