So now EVERYONE is all freaked about global warming. And well we should be.
But it was maddening listening to Cross Country Check up on CBC Radio....old Rex sure draws an, em, OLD crowd.
A lot of retiree's were calling in and stating how 'we' have to do something about emissions, etc. A lot of folks who were driving 1970's giant gas guzzlers and burning wood fire's and having sprinklers run all day and air conditioners all night....you know.
I once again lost it when some pratt from my home town called in to reiterate that we all should be riding our bikes. Now while I agree that for SOME riding a bike is a great way to get around. Keeps you fit and saves on gas money and horrendous commutes. But really, get serious. The only few in VANCOUVER who can realistically commute by bike are people who live a max, what, 40 minutes from their work. And also...these people must also be single and or childless...and probably male.
So this narrows it down to people who in Vancouver proper and commute downtown. I don't know anyone riding their bikes in from Maple Ridge or South Surrey.
It also narrows it down to people who do not have anything else going on in their lives. When I commuted by car and by transit, I was usually stopping to pick up something. You know, prescriptions, groceries,....or I was lugging things home that had been purchased on my lunch hour. How else do busy working folks get things like birthdays and Christmases taken care of?
Commuting for a lot of people means killing two birds with one stone. And what do you do with the children you have to pick up from daycare or after school car when you are on your cute little bike?
So there you go. For those that can...great. But shut up already.
I am not done yet.
While I agree that change can and should start from the ground up...us demanding safer cleaner products, etc. That really is too small a scale for this sort of thing.
Think about it. China is spewing out vast amounts of pollution into the air. Their technology is totally based on fossil fuel burning for power generation and so on.
Relying on cheap fuels mean that the products they produce....mostly for us, are therefore, inexpensive for the buyers.
But what IS the cost really?
So yes, no doubt if we demanded that countries like China cleaned up their industrial pollution....the cost of the products would rise. The Chinese businesses would have no choice. But what if those further ahead in the game offered to help SAID countries change over to better, cleaner and more energy efficient fuels? We may have higher prices for a while..but long term, things would even out and everyone would win. Long term.
Is that too wacko an idea?
I don't think pointing fingers is going to help things. A lot of polluting countries are just not developed enough to have any other choice. Not if they want to stay in the eye of greedy buyers from the west.
This has to be a global effort. That means that the huge and greedy oil companies and car companies and truck companies and so on, need to find alternatives that they can market and exploit to their hearts content, that they can sell and produce just as easily, but won't kill us all.
It really means a total paradigm shift in how we ALL think. On all levels.
I just don't want to keep hearing the governments and corporations look to us with happy recycling programs and so forth to solve the world. It means asking questions about how the products we use were made..the energies and pollutants expelled, the waste from it.....we need to ask WHY we can't have more solar power and CHEAPER solar powered whatevers. We need to ask why we are not building more wind turbines and tidal turbines. We need to ask why anyone would THINK of building anything that required Coal or oil.
Once guy pointed out that if we (Canada) had not let slide our rail system...most products could be moved by rail instead of gas guzzling trucks.
Hmmm.
Rant over.
Technorati Tags: global warming, cbc, bikes
But it was maddening listening to Cross Country Check up on CBC Radio....old Rex sure draws an, em, OLD crowd.
A lot of retiree's were calling in and stating how 'we' have to do something about emissions, etc. A lot of folks who were driving 1970's giant gas guzzlers and burning wood fire's and having sprinklers run all day and air conditioners all night....you know.
I once again lost it when some pratt from my home town called in to reiterate that we all should be riding our bikes. Now while I agree that for SOME riding a bike is a great way to get around. Keeps you fit and saves on gas money and horrendous commutes. But really, get serious. The only few in VANCOUVER who can realistically commute by bike are people who live a max, what, 40 minutes from their work. And also...these people must also be single and or childless...and probably male.
So this narrows it down to people who in Vancouver proper and commute downtown. I don't know anyone riding their bikes in from Maple Ridge or South Surrey.
It also narrows it down to people who do not have anything else going on in their lives. When I commuted by car and by transit, I was usually stopping to pick up something. You know, prescriptions, groceries,....or I was lugging things home that had been purchased on my lunch hour. How else do busy working folks get things like birthdays and Christmases taken care of?
Commuting for a lot of people means killing two birds with one stone. And what do you do with the children you have to pick up from daycare or after school car when you are on your cute little bike?
So there you go. For those that can...great. But shut up already.
I am not done yet.
While I agree that change can and should start from the ground up...us demanding safer cleaner products, etc. That really is too small a scale for this sort of thing.
