I'm sorry, but I'm tired. I just fell asleep watching a preview of a TV show on the computer where every alternative energy source for cars was hyped without the real price of each energy (it takes at least three gallons of fossil fuels to make four gallons of ethanol at this point) source ever being discussed.
While the program had useful information, it was fundamentally dishonest.
Meanwhile, Paris Hilton danced across the muted TV in the background of our living room.
Who names their kid after one of their franchises, and why isn't Fresno Denny's as famous?
I'm trying to finish my book but preparing for this blog and podcasts beginning in five days (or whenever the audio recorder comes courtesty of the wonderful generosity of my sister Carol and her husband Frank) is quite time-consuming, along with the caregiving, household repairs, household organizing and many other obligations I had today and every day.
I get cranky when I don't get to write what I feel I should be writing.
But then an argument could be made that I should be doing this blog and podcast so that there's a mechanism to promote the book when it comes out.
The thing is that contemporary authors need to think of themselves as entrepreneurs who can't count on publishers and publicists to do their work for them.
So I'm trying to do everything at once and occasionally I get a little overwhelmed, like now.
Thank you for understanding and I hope to have a better post tomorrow, if there is one.
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2 comments:
Even green consumer products have negative environmental consequences. While Prius is a lot greener than other cars, the hill-sides of British Columbia are being taken apart to supply the necessary copper. Not to mention the barrels of oil required to make the car in the first place. As you mentioned, making ethanol requires so much oil - but even if this is done using renewable resources, there is still going to be toss-up between using the land for food or land for biofuel, which
will hit the poor people the hardest.
As a radio host on NPR (some hearable programs and just that little less mention of Paris Hilton) recently mentioned in Science Friday, trying to consume in a conscientious manner is trying to shop with a bag that has a hole in it. You can keep on stuffing it and picking up the goodies that roll away, but the bigger the bag gets, the problem will get even worse, and will not go away. It is difficult to see how any irreversible environmental damage in the short-term can be stopped unless the basic presumption of consumption can be questioned.
Excellent points, Siddhartha.
I completely agree with everything you said.
What we're trying to do with The Truth About Everything is pull back and look at the big picture holistically, something you're obviously very good at doing.
We also feel that you can't look at one aspect of the overall problem without factoring in all the related issues. You can't discuss climate change in a vacuum. Since you're a physicist, you know that you can't have a climate in a vacuum.
So in addition to consumerism, which undeniably one of the biggest parts of the problem, there are the related issues of population growth and social justice, as well as peak oil and the depletion of all fossil fuels, and of course climate change.
It's like we're blowing up a balloon of growth in each of these areas and the balloon cannot be blown up much longer.
Inevitably, it will explode or at least rapidly deflate. This will not be pretty.
In fact it could create a die-off of human beings that is many, many times any previous precedents (in real numbers of people if not in percentages).
This is very difficult for us to face, but it is something we need to face if we are to survive as a species.
I'm very impressed with your ability to think so clearly about so difficult an issue, and look forward to continued discussion.
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