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Mar. 27th, 2011 11:29 am
Rant mode: Engaged
One-size-fits-all environmental activists really, REALLY piss me off. Not because I think their underlying cause is misguided (hardly) but because they don't actually think about the practicality of the demands they make.
Today, for example, was the person who said that no one should have a problem with high gas prices because we should all live in-city and commute to work via bike and/or transit.
Oh, honey. All that organic ganja you been toking is frying your brain. ( How are you wrong? Let me count the ways: )
Don't get me wrong: I have plenty of problems with the folks who are convinced they need a Lincoln Navigator to do all this. But getting on the case of everyone who has a car and drives to work is asinine. Generally speaking, all of us can probably stand to do just a little more to reduce our fossil-fuel consumption and carbon emissions. But we don't all have the same circumstances, and therefore the exact ways we can do this aren't going to all be the same.
And--perhaps most important--in some cases, doing the same thing as someone else can actually make things worse. I've encountered plenty of people who are terribly smug about living in the DT core, yet who commute to a suburban office every day. Lookit me! I'm a hip, urban sophisticate! Uh, yeah. And you're also an idiot for subjecting yourself to two hours of bridge traffic every day. Sneer at my suburban paradise all you want. I spend less time on the road than you do, my newer house is probably cheaper to maintain and far more energy efficient per square foot than your crumbling "vintage" fourplex and I get to see more wild critters than pigeons and squirrels. Oh, and when I get a kid, I'll get to take her to a park across the street that won't be littered with used needles and human excrement. (All that, and my zip code is 10-15% less white than the vast majority of the zipcodes surrounding the DT core. "White flight" my ass.)
Not saying I'm the world's best environmentalist. Not even close. I know there's more I can do, and I'm always researching the best ways I can do it. But just because I live in a single-family house in the 'burbs doesn't mean I'm dumping antifreeze in salmon runs.
Today, for example, was the person who said that no one should have a problem with high gas prices because we should all live in-city and commute to work via bike and/or transit.
Oh, honey. All that organic ganja you been toking is frying your brain. ( How are you wrong? Let me count the ways: )
Don't get me wrong: I have plenty of problems with the folks who are convinced they need a Lincoln Navigator to do all this. But getting on the case of everyone who has a car and drives to work is asinine. Generally speaking, all of us can probably stand to do just a little more to reduce our fossil-fuel consumption and carbon emissions. But we don't all have the same circumstances, and therefore the exact ways we can do this aren't going to all be the same.
And--perhaps most important--in some cases, doing the same thing as someone else can actually make things worse. I've encountered plenty of people who are terribly smug about living in the DT core, yet who commute to a suburban office every day. Lookit me! I'm a hip, urban sophisticate! Uh, yeah. And you're also an idiot for subjecting yourself to two hours of bridge traffic every day. Sneer at my suburban paradise all you want. I spend less time on the road than you do, my newer house is probably cheaper to maintain and far more energy efficient per square foot than your crumbling "vintage" fourplex and I get to see more wild critters than pigeons and squirrels. Oh, and when I get a kid, I'll get to take her to a park across the street that won't be littered with used needles and human excrement. (All that, and my zip code is 10-15% less white than the vast majority of the zipcodes surrounding the DT core. "White flight" my ass.)
Not saying I'm the world's best environmentalist. Not even close. I know there's more I can do, and I'm always researching the best ways I can do it. But just because I live in a single-family house in the 'burbs doesn't mean I'm dumping antifreeze in salmon runs.
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