Think about it. China is spewing out vast amounts of pollution into the air. Their technology is totally based on fossil fuel burning for power generation and so on.
Relying on cheap fuels mean that the products they produce....mostly for us, are therefore, inexpensive for the buyers.
But what IS the cost really?
So yes, no doubt if we demanded that countries like China cleaned up their industrial pollution....the cost of the products would rise. The Chinese businesses would have no choice. But what if those further ahead in the game offered to help SAID countries change over to better, cleaner and more energy efficient fuels? We may have higher prices for a while..but long term, things would even out and everyone would win. Long term.
Is that too wacko an idea?
I don't think pointing fingers is going to help things. A lot of polluting countries are just not developed enough to have any other choice. Not if they want to stay in the eye of greedy buyers from the west.
This has to be a global effort. That means that the huge and greedy oil companies and car companies and truck companies and so on, need to find alternatives that they can market and exploit to their hearts content, that they can sell and produce just as easily, but won't kill us all.
It really means a total paradigm shift in how we ALL think. On all levels.
I just don't want to keep hearing the governments and corporations look to us with happy recycling programs and so forth to solve the world. It means asking questions about how the products we use were made..the energies and pollutants expelled, the waste from it.....we need to ask WHY we can't have more solar power and CHEAPER solar powered whatevers. We need to ask why we are not building more wind turbines and tidal turbines. We need to ask why anyone would THINK of building anything that required Coal or oil.
Once guy pointed out that if we (Canada) had not let slide our rail system...most products could be moved by rail instead of gas guzzling trucks.
Hmmm.
Rant over.
Technorati Tags: global warming, cbc, bikes
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9 comments:
Amen. 'nuff said.
I agree. I just hope we are not too late.
when in doubt, just speak your mind eh?
I agree with what you said. It is definitly important for all of us to partake and do our part, but yes, me biking from Maple Ridge(where I live by the way) to Anacis Island (where I work) is not only ridiculous, but impossible. I'd have to leave 3 hours earlier to get there.
Globally governments need to get together and step in. I once read somewhere that an airline jet pollutes as much in one trip as the entire worlds' cars combined. Wheather that's true or not, who knows, but we need help on a grander scale than me biking to work.
I agree, we can only try and do what we can personally do to help.
Buying the new types of energy saving light bulbs, washers and dryers, recycling everything we can. Composting food waste where possible. Making sure you have a full load of wash in the machine and not running it with three socks and a hanky on full load, that goes for dishwashers too! I've never had a dishwasher so don't really miss it except when entertaining and then I'm usually joined in the kitchen by friendly volunteers to help dry and put away and we have a good old natter and more wine at the same time!
I take public transit when it is convenient, which, I'm afraid is none to often. If we are to leave our cars at home then we have to have a viable alternative, a bike would not be of much help to me either. I am lucky that there is a fairly good bus service nearby that links to the sky train but there is no way I'm using that late at night, the stations are too dangerous. I don't know what our city was thinking when it wouldn't install gates so only ticket buyers could get through. It seems to work in other cities in the world. Now the drug dealers and other dregs of humanity can hop on and off the sky train with impunity. If they were forced to pay, they wouldn't be so mobile. Anyway, I'm running out of room and breath. I'll rave on about our transit system or lack thereof another time!
Hey isn't that what Kyoto was suppose to be about? Hmmm where is Stephen Harper on that other than backing down. You are right we all can do our simple bit...but if we don't do something about how products are being manufactured we are all hooped. But someone tell me why is it that to by smart, shop smart eat smart always costs us so much more? It's difficult if you are on a budget to say Hey I will pay 1.69 lb for apples that are organically grown rather than the 59 cents/lb apples provided in bulk...for some it's not that they don't want to...it's the pocket book...
But I am with you on this one....we truly have to look at what we drive where we drive when we can use rapid transit, recycle, and so on. It's a lifestyle change that we all need to look at.
amen, sister.
Al Gore just got nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for An Inconvenient Truth about global warming. Hopefully that will bring even more attention to the subject.
An Inconvenient Truth is my son's favorite movie. How scary is that? He's only 6. How wrong is it that I let him watch it. He's worried about the world.
You forgot to mention those of us who are in the srevice sector and work out fo our vehicles. :0)
We outlaw products produced by child or slave labor. Why are we buying the cheapest possible prodicts which are only cheap because of their country's total lack of concern for the global community?
Have you been to my new home yet? I have my own domain now:
http://skeetsstuff.skeeterbess.com/
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