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Environmental News,
Opinion,
and Art
June 13, 2007
 Treehuggers Are Cool One thing I've noticed about sports fans is that they're loyal to the bitter end. And while loyalty is an excellent quality when applied to personal relationships, loyalty to a sports team seems irrational to me. When you break it down, a sports team is really just a corporation comprised of a merry-go-round of mercenaries that you don't know and will most likely never meet. Ostensibly, they represent your region, but few of them have any real ties to your locale, other than they work there temporally. Despite this, rabid sports fans cannot be swayed from their Pavlovian allegiance to their team, often adoring players they reviled only one year ago and vice-versa. It's an interesting phenomenon that in today's society, people increasingly treat their favorite political parties as if they were a sports team. Much like sports heroes, politicians ostensibly represent your region, but few of them have any real ties to your locale, especially when big money is flashed their way. Despite this, voters (usually, but not always Republican voters) often develop an unfettered allegiance to their political party. This allegiance somehow becomes a partner and even a stand-in for their own personal identity. In sports, if someone's favorite player is a drug abuser, the typical fan will tolerate this even if they find such an addiction unacceptable in their own personal life. Infidelity? Crime? Sexual assault? None of these will jar a sports fan's allegiance to their team, even if a rival team is comprised of upstanding, likeable citizens that kiss babies, rescue stray animals and work for world peace. Similarly, if a political "team" supports unpopular or morally reprehensible legislation, it doesn't really matter. The team's supporters still root for them. In fact, they feel compelled and even proud of rooting for their political team, no matter how heinous its behavior is. So when the current administration treats the environment like a toothless crack-whore, who are its constituents to argue? "They're my team!" you can feel them pervasively exclaim. It is for this reason that we who care about the environment are faced with an almost insurmountable task. If we want to persuade people that environmental issues are critical, logical arguments are impotent. Disassociating people from their closely held political allegiance is about as easy as convincing a lifelong Yankee fan to root for the Red Sox. It's just not going to happen no matter what argument is proffered. Throngs of environmental activists who futilely attempt to alter peoples' convictions using cold hard facts and PowerPoint presentations might better spend their efforts trying to find a way to dissolve peoples' bonds of mindless fealty to an industry friendly, environmentally hostile home team. Therefore, if we have any chance of changing society's priorities, our struggle is far more psychological than logical. Courting the idealistic youth of today shouldn't be that difficult. One way of reaching this segment is through social networking websites. All it takes is a 5 minute swim through MySpace to discover that very little original content exists there. It's really no more than a sea of people desperately trying to showcase their individuality by branding themselves with various music, likes, dislikes, and products. What we need to do is to create an image for the environment and sell it like a product. Who knows? Maybe there's a cadre of youth who might really go nuts about branding themselves as part of the Lowbagger demographic. Their message to the world would be "I care about the planet and that makes me really cool. Plus, check out how good I look in this T-shirt" Unfortunately, by the time these idealistic youth inherit the Earth and are in a position to influence policy, there will be little they can do to reverse the damage. So how do we convince the McMansion crowd to stop supporting their short-sighted, morally bankrupt team? Well how the hell should I know? Steve
Silberber Too bad you don’t really know what you are talking about when you write articles about wolves. I normally do not respond to articles but your lack of real knowledge on the subject you wrote on is unbelievable. The DNR alone documented 32 attacks last year by wolves on hunting dogs alone. This does not include all the livestock that was harassed and or killed. Too bad you don’t live here and see exactly what is going on before you make such statements in your column. But like most of you “authorities” on subjects like this you believe only what you want to believe and have no idea what the real truth really is. Dave J. Samuel President/CEO, WCMC Inc. Woodbury Gore Unworthy of Green Respect Hey Mike; While i am all for radicalizing the debate, running "environmentalists" for high office, & squishing the fascist grape-i cannot bring myself to trust Al Gore until he breaks his rather curious (and roaring) silence on one critical underpinning of the climate change debacle: land-use policies and ecosystem integrity. For all his intelligence-gathering and info-dissemination skills & efforts as displayed in "An Inconvenient Truth"-he also presented to us one rather convenient oversight: NOT talking-at all-about deforestation/devegetation, overgrazing, or the paving over-of the Earth's remaining reasonably healthy, functioning ecosystems. These impacts have consequences to climate stability far more direct and immediate that those wrought by "greenhouse gas" emissions-and when the two effects work in combination (as they do in today's world), we end up with a monstrous whole far worse than the sum of its parts. Could it be these industrial/commercial activities-conducted largely outside the view of the public at large, using its tax dollars-are fetishized by some powerful special interests we are both very familiar with? So-along with pulling out of the 2050 and legalizing hemp in all its forms and manifestations-i want to hear Al commit to passing NREPA and other bills like it. I want to hear him talk about getting the 4 Horsemen of the Debaclypse-roadbuilding, timbering, mining/drilling, & cattle-grazing-off public lands YESTERDAY! I want to hear him talk about shifting those death-dealing public subsidies away from the Pentagon & Wall Street and toward massive ecosystem restoration/recovery projects all over And i want to hear him talk about indicting Bush & Cheney & Rice & Wolfowitz & many others for crimes against humanity and the Earth. None of this is rocket science-and it is long overdue... Only then will i be able to trust Al as an "environmental" candidate. Storm Waters Bridger
Bowl Expansion Proceeds into pristine areas, http://lowbagger.org/bridgerbowl.html . The EPA quote at the end of the article was prescient, "It is likely that expansion of the Bridger Bowl Ski Area...may hasten and accelerate growth, development, and land use change with resulting indirect environmental effects on air and water and other natural systems, since visiting skiers require vehicles, roads, water supply, wastewater treatment, restaurants, hotels, etc." Now it's happening. The proposed 527 homes and overnight accommodations on 345 acres at the base of Bridger Bowl, with a dedicated lift serving the area to the north of the existing terrain. www.bcpoa.net/base.html Tom Fiddaman Your two recent articles, one about the cattle industry and one about the impending bison slaughter due to that industry, should provide ample reason for any environmentalist to boycott beef. I know I've written to you on this before, but these articles so clearly call for a beef boycott that I can't resist. And I'm not even a vegetarian! Jeff Hoffman Intrinsic Value
Exists,
But Not Everything Has It Dog
Philosopher Mike wondered: |
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