Conserving for whom?
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Article by: Harv Teitelbaum The west is in a drought. , Drive slower, save the planet! Along with other measures being recommended or required, we've been asked to conserve water. , Drive slower, save the planet! Great. It's good to conserve. After all, being frugal, dependent on less, and keeping one's environment , Photovoltaic Panels - Harvest the Sun Light uncluttered and unpolluted do far more to enhance quality of life than do frantic consumption and the over accumulation of stuff. But I have two questions. First, for what and for whom are we conserving? The drought , Water Conservation Ideas for the Kitchen Sink has forced many communities to issue mandatory water , supply Sino-NSH VFD Double-Stage High-Efficiency Vacuum Insulation Oil Purifier/oil purification/oil restrictions. Some have even had to truck in bottled water , Asbestos Statistics to meet basic needs. But not everyone is truckin' in the same direction. Take Douglas County, Colorado, development capital of the nation, where recently there was some exciting news. Mammoth bones were unearthed at an excavation site. But what was also uncovered was the fact that the frenzied addition of water , Solar Cooling - Air-Conditioning From the Sun taps continues unabated. People were encouraged in the reports to contemplate the extinction of the woolly mammals. My guess is that it was early DougCo hominids' plundering of the mammoths' water , supply Sino-NSH VFD Double-Stage High-Efficiency Vacuum Insulation Oil Purifier/oil purification/oil supply to green , 5 Star homes to be Mandatory in Australia up acres of proto-bluegrass that caused the beasts' extinction, not climate , supply Sino-NSH LV Lubrication Oil Purification/oil purifier/oil disposal/oil reclamation/oil restor change or overhunting. While we're dealing with a near-empty glass, , supply Sino-NSH LV Lubrication Oil Purification/oil purifier/oil disposal/oil reclamation/oil restor developers want to sell more straws. , sell sino-nsh insulation oil recycling,filter,purifier,filtration,purification,regeneration,tr eatme One thing is certain. As water , Dallas Contracting Co., Inc. Completes Concrete Aggregate Cr shortages become a way of life, we will be forced to find new water , supply Sino-NSH TF Turbine Oil Purification/oil purifier/oil reclaim plant/oil recovery/waste managm sources. Politicians will wait for the right time to propose it waiting, perhaps, until drinkable water , supply Sino-NSH LV Lubrication Oil Purification/oil purifier/oil disposal/oil reclamation/oil restor becomes scarce. Then they'll throw up their hands and "reluctantly"Ā¯ offer a solution: more dams and reservoirs. They know that public sentiment can waffle, but the profit and pressure to continue growth, as well as the need to finance elections, remain constant. Question number two: "Then what?"Ā¯ After we build more containments, build more houses , Unusual Uses of Backyard Plants and Trees to suck up any additional water, , Arborvitae and confront the inevitable next drought, , Introduction To Photoionization then what? We're driving around on a tire with a slow leak. We could stop and put some air , Fast Growth for Water Treatment Technologies due to World-wide Water Shortage in the tire, but then what? Do we continually refill the tire while the leak gets bigger and bigger? Or do we stop the continuous drain? At least we can find air , Clean Energy: Peering Down China's IPO Pipeline to fill the tire. Additional containments of little or no water , Drive slower, save the planet! provide little or no long-term solutions. No matter. They represent more major development projects, greased with a little campaign support. There's a bigger lesson here, though. Continuing development during droughts , Drive slower, save the planet! demonstrates that conservation on one level may only serve to encourage waste and the exploitive use of resources on another level. Consider that when we recycle, instead of reducing the need for landfills, we might just be opening up more acreage for Wal-Marts and subdivisions. When we push for more public transportation, instead of alleviating congestion, we might just be creating more available volume capacity for land speculators. The problem may be that we see conservation only as a personal choice or fashion. But to be truly effective, we might have to apply it throughout all levels of society, not as fashionable behavior, but as internalized ethic. We might need to think beyond personal recycling and every-third-day-watering to such notions as conservation of land use, conservation of quality of life, conservation of surface and ground water, , Join in and Celebrate the 39th annual Pitch In Canada Week and conservation of climate. , Asbestos Terminology We might need to value restraint in physical expansion, restraint in personal transportation, restraint in gratification, and restraint in resource consumption. Do we dare consider freezing the addition of new water , Dallas Contracting Co., Inc. Completes Concrete Aggregate Cr taps and making future taps conditioned on sustainable supplies? What a bold notion: to use conservation not to put the squeeze on individuals to cough up resources for industry, but to make our lives easier. It's always difficult to draw a line at a particular point, but that doesn't mean a line shouldn't be drawn at some point. After all, the west's land and resources are not unlimited. If we use them up, then what? Have we reached the point where we consider drawing that line? While there are still some things left to conserve? About the Author Harv Teitelbaum writes about the environment, , Can Coffee Be Used As A Fertilizer? politics, social issues and ethics, from a systems perspective. Visit his website at http://www.thequestioner.com |
  
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