Blissful Green Ignorance. Ten Ways to Be Wrong

---by Micheal

Crowds love quick answers. They don't have to be correct answers, mind you. They just have to be easy to remember and assimilate. The currently trendy "green" wave running through our culture is a perfect example. So many people swell with genuine zeal to "save the planet", yet charge off half-cocked to subdue mere windmills. In reality, they're doing virtually no good (beyond feeling good.)

A fine spotlight on this Pointlessly Green phenomenon was highlighted in a recent article in Wired magazine: Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What it Means to Be Green.. Author Spencer Reiss lists off ten counterintuitive (for crowd-think) truths about the environment.

1. Live in Cities: Stacking us up in urban density is easier on the rest of the planet
2. A/C is OK: It uses less energy to cool a home than heat one. Move south.
3. Organics Hurt: Organic crops and meats actually produce more greenhouse gases.
4. Farm Old Growth Forests: Old trees absorb less CO2 than young growing ones.
5. China is the Solution: Whatever that many people do, will matter a lot.
6. Accept Genetic Engineering: Tweaked crops and animals can require less energy.
7. Carbon Trading Doesn't Work: It's a shell game.
8. Embrace Nukes: Like 'em or not, they produce tons of power without CO2
9. Used Cars, Not Hybrids: Hybrids require lots more energy to make. Go used.
10. Prepare for the Worst: The planet is warming. Deal with it.

Most of these reveal how complex the world actually is. We can't simply adopt one "wonder" solution (such as avoiding nuclear waste) and ride off into the sunset. Each choice has ramifications which need to be weighed.

Are we really open to the personal changes required of "reducing our carbon footprint"? (which is the trendy noble thing to pretend to want to do) Are you willing to sell your suburban house and take an apartment downtown? Are you willing to give up your car? Are you willing to eat whatever's best for the planet and not what you want?

A couple of Reiss's points were interesting food for thought. More on those in later posts.