I use the energy made available to me.  I register a protest against the use of energy which is made available to us by the energy suppliers, when that energy is obtained in a manner that threatens life on this planet.  My protestations are ignored.  Yet you say I’m implicated in this horror because I use the energy. 
Bullshit.  Your argument is stupid, and insulting to everyone except those individuals that are only concerned with the profit that comes with energy exploitation and misuse.  By seeking to spread the guilt, you weaken its effect on those on whom it falls most heavily, or, at all.  If I, and millions of others, could have safe, green energy, we would gladly have it.  But our wishes are ignored, because they “can” be.  That’s what the energy giants want, guilt ridden people tinkering with “green” ideas at the peripheries, mumbling to themselves that “we’re all guilty afterall.”

B. Carfree, I sympathize with your sentiments, but the U.S. isn’t interested in controlling oil for the purpose of Americans tooling around in their SUVs. FDR met up with the Saudi king (and his retinue of slaves) to ensure America’s access to Saudi oil for MILITARY purposes. We cannot dominate the WORLD without access to the world’s oil. The oligarchs aren’t really interested in whether I pay $3 a gallon or $10 a gallon, or you ride a bicycle. They cannot control the world’s resources, including cheap human labor, without oil, though they’re probably working on how to do so.

We need a good public transport system. There used to be streetcars all over the place, from Boston to Worcester, e.g. There were trains to small towns. It is much easier to bicycle a few miles to a train station than it is to bicycle 30 miles one way to work.

And, by the way, military expenditures are never going to go down until civilization tanks. Look at the U.K., hardly a powerhouse, spending their public monies on weaponry, strutting around the world in the U.S.‘s shadow trying to pretend the Empire still exists.

So, Tony, I don’t buy that you’re fighting OUR wars. We overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran for YOUR petroleum company because the Brits couldn’t get close enough to do it themselves. If the U.K. had any sense they would remember their own history, that they were defeated in Afghanistan, but they’re stupid enough to believe that this time maybe they can come out on top. Which NO ONE has ever done in Afghanistan.

BP’s hypocrisy on the matter of that oil spill
shouldn’t come as a surprise to everyone, taking the long-term history of theirs, into the consideration.

I’ve come to read an interesting article on the history of BP and its
predecessors and, which is much more important, on
the issues of their connection to the Wall Street
financiers.

Oh, and their shared profiteering, of course.

P.S. btw author’s last name means “orphan” in
Russian. Have no idea why I’m saying that

expat in germany

There’s a slogan I heard, but I forget where it came from. It says “think globally, but act locally”. I live in a community of small, family owned produce farms, in Southern NJ. People around here have been acting locally for a very long time. Unfortunately, we don’t have a very long growing season, but when produce is in season, it not a question of supermarket or local, it’s a question of which local produce stand.

Radical societal changes often have unforeseen consequences. When I was in my late 20’s I lived in a city where most services were within walking or cycling distances. My physician’s office was two doors from my house!
Today I cannot walk or bicycle to my MD and going there by public transportation is a major hassle.
It is obvious to me that changing our modes of transportation without a much greater re-spreading of fundamental services will result in big hardships.

Peter K:

Couldn’t find a map (will keep looking), but this should scare you plenty!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_spills

Peace.

A number of comments have pointed out that the U.S. military is a VERY large user of oil. Why is that? The military is actively engaged in securing access to oil for large corporate interests to sell to lazy Americans. Transportation accounts for approximately 1/3 of American oil usage. The median car trip is something like 3 miles, with 75% of all trips being under 10 miles. If we, as a people, are too fat/lazy to walk or use a bike for such short distances then we most certainly do own all of the damage of the oil spills. Stop using your car for these short trips and you will find that you really don’t need to own one.

