21st Century Planet Earth — Fabulously Uninterested in Confronting Its Challenges
Yesterday was the birthday of Nero, the Roman emperor who is said to have fiddled while the city burned in 64 CE. It’s not clear whether the fire was a case of arson, or just an accident, which wasn’t unusual in the day.
In any case, whenever I come across a reference to “fiddling while Rome burns,” I’m compelled to think of the parallels to our civilization today, and how we as a society are so strangely uninterested in and disconnected from the dangers we face in terms of wrecking our home planet. Collectively, we carry on with business as usual, consuming an ever-growing amount of fossil-fuel energy and other resources, shrugging our shoulders at the growing damage that derives from our irresponsible ways.
For a moment, think about what it will take to change course here, and begin to make a few sacrifices that would be required in order to put us on a path to sustainable resource stewardship. Then ask: Are we cut out for this? Do we have this in our DNA? When we look at the behavior of the various nation-states and the most prominent people and potent forces within them, it sure looks like we’re a million miles from even the most basic conditions under which we can talk meaningfully about changing our course.
I applaud folks like Rajendra Pachauri (head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whom I interviewed for my current book project). Here’s a brilliant and supremely well-educated guy, boldly trying to lead the Conference of Parties meetings and navigate them in a productive direction. But the odds he faces are long in the extreme.
At the risk of oversimplification, the challenges seem to come in two broad forms:
1) What could loosely be called “insanity.” We live in a world in which North Korea just launched a missile into space, Iran is desperate to enrich uranium, the U.S. defense budget is larger than that of the 17 next smaller countries in military spending combined, and 1.5 billion people can’t get a clean glass of drinking water.
2) Entrenched interests whose exclusive concerns are profit. Dr. Pachauri is a scientist with not one, but two PhDs, but he’s not an autocrat; all he can do is present facts and hope that they inspire action. How likely is it that he’s going to be able to change the behavior of nations whose true power structure is in fact rooted in the oil companies, hell-bent as they are on sucking the last molecule of crude oil out of the ground, when these companies employ more lobbyists than any other industry in the known universe? Can scientists take on an industry that earns a profit of $375 million — each day?
I’m not saying it’s impossible for us to put that fiddle and bow back in their case, and confront the truth. But, as a challenge, it’s a beast.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned, because it was time for “Urban Renewal” and Nero was cheerful that all the improvements, new aqueducts, highways, coliseum expansion, government buildings, and new Palaces and such could go forward. I suppose we could consider that his version of “Eminent Domain”
When you look at an individual’s pollution footprint, a good 90+ percent of it comes from the home and car.
The home’s pollution is primarily from electricity generation, although there is some natural gas and even some heating oil.
The car is easier to quantify since we can accurately measure it per gallon.
First thing is to switch to renewable energy for the home. If you have the roof for it, install solar. In most states, it’s actually less expensive to go solar now. It’s important to have a good solar roof, however. If you don’t have the roof for solar most utilities now offer a renewable option for your power. They charge a small premium, but then spend that on renewable generation somewhere in the region. You can legitimately say your home runs on wind, or a combination of renewable power.
The car has suddenly become just as easy to change. As of two years ago, very high quality electric cars and plugin hybrids entered the market. (disclosure, I sell the Nissan LEAF), so you can now run your car on renewable energy. Two years ago, there were about 3,000 EVs in the U.S., today, there are over 50,000 and growing fast.
If you want change on the climate problem, take matters in your own hands. Run you home and car on renewable energy and you’ll be opting out of virtually all of the negative aspects of climate change.
good point from paul scott. the fiddle occupies the ears, the television the eye, and it is no wonder that we are merely products of advertising. By January 30, 2013….if the world’s bottom has not dropped out, we…Vortex Technolgies new green, wake free, user friendly, SeaDrive will be unvailed. There are a few patent details we must conclude before we open the door to this new green marine propulsion but here is a preview for the greenies, go to…Google. “James Beyor and his new seadrive”.
We are testing the first prototype in Gulfport Florida in January of 2013 [clear video friendly water] and if all goes well will build many models, seeking investors world wide. Right now, i personally took the risk of spending large amounts of time and money on the belief we can supply green efficient means of marine transprotaion. My hope, my dream, my nickel…. So it is also my hope that the “fiddlers” will take their buts of the coutch, move away from the TV, and be active partners in greener methods of doing busines. Imagine having large sums of money and and your next door neighbor has is working in vain, has none. imagine, No jobs and the ones we do have are either militant, distructive, process human beings like chaff..IE…the robes and cronies of an insane civial authority or what might be called…just another Imperial Cult on the rise.
