COP-OUT STATEMENT: RedNeck sources totally from the media so if you have a problem with the accuracy, content, context, grammar or style look to the current crop of media spielers before trying to bother me. This is simply RedNeck’s personal choice to follow the fashionable trend, which is the total abrogation of any personal responsibility for any behaviour, or opinion in which I happen to be involved. You don’t like it, lump it; it’s a free country – so far.
01/12/14 Current Rant - The Great Garbage Vortex
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/?ar_a=1
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/64066718/ocean-plastic-count-in-the-trillions
Shitting in Our Own Nest
You all know the old saw :'Never shit in your own nest” or words to that effect.
Well, as humans we are doing a bloody good job of doing just that.
Have a look at the URL and then shake your head in wonder and shame.
While RedNeck mainly concerns himself with the lesser (in volume) idiocies of human behaviour this is almost beyond comprehension. The most depressing quote from the article is “Because the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is so far from any country’s coastline, no nation will take responsibility or provide the funding to clean it up. Charles Moore, the man who discovered the vortex, says cleaning up the garbage patch would “bankrupt any country that tried it.”"
How about the UN did something useful for a change and lobbied all nations to participate? And I don't mean another round of monetising the problem such as the various bloody stupid emissions trading schemes around.
Humankind has the ability to create enormous problems for itself, fortunately we also have the wit to create solutions as these problems are uncovered. Most of the issues stem from short term, profit for a group oriented activities with little if any thought given to the larger effects – these will be left to be the problems or challenges for our progeny. No wonder our sprogs have a short term vision bounded by the latest internet fad or the romantic deviations of celebrities (whatever they are). They have observed and learned the myopic view of life that if one can keep the problem far enough away from oneself then that's ok; someone else will be along to solve it later.
All nations funding could be started to find an alternative to the manufacture and use of plastics – shouldn't be beyond our reach and this would go some way to cutting the problem off at the start and would probably have some excellent flow on effects such as limiting one threat to top level predators and the ocean food chain – starving people will soon encourage governments to act – generally called a revolution.
The saddest part of all this is that most of the solutions to the problems of which we are currently aware are being pushed into the future; both individuals and governments are falsely insulated by no apparent immediate effects making their daily lives more difficult. Well, the problems are here now, the effects are immediate; just not sufficiently “in your face” enough to provoke a response – yet. Notice ostriches don’t rule the world?
Altruism and altruistic acts cost money, however this is no reason not to adopt altruistic aims and behaviours – surely it is not beyond human-kind’s abilities to somehow harness all the various charities etc and professionally manage (not for monetary profit) a fund towards the saving of the only rock we currently have to live on as a species. As the ascendant species we have the responsibility to preserve and nurture all other species sharing the rock with us, however badly we seem to be at taking an interest in doing this for ourselves let alone anything else.
Wake up – we are not here that long and the rest of life does not deserve our obtuse behaviour.