One of the most concerning news stories of recent weeks is our low national savings rate. Last year it was a negative 1.6%. The previous year it was negative 1%. This year’s rate is the lowest in over 70 years.
For most Americans, that’s just another financial figure that goes in one ear and out the other. For some it’s not surprising, as they know first hand the impact of our mounting debt on their finances. They know what it feels like to be beholden to the bank.
Yet, for those who have a real understanding of this figure it’s pretty scary. It means we are spending more then we have money coming in. And a lot of that debt is not going to things that are improving us or building our country. It’s one thing to be borrowing money to get an education or buy an house or pickup truck, it’s another to buying more toys then you really need.
There is a lot of evidence that we are buying more toys then we need. We are too often sold consumerism and become blind to our own means or the costs of our consumption. Indeed, the personal financial transaction is minor compared to all the stuff we are amassing as individuals.
All those material possessions had to come from somewhere. They involved the exploitation of some material whether close or far away from us. They may have or may not have brought money into the local community. More likely then not, these days, they didn’t. And then they have to go somewhere.
There is no problem with making investments into the future. Likewise, there is no problem with purchasing material goods. But we need to be reasonable at what we buy and realize that there is only so much we really need. We need to focus more on ourselves and our communities, and stop buying things.
I have often been quoted that to be brave does not mean you are stupid. That means that you should not take unnecessary risks, but fight for what is right. When there is a cause worth fighting, you must be willing to your life on the line. Freedom demands nothing less then full courage in our fight for it. To be courageous means that you fight for what is right.
Religion often talks about courage. In Christian churches during the season of Lent we talk about the story of Jesus who fought for his beliefs and ultimately was crucified by the Romans for his religion. We talk about how his suffering not only cleaned us from sin, but how our own suffering often makes us stronger as individuals. To quote Romans 5:1-5:7:
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; in perseverance, character; in character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right, when we where still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
These words from the bible represent what courage should mean today. It should be about fighting for what is right, regardless if we can win or not. We must believe in what is right, and use peaceful political change to obtain those means. Sometimes it’s not easy or will not happen over night, but regardless it will create greater perseverance in us as individuals. As the bible states: in perseverance, character is created, and in character we get hope for a better tomorrow.
It is so important to have courage and speak against social injustice. It might mean you end up being crucified at the end of the day, but it also may mean you gain more character and hope for a better world around us. Real courage is about taking a stand, fighting for what is right, regardless of the real personal cost. Any cost ultimately is off set by gains in character. Remember, that these costs are real and that when you decide to fight that the issue must be real and substantive, and that you are not just being stupid. A courageous person will be respected by others and loved by himself forever.
When people think about what things cause harm to the environment they think of many things. They think of tall smokestacks pushing out sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides, rusty metal drums leaking orange liquid, or the endless repetition of housing in suburban development.
Most do not think about attitudes and cultures that insulate people from the natural world. Yet, that might just be the biggest threat. Consumption without context, a lack of understanding of pollution, a distant natural world, and apathy all lead up to some serious environmental degradation.
Suburbia is grounded in consumption, often without context. They go to the mall and grocery store and buy things. The trash man comes by on Wednesday and takes away what they dont want. The people there have no idea where things came from, what technologies are behind it, and what the real costs of their actions are.
The landfill is well hidden from view. The methane from the dump and the landfill can not be smelled to the user. The factory in India spewing out toxic chemicals simply does not exist. Pollution does exist in suburbia from car emissions, phenalates from vinyl, and lawn pesticides, but it takes a different context from reality.
People in suburbia drive to work in an air conditioned sport-utility vehicle. They live and work in air conditioned vehicles that seal out natural air. Nature is little more then a place for camping. It certainly is not a place for living or making a life out of. If nature is anything in such a world it is always thoroughly controlled and regulated.
Life is suburbia is good, maybe too good. It breeds contempt and apathy. When life is so good, why challenge our status quo to protect some abstract environment so far away? Suburbs are non-political except for the occasional fight over grandpas fence, or parking. Real issues seem not ever to rise to interest.
Today is Ground Hog Day, when Punxsutawney Phil is pulled out of his den to find out if he has a shadow, and to forecast the rest of the winter season. We all hope that he does not see his shadow, so that by some act of nature the spring will come six weeks earlier. It’s unlikely though, especially in the northeast.
It’s been awful snowy all winter, including one bitterly cold burst during January. You can argue it’s been worst then most years. The good news is that the worst is beyond us, and mud season can only be a dozen or so weeks away. Some how getting your truck stuck in the mud and muck beats this terrible winter weather.
We all want this season will come to an end. It was fun at first, but not so much now. Things will get warm, and it will be wonderful spring then summer. We will be sweating once again outdoors, and spending long nights looking up at the moon, sitting around the campfire. But for now, enjoy the cold.
The other night around quarter to midnight, I walked out across Wakely Dam at the Cedar River Flow in the Moose River Plains of Adirondack Mountains. With a new moon, I expected to see very dark skies with good views of the stars, and little light pollution in the distance.
While the stars were clear compared to any place around Albany, their was in the distance, across the Moose River Plains and mountains of the West Canada Wilderness, a very distinct warm color light, from the street lights along the hamlets that dot the Fulton Chain of Lakes — Old Forge, Eagle Bay, Inlet, etc. All of these hamlets are 30 to 50 miles away, and due to Wilderness and Forest Preserve, it’s unlikely to be from any source nearer.
Most of the light I saw in the sky probably was from street lights, parking lot lights, exterior building lights on lodges and businesses alike along the Fulton Chain of Lakes. It probably would not have been noticable in a more urbanized area, but due to the fact I was in wilderness and almost complete darkness, it shown brightly across the sky.
It’s unfortunate that it disturbs the views of the stars, despite my remoteness. It is much more unfortunate to think of the energy waste it represents. All those lights are supposed to be lighting a section of street, parking lots, deck, or some specific other purpose. They are not intended to be lighting sky or sending light 50 miles away to an observer standing on the Wakely Dam.
That light did not come from some free source. It came from a power plant that fed electricity in our state-wide electrical grid and sent a small fraction all the way up to the hamelts along the Fulton Chain of Lakes.
While some will argue that their is excess electricity in grid at night or that most of the power locally is generated by hydropower, the reality is electricity on the grid is fungible, and one unit of hydropower here could be used elsewheres to offset the use of coal or natural gas. Even in low energy use times, the grid still relies on a lot of dirty and polluting fossil fuels.
So I ask myself, why is a hamlet 50 miles away, sending energy in the form of light into wilderness? A lot has to do with technological inefficency that wastes energy, even more has to do with energy being so cheap, that it’s affordable to light up lands 50 miles away with wasted energy. Yet, it seems like such a waste.
You know, I really love oil. Not in it’s crudest form, or even gasoline — that nasty stuff you put in your truck, or even in it’s form of energy — that powers my truck. I love it because oil is such a beautiful thing — it takes one to beautiful places, it gives one the most wonderful experiences.
It’s oil that takes me up to the woods. It’s oil that takes me down rough state truck trails and smooth superhighways, the fly high above beautiful valleys. It’s oil that take me to the mountains, it’s oil that takes me out on the town to meet interesting people. It’s oil that goes in the bus that takes me to work. It’s oil (and it’s cousin natural gas) that keeps lights on, the beer cold, and good times rolling on.
I love oil, despite my
sometimes troubled relationship with it.
