We’re so self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. I’m tired of this shit. I’m tired of f-ing Earth Day. I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is that there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a shit about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that some day in the future they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me.
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles … hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages … And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE are!
We’re going away. Pack your shit, folks. We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Maybe a little Styrofoam … The planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.
The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?”
Plastic… asshole.”
George Carlin
The headlines
Just some of the headlines I’ve seen recently …
- The planet clearly needs help, so what can you do?
- Climate crisis
- Climate fight
- Climate change
From what?
Global warming – pollution – deforestation …
Fill in your current fight
The arrogance of it truly blows me away. Are any of the above actually issues with the planet or is each and every one created by the very humans claiming to do the saving!?
That arrogance does not allow us to see the real problem.
The real problem
It is you and me, all of us, humans.
I am sooooooo tired of this crap. The only reason we NOW give a shit about the planet is mainly because we are starting to realise we need it and not vice versa.
Last time I checked “she, he, it” had not asked to be saved or maybe I missed that particular memorandum.
Here is a novel idea!
“The planet doesn’t need saving!”
or in other words
“If we where the earth’s protectors what would it need saving from?”
‘Our’ planet has been around for roughly 14.7 billionish years by todays best guess, mankind for 3 millionish?
How on earth, excuse the pun, did the planet manage without us for 14.697 billionish years.
I would suggest that it is our arrogance that is currently destroying us as a species. We will be long gone before the planet is under any threat.
Einstein said “You cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that created it.”
Do we even know what the planet is? How it works, where it is sore? How do we take its pulse or we going to treat symptoms because those are all we can see.
The deterioration of our environment is not the dis-ease it is only a symptom of our self-centered, self-involved thinking.
Doctors cannot cure the common cold/flu, now we are going to cure the planet, what arrogance.
“The earth is not a machine!”
Sorry but the only real problem the earth has is “me”!
Saving the Planet
Einstein reportedly said something along the lines of “You cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that created it.” keep this in mind whilst you read through this rant.
Here are some simple questions which hopefully bring a little more clarity…
- Does the planet need saving? Let’s assume it does, Yes
- What does it need saving from? CO2, Global Warming/Cooling, De-forestation, Pollution, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear War, Health Pandemics, Junk Food, Genetically Modified Food, Global Financial Collapse, etc etc… or possibly just mans Greed
- Who created the above? Mankind – oops sorry “Man”, not too many that are “kind”
So the simplest solution to “Saving the Planet” is to eliminate man.
Okay, okay let’s be a little more honest then and get to the root of the problem instead of treating symptoms.
Another round of questions…
- How long has the planet been in existence? We can safely say more than a billion years
- How long has man been around? Around 60,000 years
- Is the Earth a balanced system? Minus mans influence! Yes
- Does the planet need saving? No! Still think yes, what does it need saving from?
- Do we understand how the earth remains in balance? No!
So “Who really needs saving?”
Want to find the problem, go take a look in the mirror! Me, yes you! Us, man and what do we need saving from? Ourselves, we created the problem by not seeing ourselves as the cause and now we want to perpetuate the myth by “Saving the Planet”. Our ignorance created the problem we are now in ignorance trying to solve.
Want to know how widespread the problem is
Look at the huge and seemingly valid/authoritive sources that push the idea. Why? You may ask. Seems like there is money in “Saving the Planet”. Does mans arrogance know no bounds. “Green” really is green, as in, brings in the greenbacks.
Why are many companies going “Green” it’s profitable. Why do we need “Green” because profit making got us into the shit in the first place.
A simple definition of insanity: Repeating the same behaviour, expecting a different result.
Here is a saying that may make things a little clearer.
Chief Seattle “we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” or in complete form “Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.”
Idiotic and misleading statements
- Put the planet back together again
- Gadgets to save the planet
Oxymorons
- Junk Food
- Private Hospital
- Mankind
Cleaning up the Environment
If we are going to clean up the environment we need to start with the dirty politicians or that a redundant statement and it is just politicians.
You can’t clean-up a planet when you’ve got dirty politicians in the way.
Paul Panton inventor of the Geet engine