The Save the Pine Bush Dinner was pretty good and the presentation on the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster was fascinating. Fossil fuel transportation is enormously dangerous, and while cutting corners may save oil transporters money in a very competitive industry, the truth is ignoring safety can have disastrous consequences.

I often wonder what I can do to help. I guess I could raise my voice and ask for greater safety, but would I be heard? I could sign petitions maybe lay down on the tracks blocking the trains hoping to win over a news cycle or two. I could vote in elections, vote for supposedly more responsible politicians. But how much would it really change things? We all are prisoners of the times we live in and the institutions that are bigger and more powerful than politicians that supposedly govern them.

I wish there was a simple switch that we could flip to fix all of society’s problems. I wish it was as easy as flipping a switch or blame politicians of another political party. But it’s not that simple and the hour is late. No serious person really believes we will ramp down fossil fuel usage until decades after we are getting harmed in many ways from prolific fossil fuel use.