Tuesday, October 11, 2005

thought on the state of the world

Well as I sit here I fear that we may have done it as a society, we may have really gone to far, with peak oil and our relience on it. What is wrong with us. At what point did we get so off track from what really matters, each other, people is what really matters. It seems to me that we feel more disconnected each day, we drift in and out of each others lives not really caring, not even taking the time to say hello. After all there are just so many people it would take too much energy and time to actually stay in touch. Think satire for the last comment. Is it that we feel so small and our individual efforts dont really matter so why bother? Remember the bumper sticker, "Never forget what a small group of concerned citizens can accomplish" or something along those lines. It may start small, but there are like minded people out there, and with the internet, one of the good inventions that has come from technology, we as a community can be more global and make things happen at an alarming rate. There are so many people out there taking a stand and making a statement doing so. To these people I say thank you for the inspiration. So back to the state of the world, check out this site lots of goodies to look over and what a great title, Oil is for sissies. Read it and think. He has a link to these guys, but they are really putting their words to actions, and the music is inspiring, although not on my typical playlist, I am starting to enjoy bands that have something real to say. They are also the producers of the Xtra cycle, which I would love to get.But truely look at the weather lately bigger storms more varitations in temperatures, more severity. There are earthquakes and floods, New Orleans and TExas, New Hampshire is underwater, 20 inches of snow in the mountains around Denver. WTF Our actions will not go unnoticed by mother nature. We all need to think about our choices, all of our choices have and effect, not thinking is in itself making a choice. For inaction there is action. yin yang all of that. So I challange all of us to make concious choices and think what the implication of each choice is. With increases in oil heating prices increases, food prices increase it is all connected. Most of you reading this site probably understand this, but a lot of people just dont get it. Choices matter, you may not seem a direct link immeditaly but down the road when enough people are on board you will see that it all mattered, and that you did have an effect on the global scheme of things.

I am reading a book called The Philosophy of Sustainable Design by Jason F Mclennan, it deals mostly with architecture but the greater message can be applied to the larger society. I read something that struck a nerve and really made me think what the implications of our situation really could be, and that we need to act now if we want to succeed as a society. Which means we must take in to our evaluation the effect we are having on the earth, on the soil, the air quality, recycling, waste treatment etc. I think you get it, everything is tied together and we need to include in our analysis of sucess or failure the natural resources that are being used and abused.
So here is the comment:
Imagine that we introduce a single bacterium (in a test tube) that will proceed to divide every minute. So at the begining, there's one cell, a minuete later ther is two....at 60 minuetes in this example, the test tube is full of bacteria and the food is gone. When was the test tube half full?.....59 minuetes. So at 58 minuetes, it was 25 percent full, at 57 minuetes, 12.5 percent full. At 55 minuetes the test tube was only 3 percent full.

If at 55 minuetes, some bacterial genius spoke up and said, I think we have a population problem, the less astute majority would probably retort, " what are you talking about? Ninety seven percent of the test tube is empty, and we've been around 55 minutes." At 59 minuetes though most bacteria would probably realize they were in trouble. Suppose they threw money at therir sicentists and begged for a solution. And suppose that in less than a minute those bacterial scientists created three test tube full of food! EVEryone would be saved right? Well no, at 60 minuetes, the first test tube would be full, at 61 minuetes the second would be full, at 63 seconds all four would be full."

So we need to act now, it matters. So I challange each and every one of you to make your next choice green. Take the time to consider the impacts of your choices. Thank you.

1 comment:

Jerry G. said...

Somehow came across your blog so I thought I'd say hello. Hello. You know, people used to wave at other people if nothing else to aknowledge another's presense. That don't happen anymore much. So heres a virtual wavw and a howdy do. ~Jerry