I see car crashes involving red lights. I see people leaving their big SUV's running for 20 minutes or more while shopping at the local food co-op -- on a 40 degree globally-warmed Minneapolis February day.
Perhaps some of you already know that Minneapolis meteorologist Paul Douglas and explorer Will Steger testified about Global Warming and Minnesota at the Minnesota Senate Jobs, Energy and Community Development Committee on Monday. You can link to written or video records of their testimony from the ME3 website here: http://www.me3.org/index.html
The testimony both gave -- as well as Paul Douglas' work for the report "Playing with Fire: Climate Change In Minnesota" need to be mandatory educational material for our business, political, and media leaders -- and for us as informed citizens. I'm glad Mayor Rybak is taking initiative as local political leader on this crucial issue.
People ask me how I can ride my trike -- even though it is a big cargo trike, and I haul a fair amount of work equipment and supplies on it -- in traffic every day. Am I not afraid of cars crashing into me?
Yes, I am. But I am far more afraid of the ecological, economic, and geopolitical crash we demand every day through our intentional ignorance related to the over-use of the automobile and petroleum, which is a precious and important resource.
While we essentially "piss away our precious time" tinkering with traffic control lights and other minor adjustments, we are condemning our children to return to the Olduvai Gorge within the next 20 to 50 years.
Of course, the future "Olduvai Gorge" will be a toxic waste as well. For those who survive the war we are beginning for control of scarce resources, the "New Olduvai Gorge" will not be a pristine, fertile, and hospitable place to live. The water will be full of hormone disrupters, the soil, air, and water will all be at least slightly contaminated with the radioactive waste from the depleted uranium and other nuclear weapons deployed in the resource wars.
I ride a tricycle because, as pointless and absurd as it may seem, it is the most authentic and meaningful act on behalf of my children that I can make. Rather than focus on "red light cameras" and such, we need to focus on living where we work, working where we live, and designing a sustainable city integrated into our bioregion. Our bioregion is our lifeboat -- not the multinational corporations who currently play the role of despotic Gods in our lives.
Our city has the size and power to begin to transform our region into something more like Ecotopia than like the fascist Ecodystopia we are well on the way to becoming. Perhaps it is too late -- most likely it is. But I will do what I can to live the changes into being that I believe in. I will not be intimidated by red-light-runners or by a religious, political, and economic culture which demands war and ecocide to keep a comfortable lifestyle temporarily intact for a rapidly shrinking elite.
Take a little read related to"DieOff" and "the Olduvai Theory" (Dr. Richard Duncan, Institute on Energy and Man; 1996) http://dieoff.org/page125.htm
or "Population and Energy" (Dr David Price, Cornell University; 1995) http://dieoff.org/page137.htm
or "Population and Energy" (Graham Zabel; 2,000) http://dieoff.org/page199.htm
The year, 2050. Location: Old Empire city of Minneapolis. Child and Father talking outside a simple but sustainable shelter.
Child: "Daddy, daddy, tell me again, what did grandfather do in The Great Resource War?"
Father: "Grampa did one of the most important things anyone could do, dear. He protested. He rode a tricycle. He tried to live in a way that would kill as few people and other living things as he could."
Child: "But why did people live like that, daddy? Why did they keep living in a way that meant that would have to kill so many people and other creatures, and make it so hard for us to live now?"
Father: "Well, when I asked Gramps about that, he'd get real sad and quiet and say: 'I still do not understand that. It seemed like people did not know enough to care, or care enough to know. It seemed like people sent a lot of energy on maintaining this illusion, this intentional ignorance.' Of course, the phony religious, political, and so-called business leaders fed the illusion. They seemed to think if they had more wealth and power that they would be invulnerable to the great scarcities of oil, water, and food, I guess they thought they would be able to buy protection against the terrible violence that erupted, and the pollution, the diseases, and the terrible storms. Or maybe they thought it did not matter, because Jesus would come and rescue them. Or maybe they just did not care at all."
Child: I wonder what would have happened if people living here when it was "Minneapolis" had cared enough to imagine what life would be like here now, for their grandchildren?"
Father: (Real sad and quiet...) "I guess we'll never know....if we can survive long enough, maybe we can learn from the mistakes of the old Empire. Maybe we can live for the next seven generations, not just for ourselves. That would be a life worth living!"
- still pedaling for peace and ecojustice - but without much hope in light of our intentional ignorance --
-- from Lynnhurst -- Gary Hoover
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