By Archytype
Introduction
I suppose many of you have heard my rants and ravings about these things for a number of years. Yes, I am a greenie. Perhaps not the absolute devout that some may be, but my biggest contribution I can make to the cause is to keep getting “smaller” as far the impact goes while getting louder (perhaps my biggest “asset”) where those that
need to hear will hear. There will be many chapters and all of them will be revisited from time to time. But this is to remove the veil and the passivity that pervades this discussion. Kid Gloves will not be employed here….
In the eyes of a vast majority of Americans, environmentalism is the realm for the pot-smoking vegans in Northern California who ride solar-powered bikes to the organic wine farms or the 60’s draft dodging cast offs who really hate America anyway (love it or leave it, man) and apparently want to destroy it by advocating for smaller cars and higher fuel standards….FUCKERS!
Well, ummm….perhaps not. Environmentalism is THE new economy. En Vogue! Tre Fab. Its HOT. Al Gore is making fucking movies for crying out loud so it must be real right? Leo-D drives a fucking Prius, shouldn’t we all? Well, hang on a moment. Leonardo DiCaprio and ESPECIALLY Al Gore isn’t in the position to change anything really. Al isn’t the President (he lost…or whatever the hell happened in 2000, the year we all got fucked!). He is a Hollywood shill now. So he is no more an influence for the environment than Michael Moore is at changing the auto industry practice of destroying communities that depend on their income. Remember he DID fucking FLY to the Live Earth Concert. So did Leo. And so did every "artist" that performed that day. They bought green carbon offsets though.
Ah….blood does wash off don't it?
So with that I will begin the (hopefully) regular piece to this blog with the open shot across the bow. Warning….I don’t censor (starting right after the title…). Fuck you. If you can watch my fucking planet rot in place as you get into your fucking SUV post-your 5 min yoga while sipping slave-waged-picked lattes from WhereeverBucks backing out of the driveway of a 4400 sf house you and your fucking yapper dog live in, then you sure as shit are in no position to curb my language.
And for Christ sake pick up after that little fucker!
Chapter ONE - Food For Fuel
Roger Cohen: Bring on The Right Biofuels (NY Times - registration required)
As I keep saying....apparently to the void, we (the collective jingo-centric A.D.D. voting stock of Americans) have absolutely no idea what we are doing anymore. Leaves on streams. Rice, soybeans, and corn are the most abundantly grown crops in the world. They are also a large part of the problem. They come at the expense of biodiversity, a key to the planets ability to combat a number of things including specie extinction (us included). But then again, at least its food for fuck sake. As soon as you begin taking farmland that should be dedicated to producing food for an ever expanding world population and giving it over to t producing a crop source for fueling our transportation and energy needs you begin to see why so many in the agricultural world and the organizations that deal with issues in third world countries are in full bloom panic right now. We cannot feed the world with what we currently grow, so let’s chop the food production by 35-40%? And this doesn’t alarm people?
"But wait are you saying that we should stick to oil?"
No. I am not saying this.
"So, Ethanol is good right?"
Indeed, it is a good thing to reduce the extraction of oil to burn in terribly inefficient cars, yes.
My turn to ask questions, so why do you think we should turn to ethanol?
"I dunno."
So burning our food, doesn’t this sound like a bad idea?
"Maybe….but what do we need with all that corn anyway?"
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The Boston Globe: Proposed Wind Farm Draws Few Foes In Hull
For the benefit of diversity (and economy competition, something that drives prices down…garsh!) we can look into a number of different and sustainable energy producing means such as the highly contested wind strategies and others like the tidal technologies that are now available and ever developing that may alleviate some of the major drawbacks from the wind powered infrastructure.
For one, I think the general public could use another option (and given our geographical and geological advantages, why not) and additionally competing technologies push for innovation to advance more quickly as well as gain access to a wider array of funding opportunities not to mention become more affordable.
These are good things in a world of perpetual increases in energy costs.
But worse is embracing any one idea that would rob Peter (oil) to pay Paul ("eco-fueling") in lieu of two major pieces of shifting:
1. Conservation.
- Mandatory efficiencies for ALL forms transportation and not token responses to quell the eco-crowd roar. I am talking NO car under 60 MPG and Nothing BUT hybrids to start.
This is the REAL discussion that should be happening at every possible turn. Our ridiculous appetite for energy. I realize that this has been discussed in dribs and drabs but satiating the appetite only prolongs the illness. That illness is the REAL issue. The illness being our lack of restraint and conservation. As someone who was asked (on behalf of the Boston Society of Architects - Committee on the Environment) back in 2001 to review the forthcoming National Energy Policy, I was struck by the fact that there were no mandates for scaling back use (from the lack of public transportation funding to overall self-discipline measures). We just keep throwing money at ideas to deal with the ever expanding need. Things have not changed in the 7 years since its release. As we may already know things are much, much worse.
