Today's rambling: Some inspired ranting
Written on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2002 at 9:48 p.m.
while feeling a bit

This entry of Marn's was really inspiring. It makes me want to get up on my soapbox and start ranting about how people need to start caring about their environment...but she's put it all into better words than I'd be able to! What she said, however, reminded me of something my Earth Science professor pointed out to us in one of our first classes: this is the only planet we've got. So far as we know right now, there are NO other planets out there with our climate--and even if there were, we don't have the ability to reach them. Space stations aren't really going to cut it, either. The fact is, if we continue to ruin this home of ours we're not going to have any other place to go.

I was also reminded of something Kristen had said to me a few days before vacation started. I guess she'd heard the quote in "The Matrix" or something, but she was telling me about this guy in the movie who was talking about humans as being insect-like, or something like that. The main point is that humans have this need to take over every available space that they can, not worrying about the fact that they're pushing out other creatures or destroying things. All we keep doing is procreating and destroying the land. And it's so true. I'm not saying that I don't do things to harm the environment, but I like to think that I'm a lot more considerate than most people seem to be. When Kevin told me awhile back that Bush had passed a bill (or whatever it was) to allow oil drilling in Alaska, he didn't understand why I was getting so upset. Actually, he made fun of me, saying that this was another example of girl-ish emotions (we'd been on that subject): we're all about, "Oh, save the pretty seals!" and stuff, but we don't think practically. Why are we wasting all this money just to drill more holes in the ground (for a resource which, experts say, will run out by the end of this century), when we SHOULD be using it to research other ways of creating energy. Sure, these alternate methods will probably cost more than what we're paying now, but they'll also be around a lot longer and won't be so harmful to the environment.

There are times when I really do wonder what purpose humans have on this planet. It seems that every other creature of the world actually does something beneficial: bees and birds pollinate flowers, predators keep prey animals from overpopulating and destroying ecosystems...What good have we done for the environment that's not just making up for some egregious wrong we made in the past? I'm sure we must have started off having a good purpose, otherwise (depending on your beliefs) we wouldn't have been created. But somewhere along the way we seem to have gotten really screwed up. And I'm sorry if that offends those of you reading this, since after all, you're humans too. I realize that this is a pretty big blanket statement and not ALL people are so despicable. Maybe I should be directing myself more at "The Industry", since they're the greedy wretches who are so bent on keeping things the way they are.

Guess I did get on my soapbox there, hehehe...This subject is just one that easily riles me up. I don't understand why people are being so blind toward the subject of our environment! It's the same sort of attitude that frustrates me so much about college seniors: just as seniors don't want to do anything to help their school because they're not going to be around to see the results, neither does society seem to want to do anything to help the environment because results could take years (and many people don't seem to think they'll be around to see those results). I don't know. I just get frustrated by people who are too fixated on their own little sphere of existence to see the bigger picture.

I'd even trade in my dreams of having Artie the Hippiemobile (aka my dream VW bus, lol) to get one of those hybrid cars! It still uses gasoline, but at least it would be a small help. Unfortunately--and this is something else my Earth Science professor taught us--there's this "law of large numbers" which states that one or two individuals will neither help nor hinder the environment. However, a large group of people changing their habits for the better would help...just as that large group is hindering things right now. The example he used were CFCs, but it goes for anything.

At any rate, I have to go to bed so I can get up tomorrow morning and start my job again. When I think about this subject, though, I realize what Dr. Freeman meant when he told us that Communication majors have the ability to sway a large group of people to do something. What we're undertaking, he told us, is a more massive responsibility than we can even imagine, because there is so much power in the world of communication. When he first told us this, I couldn't imagine myself having such a grand purpose in life, but I'm starting to think that maybe I do.