We're in a play of slow decay orchestrated by Boltzmann/It's entropy/It's not a human issue/ Entropy/It's matter of course/ Entropy/Energy at all levels/Entropy/ From it you cannot divorce
-Greg Graffin
We have to admit that a large percentage of our high-school vocabulary was derived by listening to far too much Bad Religion. That said, having grown up in a household environment that was equal parts scientific and spiritual, as the son of parents who'd nosedived from the cliff of idealism and went searching for a measure of truth in a chaotic world (and having fully inherited the idealistic gene, which may have led us into fascism or some other terrible totalitarian thing if it weren't for punk rock), we've gotta say that we found the discussion on whether BP, who just jacked up gas prices on us, has greenwashed itself, rather interesting.
Will we defend BP? No, not exactly. Their inattention to their pipeline has screwed everyone, including themselves. They post profits in the billions every quarter, and while they're a leader, as far as large-scale companies go, in renewable energy, they've put too much into the corporate coffers in exchange for the neglect of their pipelines and/or not enough into the study and perfection of viable renewable resources. That said, eco-heads who complain seem to have this idea that if we simply conserve enough and major corporations who are seriously under the gun unveil the technology they've been hiding from us due to some sort of collusion, we can all live forever.
Dear people. There is such a thing called entropy. We are constantly losing energy to it. And frankly, although we are morally opposed to forced sterilzation (and the whole eugenics thing freaks us out, too), we would encourage the really stupid among members of our species to get tubal ligations and vasectomies. Or at the very least, commit yourselves to miserable, sex-free lives. Unless you're gay and stupid. Then have at it. We also encourage laws that would make it easier for intelligent homosexuals to adopt.
So what in God's name does this rant have to do with cars? Everything. Every time you buy a new car, you deplete more resources. Every time you buy a new part for your old car, you do the same. Every time you buy a part from a junkyard and recondition it, you're causing energy and matter to be cast aside. Plus, the mechanic has to eat. Eventually the composition of the energy and matter in the world will shift. New species will emerge; old ones will mutate and adapt or die.
Honestly, the question is, do we want to leave the world to our children as we found it? For example, is a reduction in racism and growth in intercultural understanding due to easy international travel and the production of the electricity used to disseminate information worth the polar ice caps?
And the answer to that question is entirely open-ended. We'll go back to driving our V8-powered car and not consuming meat or now. It really isn't easy being green.
Lessons to Learn From BP's Latest Misstep [Treehugger]
Related:
More on the environment [Internal]