Life on This Planet

Forgive the blatant advertisement for a book I have not read...but I do enjoy Palast's ranting and I think he is unerringly right in his assessment of the world around us today.

When I was in high school and college, there seemed to be a sense of pride and honor in taking responsibility for fixing the environmental ills of the planet. That urgency and willingness to sacrifice for the greater good dwindled, though, and appeared lost forever not too long ago. But the latest gas-price crisis seems to have rekindled it. I am pleased that the issue is on the top of our minds again, but disappointed and disgusted at the reasons, most of which are selfish, arrogant, and uninformed. I read of ignorant conservatives who preach that the problems are all the fault of liberals, who failed to embrace the rape of ANWR and who insisted that oil drilling be restricted in fragile coastal ecosystems. I read of people who, simply not bright enough to understand that ignorant conservative swill, jump on the bandwagon because their stupidity demands it. Their obligatory curses and condemnations of all things liberal or progressive or even mildly-intelligent are enough to make me want, desperately and with a fervor that should be constrained to things far less important, to decaptitate the bastards and splash giddily in their blood. That's not very nice, so I take it back.

Al Gore's new "slide show" sounds dreadfully boring, on the surface, but his interview today on Fresh Air made me want to take a look. Gore is not likely to be my top choice for President in 2008, but he's unlikely to take last place, either, so I am curious to hear what he says in "An Inconvenient Truth."

Environmental issues used to be more important to me than they are now. It's not because I think they are any less impactful...it's because I think we may already be beyond the point of no return. At this stage, it may be best to enjoy whatever we want, whenever we want, because the human race is not long for this planet. I have no doubt the planet will survive, but the species that roam it will not...would that I could be a fly on the wall in the next iteration of life on this planet!

So, I want to live in the country, on the land...drive a tractor, learn to raise goats, understand how to make cheese, grow okra and tomatoes, and kick back from time to time to breathe in fresh air, listen to sounds unlike any I can hear in the city, and appreciate all the things that humankind has tried for eons to abandon. I have been looking at even more acreage and simple and easy-to-construct homes. If my wife is reading this....let's move!