Okay, so I'm on my way to Scott's house to finish watching the Firefly series and also to watch the sequel Serenity movie. I'm listening to NPR, and this is the story I heard:
The basic gist is this. Dancing Monkey says that, even though we are "addicted" to foreign oil, and his so-called standards for the automobile industry to make cars get better fuel economy--though laughably easy for the industry to do--he says that the federal government's new rules for these regulations cannot be made harder, or surpassed by the states. And get this, not only are the states not allowed to exceed the federal government's regulations (a really idiotic thing any way you look at it), 12 states ALL READY DO SURPASS THE NEW REGULATIONS!!!!.
So riddle me this: We can all agree pollution is bad, right? And whether you think pollution and global warming are caused by humans and their machines (like I and most of the rest of the world do) or whether you believe that this is just another cycle of the earth which has nothing to do with people (as Bush and Oil and Auto industries would like you to believe), can't we all agree pollution and global warming are bad? And that any kind of regulation to curb, lessen, or eradicate pollution should be good, despite the actual causes of global warming and/or pollution? Even if you don't believe global warming exists, wouldn't you agree that the less pollution the better?
So WHY--WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY-- would you say that these new regulations are tougher (which they aren't), that they'll cut pollution down (which they won't, even slightly), and then say states can't make tougher guidelines? Anybody? Anybody?
Money. For those who will lose out on oil revenues and auto revenues, Bush still fucking protects big oil industry. I mean, am I the only one who laughed when he said in his State of the Disunion address that he was going to lead the way for a cleaner earth? For breaking our dependency and "addiction" to oil?
And now he wants to make sure the states aren't tougher than his fucking stupid wet-paper-bag standards...
This man pisses me off so fucking much!!!!!!!!!!!
In other news, Firefly and Serenity are freaking awesome! Great writing, great character development (if you watch them in order, unlike how Fox aired them), and superb direction! Joss Whedon rocks! I highly recommend watching the whole series and then watching the movie Serenity for the best possible experience, especially this summer when all the crappy reruns will be on, and you are bound to have rainy days...
My first flowers bloomed this morning! One daffodil and all my crocuses... YEAH! Spring is finally here! I'm going out to do yard work now! Catch you all later--and make sure you call your representatives to stop Dancing Monkey and his horrible plans for killing the earth faster than it's already dying.... I know I sound like a tree-hugger/hippie type, but I mean, come on, people, tell me you don't see the idiocy of his plans...
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I guess the thing is that the effects of our treatment of the earth can't be seen immediately and aren't always tangible in a very obvious and in-your-face way. The fact that dropping litter in the park makes the park look yucky prevents quite a few people from dropping litter. But the connection between my driving a car and polution, or nation states making certain economic decisions and polution is a little less obvious. It gets even more intangible when you start telling people it's effects will really be felt in, say, a hundred years time, at which point most people shrug, saying, "Who cares, I'll be dead then, anyway."
I think you captured it pretty well, saying that the motivation behind polution-related decisions is money. And the fact that we, the average person-on-the-street, don't care, is plain selfishness and a lack of future-vision.
But what can we do to change attitudes on a individual and global level???
Well, I know when I was in 8th or 9th grade (we're talking 1991/92 here), we were just starting to learn about recycling, pollution, global warming, earth day, things like that. And to this day, I give money to causes and do my part to make others aware of the little decisions that they make and how it affects the earth at large. Education is really the key. I know my parents and grandparents dn't put alot of faith in their recycling, or care about it too much. It seems that people from my generation and younger are the ones who are truly concerned.
And to those who say, "A hundred years? Who cares?" I reply, "Yeah, but your kids will be." I really don't know what other motivation they would need....
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