Al Gore is haunting me.
From the recycling bins in my kitchen

to my bike which has been brought out
of retirement, Gore – or, more accurately,
his involvement in the climate change
theory – is influencing my decisions.
Ok, I’ll be honest; I haven’t seen “An
Inconvenient Truth.” It seems like a
waste of energy, and I try to avoid that,
especially with my cool swirly florescent
light bulbs and fondness for clean
energy. I don’t eat meat and I buy handmade,
organic, and local products – to a
certain extent.
There are a lot of quasi-intellectuals
out there purposing an eco-chic Luddism
as the answer to our problems,
but the whole thing seems to me like
anti-globalization. I am all for countries
keeping their culture instead of adopting
a watered-down version of it, but certain
aspects of the movement strike me as
ridiculous. Our current world requires
global communication and cooperation.
We’re all in this together, people.
Early this year, former Democratic
presidential candidate Chris Dodd spoke
at a campaign event in Iowa, saying that
the ability to eat food grown within
100 miles was an integral part of the
new American dream. As journalist
Joel Stein pointed out, Dodd was
essentially condemning the Iowans to
a diet of pork, corn, and soy. This is
not the way to save the world; this is
elitist xenophobia disguised by elitist
morals. Or, ok, maybe this was just
Dodd sucking up to a group whose
vote he wanted, but he appeared to
believe that less world contact would
create a better world.
What could save the world is a
strong global community, investment
in green technology, and public
involvement (like using clotheslines
instead of dryers, driving less, investing
in clean energy, and – yes, it’s true
– going vegetarian… or at least cutting
out red meat). And after you’ve
finished reading this paper cover to
cover, recycle it.
You may not be able to change the
whole world, you can change your
own.