If large numbers of people stop using their cars there will be some fairly predictable consequences:
1.) Those pictures of the lean, trim, fit Americans from the ‘40s will look more like us.
2.) Military expenditures can go down, resulting in things like universal health care, quality education and money to build a sustainable transportation system.
3.) Americans will be healthier. This will result in lowered health-care expenditures and reduced need to control interior climates to such close tolerances. I’m in my 50s and am perfectly comfortable in a room that is 45F or 95F. The only thing I do differently form most Americans is I don’t use motorized transportation. (Until recently, I did live in the hinterlands and had regular commutes that reached to 100 miles per day at times. One does not have to live in a noisy, dense environment to be car-free.)

For those who think they could never live without all the oil they currently consume, what will you do when the cheap oil runs out? Are you prepared for $10/gal fuel? Even the U.S. military thinks we are only 2-5 years from severe price spikes in oil.

I think Americans should do the right thing and stop importing oil.

Americans couldn’t give a shit about similar disasters in other parts of the World like the Niger Delta.

The Not In My Back Yard Syndrome is endemic

Americans think it is O.K. to bomb the fuck out of for example the people in Iraq in order to steal their oil.

They don’t complain about that.

And now they are blaming the “British” Petroleum despite the fact virtually everyone involved in the latest disaster is American - and the only British involvement is that the head office of the company is in London.

So I reckon BP, should close down its US subsidiary and fire its 30,000 American workers and divert its remaining World Oil supplies to People in other parts of the World who are not slagging it off.

It was Halliburton wot did it.

A bit like 9/11 if you ask me.

It had next to no British involvement whatsoever.

BP was operating under American rules of engagement.

We should also stop fighting all your fucking wars too.

You will start moaning when there is a massive oil shortage in America and you can’t afford to fill up your tank.

Tony

Last minute thought on Suday morning. Question Is there a WORLD MAP OF ALL THE CONTAMINATED AREAS, like the oil spill in the gulf, oil spill in Alaska, oil spill in Arabia, Sadam`s oil spill, and the various garbage collection areas, Pacific garbage vortex, Polluted rivers, bays, harbours, Where Humans contaminated abused mother nature, Open pit mining etc. Anyone finds such a map! Please share this map, and how this map changed from 1800 to now. A pattern must appear, that pattern for generations needs to be severed or we will commit environmental suicide, or blow ourselves UP- more friendly fire!

I took my time and read all the comments and I have to say all had good intentions, great ideas and hope we can live with most of these great suggestions. Helping each other, as whitness to the reality of garbage, I think everyone knows this, just to remind, in the pacific is a vortex, spinning and collecting mostly plastics. This garbage collection area is now larger than the square miles of TEXAS. Everytime WE buy someting we give our vote. Everything we do has consequences, like it or not that floating garbage, is growing expanding very quickly, and we know not what to do! Oil Spill and we know not what to do! Buddha 350 B.C. said in the search of wealth we destroy our health. However today we destroy everyones health as the oil spill is now the symbol of MONEY-OIL, BP excuses and cover ups, while people are getting sick. Now! is only the tip of the iceberg, what is under, unseen is the lurking danger, the gases that comes out with the oil evaporates into the air, winds carry that info to everyone. Hurricanes will stir up, and the smell-danger will be contagious However to evacuate millions might be more costly than to let them die in hospitals, I would leave the gulf and go to the mountains for fresh air, and clean water. Changes come fast and are hard to live with, I can`t find anything positive about the oil spill or the garbage vortex in the Pacific. Every time you buy you vote, buy right! “The road to hell, paved by good intentions”, change comes from within You and Me. The Mayan says You are the other me, and I, the other You!, Walt Whitman, For every atom you breathe, I breathe also, through breath we are ONE!  so act like it! G_D BLESS YOU ALL

Thought this would stir things up a bit more…

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/opinion/13friedman.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

Peace.

