| OCR Text |
Show THE ZEPHYR/JUNEJULY 2006 date endl And that includes population..1f we want to live ina LaLa Land of plasticity, fine: Determine the carrying capacity of our ecosystems to handle our — behavior, and keep the population within those means. Welcome to Denver, Colorado: Population 20,000! Ahoy! welcome to the Wind power, ethanol, bio-diesel, and hybrid engines all aim at the similar target of keeping the game going a little while longer, in hopes that the Big Fix appears before the brown-outs get annoying. It makes sense until you stop and think: Why play the game at all? If you ask that question where I live, the answer will echo from the nearest pulpit — “God said to go forth and multiply.” Getting around the obvious pitfalls of quoting God, you | have to wonder if the Boombox in the Sky actually meant for us to multiply until we screw up every corner of our blue green planet. Let’s hope not. Why create a magnificent work of nedmudd@bellsouth.net art (Earth) and set a bunch of inbred primates loose with the admonition to reproduce until further notice? That kind of idea could only be hatched in the sordid minds of bureaucrats and city planners - warning enough for sane folks like us. Homo erectus asphaltus has a unique ability to see only what suits us at the moment. The fact that our present actions invariably lead to widespread suffering and grief has become an abstract concept best left for later. And there’s always a “later” where the House of Cards from the CRAWL SPACE of TT NED Find your place on the planet. Dig in, an ae from the desk of MUDD d take responsibility from there. Gary Snyder Greenpeace, bastion of eco-doogoodism and progressive pontification, has become the loudest voice in a babbling chorus in favor of “wind power.” Of course, wind power has been an integral factor in human energy production since before the word energy was coined. My personal hero, Don Quixote, ev en saw fit to engage in ferocious battle with a windmill several hundred years ago. Delu isional? Perhaps. But let’s fast forward to the lovely present and see if the ole dude was a s crazy as he’s pictured to be. To begin, let's be honest and get to the po nt: The world doesn’t need more energy; what the world needs is less people. With that sa id, the debate over whether to stick a bunch a whirling fans off-shore of Cape Cod is seen for what it is: An idiotic fool's errand with the potential to retard human cultural evolutio n even further into retro-grade than is already underway. If that’s possible. ; Wind, oil, coal, dung — it’s all the same y when the BTUs hit the proverbial fan. The fact that one emits less sulfur is important; but it’s all a case of semantics until we seriously question why we're barreling down Populat tion Highway with nary a thought to seat belts, or brakes. Obviously, the cleaner the energy, the better. But at what point do we realize that an abundance of cheap energy, even the s queaky clean variety, might be the nail in the coffin of America’s last unfouled open spac es? Ditto for the rest of the planet’s wildlands. If you want to see what a 28 million square foot Wal-Mart looks like, just give the Chinese an abundant source of cheap energy. Green or otherwise. America’s suburbs are, in many ways, a by-product of cheap gas. Sprawl, one of the most devastating human past-times, is wh at happens when the Jones’ are offered a big engine, cheap Unleaded, and plenty of asph alt to play on. You won't hear this kind of talk at your local Zoning Board meeting. Becaus| e to admit that we’ve made a historic mess out of America is to also confess we willingly en icouraged our own demise simply in the name of greed, selfishness, and well ..... greed an d selfishness is enough. As one of my erudite friends aptly puts it, America has become a land of MUFFIES — “Me first; fuck you!” The idea that Americans have a right t » be naive jerks may exist; but not without an equal responsibility to take care of our ow n bullshit. The game simply isn’t designed to The idea that AMERICANS have a right to be NAIVE JERKS may exist; but not without an equal RESPONSIBILITY to take care of its own bullshit. The game simply isn't designed to accommodate ENDLESS EXPANSION. is concerned. If you want to see how the game ends, just drop in for a visit at your local heroin detox center. When our beloved president, Monsieur Bush, exclaimed that Americans are “ addicted to oil,” he wasn’t kidding. It’s refreshing to know he can still make a coherent sentence. But it’s not oil Americans are addicted to, it’s energy. We're junkies for coal, hydropower, methane, ethanol, solar, you name it. And you know you're in trouble when one of the founders of Greenpeace is now a shill for the nuclear industry. Not that nukes are inherently more evil than petro-slime; but it’s the same old song & dance: More juice for an ever-expanding global economy. Which, in many ways, is a startling parallel to cancer: Growth for the sake of growth. The old saw about the Emperor being naked may be the most lucid teaching ever articulated. Except we need to be clear as to who, exactly, the Emperor is. Goofs like George Bush might deserve our ridicule; but our man in the White House isn’t the real culprit. We are. The naked Emperor is riding around in gas guzzling monster cars, demanding cheaper gas while feeding his face on transfats and assorted chemical additives. He’s ensconced as the local preacher, the TV repair man, the bank teller, and the smiling undertaker. (Not to suggest that the Emperor is of any particular gender, mind you.) We want it all NOW, by God, and nobody’s gonna stand in the way of progress. Not even Jesus, if it comes to that. We're whores for juice. That’s what being addicted is all about: Pimping for the juice, whatever the flavor de jour. Today oil, tomorrow (fill in the blank). It doesn’t matter how clean our juice is, if the net result of our addiction is an endless sprawlacross the landscape, ravaging the matrix of bioti nities Blade Runner meets THX-1138. Where's George Lucas when you need him? GET YOURSAT’ BACK OF BEYOND BOOKS ORORDERONLINE: WWW.CALENDARS.COM rry! The Year will be over before you know it. that required several thousand years to evolve. The science fiction of yesterday is beginning to look pretty real: |
