Last night, on the news, I saw a story that discussed an increase in local (NC) water prices (for those who have town water) because now that people aren’t using as much water (that would actually be called CONSERVING, last I checked), the water treatment plants aren’t making enough money.
All I can say to that is, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
I am continuously amazed and appalled at the whining of big industry that has an effect on or causes us to have an effect on our environment, such as water companies, oil companies, and everything related. I also continue to be amazed at the politics that are overall against us preserving our environment – our world – so we can continue in existence. Electric cars and or hydrogen cells? Been around for longer than most people think. However, the oil industry has its hands in so many political pockets that they’ve successfully kept it under wraps for decades. That’s right: DECADES.
More than a decade ago, when I lived in New York, we would gather our recyclables, take them up to the recycling center, and actually get paid for recycling. Isn’t that fascinating? Because when we moved down to North Carolina almost 12 years ago, we discovered rather shockingly that we have to pay to recycle here.
OK, so let’s get this straight:
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We pay more for water because people are conserving;
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We pay to recycle;
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We pay more for recycled paper and other recycled items than for items that take down our forests and other natural resources;
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We pay more for non-GMO (that would be non-genetically modified) produce because the pharmaceutical indutry has so flooded our commodity markets with GMO items (which we’re discovering have long-range negative effects on our environment and on us) that buying food grown from NON-genetically modified — and much safer and healthier — seed is today actually a NICHE market;
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We pay an extraordinary amount of money for petroleum products so… well, hmm…. so the oil companies can make more than any other company/industry in the world next quarter, yet again? When we’ve actually had the resources to use alternative fuels for decades?
So, what is wrong with this picture?
There’s a movie that a friend of mine recommended awhile back that was a sleepy Indy movie — and it initially seemed pretty dumb, yet if you paid attention to it, it was exactly where we’re going, and it was actually a brilliant movie with a brilliant statement — it’s called Idiocracy. Rent it, and then, please, THINK! About what we can do to fix this. Because if we actually start to think instead of just follow, we might wake up and fight to fix what’s so terribly, terribly wrong.