It seems to me that there is a false pre-supposition
here that seeks to (always) blame the workers for
corporate excess, yes, even though abetted by huge
subsidies from the people’s Congress, which we well
know has always done the bidding of the big, monied
interests and trusts.  It has been beaten into us,
this false “law” of ‘supply and demand’ when the
process in fact works in quite the opposite way. 
Demand is manufactured for the circumscribed supply,
and has been for a while now since all our basic
needs have been met, as Laswell and Bernais mapped
out in their Machiavellian theories to engender
people to buy they didn’t need, with money they
didn’t have.

Oil is king because it can be controlled and profited from. The real cost of oil (or any other extractive resource) is never addressed.

When oil dries up (and if we survive) the money elite will find another commodity that it can profit from, and the hell with the wars, the ecological damage, and social injustice that result. They don’t care.

And it seems that the masses don’t care as well as they accept it over and over again.

Hope is the opiate of the masses.

Until people stop supporting the corporate structure and corporate parties (both the democrats, republicans, tea party, etc) nothing will change. The downward slide into unnecessary suffering will continue.

Support republican policies,
Vote for a Democrat.

so it goes

“American capitalism, based as it is on exploitation of the poor, with its fundamental motivation in personal greed, simply cannot survive without force.”
(Philip Agee, CIA Diary)

The Environmentalists said a few months back—OIL IS NOT IN AMERICA’S FUTURE!  When I read it—I thought how could that be?  Now all of a sudden an ALL TIME RECORD BREAKER OIL SPILL OF THE CENTURY OCCURRED!

With all the rigs—which have drilled in the Gulf—FOR ALL THESE YEARS—THERE HAS NEVER BEEN AN OIL RIG THAT EXPLODED—BURN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN! OIL SPILLS HAVE OCCURRED BUT HOW CONVENIENT IS IT==NEED ENGERY REFORM PASSED-AND THEN THIS—

Do they deliberately want Ameicans to see and to get so sick of oil—that NO OIL IN THE GULF WILL BE DRILLED—-MEANING OVER 330,000 JOBS TOSSED OUT—

IT ISN’T LIKE OIL RIGS EXPLODES EVERY DAY—THEY HAVE BEEN THERE FOR YEARS!

Is this way OBAMA WON’T ALLOW OTHER COUNTRIES TO HELP IN THE CLEAN UP—FOR THE SAKE OF THE SEA CREATURES—AMERICANS WHO MIGHT HAVE THEIR HOMES AND BUSINESSES FORECLOSED UPON—-330,000 JOBS SUSPENDED FOR 6 MONTHS—WITH THE ECONOMY UNSUSTAINABLE—IS IT THE TIME TO MAKE AN ENVIRONMENTALISTS STATEMENT?

TOBYSGIRL: You’re correct!! A lot of people have no business at all around horses. You can pretty well judge a persons character by the way they treat an animal. I also understand you understand, a lot of us aren’t that way.

    My interest is in how we reclaim personal power and access to natural resources (energy-food-water-shelter) independent of the “grid”. I want to survive the coming storm and I want ponies to survive also. They’re havin’ a hard time right now.

    In a POSITIVE LIGHT, I do believe that a new world consciousness is alive and struggling to take shape. It’s a slow train, but it’s coming “—you don’t need no ticket—you just—get on board—”.

      And I agree that the focus here on the waste of fuel in the military was interesting. It’s an obvious thing I’ve just never really considered it. I think my blindspot is that I still unconsciously want to believe that America can elect a viable intelligent leadership with the vision to create a survivable future. You know, there was a sense of unity when we turned the Congress over and when we elected Mr. O. At least part of American anger stems from the sense of betrayal.

      Oh well—I’m “to much coffee man” today—sorry to be so long winded—KEEP ON ROCKIN’—ONE AND ALL!!

Louis Proyect, June 12 at 1:19 pm:

‘Just out of curiosity, I wonder if Sirota or any other contributor to Truthdig like Chris Hedges or EJ Dionne ever read the comments. I have to believe that they don’t.’

If they do, they’re certainly impervious to my incisive, irrefutable critiques of their material.

