(edited to remove annoying typos)

This. Underlined and in boldface. (Except maybe the part about Indian sanitary habits, although you're in a better position to know than I am.)

It was simultaneously funny and pathetic to watch news coverage of Earth Hour. For instance, Las Vegas, where one hotel went dark while everything else stayed on. Given that any individual casino probably uses more electricity in one day then the residential population of LV does in a week, the futility of the gesture couldn't have been made any clearer.

One hour? Give me a fucking break. If they're going to plan such a useless symbolic gesture they should at least do it at, say, 1:00-2:00 in the afternoon, when artificial light isn't usually a necessity. This whole phenomenon is composed of FAIL on so many levels

See also: The Yamuna River. Egads that thing is so polluted I swear honestly I wouldn't be surprised if it burst into flames one day. I'm more surprised it hasn't. Needs to be cleaned up yet no one's doing it / worried about it / complaining about it / etc.

Earth hour? Is that anything like Earth Day?

I've been watching this shit go on since the mid-seventies. It doesn't work unless, as you say, people can save money doing it or be pretentious by spending MOAR money doing it while hurting someone lower on the totem pole. Seriously, that's how it works. And none of it really helps unless the big corporate overseers are in on it. They will never do it unless it crosses the bottom line.

I turned off lights, biked, and walked everywhere when I was dirt poor. Being dirt poor also forces you into "greenie" territory.

When I was a kid we recycled like mad. We got charged by the pound for garbage way back when. Think that recycling is new? Ask any American that was born before 1945 about recycling and they will tell you real ways to recycle. WWI, The Great Depression and WWII were a great lesson in recycling. Most of it is "use the shit you already have and throw less shit away". People seem to think that being green means buying new shit.

Most important thing people can do to "go green"? Stop having so many kids.

On that note, I can't wait until we are in our cabin off the grid. I want to be "green" because I hate humanity.

Sorry about the edit.

Edited at 2011-03-28 08:10 pm (UTC)

See also: The Yamuna River. Egads that thing is so polluted I swear honestly I wouldn't be surprised if it burst into flames one day. I'm more surprised it hasn't. Needs to be cleaned up yet no one's doing it / worried about it / complaining about it / etc.

That's a gorgeous river. OTOH, I can't believe that people bathe in and animals drink from it. Aren't people getting sick/animals dying? WTH?

There seems to be a plan in place to clean it up, but rapid industrialization is really making it difficult. India is growing too fast to keep up with itself.

If it's any consolation, it reminds me of the East and Hudson Rivers in the and '70s. It took a huge effort to clean up both of those rivers and they still suffer from being near a big city. It's impossible to keep it clear and fresh all the time. Human waste (the garbage, etc.) just seems to make its way there. But it's loads better than it used to be. I lived on the Palisades on the NY side in the late '70s and the Hudson River used to smell like shit on hot, humid days. We had to keep the windows shut it was so bad. By the time I left NYC in the mid '90s, you could stroll along either river and catch cool breezes on hot days. Yeah, that's twenty years, but it's better than never.

BTW, I live near here. It's the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chemung Rivers. There is a terrible pollution problem here. Lots of industrial run-off in the creeks and tributaries.

Most of the pollution in the river is due to excess animal manure from farming, agricultural runoff, urban and suburban stormwater runoff, and raw or inadequately treated sewage.
cite

It's getting worse because we have a ton of fracking going on. We live on top of the Marcellus Shale.

It's an oil and gas company from Texas (figures) that runs the show. They buy farm land from family farmers (who aren't doing all that well now) for great prices and have their way with us. There's a raging battle going on right now over it, but the area is lousy with Conservative/Tea Party idiots who believe everything they see in the media and they are completely distracted by stuff like immigration and Obama's religion. It's truly a WTF period in history.

Sorry for the multiple posts and rants. It's kind of on my mind lately. We're killing ourselves and there's nothing to be done about it. I've watched this go on for thirty-plus years and I've never felt more ambivalent or cynical about it.

It happens sometimes.

I completely forgot about Earth hour. I went to the supermarket, came home and turned the lights on. Blah. But yeah I can relate to the power cuts thing! We're scheduled to have rotating power outages all summer (why did they have to pick summer, when the heat is crazy?). Oh the perils of living in the third world.

I went off on an epic rant about powercuts with my co-worker. It's strange how people are so USED to it, like it's normal. I get enraged. I'm like, I'm paying through my teeth for this, why can't it work 24/7 like IT'S SUPPOSED TO?! And it's not like I'm living in the village, in a rice paddy with buffaloes chilling out next to my bed or something, I'm living in the supposed ultramodern capital with cellphones and satellite TV and whatnot, and I can't have reliable electricity? What gives? Why is everyone so okay with it? I'm not a spoiled brat for wanting this! blargh /rant