The Environmental Citizen

I was reading an post a great website called the Long Now about a guy named Saul Griffith who has taken it upon himself to personally shrink his carbon footprint. It was a very inspiring post. In the comments section I read the following:

# IP FREELY Says:
April 9th, 2009 at 11:44 am

How arrogant is this? We can’t even cure the common cold, and you’ve got a plan to change the weather? Without collapsing the global economy? I got news for you, the weather has been changing since time began – well before GM brought out the Cadillac Escalade. How many people will die because you’re pushing this agenda? Everybody who makes anything that could be considered carbon-positive is out of a job. All those people in South America clearing farmland should just stop trying to feed themselves? Who will take care of them while you’re playing mother nature. Moron.

Why don’t you liberals show some intellectual honesty and just admit you want to control energy so you can control people? It’s a power thing.

My message to the IPFreely’s of the world:

Never mind the paranoid delusional politics at the end of your comment. You are not offering any ideas.  Not that there are any easy answers; there is no addressing environmental issues without addressing the economy.  Then again, it is the only real way to create jobs.

We have the perfect opportunity. We did not need to go to the moon. We declared that it was important to demonstrate our technical superiority to the USSR.  That created a challenge that in the process of meeting it created a whole new economies and technologies.

We have a much graver threat than during the cold war. Mother Nature has proven she remains just as adept as humans at destruction. Yes of course people do need to eat, they will need to eat 100 years from now too.

We need to everyone to put their intellectual/creative back into this. INCLUDING YOU! Stop making people you disagree with wrong and find ways to common goals. If the house is on fire I don’t care who you voted for, we are on the same side. It is just a fact.

Tomorrow I will be in yard working teaching myself how to grow a vegetable garden.