Of all things, that is the least sustainable strategy, no matter how "green" the technology gets.
Another HAS to be a look at how we do things. There is something absurd about sitting in two-hour traffic jams flying solo listening to NPR yelling, “right on” to reports on energy crisis and want to remove us from Iraq.
2. Localized Mass transit investment.
- READ THIS: BUSES are bad. Why? They sit in traffic with everyone else. Why is this so hard to understand? Make transit actually efficient and people will use it. Cities will densify logically.
I know, trains are about as reliable as the ability for our President to properly read a teleprompter, but fuck is it not a good idea to put a bit more thought into your commute? That brings me to one of the tenants to a truly sustainable strategy, transit. Public transit especially. We collective look at the 3rd world as lesser, but they also have a lot right. They do not have access to capital the way we do so that has to be clever about it. Use mass transit to move people who cannot afford autos. It is their necessity. It is ours.
These were the two giant holes in the 2001 National Energy Policy. It was great at putting the “cards on the table” but very bad a advocating real solutions to the UN-sustainable thirst for energy. It started with the excused requirement for energy plants (particularly in RED states) to put scrubbers on the stacks. That was 2001; the requirements still have not been restored.
Chapter TWO – Green is Still Greed….and greed is still good.
The Chevy Volt concept car, 2007
So GM wants me to believe that they never really killed the electric car they just thought the market wasn’t right? Hmmmm. Interesting, didn’t they CRUSH all the cars? They did. They didn’t give them to communities of the poor, to perhaps stimulate interest and educate the public at the roots about technology that could be extremely affordable for those who may be interested in things like, oh say, affordability.
Nope.
They Fucking crushed them.
Did I mention they crushed them? They fucking crushed them. Crushed. Am I clear? CRUSHED. Not donated, not gave away. Nothing. This is as fucking mind blowing as ANY network not picking up Arrested Development after that shit-stain network FX (Fox) dumped it. Destroyed any trace of them.
But wait, they are trying again. Oh its OK then. Forgiven. I want to give thanks for your advert in The New York Times magazine announcing how fucking green you are. I am sure it has nothing to do with the ever exponential quarterly losses you are taking for market share.
Since the 1970’s energy crisis, which looks like fucking child’s play compared to now our collective fuel economy has worsened. Worsened. How? Well, sure cars got bigger again. That’s what we Americans are all about, bigger, better faster. Like the environmental degradation. We are the best. But hey at least China is catching up and soon will pass us faster than the jobs our American companies gave away to them in the name of that all American capitalism.
Fuck, thank GOD (no, no please, thank GOD….) Wal-Mart is open 24 hours.
Still think we are free? I know, Bitter party of one?
No. I am not bitter, I love getting fucked in the ass with a steam locomotive and not given the courtesy reach around. I guess I just have standards. Jeffery, Love me.
Chapter THREE – I love my country, but I don’t trust our government.
Here is all the evidence we need that our government and George Bush (who doesn’t just hate black people, he hates all people) is out to get us. And by us I mean anyone NOT invested in carbon-based fuel investments.
The Boston Globe: EPA Scientists Compliain About Political Pressure
So the EPA was strong-armed? Huh, really? Come on? This is all very shocking. America (and the rest of the sycophants that emulate us) continues to have that 4 year old mentality, if I just pull the covers over our heads the big bad stuff will just go away. Well, guess what? It won’t. But at least they won’t have to do much to wrap up the bodies, just look for the television sets in their homes.
Yeah, it’s the fat lump in the barker lounger that was reaching for the remote when they gasped their last breath.
Chapter Four – So where do we go from here?
I know, I know….this sounds horrible. I am being an alarmist. How terrible of me, please allow me to apologize. Oh wait, its fucking true. These things are our future.
FUCK THE CHILDREN, Whitney!
Its not being an alarmist, its just plain ole fucking alarming how little we ALL COLLECTIVELY DO NOT GIVE A SHIT about our own well being and future. NONE. How inspiring are we all that we ALLOW the government WE ELECT to strong arm the very oversight bodies charged with protecting our and the planet's health, safety and welfare for the sake of glossing over how bad they have fucked us over the years?
How proud we all must be….a government of the people...for the people….by the people.
Wow.
We suck.
Where is the fucking ribbon for that to put on my fucking car?
Hey, someone cue Lee Greenwood!