"Changing Climate, Changing Times"

Last night on TV I came across a program on SBS entitled "Changing Climate, Changing Times." It looked right up my alley so settled in with a glass of wine...

I must say, I was a little disappointed with the overall tone of the movie. It was set in the year 2075 and showed the possible changes that global warming could bring and how humans might handle them. While it was optimistic in that it assumed that the world would stay populated (unlike some who believe that a few more degrees will be the very death of us and our civilisation), it also assumed that we would be miserable with the change. It showed fields filled with wind turbines and solar panels, yet the narrator still pinned for oil and the use of a car.

Are we really that shallow that we cannot see we made a mistake with the mass consumption of a finite product that took our mother earth millions of years to develop? Why do many people seem to think renewable resources are a step backwards? After watching people go back to using horse and their feet for transport(remember those funny little bony things attached to the ends of your legs - they aren't just there to stop you from falling over), I wonder why we don't see fossil fuel as a step backwards. Or perhaps an interesting little diversion from evolution. A detour we took to see if the journey would be any shorter - and in the earths case - it just may have been.

Just a Rant...

With all this talk of global warming, carbon offsets, climate change and greenhouse emissions, I am wondering what is so wonderfully great with the human lifestyle of today that the government seem to reinforce? We live in a society today that does not notice an old lady who died alone in her house. Nobody knows who their neighbours are nor what they have been up to. Depression and mental illness is skyrocketing but ironically no one seems to care. Debt is rising, yet everyone seems to own a mobile phone - we are always contactable but eternally alone is a world that speeds on by. We have all these labour saving devices but are left with no time to ourselves. Obesity is rampant, yet we have no time to exercise.

So what, I ask the government, is so truly wonderful about all this? Why do you insist on maintaining our current lifestyle and try desperately to fit the climate change challenges around the misery? Humans are funny beings, we are known to be highly intelligent and have proven time and again throughout the course of history that our brains are incredibly adaptable. Yet, and history once again shows us, we are as stubborn as a mule when it comes to voluntary change.

What are we all scared of? That life could get worse? And yet, that is the way we are headed if we remain with our heads in the sand as we wait for the government of today to decide how much change is enough to maintain this miserable existence.