Save the planet and watch musical performances from all over the world. Did you watch the Live Earth concerts? I didn’t, but I did catch the video streaming on MSN and I gotta say that it was a tepid affair — musically, that is. One of the best bands in the hundreds you could watch on the streams was “Rize” — a kind of pop punk outfit from Japan who had more passion than most of the bands I saw. And to quote a semi-famous Seinfeld line: “That’s a shame.”
But seriously…
Politically, the environment writ large is the most important issue because it cuts across political, social, cultural, and ethnic lines. We screw up the environment to the point that we (i.e., humans) can’t survive on our planet, then all that other political and cultural stuff becomes moot.
That may seems like a “duh” statement, but if you break environmental issues down to human survival (just to be selfish for a moment) then you can get away from the stupid framing of the issue by those who oppose environmental causes. You know what I’m talking about:
1. Tree huggers
2. Prius backlash
3. Recycling nazis
4. Fluorescent lightbulb idiots
5. Carpool crapheads
A lot of this comes down to the fact that there are people who adapt to change fairly well, and those who grow resentful at having to change habits that lead to dangerous consequences.
Case in point: Since gas prices in our part of California is about $3.17 a gallon, I’ve been more careful about gunning it down the freeway when I go to work. I generally stick to the middle lanes and cruise at about 70 mph. But that’s just not fast enough for some of my fellow motorists at 4:30am. The vehicles that routinely travel at 90 to 100 mph on the stretch of road that leads me to work are usually (but not always) SUVs, pickup trucks, or high end sedans. I often wonder what kind of money these people make to waste that much gasoline, and if they ever give a thought to the consequences to their actions. The answer is “probably not,” since the vehicles they drive also acts a bubble from the world (both physical and mental).Â
Since I do traffic reporting as part of my job and read the highway patrol logs of what causes accidents, it is often speeding, aggressive driving, or distractions that lead to daily wipe outs you hear about on the radio and see on TV. When an accident happens on the freeway, you know the consequences. But it’s not just you sitting in traffic and getting miffed at being late for work, it’s the thousands of other cars that sit in traffic as well. These cars are generally idling or doing the 5mph “stop and go” thing. And it doesn’t take an scientist to know that all those cars sitting in traffic, belching carbon monoxide fumes into the atmosphere, is a huge contributor to pollution levels.
Since many of us are often “bottom line” in our thinking when it comes to behavioral change (i.e., “What’s the cost to me if I do or don’t change the way I act”), I’m curious to know how expensive gasoline would have to be in order for you to change your drivng habits. For me, gas would have to be around $6 to $7 a gallon before I started to use more and more “Stategery” when it comes to my daily travels. And that’s just gasoline for my car!  If energy to power our homes increased at a staggering rate, how long do you think it would take for solar panels to go up on our roofs, or windmills spinning in our backyards?Â
If you want to see how you can make changes in your day to day consumption habits so it lessens the negative effect on our environment click HERE.
–PK
8 thoughts on “Live Earth”
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I do the same thing driving. On one hand, I laugh at the idiots who gun their car and speed 50 miles an hour from one stop light to the next. Then it changes to irritation that they’re being so irresponsible 🙁
I would love to buy a more fuel efficient car, but when I look around, the camry actually does pretty well on the mileage, so I guess we shouldn’t complain too much. Too bad you can’t work from home, too, to reduce your usage! 🙂
Carpool crapheads. HA! Funny.
Where I live, I’m paying $7 a gallon – and a brand new Toyota Corolla 1.6 Sol would cost me about $40.000. The income level here is quite comparable to that in the U.S., but it doesn’t really seem to affect our driving habits. Traffic increased by 5% just over the last year in my region and new car sales are still on the rise.
It’s easy for me to understand why it may be hard for some of the artists to show some passion on Live Earth. Watching the artists and the infomercials in between, with those Hummer-driving, private jet, 50-room-villa stars being all earnest and standing up for environmental awareness – it was like George W. Bush giving advice on how to influence politicians to stop the war in Iraq. Still a good thought, though.
Terje: Thanks for dropping by! I agree that there’s a lot of hypocrisy to go around, but one can hope that because said stars participated in the concerts they will start to walk the walk.
And J…I wish I could work from home as well.
Ml: The red light drag racing thing is pretty annoying. Esp. when people do that “rock back and forth” thing as they wait for the light to turn green.
Yeah, we watched the concert. It was pretty interesting. I did dance to the Police Roxanne, but it was not the best I’ve heard them sing it. Yeah, I really try to better the environment. Gas is too high for me right now, and we do limit the amount we drive.
I missed the whole darn thing. But Terje has a good point about all those celebrities preaching. I hope they are practicing as well.
I can be pushy about it sometimes, but I don’t think I’m totally rabid.
If you recyle your garbage, use worn out items for other uses, keep your car tuned up and tires aired up, and any other little things you are doing a lot to save the environment. Every little thing helps in a big way. Don’t beat yourself up because you are not driving a Prius. They still have to do something with the spent batteries.
I switched it on to see Duran Duran. Then I puked and switched off the tv. Why did I like them?