Comments on: What’s the point? http://eco-chick.com/2007/05/21/whats-the-point/ Because Mother Earth Is A Woman Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:08:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: RemyC http://eco-chick.com/2007/05/21/whats-the-point/#comment-97404 RemyC Sat, 26 May 2007 03:06:20 +0000 http://eco-chick.com/?p=806#comment-97404 at first the illustration looked like a mushroom cloud... but then i looked closer and saw it was someone hugging a tree... interesting... at first the illustration looked like a mushroom cloud… but then i looked closer and saw it was someone hugging a tree… interesting…

]]> By: Starre http://eco-chick.com/2007/05/21/whats-the-point/#comment-84109 Starre Tue, 22 May 2007 16:28:47 +0000 http://eco-chick.com/?p=806#comment-84109 Alon- I think it's really important to include ALL people if we want to induce global change/sustainability....those with the cash do their part (and hopefully aren't too hypocritical about the way they live too) to change society from their place of power, for sure. But real change has to come from everyone else too. That is what community and social empowerment is all about. Who built Procter and Gamble? It wasn't just wealthy people buying lots of toothpaste, it was a lot of folks with not too much money (and even less influence) each making small, regular contributions. Think of any giant company that sells goods in the marketplace- even car companies- they were built by the accumulation of money from a lot of sources. Not to mention that many of the world's poorest people have the lowest impact. Not that we want people to be destitute and starving, by any means, but there are actually ways of living we can learn from them (not wasting so damn much would be a start....when you don't have much you're certainly not throwing things away just cause they look worn out or are not longer in fashion.) Alon- I think it’s really important to include ALL people if we want to induce global change/sustainability….those with the cash do their part (and hopefully aren’t too hypocritical about the way they live too) to change society from their place of power, for sure. But real change has to come from everyone else too. That is what community and social empowerment is all about. Who built Procter and Gamble? It wasn’t just wealthy people buying lots of toothpaste, it was a lot of folks with not too much money (and even less influence) each making small, regular contributions. Think of any giant company that sells goods in the marketplace- even car companies- they were built by the accumulation of money from a lot of sources.

Not to mention that many of the world’s poorest people have the lowest impact. Not that we want people to be destitute and starving, by any means, but there are actually ways of living we can learn from them (not wasting so damn much would be a start….when you don’t have much you’re certainly not throwing things away just cause they look worn out or are not longer in fashion.)

]]> By: Alon Levy http://eco-chick.com/2007/05/21/whats-the-point/#comment-83975 Alon Levy Tue, 22 May 2007 15:51:43 +0000 http://eco-chick.com/?p=806#comment-83975 The point of living the movement is to feel good about yourself. Additional ways of feeling good are appeals to grand history (”You people have oppressed us for X decades/centuries”), and various and sundry ways of convincing yourself you’re more radical than anyone else. If I were to stop emitting carbon, the net gain to the environment would be exactly zero. The subway would keep running at the same frequency, and all the buildings I use would be heated to the same extent. Consumer goods contribute approximately nothing to global warming; cars and buildings release far, far more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than industry. If, in contrast, I were to accumulate various measures of political capital - e.g. money to contribute to organizations and columns to write for various outlets - and spend them on global warming, there would be a measurable gain. A hundred thousand people who withdraw from modern society contribute nothing; a hundred thousand who agitate for fewer subsidies to private transportation and more to public transportation, greater urbanization, mixed use urban zoning, and greater investment in alternative energies can change everything. The point of living the movement is to feel good about yourself. Additional ways of feeling good are appeals to grand history (”You people have oppressed us for X decades/centuries”), and various and sundry ways of convincing yourself you’re more radical than anyone else.

If I were to stop emitting carbon, the net gain to the environment would be exactly zero. The subway would keep running at the same frequency, and all the buildings I use would be heated to the same extent. Consumer goods contribute approximately nothing to global warming; cars and buildings release far, far more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than industry.

If, in contrast, I were to accumulate various measures of political capital - e.g. money to contribute to organizations and columns to write for various outlets - and spend them on global warming, there would be a measurable gain. A hundred thousand people who withdraw from modern society contribute nothing; a hundred thousand who agitate for fewer subsidies to private transportation and more to public transportation, greater urbanization, mixed use urban zoning, and greater investment in alternative energies can change everything.

]]> By: Katie Kish http://eco-chick.com/2007/05/21/whats-the-point/#comment-83792 Katie Kish Tue, 22 May 2007 14:59:10 +0000 http://eco-chick.com/?p=806#comment-83792 That is also my conclusion from all of this - increasing the technology that we seem to get so close to actually making workable, and then never implimenting it. That is also my conclusion from all of this - increasing the technology that we seem to get so close to actually making workable, and then never implimenting it.

]]> By: David http://eco-chick.com/2007/05/21/whats-the-point/#comment-82683 David Tue, 22 May 2007 09:43:47 +0000 http://eco-chick.com/?p=806#comment-82683 You would think we would have learnt enough by now to avoid the 'Tragedy of the Commons' big time. I'm not talking "dirty hippie", I'm thinking alternative hi-tech responsibility. You would think we would have learnt enough by now to avoid the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ big time. I’m not talking “dirty hippie”, I’m thinking alternative hi-tech responsibility.

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