However, I think the scene here, besides the usual efflux of ranting and backyapping ubiquitous on the Net, is to hold up social democrat and other bourgeois writers to bitter derision from infidels.  One doesn’t expect the targets to respond, or indeed show any signs of independent life whatever, any more than one expects the tin monkey in a shooting gallery to fire back.

Just out of curiosity, I wonder if Sirota or any other contributor to Truthdig like Chris Hedges or EJ Dionne ever read the comments. I have to believe that they don’t.

I’m not crazy about horse-driven generators. I’ve seen how men treat draft/working horses, they treat them like machines, and it isn’t pleasant. When I lived in Ohio, I saw how Amish horses were treated at the Amish auction in northern Ohio. I don’t want to return to an era of horse power because living beings are not meant to be treated like inanimate machines.

I want everyone to remember, as well, what was used for lighting prior to kerosene: whale oil. I think we are capable now of coming up with clean, nonexploitative technologies. I don’t want to see industrial wind; I want to see people encouraged to put up windmills on their land that create more power than they need: these windmills would still be relatively small compared to the industrial monsters.

I agree with you, Redhorse, that the oligarchs are perfectly willing to destroy the entire planet (which I don’t really think they’re capable of, though they could end life as we know it for a while), including themselves. Hannah Arendt wrote about the desire to destroy that comes with power.

Glad to see so many people speaking out about the military!

David Sirota is a smart and principled guy even if he holds out hope that the Democratic Party can an instrument of progressive change, but this article reflects the problems you run into when you lack a class perspective. He asks, “Are we willing to make minimal behavioral reforms?” Unfortunately, even if we were, not much can be done as long as the economy runs on the basis of profit. For example, big business decided long ago that public transportation should be underfunded (Roger Rabbit) in order to get people to buy cars and gasoline. We have no control over such large-scale economic decisions. It will take a revolution to allow us to do so, something that liberal Democrats are opposed to ideologically.

People not only don’t want to get out of their cars, it’s unthinkable.  I go about mostly by bicycle, and am considered extremely eccentric.  And I live in a densely-populated city.  Out in the hinterland, out in the American Dream, it really is almost impossible to live without a car, without daily need for an oil fix.  And people there live in separated houses, maximizing their need for not only gasoline and diesel fuel to get around, but require heating oil as well—far more than if they lived in apartment buildings.  This is so they can grow grass which they cut and throw away.  From the point of view of energy consumption, they couldn’t do worse without going to considerable effort.

This is after talking about “energy independence” for 40 years.  And Mr. Sirota is on about plastic bags.

If the lack of American laws requiring BP to run their business in a safe manner, and American lack of oversight to their violations allowed them to continue to run their business…

Then it is as much America’s fault at BP’s.

ps.  I still drive by BP stations where people are happily nursing a the oil tit.

What a pile of horseshit. I’ll tell you what, Sirota. First, let’s go to the biggest consumer of oil on the planet - the U.S. military - and shut down every single one of our god-damned bases in over 130 countries, recall our fleets stampeding all over the globe and and our squadrons of fighters, bombers and drones terrorizing entire populations from the sky and then you can cast your moral approbation on me, sitting here in my apartment with one 60W light bulb on. What a stinking pile of corporate-apologist propaganda.

Thank you, Mr. Sirota!  Pointing a finger of blame at everyone/anyone else has become our great national pass-time.  But as the article points out, there are so many simple choices we can make to reduce our dependence on oil.

Our biggest problem is that we have resisted giving up our cars in favor of public transportation. We got the anti-smoking thing down pretty well, but try something here: compare the smoke that comes out of a cigaret with the smoke that comes out of your car when you turn the ignition key. Keep in mind that the most carcinogenic type of smoke is the kind that contains oil particles—from burning oil, not tobacco. The fact that it’s our cars that is causing polar ice to melt and the rain forests to die out should be incentive enough to push for more (and more affordable) public transportation—and to be willing to walk a couple of blocks for a grocery item. Now, add in all the toxic oil that leeches out of our extensive road system, into the soil. For a little added incentive, consider our oil disasters, oil wars, etc.

