If any of you have watched NBC at all this week, you've seen the little "environmental tips" not-so-subtlety slipped into each one of it's shows. Tonight alone I've noticed the hybrid car and self-appointed "environmental officer" on Scrubs and the rolling blackouts and environmental doom sayers on ER (and I don't even watch ER). This is all part of NBC's new "Green is Universal" initiative (NBC is owned by Universal - get it?!), a new movement underway to stop pollution and wastefulness and start promoting cleaner, more environmentally friendly ways of life.
It's starting to get on my nerves.
Now before I have Greenpeace blocking my front door with inflatable dingies and bullhorns, let me explain. I'm all for environmental consciousness. I recycle and try to drive as little as possible (the rising gas prices help with that a bit). I've replaced almost all of the lightbulbs around my home with the energy efficient models and the thermostat has been turned down to about 67 degrees where it will stay for the duration of winter.
But this new green movement is starting to get a little unwieldy. Let's think back to when this whole thing really gained steam: An Inconvenient Truth. Al Gore's documentary on global warming scared the bejezus out of the general population, waking them up to the current trend of the changing climate. This led to the former Vice President winning a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in informing the public of the dangers we're facing (ironically, he flew there to pick up his prize in his own private jet - I'm just sayin'...).
Now the movement is spreading out all over: restaurants, movies, television and more. And it seems to be a mixed blessing. The scientific proof for global warming and climate change is impressive, but so is the argument against it. Don't get me wrong. It's not only naive to think that we have no impact on the environment - it's downright gullible. But check the detailed data given on global warming and you'll see that big chunks of it are such a quagmire of junk science vs. real science that it's really hard to tell fact from fiction.
Not only that, but it's way too easy for people to forget that the earth itself is an organism. It grows and shrinks, it changes in mass and it goes through heating and cooling trends. It's done this for ages. And also, for as much talk as some people do about how we're affecting the planet, they need to realize that we are part of the planet. Anything we do is going to affect the environment. This isn't like an expedition sent to a remote location to observe the wildlife.
We are the wildlife.
But nothing that I mentioned above is what really drives me up the wall.
What finally prompted me to type up this little tirade was the Today show contributor I saw this morning. He looked like he had just crawled out of a Mac commercial with his suede shirt and moussed up hair with a Starbucks expresso in hand. And what does this preppy elitist a**hole decide to do? Lecture me on environmental awareness using fun new buzzwords and phrases like "turning green" and "electrifficient" and "carbon footprint" and the shiny new one "vampire" (leaving an electronic device plugged in even when you're not using it). I can only imagine that he climbed into his hybrid car and drove off to attend some Red Jumpsuit Apparatus emo concert afterwards. This is what drives me crazy: the large flow of yuppy hypocrites who preach about a green lifestyle and then consume as much as the average joe.
Yes, we need to be environmentally concious, but it's still a little early for an all-out environmental panic.
Anyways, before this post gets too long (oops! too late), I urge you all to go out there and help our planet along. Recycle some newspapers or cans. Plant a tree. Try to carpool more. But forgive me if I'm not panicing and blowing up my floaties in anticipation of the melting polar ice caps just yet.
- Jason
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