It is apparent you absolutely needed the newest mobile device. You needed the newest TV, computer, DVD, printer, camera all made with petroleum by-products. You had to have an endless list of new merchandise made with and wrapped in chemical by-products. This is the fatal mistake in every industrialized country.
Pipelines were built by placing millions of kilometers of them entering every house and building. Our cities removed the forests nature uses to clean the air, and replaced them asphalt, another oil by-product. Concrete, rather than trees, became the norm for parks with paved pedestrian pathways.
Forests were removed to get the last drop of sunshine trapped in the ground using hydraulic fracking. 1000s of chemicals are used to soak up drops of natural gas polluting the ground water aquifers. When the industrialized counties wanted more they invaded other countries to rob them of every non-renewable resource.
Landfill waste dumps filled up with recyclable products no longer needed. Pulp and paper industries cut down the last tree and closed the plant leaving behind their toxic chemicals. Our lakes and rivers are used as toilets for industrial and domestic waste. We took every mineral from the Earth and poisoned countless hectares with arsenic and other chemicals.
Mountain ranges took nature billions of years to form. They are no challenge to our machinery. We removed the forests, mountains and rivers to dig out coal used for our increased electrical usage. Crushed rock, the remains of the mountains, are dumped into the giant holes leaving small mounds in their place. Once ice-cold rivers, head waters to quench your thirst, were reduced to tiny creeks of lukewarm water. Horses by the hundreds, stand knee deep in shit, as it drains into the same creeks. The owners call themselves trail riders although the natural trails disappeared decades ago. You can happily pay them 12 dollars a night, to smell the stench, while camping next to an RV fully equipped with every noise maker possible.
With 7 billion people on the planet it is an absolute right to own several gas guzzling automobiles. Approximately 20% of the population own over 1 billion wide ranging autos. The green people want to have electric cars with the electricity produced by coal, gas or oil. That kind of thinking is done while sitting on the toilet flushing sewage into the oceans. (It's a flourishing business as long as you hit the donate button when you arrive at their websites.)
In every industrialized country we point the blame at the governments we elected or the corporations. (most countries have elections even though big media rarely mention it) Governments know promises can be made and never kept. Corporations make products you believe you must have to keep face with friends and neighbors. Besides it's better to plug your ears, turn your hat backwards, pull up a hoodie than listen to anyone. Good paying jobs have dropped, in the so-called democratic nations, in proportion to the damage done to nature.
The Secret
Of all the renewable resources for energy solar power is the only true source. All the others such as wind and water use massive amounts of non-renewable resources for construction and maintenance. Consider yourself lucky if you know where the Sun goes when it sets or clouds cover the sky.
We count on slave labor to ship us products to fill the hunger for material goods. Industrialized countries no longer have the ability to create a simple light bulb or pen. The best we can do is pour coffee, purchased from another country for pennies, with a 1000% mark up from the purchase cost. Hemp does not need to be imported. It is a renewable resource and can be used to replace plastic while creating employment.
The much-loved Joni Mitchell born in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada was right:
"They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot"
I know because I have watched and written about it since the 1970s. My impact is so low it barely registers. Those of us who told you never did so for fortune and fame. Perhaps we should have set up a foundation, to rob you of your money while proclaiming we are scientists, without ever attending a University for a PhD.
Are you a Tourist or a Visitor?
As you toss away a generation of people, who are educated world travelers here are a few words, from one of our musical influences The Moody Blues.
"Ask the mirror on the wall
Who's the biggest fool of all,
Bet you feel small,
It happens to us all.
Look at progress,
Then count the cost,
We'll spoil the seas
With the rivers we've lost..."
Moody Blues lyrics 1971
Would someone come up with a solution to the nuclear waste scattered around the planet? Whoever decided to mess with nature by splitting the Atom has the responsibility for cleaning up your creation. You are not allowed to bury it, dump it into the water or blast it into outer space.
