Rethink the Environment, Now

Anyone who's been following news on the climate conference in Copenhagen and actually believes that this is where it's gotta happen must surely be feeling more than a twinge of despair by now. For one, politics forbids the rich countries from coming out and admitting that they do not, in fact, give a fuck about a bunch of poverty-stricken undeveloped nations that are just, let's face it, impeding the modern lifestyle.

Honestly, I don't think that any amount of climate conferences, belligerent and tense or otherwise, will make a significant policy difference. Especially since the U.S. is so large and spread out, no single national decision can cover the unique circumstances of every climate and state economy, so we're already screwed there.

More importantly, though, is the way we use preexisting concepts to deal with global warming and environmentalism and all that jazz.

So, if you've been doing your duty and buying all sorts of environmentally friendly products, you've probably seen by now that a big thing they love to mention is the use of vegetable based dyes. And they're even good at making it sound progressive, tossing in terms like 'footprint' and 'carbon'! But about the only thing more primitive than vegetable dye is insect dye. What the hell did you think people did before factories?

Basically, "progress" needs to go to hell. We need to give up on the notion that the more labs we get trying to solve a problem, the better it is. Instead, we should turn to preextisting solutions and use modern science to adapt them into more large-scale solutions. Why are composting, or reusing, or reducing such modern words? Because most people don't bother looking to the past for answers.

Also, notice that the 'balance of power' between China and the U.S. has come up a few times in the talks--although unfortunately information is limited--well, they're not our military or Cold War relic equals, what are they then? Economic equals.

Instead of trying to turn this into a purely state-oriented problem, countries should turn more of the responsibility onto the polluters. The face of the future is "corporate," and if we don't make them accountable now, what are we going to do later when we're so dependent that we cannot protest anything they decide?