The Price of Convenience

How arrogant we are. Arrogant and selfish. 

Think about it. We have clean water in our house at our disposal. We have a furnace to warm our home when it gets cold outside. We have air conditioning to cool our home when it's hot out. We have a car in our driveway to take us where we want to go whenever we want to go. If we want to fly somewhere because our car won't take us there fast enough, we have airplanes to do that, too. 

We have phones to talk or text anyone, anywhere, at anytime. We have smart phones or computers that have a huge amount of information available to us. We can use those smart phones to take pictures or video of people or events and can post those pictures or videos on the web for the whole world to see in the blink of an eye. 

Life is so easy for us. Or, is it? 

I once heard that just over a century or two ago, most people never traveled more than twenty or so miles from their house. And, that's how it was since the beginning of human history. Before modern technology, which made everything easier, from transportation to "all the comforts of home", if people were hot, they opened a window or used a hand fan. If they were cold, they put on more clothes. 

When the Industrial Revolution occurred around 1800, there were one billion people on Earth. (If you want a real wake-up, visit this site on world population.) That sounds like a lot, unless you realize that it took all of human history for us to reach that point. And, now, we are at 7 billion. (I can remember a college professor expounding on the coming population explosion back in 1980, when the world population was 4.5 billion. Yes, it's grown that much since then.) All of those improvements have allowed for longer lives, which means more people are on our planet for a longer amount of time.

The obvious question is how many people are too many? What is the tipping point that will inevitably say enough is enough? When will we not have enough resources to supply the people on our planet?

We continue to plunder our natural resources with massive disregard to the safety of our actions, or the consequences, thus further endangering their availability. Toxic waste from coal, crude oil and fracking, (not to mention nuclear energy) are among the biggest offenders.

It's the price we pay to have what we want when we want it.

I'm not saying that I don't use or even enjoy most of the modern conveniences, so, yes, that makes me a hypocrite. But, I'm also painfully aware that there is going to come a time when I, along with the rest of our growing population, will have to pay the piper.

Who knows what the price will be?

On Climate Change Deniers

Climate change is happening. A large percentage of scientists agree with that. But, there are those who disagree.

I think that their main issue is not about climate change, but about whether mankind has done anything to cause it. They fail to see or admit that dumping chemicals into our water, our land and our atmosphere could cause any significant damage.

I can't understand how they fail to see that. How would they feel if someone came into their home and dumped toxic chemicals on their floor? Or, if the water company decided to put toxic waste directly into their water supply? I know, eww, right?

Our planet does not have unending resources. When "accidents" like the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico happen, our environment doesn't automatically renew itself. There are consequences for our actions, and climate change is just one of them.

The total lack of justice in the current Supreme Court

As a guest on the Stephanie Miller Show this past week, Karl Frisch said "The Supreme Court, with Chief Justice Roberts at its head, has become an institution that stands up for the powerful against the people."

I couldn't have said it any better.