Out of nowhere, it almost
seems, everyone is talking about global warming. Presidential
candidates, corporate moguls, media pundits — the news is
saturated with the latest climate-change buzzwords. My current
favorite is “carbon footprint,” which made me wonder
what I’d stepped in….what we’ve all stepped in.
It’s a lot messier and more insidious than you might think.
When you listen closely, you’ll discover that most
of the current solutions to our global crisis are entrepreneurial
in nature. We don’t need to really change our lifestyles; we
just need to fix the wrapping. Hybrid cars and ethanol fuel lead
the list, but there’s more — solar power, wind power,
bio-diesel, carbon credits, even organic condoms. CanWest News
Service reports : The famed adult store Good Vibrations announced
they would no longer sell products containing “phthalates,
controversial chemical plasticizers believed by some to be
hazardous to humans and the environment alike.”
Or
consider these observations from Newsweek, in its story about
“making a buck green”: “So where’s the
money in climate change? Investors sense a tumultuous market in the
making, if they can only hit it right…” Save-the-planet
investing has suddenly, well, heated up.
Just a week
earlier, the same periodical featured “Green Giant”
Arnold Schwarzenegger on its cover because “California’s
Hummer-loving governor is turning the Golden State into the
greenest in the land, a place where environmentalism and hedonism
can coexist.”
It really said that. The terminator had
been a guest on MTV’s popular “Pimp my Ride” television
program and had come to promote a 1965 Chevy Impala with an
800-horsepower engine revamped to burn bio-diesel fuel. “This,”
Schwarzenegger proclaimed, “is the future.” He explained that it
was important, “to show people that biofuel is not like some wimpy
feminine car, like a hybrid.”
Newsweek suggested that
Schwarzenegger’s view is a world away from Al Gore’s
alarming climate lecture, “An Inconvenient Truth.” But is it
these days? I was first drawn to Al Gore almost 15 years ago, with
the publication of his book, Earth in the Balance. Gore said
flatly: “I believe that our civilization is addicted to the
consumption of the earth itself…our industrial civilization makes
us a promise: the pursuit of happiness and comfort is paramount,
and the consumption of an endless stream of new products is
encouraged as the best way to succeed in that pursuit. But the
promise is always false because the hunger for authenticity
remains.”
Now jump ahead a decade and a half to an
Associated Press story: “Former Vice President Al Gore on
Wednesday praised Wal-Mart for a newfound focus on environmental
sustainability, saying the retailer showed there is no conflict
between the environment and the economy.”
Gore said
some people questioned whether Wal-Mart was serious about the
environment, then added: “Have you ever known Wal-Mart not to
follow through on a big commitment of this kind? I have not.”
Is this the same Al Gore? Does he think endless new,
mostly plastic products might be more palatable if only we used
greener technology? Gore’s search for authenticity sounds
quaint in 2007. But more than anyone, it’s us, the
“progressive environmental community,” that created this honesty
vacuum. When did we stop being conservationists? When it comes to
the madness that defines an economy fueled by incessant growth,
when did both sides of the political spectrum choose to embrace it?
Liberal Democrats aren’t a lot different from
conservative Republicans. Neither group wants to see us live with
less. Republicans think we should continue to live extravagantly
and are convinced our energy resources will last forever. Democrats
want to be able to live just as extravagantly, but think we can
live extravagantly in a more energy-efficient manner.
When critics asked John Kerry when he was running for president how
he’d fund his massive health care bill, he said, “We’ll grow
the economy to pay for it.” That means more big homes and expensive
cars and massive shopping malls and extravagant lifestyles and a
materialistic society that sees more value in “things” than
anything else. And I see no one on the political landscape these
days willing to ask all of us to live with less. So until we get
serious, I have a hard time trying to be. I’m off to find
some phthalate-free condoms and a bottle of cheap wine — I promise
I’ll recycle the glass.
Jim Stiles is a
contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News
in Paonia, Colorado (hcn.org). He publishes the Canyon Country
Zephyr in Moab, Utah, and is the author of the recently published
book, Brave New West.
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