Be willing to do your part.  At least reduce your driving, setting a goal of trying to cut back by 50%.

I don’t understand America’s need to keep reinventing the wheel. Sweden and Brazil have been using flex fuel vehicles (ethanol, not this corn crap)for at least a decade. Carbon emissions are EXTREMELY LOW! And by the way, gasoline usage is a very very small percentage of the enrgy requirement.

First of all, I don’t believe that ordinary citizens are to blame for the actions of powerful psychopaths just because they have groomed us to be their target market. You might as well blame the cows walking up the ramp into the abattoir for their own demise because they are participating.

Secondly, the most titanic gas hog on the planet is the US military. They burn insane amounts of fuel just running around thumping their chest like a body building silverback with a tiny penis. If you really want to make a difference in the dirty fuel consumption of this planet then shift a year’s worth of US military budget towards buying Prius’s for everybody.

Stop stomping the planet like rock star roosters from a Mad Max movie all hopped up on caffeine, cocaine, meth and lsd, that’s my advice.

I still believe that if storage battery technology was improved rural communities could use horse driven generators to power small farms and homes.

      They also have hand powered radios—-why not hand powered reading lamps?? Hell—I’ll bet a Schwinn AirDyne could be converted to generate power. Got fat kids that want to watch T.V.—hit the AirDyne son—

      I say this too much but I believe it. Technology and world consciousness has outstripped the viability of our political “isms”. The thugs know it and they’ll destroy the planet and kill every one of us before they’ll give an inch to sane survival and realignment of technology to support the Natural EcoSystems of the Planet and balance human population.

      Be as emotional and opinionated as you like but, I’m not sure where the unity we need to survive is gonna come from. I KNOW it won’t come from our corporate feudal lords.

Bicycles would help us use less oil , meet our neighbors , get fit , help your
mood,and reduce traffic congestion . For One billion dollars the government
could buy Two million bicycles and rent them in cities across America.
Getting people out of their car is part of the solution.

Tobysgirl, June 11 at 5:43 pm:
’... Meanwhile, a friend who knows a number of Republicans told me years ago that Dick Cheney’s MONTHLY electric bill is $36,000. ...’

Powering numerous infernal machines like large death-ray robot zombies and an elevator all the way down to the Undisclosed Location isn’t going to be cheap.

rico, suave, I live in a state that has little open land with enough topsoil to grow grains. However, we are a supreme grass-growing state as we are temperate and generally have a decent amount of rain. No, of course, you can’t raise cattle in the obscene numbers that industrial farming does in feedlots. Frankly, I believe in a huge reduction of the human population, which I have helped by not having children. And, no, I don’t believe in eugenics for the idiot who will charge me with it. I am amazed at the number of environmental activists I come across with multiple children. The best thing any of us can do for the environment is not to breed, especially Americans who use an outlandish percentage of the world’s resources.

Sallyport, no one is saying to consume grossly and refuse to recycle. But an emphasis on individualistic action ignores the reality of the world we live in. We shock people when we tell them our low electrical bill despite running a refrigerator, deep freeze, two well pumps, a sump pump in a dug well, washer and dryer (used very little), electronics and lights (these are all powered by electricity). Meanwhile, a friend who knows a number of Republicans told me years ago that Dick Cheney’s MONTHLY electric bill is $36,000.

As Anarcissie says, these “individualistic gestures actually serve to salve consciences and bemuse the folk.  They are a defense against meaningful action.” A lot of upper-middle-class folk soothe their consciences by buying Priuses. This is what my neighbor’s daughter has done while her mother rents her land to people who grow Frankencorn and spray pesticides. Does her Prius offset the poisoning of the environment which, if she cared, she could easily prevent by paying her mother’s property taxes?

The point of these little exercises is to continue the deep disconnect between ourselves and the Earth which gave birth to us. The only way any of us will survive is to overcome the idea that we are separate and superior. Radical changes are necessary for our survival, and recyling plastic bags, while worthwhile, will not get us there.

