It was so tempting to title this "It's not easy being green."

1. No matter what localized environmental problem a community is facing, it will most likely be accelerated by global climate change (although I just thought of one that would not, the New England pet issue of acid rain). One example of this is the Amazon rain forest. The continuous cutting and burning of said forest (which means major loss of biodiversity) leads to carbon being released into the atmosphere. This accelerates global climate change. One of the predictions for global climate change is that this area will become savannah rather than rain forest. So even if the cutting of the forest stopped, the ecosystem would still be endangered. Such interconnectedness however also means that many problems will be solved if work is done to fight global climate change. Even acid rain, something which would not be accelerated by global climate change, would probably be lessened if work was done to stop climate change, as both those issues have some of the same causes, the burning of fossil fuels. I see stopping climate change as the most urgent task facing the globe today.

2. The mainstream corporate media* often frames the conversation around environmental issues to be one of personal change and ‘sacrifice’. The usual offenders are that we should recycle, use public transportation, and buy their spiffy green appliances. Although all of those things are positive, they are also used as a sort of sing and dance show distraction in front of the wider societal problems. For the example of ‘eco-friendly’ appliances it is important to ask, who will be able to afford these appliances? Where will the raw materials for these new appliances come from, who will have to harvest or mine them? What will happen to the old appliances? Will they go straight to the dump? Will they be recycled? When will these new appliances wear out, are they built to last? Recycling has its own set of invisible, often ignored issues. Why is there so much packaging to recycle to begin with? Once the recycles are sent to the transfer station, will they actually be recycled? Or just sent to the incinerator or dump with the rest of the trash?

And then there is my favorite, public transportation. Except for some personal peeves with public transportation, I think that it is just about one of my favorite things (don’t tell the trees!). I love smart cards (the swipey things and not the paper tickets); I especially love systems that let me use smart cards for every aspect of their public transportation. I love the comparative efficiency to driving. I love never having to worry about finding parking, crashing the car, hydroplaning, and black ice. Unfortunately the joys of public transportation are not to be experienced in many places. Take for instance my state, New Hampshire. We have the Dartmouth Coach, and in some of our ‘cities’ we have taxis. Where I grew up (see if you can spot the metro system in this picture, I swear I’ll give you ten bucks) you walked, biked, or drove. In winter walking as transportation was only done with snow-shoes, ski-poles, and a death wish. One of my pet dreams for public transportation in NH is that gondolas (regard) will one day be in mass use. I also hope that instead of highways we will have railways.

All of that adds up to why I do not believe that it is possible to live in an environmentally sustainable manner in the current United States. There might be some places where this is possible, but not many. We can attempt to not worsen the problem, but yes, 'I am therefore I pollute'. Excuse me while I go turn off the light in the other room.

*and the whiny self-aware men that make up their Opinion Sections. I’m looking at you, Stan.