Action and Activism... and all points inbetween

so it's late and I'm just finishing up work but a few thoughts have weighed heavily on my brain stem lately... the thoughts around all the hype for "Green" and the need to nurture and care for the resources we have... there are two camps that show their faces (and a third that I want to point out).

Camp one is obvious, these are the activists... these are the people shouting and screaming, litigating, waging an image battle about how bad things are and how we must take action and take action now.  Interestingly enough this group tends to spend more energy and waste on over activism and produce nothing more than excess noise.

Camp two is the camp that cant seem to accept any solution, these people are stuck in old ways.  While many of them will admit in fact that there is a problem, they are too busy arguing with camp one to get anything done.

Let me introduce the common sense approach?  Camp three....  with a rant and a little bit of copepodgeek pinache...

I'm too active and busy for activism, I do what I can and I dont need world recognition to do it...

Lets delve in shall we?  I know there is a problem with plastics in the ocean, I can yell and scream, print flyers and push media (which btw inevitably creates some plastics somewhere) or I can simply avoid using plastic bags, request in the drive throughs and at restaraunts that I receive a paper cup instead of the large cup, stop using plastic lids or straws.  Will someone else come behind and use them... probably but hey, I can at least reduce my waste.  This is an *action* I can take.  Here in Colorado our water is pretty darn good, in fact I'd wager it's better than most the world... (though I'm biased).  If I had a dollar for every greenie preaching conservation holding a plastic water bottle I'd have enough dough to start my own fish farm.  "but plastic and glass are recyclable now" yes true... but with the economic downturn only metals are truly in demand.  and your plastics and glass dont go into other drinking containers.  In order to become truly green you have to know the full cycle people.

Lets take solar and electric cars for instance...  How much energy is spent creating a solar cell?  The output of a solar cell over it's lifespan is most likely pale in comparison.  Dont get me wrong I like solar, I've even thought about going grid tie here at copepod labs.  Quite simply without subsidiaries it's unaffordable, and as a mindful taxpayer I dont think my neighbors need to pay for my toys.  And knowing how much energy goes into the creation and installation of said setup, I would be upside down carbon wise should I do a full install.  Argue all you want, I've seen the production process just to make the saws that cut the sapphire and silicon crystal... oh and how much oil goes into creating a solar cell?

Electric cars... hrmm... too many hazardous materials for my liking.  Coming from a plankton geek perspective one thing I understand is water quality and impurities.  Ponder if you will how bad those batteries really are for the environment?  5 year payback?  Nah...  lets look at those wonderful CF bulbs...  they're cheaply manufactured using yep... plastics... oh and mercury.  But they save electricity....  well yeah...   So the energy creating the bulb, does it truly offset the extra energy spent burning the good ole recyclable incandescent?  I dunno... something to look into.

Back to the point though. 

All you greenies and anti greenies out there take heed...  I've got too much to do to be bothered with your rants and raves.  One of the things I have to do should make you happy, I have to work on my own stewardship tactics and hopefully help to instruct and educate the next generation.  So instead of yelling and screaming at BP or the guy driving an SUV I'm going to cut back on my use of plastics by choosing items with less plastic packaging, reduce my energy waste by turning off lights, and cut my vehicle emissions by not driving all over gods green earth to pick up "organic" foods.  I will support my local businesses the best I can, and live comfortably without killing myself.  I'll recycle, and I will pick *what* I recycle based on supply and demand. 

I can make a small difference on my own, I just have to look at the small things I can do myself.  Maybe everyone should take the time to avoid plastic cup lids instead of wasting it talking about how dire things are or how inflated the problem is in the media.  Dunno... only takes 5 seconds to say "and can you give me the paper medium cup instead of the plastic large one".