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Global Warning - Jun 27, 2006 - Printable Version
- The Revolution Will Not be Motorized
by Robin Buckallew
So you say you want a revolution? Well, we all want to change the world. So what? Quit bitching and moaning, quit bellyaching, and get off your duff. There is no way to change the world by sitting on your ass in an air conditioned room, even if you listen to nothing but early Dylan and read nothing but Hunter Thompson. You can’t change the world unless you change yourself first. As Gandhi used to say, “Be the change you want to see in the world”. I believe in those words. I am trying to live those words. Every day, I think about the decisions I make, and I think about the things I do, and I try to understand the consequences that my actions have globally, not just whether or not my life is a little more or less comfortable. Turn off the Dylan records (no disrespect meant, I love Dylan as much as the next guy), put down Hunter Thompson, and get out to where the revolution is happening. Oh, and please, don’t drive there. Use your feet – a million years of human evolution have made them wonderfully suited for locomotion. This time, the revolution will not be motorized. One of the most delightfully efficient tools of human evolution has been bipedal locomotion – and I don’t refer to the gas pedal and the brake pedal. No, I mean left, right, left, right, left, right...bipedalism freed up our hands to do other work, such as lifting and carrying, opening doors, popping the pop top on the beer can so we could grab our first sip even before we sat down. Homo sapiens walked off the African savannah, and made their way to Europe, Asia, North America, and South America. Thanks to two good feet, their hands were free to build boats that got them across oceans and eventually they spread throughout the entire world – all of this before the internal combustion engine was ever invented. The internal combustion engine changed the world for us, made it smaller and more user friendly. Unfortunately, now it threatens to destroy the very world it opened up for us.
Shortly after 9/11, the government put out some “public service” documents that informed us that those who were using illegal drugs were helping to sponsor the terrorists who “hated America” and were running airplanes into tall buildings as a result of that hate. This was, of course, a combination tactic designed to fight the war on drugs and the war on terror simultaneously. Never mind the fact that it was bound to fail at both endeavors. The first question that comes to mind: “Is it true?” Now, for those of us who aren’t using illegal drugs, the temptation is to answer “Yes, of course it’s true”. It’s the easy answer, because it lets us off the hook. Unfortunately, it’s the wrong answer. The terrorists who attacked America weren’t being funded primarily by drug money. They were being funded primarily by oil money. In other words, it isn’t the drug addicts who should feel guilty. It’s the gasoline addicts. During World War II, there were war posters out that said “If you drive alone, you drive with Hitler”. These posters were designed to encourage conservation of fuel for use in the war effort. Perhaps now we need to put up new posters, telling us “When you drive alone, you drive with Bin Laden”. Higher gas prices haven’t gotten us out of our cars. Global warming hasn’t gotten us out of our cars. Perhaps global terrorism and endless war can get us out of our cars. Perhaps it’s time we remembered what feet are for, besides just pushing pedals.
Please, recognize some truths. Right now, we’re not going to solve the problem with hybrids – that is a way too little, way too late, and only makes us feel better about ourselves. Hydrogen fuel cells are in a somewhat distant future (best scenarios tell us a decade, at least, before massive production of fuel cell cars can become a reality). Biofuels, while sounding like a good idea, take more fossil fuel energy to produce than the amount of energy they generate. Global warming is right now, and it is real. With every car that I hear drive by my window, I feel like something precious has been lost. That something is the future. We have twiddled our thumbs and dithered for 40 years now, waiting for some technology we can buy to get us out of this pickle without any real sacrifice of our own personal “lifestyle”. The only answer that is an answer for today is conservation. Richard Cheney says it’s been tried and didn’t work, but Richard Cheney was not truthful (bet that comes as a big surprise). During the Carter administration, when gas lines were long and gas prices were high, consumption was reduced by the simple expedient of conservation. It was tried, and it worked. Americans showed they could change. Then, the eighties came, gas prices went down, greed was declared good, and consumption has climbed steadily ever since – along with the mercury on the thermometer.
So, stop singing protest songs. Stop reading revolutionary literature. Start taking action. And remember, the revolution will NOT be motorized.
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