This is just chapter two of David’s current theme of everyone’s to blame, yet no one is responsible.

Who was it that gutted enviornmental protection, gave the chemical companies free reign to poison us, the pharmacutical companies to stupefy us, the credit card companies to imprison us, etc.. etc.. etc?

Who was that?

Who provided the leadership to question global warming, make fun of enviormentalists, and riducle those, who don’t eat meat, and who already do those things that David thinks we should do?

So go ahead and blame the victim, their used to it.

Individual change and responsibility absolutely!! Small “step-at-a-time” progess. The “I”.

      There are two factors that work against this.
The first is that so many Americans are in the clutch of an intentional murderous machine that has beaten them so financially and emotionally numb they don’t know if they’re gonna have food and shelter for their children much less have time to recycle. Besides, shopping at the “health food” store is expensive. The entire food system has been changed and exploited to narrow choice and encourage the purchase of “junk” food. It’s cheaper to buy fast food in plastic wrapppers and containers than to purchase and prepare a real meal. The daily schedule of most Americans is so manipulated and the family so under attack many just feel glad to have gotten home alive. It’s nice to write cheery little articles about conservation but, the choice and the consciousness is denied to many.

      The second factor is the murderous machine itself. “—Do you understand that you dope smoking,tree hugging, hippie, newage, pinko, green freak terrorist? We got prisons for people like you—”.

      For five decades I’ve watched our best minds murdered, lives destroyed, education and jobs gutted, racial division exploited and America reduced to an armed camp. Most of you don’t remember it but there was a time at the end of the 60’s and early 70’s when we were free men. The issues of race, economics and war were still around but a lot of us had transcended it. We were unified, Americans first. And, they murdered us and locked us up at will. They destroyed Carter, brought Reagen, and dismantled every progressive piece of legislation the people had fought for. Then, like the hogs they are, assumed our lives were swill and devoured them.

      You don’t have solar, wind and electric because they don’t want you to have solar, wind and electric. Got health insurance?? Got education? Got work with a future?

      Yeah, its those plastic bags and bottles that are the problem. How cutesy can you get?

Since nothing serious is being done, I take it the individualistic gestures actually serve to salve consciences and bemuse the folk.  They are a defense against meaningful action.  In a sane world, people who were responsible for something like the Gulf oil catastrophe would be in jail.  Instead we have people carrying on about plastic bags—while their world is being destroyed.

I think this sort of individualistic I’m-saving-the-environment thing is pretty silly.  I notice it being advertised to the well-off in The New Yorker right across from the Rolex and Mercedes ads.  “I’m going to drive less….”  It’s a bit late in the day, folks.

Fat Freddy—the environment in public property, so to speak.  (Locke said the Earth was given to mankind in common.)  If people have a right to defend their property they have a right to defend the environment by any means necessary, and they don’t have to be nice about it.  Of course, they also have to want to, which remains to be seen.  Maybe they’d rather drive their SUVs through the smog over the bones of the extinct, until they join them.  It won’t be long.

Rather than dispute or endorse Mr. Sirota’s central issue, individual action v.
societal restructuring of our energy options, appreciate the dilemma he
presents. Of course there are decisions we can make at an individual level but
do they make any (significant) difference? Or is it like trying to stay warm on an
ocean liner heading toward the North Pole by huddling on the rear (southern
most) deck, any marginal value immediately erased by the ship’s progress? As
Chomsky points out, the options our culture presents never challenge power.
So we are offered Ford v. Toyota, Arco v. Exxon, but never car v. efficient
public transit. I can and do bike my 6.5 miles daily commute (Hollywood to Bev.
Hills), but on weekends I must drive 30-50 miles to shifting employment sites.
LA’s mass transit, built to be inefficient and unpleasant, is, by design, not an
option. When I use electricity, there isn’t a second switch on the wall that
connects with a solar power plant, despite the fact that enough sunlight falls
on Edwards Air Force Base (nearby) to supply all of California’s daily energy
needs (from ALL sources). By all means, do what you can, but don’t think that
alone will ever be sufficient.

