Aislin did a wonderful cartoon in the Montreal Gazette showing all the jets circling Copenhagen.
In another article we read that every Limosine in the city, and from elsewhere was booked solid for the entire period of the meetings, and were seen with their engines idling for hours to keep the inside of the car warm for the guest.
Protesters came from afar to be heard, wave their flags, and with any luck be seen on national television, but they never openly mention the fact that they also flew on jet planes and took taxis and limosines, stayed in hotels, and consumed coffees and food in restaurants, creating more garbage.
The newspapers and television reporters all had their own commentary on the state of the world and global warming, printing thousands of pages of newsprint.
Several thousand banquet meals were served over the duration of the conference, creating no end of garbage, laundering of tablecloths and napkins.
All the restaurants and hotels in Copenhagen were full, creating more garbage and laundry.
Thousands of gallons of fuel were consumed.
Another unsuccessful meeting where nothing was decided, but the participants all felt they were the ones who would make the changes in the world.
Meetings in Bali, meetings in Copenhagen, meetings all over the world to discuss “How to be Green”.
Other than a totally insane media spewing out hype about being socially and ethically responsible, whatever that means, and stop using plastic garbage bags, so that we now we pay for them, further fattening the pockets of the grocery stores by thousands of dollars weekly for a product which we need, nothing has really changed. Most people I know don’t plan to go to a store to purchase necessities, they see a store and remember that they need some items and go shopping. No one walks around during their business day with pockets stuffed with bags on the off chance that maybe they will need a few greens and milk. What a thought, a Senior Business Executive with a plastic bag
In his back pocket in case his wife calls and asks him to pick up milk and bread on the way home….!!!
People are having more children than ever, buying huge homes and cottages, buying more than one car, living further away from city centers, necessitating more driving, and having what ever the latest pet of the month is ostensibly for their children. One couple in London England, actually have the nerve to print a magazine about being green, but they are in their 20’s, have 4 children, numerous pets, several homes, and jet around the world on vacation regularly, sometimes commercial, but very often on private jets. It is about ‘do what I say, don’t do what I do’ …somehow they think their children are special.
The statistics on the family dog are actually staggering, each 30 pound dog creates the same amount of garbage as a human.
China no longer has the one child per family legislation, and there is still no push in the third world to stop over population, even though many of the people are dying of starvation.
India has a population explosion, and is growing exponentially with no discussion of limits of children per family.
A lifetime of rhetoric, and yet at the end of the day, the only thing which has truly changed is that the world population continues to explode and fanatical religious leaders are continuing to tell women to have babies, some of whom have over 10 children and are continuing to breed.
The only way to get serious is to STOP encouraging people to have children, and instead of paying women to have children, to pay them if they get sterilized. The current economic models are at fault, and to date, no one has actually come up with a model which encourages full employment and the promotion of innovation in order to reduce carbon emissions and garbage in order to clean up the planet.
It CAN be done.
It MUST be done.
We are losing our forests, our oceans, our fish, and much of our natural wildlife due to over-population and urban sprawl.
The biggest contributor of all the problems the world is facing regarding pollution, global warming and potable drinking water is that we have TOO MANY PEOPLE and TOO MANY PETS. Period.
The biggest creator of pollution are humans, followed by unneeded animals. Yes, I love animals and have had pets a good part of my life, but we are speaking reality here.
There is an arrogance among people that their children will somehow be special and change the world, but the harsh reality is that we need to start looking for new ways to grow the economy than multiplying.
Investment in cleaning rainwater, cleaning sewage, heating homes without fossil fuels, not wearing clothes made of synthetics, not using Styrofoam containers, re-cycling, re-use of car tires, cleaning of used oil products, re-cycling of products like paint, are but to name a few.
Encouraging people to live downtown and walk to work. Educating the people already on the planet, and putting them to work, instead of allowing high school drop-outs, high-school pregnancy, facilitating adoption of already existing
Children instead of making the process hideously long and arduous.
Cynical yes, fed up of being lectured to, yes, fed up of hypocrisy, absolutely.
Let’s change the economic models to stop encourage growth and encourage re-use and investment in new technologies.
