This is an edited repost of a rant I wrote as a comment in another diary, but I presumptuously fancied that it merited it's own diary posting, simply for the purposes of advancing discussion. There are more erudite and authoritative voices in the community who can address the science and the ethics behind each of these suggestions, so I am only offering a precis of my pet peeves about the toys which have characterized the American lifestyle for the past forty years which I find to be completely indefensible today.
And please note that I recognize my own hypocrisy. My generation is responsible for the bulk of the mess we currently must remediate, as my twenty-four year old son is so keen to point out often and repeatedly.
Let's look at some little things which patently profligate about the typical American lifestyle.
(These are just examples of things we could forego without any real change in our quality of life).
1. Drive-in banks, restaurants, liquor stores (as if those businesses EVER made sense, particularly in OH, which is the only place I can ever remember encountering them). Much as I loved Sonic as a teenager growing up in the South, I can think of no moral moral justification for such a wasteful institution.
2. A cross-country weekend flight for ANYTHING short of a funeral! The days of two-day Aspen ski trips for the average guy are simply over. And good riddance. It was selfishness to the point of narcissism. Hell, even an overnight business trip (in this day of instant communications and fax machines) smacks me as the purest of irresponsible junkets.
3. Ridiculous gadgets for the white trash of all demographic groups. I'm talking about ATV's (which are simply ridiculous and destructive to our National Parks), power boats, jet skis and the host of arrested adolescent toys which gobble up gasoline, stomp up a carbon footprint worthy of a sasquatch, annoy practically everyone who values silence over adrenalin, and was always intended to be a curiosity rather than a birthright. If you can't wreck enough havoc riding a trail bike in a National Park, then your days of wrecking havoc should be at an end.
4. Bowling green lawns with their host of Accoutrements can go the way of all flesh -- to the relief and delight of many an enslaved husband across this nation. Here in the Pacific NW we waste reservoirs of precious water during July and August in the often vain attempt to keep our grass green and growing, rather than simply letting nature take its course and enjoying the respite from drudgery. I can't think of a single chore for the typical town or suburban lawn which can't be done just as efficiently -- and much more quietly -- with manual equipment unreliant on those smoky, loud and resource-guzzling two-cycle engines. And all those petroleum based lawn care products fouling the aquifers and siphoning off increasingly precious agricultural chemicals for private vanity should go the way of the dinosaurs who gave their all for their creation.
I'm sure each of us can add any number of items to this list. But I'm sure we all get the idea. Despite the fact that we Americans assume these luxuries as our birthright, the historical truth is each of the items listed above are relative newcomers to the American lifestyle. For example, the concept of the working man eating meat for dinner every day of the week was simply a pipe dream a mere fifty years ago. So, in many ways, the Gidget lifestyle we've come to rely upon was always an unsustainable aberration which undermined our collective health and made us self-indulgent and soft.
"They", meaning the Third World, don't hate us for our freedom so much as they despise us for our profligacy. And when they start to compete with us for conspicuous consumption, we are all doomed.