thanks, comrade phi. i 100% agree that emphasis needs to be placed on the “do without” part of the mantra. would be nice if we didn’t look at doing without as “sacrifice”, however…many of us could go a long way towards eliminating needless waste before we’d really be approaching the notion of true sacrifice.

http://www.theobviousobserver.com

Individuals and a set of individuals shld cherish and care for our nature.
Schools shld be the best place to teach children to value biota-nature properly.

Is Sirota evaluating individual responsibility as being more important than collective responsibility, because that’s the american way or is he not aware that one cannot separate individual duty from collective duty or care for our planet?

He also neglects to aver that tutoring-guidance is not governance or a rule; thus, to look after the world we need much more guidance and much less of a rule.
Once one is ruled as in US, it amounts to a diktat and w.o. necesssary guidance-teaching-caring for one another and biota.

In short, what david is doing is to put all the blame on individuals and none on the rule and the fact that it misteaches-misguides the same helpless individuals.

But, then, all privately-paid collumnists use this ruse. Their duty is to never ever offer an elucidation of what goes on!
In short, they are always halftruhing or halflying!
Don’t let them get away with it any longer. tnx

Alyceobvious, the WW2 phrase was, “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”  Therein lies the rub, how many of us born in the 60s and later have ever had to thwart our desires?  We are a society based upon being serviced by the government and industry to provide us with whatever we wanted; supersized and discounted. We cant recycle, because we want that new model, which has all the features.  How many of us are using a new flat screen monitor, after discarding our old (but still functioning) monitors?

I do fully agree with and support your thesis that the required remediation is based upon our willingness to take individual action and responsibility.  However; we do a disservice to this process by denying the necessity for at least occasional sacrifice.

Recycling uses lots of energy too. There are some processes that use up more energy than that which goes into creating the product new.

Tobysgirl: Where are you going to find all that grassland for cattle to graze?

i’ve got a LIFE magazine in front of me from 1944. every advertisement contains a message to help the war effort through conservation: “use it up, wear it out, make it do” is the mantra. we all remember clearly GWB telling us to go shopping after 9/11, and things have only gotten worse since. not only have we not been asked to be accountable and responsible for our actions as individuals and as a country, we have been told to look the other way as these pointless wars unfold, to keep the blinders on. clearly, the bottom line is economics, and when our leaders and our corporations are one and the same, and when they do not stand to gain when the rest of us do not use their products, there will NEVER be legislation coming from the top down that will benefit the environment. no one makes a buck when the environment is saved!! only WE THE PEOPLE stand to gain when we find out that we’re happier and healthier without a lot of the things we thought we needed. saving the environment, if it’s ever going to happen, is going to have to be a massive grassroots effort. it’s going to have to start with individual actions - use it up, wear it out, make it do. major behavioral shifts can start by simply reusing your grocery bag - if that’s the first step towards feeling a sense of personal responsibility, so be it.  that seemingly small action has the power grow exponentially as people begin to seek more profound ways to make a difference. 

the moment we choose NOT to try to make difference, that’s when heartless cynicism sets in.  and that’s fine - if it feels good, do it. but if it doesn’t feel good, then carry your water around in a glass jar. dry your laundry outside on a sunny day. ride your bike. even if planet earth still ends up not being able to support life six months from now, taking some responsibility now might actually feel good in the meanwhile.

USE HALF NOW conservation campaign on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/USE-HALF-NOW-CAMPAIGN/316473176497?ref=mf

SPACESHIP EARTH: NAVIGATORS WANTED
http://www.truthout.org/spaceship-earth-navigators-wanted59735

In these people’s world, it always comes down to plastic shopping bags. Like Freddy, I reuse any that come my way, and I don’t think Freddy’s and my efforts make much of a difference in the huge amount of oil used by the U.S.A.

