My main reasons were that I had little money, I was tight with the money I had, and I knew from past experience that automobile ownership was a hole where money goes to die. I also could sense myself becoming weaker physically with age, and had come to believe that physical health and strength was to be valued above most things. I had suffered a heart attack back in 2007.
I also had a somewhat anarchistic world view; something so entangled in regulation and licenses and mandatory payments such as insurance, registration and inspection was surely to be avoided. Those were moments in my life and dollars out of my pocket that I did not feel were worthwhile. So I got rid of them. I did not feel that abandoning automobiles was a particularly spartan thing to do because while bicycles were less convenient and slower and sometimes caused discomfort in such things as climbing hills (of which there are many around here,) I knew that riding bicycles were good for me and they were blessedly cheap and free of hassles. If I got pulled over, which really doesn't happen, I knew that I wouldn't have to worry whether my insurance was paid up or my inspection up to date.
Those kinds of hassles are the hassles I like least in the world. I would infinitely prefer to be puffing up a hill on a bike than receiving car insurance premium notices in the mail, or hassling with passing an inspection. To heck with that shit. So I got to be a cheap bastard and avoid regulation I hate, and as a bonus here I am going to turn 61 in a month and I am in pretty good shape and pretty happy, which a bike ride definitely helps with. Your body was meant to be used, was meant to be worked. It doesn't do right when it is not. Comfort and physical ease is not always your friend. In fact it is very often your enemy.
All of which is just a preface to my main point, that the desire for physical distractions and entertainment and pleasure and comfort and convenience and new experiences and superfluous possessions are the real main causes of climate change. A hedonistic philosophy of life, in other words.
Why do automobiles clog the freeways around here? Most people aren't going more than 15 miles to work and back, though some do. It's convenience and comfort, though I personally regard traffic jams as the least comfortable of things. If we turned over most of the in-city streets and freeways over to bicycles, we would not only have less pollution but we'd probably arrive at work at the same time as we usually did before in the traffic, albeit much sweatier. While I am on the topic, that's another fucked-up thing about our society. Humans sweat. Humans stink. And yet people are often expected to show up at work as if they lived in a year-round 50 degree temperature. Perfect little arctic snowflakes.
F0ck that, I am a man. I sweat. I stink. Deal with it.
Why are the factories of the world pumping out shit at record paces? Is most of that stuff a real augment to functional life, or more of the useless consumer crap we surround ourselves with? I am not innocent on this either, but everything we buy has to be made and transported, and that takes resources and pumps carbon into the atmosphere.
Why do we have all this endless meat and milk production, with its cows and sheep and chickens pumping methane into the air through their butts? Because we like these foods, far more than we need these foods. I like them too, I gave up on being vegetarian. I like meat. But I think if I were to eat it every day or every other day, I would be eating it far more than I had any need to. And there are a ton of Americans who eat meat every day, from the bacon at breakfast to the steak at dinner. Industrial agriculture of all kinds is one of the greatest contributors to environmental destruction, and it dominates the land all across the world and in America particularly. Our herbicides destroy native plants while our insecticides destroy insects and birds and our waterways.
And why is it? Because we demand it cheap and we demand it tasty and we demand it now. Meanwhile obesity and diabetes are at record levels.
Why do we have this bucket list mentality when we retire? Like, I have to travel the world or at least the country when I retire to fill out my list so I can die a fulfilled man. Right. And all those air miles add up in terms of gallons of fuel consumed, not to mention highway miles which are now even less efficient than air travel. And of course you are going to be eating out, which probably involves environmentally damaging foods and also isn't usually very good for you.
I don't know about you, but in my retirement I am going to DO things, build things, construct a life for myself that is both more ecologically sensitive AND better for my physical and mental health and peace of mind. And freer of the kind of pointless humiliating hassles that I hate. THAT is a retirement worth doing. I am planning on living, not on filling out a list of what I have seen and consumed before I died.
This, for the lack of a better word a hedonistic worldview, is what is destroying the planet. And it is not an American phenomenon, it is happening all over the world. This sickness is destroying all things everywhere.
Can you legislate against it? I don't see how, not in the big picture. Sure politicians can put a big carbon tax on fuels and risk political suicide. That is how the Yellow Vest protests in France got started. Can you legislate against meat? Can you legislate against travel? Can you tell the farmers not to use pesticides and herbicides? The turmoil in our food prices and food availability were that to happen would not be pretty at all. Can you ask the poor to bear the brunt of all these changes, because they are the ones who are going to be devastated when milk is $7 a half-gallon.
What we need is a moral and philosophical and spiritual revolution, not a legal one. Not exactly a new Puritanism, though at this point there is something to be said for the Puritans. Rather a joyous choice in favor of spending less money and growing better food and buying things for our needs rather than our self-absorbed entertainment or idle status seeking. We need a revolution for more meaningful work. I do not know how a person can be fulfilled in their work if their job is building crap cars or selling crap insurance or fake weight loss machines. You want to know what I would consider fulfilling work? Building a great useful bicycle. Building a hoe or shovel that is durable. That's useful work.
The transition to such a world would require that each of us, aside from a reduced number of people in cities, own some land. The reason for this is that our economy feeds on these vices, this vacuous consumptive nature of the citizenry. Were everyone to suddenly become the inverse of hedonistic little consumers, the economy would tank. If I grow food, I am less dependent on whether you do. If I make things, I might not need you to make things. If I provide my own water and energy, I care much less whether someone else does. If I am more self-sufficient, I am less hurt if the economy deflates to a more sustainable level. So yeah, if we all were to suddenly become more sane and responsible citizens, the economy might tank. In other words, the economy would decrease to the level of our need, not our greed and self-absorption.
It is impossible to imagine such a revolution, even on a small scale, without a belief in G-d. But it doesn't have to be my G-d or your G-d, Christian Jewish Muslim Bahai or Zoroastrian might all work. It would have to be a G-d who cares about human behavior, a G-d of morality. Because in my experience the antidote to nihilism (which hedonism and excessive consumer behavior is driven by tacit nihilism) is prayer.
Pray, then you won't need drugs. Pray, then you won't need alcohol. Pray, and you won't have to stuff yourself with food until you are obese and ill in order to fill the void of your life. Ultimately the solution to our environmental crisis, as with so many of our other problems, is G-d. Prayer and a morally scrupulous life, questioning one's own life choices as a spiritual value, when spread across a population could be far more powerful than any government regulation.
And that second part, questioning your own moral choices, is something that so many religious people have a problem with. Religion that only makes you feel good and doesn't make you do good is of no use and is a false religion.
The problem is, making it spread. Our consumer ideology is a powerful alternative religion, and attention spans are not getting any longer.
Show me your ways, Lord,
teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me
~Psalm 25:4-5
~Psalm 25:4-5
And I brought you into a plentiful land
to enjoy its fruits and its good things.
But when you came in, you defiled my land
and made my heritage an abomination.
~Jeremiah 2:7
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