I read a disturbing article from Reuters this week, about children in Fukushima prefecture not being allowed outside to play, even two years after the disaster. This is beyond sad, and I can’t imaging trying to raise Baby M in an environment where he had to be afraid of the air.
Since Fukushima, of course, there has been a lot of controversy about nuclear power, and its environmental and human impacts, especially when things go wrong. There are a lot of vocal people who completely oppose nuclear power, under any circumstances. I can see their point, and sympathize with it.
However, a lot of those same folks are also very vocally against the tar sands projects in northern Alberta, and the Keystone XL pipeline that is proposed to take bitumen from Alberta to refineries in the US.
I have a bit of an issue with this. If you are living in a climate-controlled house in North America, drive a car, wear clothing you did not make yourself, and/or eating anything you didn’t grow, you need to recognize that you, too, are dependent on outside energy, and that energy most likely comes from petroleum, or, in many parts of the US, nuclear generation.
“Oh,” you say, “I have a windmill and drive an electric car”.
Not good enough. The metals and minerals in your car and your windmill (and your solar panels and even your woodstove) were mined, and were mined using diesel. The waste from the smelting still ended up in the environment, though probably in China, where it’s easier to forget. I’ve read somewhere that an electric car takes so many resources to make that, in terms of total lifetime environmental damage caused by a vehicle, you are better off buying a second-hand car, even if it’s less fuel efficient. As long as we continue to drive and live in big houses and eat food grown elsewhere, even if we slap some solar panels on the roof, there will be more generating plants, more tar sands expansion, more mines, and more environmental damage.
The fact of the matter is that windmills and solar panels and electric cars aren’t really a solution. People don’t like to think about the real solution, which is to simply reduce consumption. No more new wardrobes every season, or new iPhones every two years or new cars every three years, even if they’re electric. No more strawberries in Saskatchewan in January. We need to learn to do without, or, if we can’t, to buy well-made goods that will last for generations. We need to start repairing things when they break. We need to take some responsibility for our food supply.
Now, I’m no angel, here. I drive a car to work, and heat my house with a furnace. We grow a lot of food here, but we buy a lot, too…some of it even imported. It’s hard to live a low-resource lifestyle in a country that’s set up for commuting and consumption. But I sure get sick of seeing people drive up to join in a tar sands protest, or type furious internet comments about nuclear disasters on their brand new phones. We’re all part of the problem, but until we define what, exactly, the real problem is, there won’t be any viable solutions. So maybe it’s time to face our own hypocrisy and start working towards low-consumption lifestyles. Then we can talk about tar sands protests.
Too often there is an assumption that renewable energy is just a simple switch out with what we use now. It isn’t. And your reference to the manufacturing side of life (sort of the hidden energy hog) was a good reminder of this.
too many of the costs of our products are hidden away, either in the manufacturing or in the outsourcing of pollution and waste disposal…
Great article Jess. I have had a few debates in recent weeks about the environment stand of some people towards the oil sands. One guy posts on Facebook almost weekly about some environment thing on the oil sands, but yet he drives from Ottawa to Kingston each weekend, and every second weekend he does it twice and spends $225/month in gas. He justifies his driving by saying that he sold his gas guzzler for a hybrid. It’s hard to listen to someone like that on their views about the environment, when they are not to pleasant to the environment themselves.
yes, it’s hard not to run out of patience with some folks, isn’t it?
Sure is. Their heart is in the right place and I can agree most of what is being preached, however I believe you should walk the walk, before you talk the talk.
I enjoyed your random musings. It has felt like we are an usual breed. My husband just purchased a used computer. The man he bought it from couldn’t believe that we had been using a 10 year old computer. He couldn’t even fathom that it still worked. We had upgraded as far as we could. I was too slow to work on the internet of today. He just bought a new cell phone. We couldn’t find battiers for it anymore. It was so old. He got it used from a friend 10 years ago. People were so rude when he was seen using it. Making fun of him using such and old model phone. Our attitude is why buy something new, when it is not broke.
Today’s products are not meant to last. 40 years ago your refridgerator stopped working you called a repair man to come and fix it. You didn’t go buy a new one. Those type of repair men are hard to find today. It is the same with car mechanics. Most new cars have so much computerized components and car makers warranties only cover their dealerships mechanics. We drive and older car that we maintain well. It seems everything today is disposable. You are right it is difficult to make a stand and fight consumerism.
I agree, it is a struggle to try to reduce your consumption and repair broken items anymore. I get a lot of grief because I don’t even own a television or cell phone. Things really aren’t made to be repaired anymore, and I have come across issues where it is more expensive to fix something than to replace it. It’s a shame.
Thanks for this excellent article. This is how I feel almost every day. I do my best to use as little as possible, but I realize that my lifestyle isn’t possible without non-renewable energy sources – those who don’t are kidding themselves.
Sometimes it’s hard to accept that you are part of the problem, and that there are very few ways to be part of the solution…
Hi JJ
If no one who is less than environmentally perfect is allowed to have an opinion about environmental issues, the conversation will be very short. This would suit the large number of people who have a vested interest in resisting change. If you drive a car, or drink coffee, or have children, you are contributing to the problems of the world and must be silent. This puts the cart before the hybrid horse, because for people to make more positive choices, those choices have to be available. To make those choices available, will require a lot of unpleasant experiences (Fukishima) and even more unpleasant sounds, like the kind critics will make about every aspect of every life choice. If you were to squat in the bush and live on berries, someone would find fault with that. The best we can do is to push through the red herrings and the background noise, and focus on what we can individually and collectively do to move in a positive direction.
Oh, and good luck with the new business venture.
Cheers!
Mark.
Thanks 🙂
You’re right about the perfectionism, and I may suffer some of that, myself 😉 I think the thing that drives me nuts is that people don’t seem to be willing / able to face up to the difficult fact that any lifestyle that we (in N. America) consider comfortable, suitable, and desirable…is not sustainable. There are few (if any) sustainable options that don’t include the simple measure of consuming less. Until we wrap our collective minds around that, we are just re-arranging furniture on a sinking ship…