Tickersoid Tackles Global Issues.
Things were starting to get a little damp in Cardiff.Perhaps I'm not the best qualified person to tackle global issues. I don't subscribe to a news paper (not necessarily a disadvantage from what I've read in the 'Star') nor do I watch the TV news.
I do, however, glimpse a window to the world through radio news (assuming 'glimpse' is an appropriate verb to use for an auditory medium). Further, I sometimes peruse some of the weightier articles from the Times, should I happen to find a copy lying on the toilet cubicle floor, that isn't too sodden for page turning.
I will however, give you the 'He's Got To Be a Bit Gay' view of Global Warming, right here from my collapsed office chair (Ikea of course) at one end of my badly decorated bedroom, looking out on a snow covered valley.
I seem to recall some one concerned with global worming, ( yeah, you're not going to find anything involving names, times and places or anything vaguely verifiable here) saying we shouldn't go from denial to despair.
Jeez, that was my plan exactly.
I'm impressed, mind you, that he should have recognized such a common place attitude.
Those of us who listen to Terry Wogan on radio 2 in the morning will notice a cynicism aimed at 'latest research' and global warming.
Most of his 8.5 million viewers, ( believed to be the worlds highest. Eat your heart out Howard Stern) are, shall we say, of a certain age.
An age that remembers when we used to 'make do and mend', instead of buying new. When we used to take glass bottles back to the shop or leave them out for the milk man. When the only disposable item in the weekly shop was toilet paper and that was only because news paper blocked up the soil pipes (if you didn't scrunch it and rip into small pieces).
This was an age when the latest research told us that dairy products such as eggs, cream and cheese were good for you. When eating boiled sweets and brushing after every meal was thought to be beneficial for your teeth. When the latest predictions of the future told us that the worlds oil would have run out by 1984, but that Britain had enough coal to last another 300 years.
No. Us oldies don't hold much store by latest research or predictions.
OK, I'll admit I used to be in denial about global warming and maybe 'man' has actually contributed to it by emissions, but hey, what you gonna do?
I know for sure people aren't going to modify their lifestyles by any significant degree, and I say significant in terms of what can reasonably be expected, not in terms of what needs to be done.
People act according to economic pressure. End of.....
And what of the emerging economies. China building power stations at the rate of one per week. How many TV's turned off, instead of on stand by, is that?
How are the Chinese going to react to being told, just as they're aspiring to own their own motor cars, "Ooh we've all agreed here in the West, it would be a good thing if we all rode around on bicycles." Like you're ever going to get consensus on that in Sussex or Oxford, let alone Los Angelis.
So now I'm in despair.
Except for one thing.
Didn't someone predict that, any day now, Yellow Stone Park is going to explode in a super volcano and plunge us all into a nuclear winter?
posted by Tickersoid at 11:50 AM
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10 Comments:
I completely agree that it will be hard to get people to change their lifestyles, and they need to do so. But then, 40 years ago, it would have been hard to imagine that one could be out at work, effectively married to one's same-sex partner, and able to take companies to court if they refused service on the basis of sexuality.
Just because something is hard doesn't mean we shouldn't try.
The whole lifestyle thing is a bit like taking up an exercise regime. most of us accept that we should, really, for the sake of our health if nothing else; but getting started can be really hard. It's worth it, though. I know contemporary mass culture generally encourages myopic short-termism, irresponsible consumerism, and enhanced ignorance, but I'm an optimist. I think we can rise above that.
Oh, and yay! First!
I just read this article in Wired. Wonderful. The evils of the Bush Administration are catching up on him again.
By their deeds ye shall know them.
In my experience those massive lifestyle changes only come about by legistation or economic prudence. Countries legislating in isolation only put themselves at a disadvantage economically.
Bush's actions are just so disheartening and undemocratic but even more sadly, unsurprising.
Even if nations do find consensus, it’ll be too little too late, diluted and open to individual interpretation. Further more individual nations will cheat.
Agreed Tickers, we only produce 2% of carbon emissions any savings we make will only be token gestures. China and Indian workers all want TV/Cars/fridges and who are we to tell them that they can't? The trouble with the Kyoto agreement was that it left China and India out of any pollution controls because they are "emerging economies" - no wonder the Yanks didn't sign it!
In the words of Frazier from ‘Dads Army’,
“We’re all doomed. Doomed, I tell yea.”
Hey Mr T! Don't be so gloomey - you will be dead from the consequences of your hedonistic lifestyle long before the planet turns into Waterworld. A strange movie that one. Sorry to hear about the chair, was it self-assembly? Try replacing those little screws with bigger ones. That helps sometimes.
Karaoke once a week is hardly hedonistic.
The chair was of the knock up, fall down variety.
Oh and what happened to the cocaine and oral sex you promised over at your place?
Nuclear winter! Yayyyyy!
I mean, uh, booooo!
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