The Fad on being "Green"

Haven't been posting since work actually got busy.

So what's up with being environmentally-friendly these days? Earth Day, the One-Ton Challenge, and that concert-in-every-continent last year. Heck, even dishwashing detergent from PC is claiming to be environmentally friendly. Everyone is aware of these events, everyone is participating, I suppose we are making great progress to save the Earth, right?

Before I make my point, let me first describe myself on the "green" scale -- I'd describe myself as one of the middle-of-the-packs who attempts to be environmentally friendly, but not at the cost of my expense or major inconvenience. For example, yes I recycle most garbage at home that's recycleable; no, I don't sleep earlier so I can save electricity on lighting through the night.

My point is, if global warming is truly caused by human activities related to CO2 emittance and not of cyclical natural causes... let's take that as a leap of faith for argument's sake, because there is conflicting but both convincing scientific data supporting either theory, partly thanks to "motivated" scientific "research" much like a lawyer presents one side of the argument as "overwhelming evidence" ... then at the end of the day, we are really fucked.

See, most "green" campaigns are all about *awareness" as if that would get anything done. Like, "let's turn off all electricity for one hour and get everyone aware of our nature and its beauty", or "let's have superstars making crazy-ass concerts on each continent to raise awareness" while boasting that "the concerts' electricity is generated by some large, impractical, expensive solar grid that we setup just for the one-time event, with equipments transported by alternative fuel vehicles, etc etc". WTF?

This ain't religion, cult -- there is no salvation even if you think "you have done a good job and feel great" -- white people (I hate to bring the race issue in, but I do think, if it were Chinese and Indians who are environmentally friendly, a very different approach would have been taken... too bad it isn't and we occupy the majority of earth population), because, being earth friendly is -- a science. Acts of minimizing CO2 and pollutants is a chemical equation, achieved through smart engineering and supporting government policies. You think saving garbage bags in grocery shops are important? Maybe you should revisit the amount and content of garbage you throw out at home and make some guestimates yourselves on its significance.

No, doing small doings don't "really add up". Just like "if you save 50 cents here and 50 cents there, then you go to the dollar shop and buy yourself something nice" don't make a lot of sense.

The one campaign with a semi-brain is the One Ton Challenge, endorsed by David Suzuki who is supposedly a scientist. The campaign has tons of ideas on how to save on carbon emissions, like replacing your old fridge. But even then there are also dumb-and-dumber ideas like eating more greens and less meat because the food takes less resource to create. WTF again. I mean, trying to convince the general public to change something as fundamentally as eating habits, over a few pounds of CO2. Why don't they try convincing people to have sex only during the day so they save electricity by sleeping earlier at night? Fact is, the general public will not sacrifice safety, money, convenience, even entertainment, ... over being environmental friendly. It doesn't make economical sense, so "awareness" is futile. SUVs that are prominent in our cities are good evidence of this.

So environmentalists, what should you do? Try educating me instead. Inform me how globally, and in my own country (and other countries in comparison), how CO2, wastes and pollutants are generated by whom and in what ways, present them in nice charts and balance sheets. Much like how all corporations and governments show their revenues and expenses. Stop showing me how I can save pennies like a grocery shopping woman do -- show me how to make the big bucks. Don't just show me, show it to everyone; like how schools teach everyone math and history and accounting. Because really, when I did something to "save the environment", what does it mean in the grand scale? I don't even know. If I don't know, what's the point?

And can we spend more time and effort instead to influence key stakeholders with concrete out-of-the-box ideas that is systematically eco-friendly? Nobody ain't going to lobby me to take TTC to work, which would take 2 hours instead of a 20 minute drive. Show it to the government how sucky is the TTC, and how the 401 congestion is emitting more pollution and how much productivity is lost.

There are things I can think of to help the environment, just out of random everyday observations:

• Invest in nuclear power plants instead of coal power plants -- yeah Ontario, you really fucked this one up. And to whoever that says nuclear wastes are also not environmentally friendly, show me a better, economical, sustainable way other than pulling methane out of your long fart. I can't say for sure that the Earth is heating up, but I can tell you Toronto is having more and more smog days in summer.
• Target propaganda on turning less air-conditioning to business rather than households -- everyone surely has gone to an office or a shop that has overdone their air-conditioning, but nobody seems to care about it. For a working class like me, I spend the hottest time of the day mostly at work, and thus most "air-conditioning expense" of my existence lie in my office.
• Build houses and apartments where Canadians can plug their fridges cooling coil / air outdoor -- this could sound like a ridiculous idea at first, but the energy/$$ savings simply makes sense. Why are we wasting energy to refridgeration in long Canadian winter is beyond me. Some obvious initial challenges but definitely feasible with proper coordination between housing and appliance vendors.
• Have better bicycle lanes support in road systems -- funny enough, China is eons ahead of us in this one. Btw, dear government, having a bicycle rebate ain't going to get it done. What a joke.
• Make (North American) cities a little smaller -- at least in Toronto, there are systematic flaws in urban planning. Everything is too spread out, so nothing is reachable by foot. Even in my living area, the "heart of North York" so-to-speak, I still find leaving home by foot is like being crippled, especially in winter. The lack of populative concentration significantly hinders the city's ability to deliver practical and robust public transportation system. Look at our cost to run the TTC (which is organizationally so dysfunctional, but that would be a topic of another rant), so government actually has all the economic incentive to make the city smaller. Asian and european cities are much better on this.

Not that the above are the most brilliant ideas and without flaws, but they follow economic sense in the long run, and are fundamental changes that could result in significant savings in energy/pollutants/CO2. I think you get my rhyme.

Earth Day is going to be one of the dumbest and useless ideas in the history of humanity if we are going to extinct in 500 years time due to our undoing. I can't believe that idea actually took off.