There is the rub. We live in a world where making a big change is uncomfortable and expensive. Most of us are just struggling to survive. I am working, and won't quit my job (neither will Leo, quite frankly) to curve global warming.
I am an optimist, however. I do believe that small changes make a large difference in our lives, and the betterment of this planet. I also believe the next generation will hold new solutions we haven't fathomed yet.
Do you think 100+ years ago anyone besides Nicola Tesla believed information could travel great distances without wires? He could not predict the way it changed us. People stay connected, stay disconnected, fall in love and cheat with a few taps on a screen. Who saw that coming even 20 years ago?
That's not to say we shouldn't be responsible humans about safeguarding the world we live in. I've never seen anyone have a meltdown because they couldn't find a recycle bin, but I have seen people lecture others for not recycling. The stewardess on this flight just announced "We here at Southwest do recycle," and that's a good thing. Almost makes me feel better about the pollution spewing form of mass transit I choose to use today.
What is the alternative? Driving there? That seems like a huge waste. Train? Diesel engines and long trip times aren't very practicle either. The truth is: I have no idea how to navigate the world I live in other than guzzle petrol and heat up the planet.
Most people are the same as me. We aren't formally educated in the science, our leaders profit from not doing anything, and when they do, entire communities are laid to waste because of regulations and global outsourcing. Plants and factories close forcing people to just simply survive.
As a society, we have road blocks to achieving enlightenment. I hear a lot about the kind of world we are leaving behind for our children. Our grandparents probably didn't focus on it as much as we do, but it is all part of the progression of the human race. We rely heavily on the tools available to us. You don't drive nails with a butter knife, you use a hammer. If you're like me, a cheap hammer will do just fine. After all, I'm not building a house. I have no idea the conditions of the factory my cheap hammer was manufactured in, or the location of said factory. It was the cheap option at Home Depot. It looked cool. It gets the job done.
We are a society obsessed with cool, flashy things. We want a "nice car." We want a "nice house." Both of which are powered by fossil fuels. If it's cold, you kick up the heat, and if you are going to the store, you drive.
Even the television we watch the stupid Oscars on is made up of parts from a foreign factory and is powered by electricity generated by Coal, Gas or Bio Fuels.
So if Leo flys to St Bart's on a private jet, takes a stretch limo to the "Model of the Week" store, entertains his Model on his private Yaht and decks himself out in diamonds mined using child slave labor, it's just the tools available to him, and I'm not mad...
I do wish he would not preach however. A little "shut the hell up" is in order. Go on Internet, be mad at Mr. Dicaprio. He seems to forget the people that pay hard earned money to see him "suffer" for his art do not have the luxury to follow the pretentious.
My podium: Walk some, and for Christ sake people, recycle. It's the little things. You have control over that.
Nago
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