I HATE these do-gooder things because they deflect attention from the REAL wastefulness of our society, and once again make conservation a purely individual effort. Let us start with the U.S. military and its grotesque consumption of oil. Why aren’t we moving people and goods by train, the most efficient form of transportation? Does my avoiding/reusing the use of a plastic bag compare to the helicopter flights the federal government uses to scan the landscape for marijuana?

And, by the way, it would be nice if people who know NOTHING about agriculture would stop bashing meat eating. Takes a lot of oil to grow that grain you munch on, and it doesn’t take much oil for a cow or steer to walk into a pasture and turn grass into milk or meat. Yes, industrial animal farming uses huge amounts of oil because animals who can utilize grasses never see a blade of it. I would rather be a vegetarian, but I am not going to hit other people over the head with it.

Oh David, at times so nobile and so ignorant.In Oregon plastic bags are recycled by the major grocery stores, plastic water bottles have a deposit and are recycled. As for you being a vegan you do little to sway us meat-eaters with dribble about the harm done by ranchers and little farm owners. The major cage agri-business are the one’s to go after.The pollution of the cage animals is a disgrace. Seeing the program on NPR about the ranchers in Colorado, showed the benevolence to the land and to the cattle. Mr. Big “Solient Green” came to mind as I read David’s soap box article.

“We can stop using disposable plastic bags and stop
buying plastic-bottled water.”

Nonsense. People don’t use these things because
they’re oil gluttons. They use them because they’re
practical. If you go to a restaurant and ask for
water, you get two choices: polluted tap water in a
Styrofoam cup, or water in a plastic bottle. Is there
oil in Styrofoam? I don’t know, do you? My, how
irresponsible of us.

This is an example of the “flower child” image that
has tainted liberalism unfairly. It leads to the
notion that liberals are a bunch of idealists. That
300 million people must become advanced chemists in
order to be true to goals (say) of reducing oil
consumption. A bunch of intellectuals. Eco-snobs.
Impractical.

In fact, liberalism has nothing to do with any of
this. It’s simple the principle of freedom and
equality.

There’s another approach. If businesses didn’t make
this crap, nobody would have to do a thing. That’s
the point wherein we apply our principles. Inform the
public truthfully and factually, put it to a vote,
and then either make plastic bags and use them
happily or make another bag and use it happily.

Over the last 5 years, my wife and I have been able to do many things, big and little, to lessen our carbon footprint. Most were easy and cheap. We changed our lightbulbs, switched to a low flow toilet, and bought a more energy efficient dryer. We have also replaced our old 160,000 BTU furnace with a 95% efficient 75,000 BTU model(cutting our natural gas usage by over 40%)Of course we use no bottled water, and keep the little canvas “hippie bag” in the car(no longer an SUV, now a toyota)

We might as well get used to conserving energy from fossil fuels, because even the major oil company excecs admit that at current useage, there is only 30-35 years of the black gold left (and it will become prohibitivly expensive as it starts to run out)

I only hope to live into my 80’s to see how this “Soylent Green” scenario plays out.

I use public trans. If you want me to ride horses then put public stables back in the cities.

I’m not so sure cutting back on plastic water bottles and plastic shopping bags is going to help, all that much. They are PETE and HDPE, and are recyclable in most municipalities. Many people also reuse plastic shopping bags, like for cleaning up dog poop. If you walk your dog in my neighborhood, and don’t clean up after him, you can be hit with a pretty hefty fine (no pun intended). I use them as small trash can liners, and for old newspapers, which I also recycle.

However, I do agree with the premise that awareness, education and conservation are not being properly utilized in this country. Perhaps if the environmentalists spent less time and effort trying to influence public policy to coerce people into compliance, and more time into raising awareness, we wouldn’t need to be having this conversation. I think the majority of Americans want to do what’s right. They just don’t want to be forced into doing it. That’s the difference between Conservationism and Environmentalism.