Definitely Part of the Problem

Have you ever felt like you were part of the problem?

I often do.

It's because of the things I do, the things I buy, the way I make my living.  I sometimes think that I am a poster boy for ruining the world that my children and grandchildren are inheriting.

I'm a consumer.  On a basic level I consume oxygen, but then that's unavoidable.  I eat.  I eat plants, animals, chemicals.  For the most part, I enjoy eating all of it.  The chemical part is super wrong to enjoy eating, but I do, as do most of you too.  Read the labels on your favorite store bought foods, if you actually don't believe me.

The plants I mostly consume, are raised on huge corporate farms.  Those farms use major amounts of chemicals, and possibly genetically altered plants to increase productivity. 

The meat that I usually eat, besides containing who knows what, contain the animals.  I guess I can't fault that, as I long ago had to come to terms with the fact that I do like meat.  My body seems to like it too.  The part I feel bad about, are the factory-like places that most of my meat is raised in.  All the poor turkeys and chickens that can hardly stand, the pigs living in filth, and never seeing the sun.  Cows, fed things they don't naturally eat, living in dirt pens, and slaughtered without a care. 

I can still want the animals that I eat to be happy and healthy while they are living, can't I?  Or is that I contradiction?

Here I am going to bring up my dad again ( I certainly need a therapist!). 

My dad had explained that god gave man dominion over the animals, and that we had a responsibility to use them as we see fit.  But that we should never be cruel when we could be kind, and killing them for sport or amusement is unacceptable.  My dad was a big believer in the yearly deer hunt for such reasons.  For as we have curtailed the wild deer's natural predators, we've upset the balance of things, and deer become overcrowded, sick and starve.  He's right of course.  But I still don't hunt.  I'll let the muy macho boys do that.

As far as my food goes, I want to eat things that are good for me.  I want my children to do the same.  I don't want to accept a company's lies and marketing, just to get my money.  I just don't get it.  I'll give them the money, I just want things that are good for me, and taste good.  Is that really so hard for them?  Or is killing us, and having us participate happily, just the order du jour?

I'm not pleased when I look at all of my consumer habits.  The computers, which I try to stretch to a usefulness of 8 years.  By that time, they are truly just large doorstops, waiting to fill some landfill with poisons.  I'm slightly better with my cars, as I usually buy used, and really tend to use them up before I get rid of them.  Don't ask me what happens to the oils and batteries and other parts I get rid of in maintaining them.  I don't know. 

The clothes I buy, probably made by people a world away.  Paid pennies, so I can have a shirt that isn't too expensive.

Oh!  I have to relate a story.  My company, which helps tie my work into all this, is a large cargo company.  We have a fleet of Boeing 747's, that fly cargo all over the world.  Sometimes, we participate in pretty silly ventures.  I'm not talking about flying military supplies, as that's a whole other deal.  I mean just the strange ways people take advantage of cheaper labor markets.

I was told of a fishery in San Diego.  This fishery caught squid.  The squid was packed in ice, taken to the airport, and shipped to the far east.  There, it was processed into a more food like form.  It was then repacked, flown back to San Diego, and sold as fresh San Diego Squid. 

Isn't that something else?  I mean, wow.  All that, because we need to save a little on the processing costs.  And the fact that it is so cheap to have it done across the ocean rather than in San Diego, that flying it there actually makes sense.  Blows my mind.

I don't like participating in that kind of foolishness.  But there I am, doing my part, inspecting the airplanes, making sure they are correct, and safe, so that the precious fresh squid get to where they go safely.  The very same planes that pollute like freight trains, create the contrails that contribute to something bad I read about, and make enough noise to rattle your fillings if you stand too close.

I want things to change.  I want the animals we eat to eat good things, live good lives on their open farms.  I want to buy clothes that someone I might even know might have made.  I want technology that has a better lifespan than a year or two, before the very company I bought it from brings out the new model that makes mine obsolete.  I want to have squid that was caught on that boat over there, and made into delicious food right here in this kitchen's restaurant.  I want the airplanes that I work on to not pollute and make ears bleed when they do their marvelous things.

I want the impossible it seems.

I know I've only touched the tips of each little iceberg of a topic I've mentioned.  But if my kids ever read this, I want them to know that I knew.  I knew how fudged up it all was.  And when they look around and see how great the world is, they can thank me for changing and doing my part.  Or curse me for knowing, and doing nothing, and having the world go to hell.

I've seen little things that give me hope.  A small organic store we used to frequent when we lived in upstate NY, called Conroy's Organics.  They sold the predictable big brand organics, plus local produce, and dairy products, along with meat.  Conroy's farm, just behind the store actually, had a large herd of hairy highland cattle, whose meat you could find in the store.  I need to find a similar place here where I've gone in Michigan.

For my work, I used to work at Pratt & Whitney, where we had a couple airplanes that tested new and experimental engines for the company.  Their newest one, the Geared Turbofan, is a step down the efficiency road.  Apparently they've had the idea for it for many years, but only relatively recently had the technology caught up to the idea, so as to make a reduction gearbox for the first stage compressor that was durable enough and light enough for real flight time.  It's pretty cool. 

There were also rumors of electric aircraft engines.  They would closely resemble the jet engines you see out there today, except the part inside would be an electric motor instead of an internal combustion engine (yes, that's what a jet engine is, "suck, bang, blow" just like a car engine, I swear!).  Basically, it would be a ducted fan engine, like what you can find in some remote control model planes.  The biggest hurdle to this concept is power, as you can imagine.  How to carry or generate enough electricity on board an aircraft to fly?  Both battery and generation technology needs to come a little further for that idea to take off.  Great concept though.

So like most of my current worries, I've identified the problem, at least as it pertains to me personally.  Once again, the issue is what to do with it.  It's hard to go all green with everything you do, as it does cost quite a bit more.  It isn't for small reasons that we do things the way that we do after all, money is a hell of a motivator. 

Living better, on the cheap.  I'm going to work on that.  I've got a car that gets 52 mpg, that's a start I suppose.  Of course I drive it almost 80 miles a day to and from work.  Again, a wicked contradiction of things, motivated by money. 

There's really no end to the discussion, I can wish all day for natural everything, with no negative emissions. 

Suffice it to say, I raise my glass to wanting better, and putting a nickel into all the better ideas I can find.

Cheers