Sunday, March 30, 2008

thinking deeper

sorry that I havn't posted in a while here, the tour side got busy.

I've been thinking more and more about the solutions to our environmental issues, and its important for me to know exactly where I stand on things. For example, I eat meat knowing that it is not the most carbon-friendly choice (the grain and energy it takes to feed that cow all its life could have fed a lot more people in grain form...) -- but I still eat it.

Its not that I don't believe in saving energy and squeezing what we can out of every block of coal, its that this won't solve our problems. Though it is of course important to switch off the TV and lights at night, what we should really be aiming for is a way to harvest enough clean energy that we don't have to worry. We can light up the Vegas strip and Times Square to our heart's content and let it charge back up in the sun. I truly believe this is the only real solution to global warming - I've seen enough people that simply will not change certain things about the way they live. I can only assume China, India and other growing countries will feel the same way as they build up. We all use an immense amount of energy. I AM one of those people that hurts the air every day by driving around burning gas, so I understand not wanting to sacrifice certain things in my life. Our human momentum is massive.

The hope for me is that I've seen such amazing change already happen in my life. I've been the assistant engineer, manually lining up a 2 inch tape machine and I've seen that change to completely digital recording. I used to hate running with a walkman because of the warbly sound the tape would give when running -- then we got CD players with shock memory, and now the ipod shuffle that won't ever skip or warble and is 1% of the size of that walkman!

So right now we need that societal will for larger change - people are using their consumer votes to buy hybrid cars, a step in the direction of electric vehicles and a leap in efficiency. I'm using mine for bio-diesel fuel, another step away from oil, even if a little desperate. Keep using those consumer votes and buy clean energy if possible! Money talks here! If we can get an administration into place that will help pave the way and stop obstructing progress maybe that same ingenuity that created the shuffle ipod will be put into hyperdrive on clean energy harvesting. We're a long way from where we need to be, but if we all care and are vocal, change will continue.

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