Pages

30 January 2010

A house on a hill

I find politics a fascinating subject. This is largely due to the fact that so many have such strong opinions about it, while so few of those who do seem to know what they are actually talking about. As someone who lives in a social-democratic country, I find it rather horrifying how many Americans keep calling the Obama administration "socialist" and voting against pretty much everything they come up with, even when it's completely against their own interests to do so simply because they'd rather be dead than caught supporting something that could even remotely be linked to communism. Socialist? Good grief, people... You don't know what the word socialist means...

Cop15 came and went, and as I expected, they didn't really achieve much, if anything at all. To me that proves once again that people don't really care about saving the planet, or making the world a better place for their children, or making the air cleaner, or just making any kind of change whatsoever unless they directly benefit from doing so. Look at the oil companies. We know cars pollute. Whether this contributes to global warming doesn't even matter at this point. Cars that run on gasoline spew out all kinds of toxic substances. "Oh, but they are so much more fuel efficient than they used to be" one might say.

Well... Yes and no. An engine made in 1970 consumed more fuel than an engine of the same size made now. But the problem is this: As the engines become more fuel efficient, what do they do? They stick a bigger engine in the car, so it still consumes the same amount of fuel! Sure, you get more horsepowers and you can accelerate faster, but you're still using up just as much gasoline! And you can still only drive the speed limit. Gahh...

I'm kinda fed up with people, politics and big companies, who all keep promising things, but never seem to actually get around to doing something about them. When the time comes to buy a house, I'm going to find one that sits on top of a hill that is at least 200 meters above sea level. Even if it is possible to do something about global warming, I don't believe for a second that the governments in the world are actually going to do something about it. They are going to be too busy with their pathetic pissing contests and refuse to do something unless everyone else does something first, or unless someone else pays for whatever needs to be done. Do we prevent the ocean from drowning every single coastal city in the world, or do we whine about how we don't make enough money if we have to spend some on preventing the cities from being drowned? Well, duh, that's a no-brainer. Of course we try to save money!

So... ice caps *will* melt. Sea levels *will* rise. I don't care if global warming is man made or not. What difference does it make? The result will be the same. Everything less than 65 meters above sea level will drown, it's just a matter of time, it seems.

At least my house will be ok, because it's sitting on top of a hill at least 200 meters above sea level.

2 comments:

  1. I'm afraid I share your cynicism about politics. I have for a long time. Schopenhauer said if you live long enough it's like seeing the same tired play being re-enacted over and over again. I don't believe that about life in general but I do about political history. Let me know when you move into your house on the hill. I'd love to join you.

    ReplyDelete