Why do we buy and sell misery, tax it, vote for it agree to it, [or allow it], and then legalize it. ever law creates a new bar of injustice, new criminals and new taes to support it. What killed Rome. the head of the beast was so hungry…the legal edicts posted by the PRIESTS, no less. Imagine a intitutional church larger than the government? Who controls all the vises of this world domianting over 70% [private contractors included in making weapons] of all the false [feeding the endemic disorder bio-gentic dysfuntial masses…en-cause, itself recycled bio-stigma]… IE: all the masked credentialed of all the hats, badges, stripes and robes of the institutional-commercial stigma that infests this country as well as all the ignorance that supports it???? In fact, what is forced legalism and the root of the “systemic job market”. Think about it “WEE the blind and deaf peoeple”… making sure no one gets out of the icon [symbols haze] the memory box that insures we can’t let go of old ways. Do we not bear the cost of NO nurtuting [living of our feelings denied…a truth we hide? The thoughts associated with the genesis fruit vested in this planet? Do we inspire hate by legal blame? Do we, by the word intent alone, insure that the promise of a “cost of living” no-one can afford shoud exist? Is it genetic? Of course it is. Some call it “neural decrepitude”.Is it.
What is this feeling direct or our bio-urge, a sense-knowing, the feeling you do know as we all can FEEL it? The urge to be MOVED…to live…to ask WHY is because of what? Are we metaphysically awake or in some kind of bio-sense offense? Question equals feelings of what? Hello.
In the words of DR. Bruce Lipton, on epigentic. “Our psyco-social systemic disorder is a bio-edemic environ.” So are We in a genesis sabotage? Are we in a long term mono-memeory [binary sense asphasia] of a perfect self-deception..and icon haze? The same old crap, recyled over and over since The Holy Roman Empire succumb to religious Zellots [the unholy Inqusition] persecution. It IS in our familial blood. We are all caught-up [taught] in an icon trap. The brain is a dynamic orb, on emotional hold. The biblical feeling of the bio-dam…metapyhsically dammed, [a living encdoed stoppage] and now we, you and i must endure a vast pretense purging [the base of made up word..pretending] an icon shedding prosess.are we in a critical wake up call, if you will? Yes and it is white hot and festering…So lets wake up NOW… Are we partners in a green progress or are we just talking about it? imput pleaqse? james beyor
Craig, Taking a look “backwards” as to the parental education that our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren obtained – I’m not too certain that the parental education level was “passed on” from generation to generation. Perhaps Dr. Spock should have refrained from publishing his book.
At any rate, today we have a world of EGOISTS! Me first, and everyone else behind.
I believe is was Thomas Edison (1910) who stated that the time was ripe for mankind to capture the energy of the winds and sun to replace coal.
100-years later, we have yet to enter into the ballgame! WHY? EGO AGAIN!
The vast majority of mankind has seen fit to “live for today as tomorrow may never come” – and this may well be the case today!
How can the necessary change take place? Perhaps at the voting polls – the ONLY PLACE that attracts the politicians attention!
We need people in government that are NOT looking for a political career, but the SERVE THE PEOPLE THAT ELECTED them.
During my military career, we frequently were obliged to change our methods to compensate for funds shortage. The ZERO-BASED budget program was perhaps the most effective administrative tool which provided a real-time look at our daily & yearly funding needs.
Get the VOTERS BEHIND the various programs and THAT MAY CHANGE THE OUTCOME!
Excuse my “egotism” for a moment, but here it goes…
Machines will be used to displace jobs, right? And it is machines which could be designed to make “everything” including the parts for renewable energy and its storage. Machines could also create hundreds of thousands of square miles of install jobs… until the machines do that, too, with automated trucks (with no drivers).
So, clean energy is only part of the solution. Machine created wealth MUST become redistributed lest we all become slaves.
Note: Anyone who wants to cut the fossil fuel industry needs to first realize these truths, and that we need VAST amounts of (whatever form of) energy in order to properly transition over to a better world.