Earth Equity News

Driving Our Hybrid SUVs Down the Highway to Collapse. By Alex Steffan, Worldchanging.com, April 21, 2008. “With every passing day, we are discovering that things are worse than we thought. Our climate is ripping apart at the seams at a rate that’s surprising even the so-called alarmists. Natural systems are collapsing. The ocean seems headed towards a series of catastrophic tipping points. Economic inequity is producing a planet of billionaires and a billion desperate people. Our political systems are suffering a massive crisis of legitimacy, while insane fundamentalists, violent criminals and two-bit dictators (wearing both uniforms and Armani suits) are stealing or destroying everything they can get their hands on…In the face of this reality, recycling a bottle is an act so insignificant as to be merely totemic. Paper or plastic? Who the hell cares? In the developed world, few of us, essentially none of us, currently live a ‘one-planet life.’ The vast majority of us, even of those of us who have committed ourselves to change, consume more resources and energy than our sustainable share: indeed, it is very, very difficult to live an individually sustainable life, because the very systems in which we are enmeshed — which enfold and make possible our lifestyles — are themselves insanely unsustainable. We’re driving our hybrid SUVs down the highway to the Collapse.”