RE: LordNigel's Travels - Animals of South Africa
And so hopefully besides your young Alzheimers your house doesn't also burn down with your photo print outs and hard-drives and because of the alzheimers you can't remember your password for your photos stored in the cloud.... Hmmm, I think you might be confident enough that that scenario doesn't play out!!!
Well it's interesting isn't it? It's the stereotypical worldview of the much maligned "millenials", who value experience over materiality.
But it's healthy to think from other perspectives.
But first of all from the millenial perspective. A lot of us really do think that some of the last generations were just so bloody selfish. They sold out on their youthly sixties hippy ideals and cashed in on consumerism and soul-selling. They over-saw the dismantling of progress on labour rights with centre and centre-right wing governments, and didn't seem to give too much of a bother for obvious in your face all out culminating global ecological crisis that is going to cause some major head-aches for many generations to come. For the most part they have the outright indecency to live much longer lives and not pass on their wealth to their children when it matters to them, sitting comfortably in their mansions that they have owned outright since they were in their twenties and criticising the children who are desperately getting by month to month in crappy rental accomodation with shitty landloards making life misery, while all the while the real value of money and of salaries is just dropping and dropping and is only just not causing all out riots because short-sighted mass production and externalisation of many environmental costs mean that even with the ever reducing real vlaue of salareis people can still put food on the table and buy a bunch of plastic junk for their kids at Christmas (although don't ask about their debt situation). We've all figured out how to download cheap/free self-help books that have made us realise just what a repressed unhappy bunch the last generation were... they worked miserable repetitive gruelling jobs, feel resentful for it and expect us to do the same thing they did... even though everyone is telling us most jobs will be replaced by robots in the near future anyway and the only possibility of having meaningful employment is to differentiate yourself from cold repetitive machinery by being a colourful creative human being. Instead of gladly grabbing the banner of psychological disarray and serious attachment disorders that have been passing down the generations no doubt since at least the industrial revolution when cuddles were suddenly out of fashion, millenials travel to "find themselves" (do you think Wally ever finds himself??) and try to reorder the psychological mess that they inherited from Victorianesque upbringings in the hopes that they can break the chain and perhaps raise some well-balanced attachment issue-free happy children who feel loved and secure in themselves. (okay so just in case it's not obvious I am being really quite toung in cheek here).
But then what are our children going to say about us? What a bunch of selfish pr&*^s, they rolled about wallowing in plastic consumerism, emitted way more of their fair share of carbon as they flew about the globe enjoying themselves and indulging in extinction tourism (making sure they gave the final nail to the climate change coffin that their parents had built), and then didn't even have the decency to make sure that they could look after themselves when they were older nevermind actually have something to pass on to their children to make their lives easier? The writing was on the wall that the government wasn't going to be able to look after them when they were older but they just barged on ahead and had a great big hedonistic party all their lives and then left it to their children to pay for their adult diapers and care for them because they couldn't afford a nursing homes and the government just said "well we did warn you!". They had the cheek to assign themselves the morally high position by pretending that they were actually "saving" the world as they traipsed about spewing out carbon. Yeah they might have attended a couple of protest marches, but maybe that was just for the social benefits of meeting like-minded people and massaging their ego a bit, but they never really had the courage to really make the difference, the real hard sacrifices, that was required to force some real meaningful change that might have made the world a truly better place.
These are imaginary potential perspectives of imaginary people. Just in case I get any attacks on this one! I have a bad habit of being playfully polemic but that sometimes backfires on the internet!
I can't pretend to understand the millenial perspective (as I am not experiencing it myself, I'm GenX)...but I'm happy to share mine and try to understand. Traveling, seeing the world & talking to people helps to educate me; at the same time this interaction influences others.
By virtue of simply existing on this planet we all consume (including the millenials). It's a hard thing to wrap you head around and actually accept that this is ok and not lose focus or hope (especially when everything you look/see/feel tells you things are getting worse). Take this msg I just typed, electricity burned, the earth got dug up to produce the parts in my computer. Am I hypocritical now to use it for this post? perhaps....maybe something else is also happening here, something not just about the ego (although at times can seem this way).
..some of the threatening things you mention like robots, automation and crypto (take steemit) could be looked at and used poorly, but actually can have the positive effect as well if used by people with good intent.
If a wall is in your way, you may feel dis-empowered to be able to move it - but what happens when you lean against the wall for others to see? My travel experience has taught me, you influence the world slightly more then if you did nothing.
Humans are creatures of comfort and habit, through small changes/gestures here and there (leaning against the wall) hope is coming back (and some millenials are leading the way).
When I travel it opens my mind through experiences. You simply can't get this by watching the tube or going to work or paying your taxes (sounds a bit like the matrix).
I'm happy to have a chat further if you'd like to PM me...is a bit broader/off the track from this post, which is simply for people to enjoy Africa animals :)
Well actually I agree with all you said. I like to sometimes explore the extremes of an issue in order to be able to return to the subtle complexities of the nuanced middle ground with a bit more caution. I think I might be GenX too, nothing wrong with a bit of hard graft, but also nothing wrong with exploring off the whole imaginative non-conventional routes that might have terrified our parents.
Re the hypocrisy of using a computer, breathing in air, moving a muscle etc. I think it's a really dangerous avenue to go down, a sort of "oh fuck it, I can't do anything without being a hypocrite then it's all or nothing". But it should be acknowledged that plane travel does emit an awful lot of carbon relatively, it can't be compared with the writing of an email. Plane travel is the elephant in the room. And I'm not spouting from an ivory tower, I very much struggle with the my own personal ethics on this issue as I also LOVE to travel.
how does one PM??? I haven't figured that one out yet.
Kate-m can you please contain the language my kid sister reads this. Do you drive a car? most of us do. The lasted research suggests while the emissions from a flight once a year are far greater then driving yourself around everyday, because they are delivered directly into the atmosphere the planet reacts in a different way (over 20 years the impact is way less). Taking a flight once a year is not impacting as much as driving your car or eating red meat daily! I think this is the point lordnigel is saying (your not going to stop people doing stuff that's bad to the environment overnight, but let's make a start by pushing against the wall (gently at first, or people will see you as radical) this will lead to technology advances (less omission flights, pc that uses less power etc.
PM means personal message, you can do via steemchat website.
I do sincerely apologise for the language. I blame it on my penchant for dramatic flare and will try to curtail that from now on on the platform!
Just to make it clear, I was purposefully presenting a possible radical stance from either side as an exercise in perspective-taking, neither present my own personal stance. In fact you will notice that I say I agree with all he says and simply indicate that it is however a complex ethical route to justify one environmentally damaging action because one takes other environmentally damaging actions. This is not in reference to trying to change people's minds but something we should be aware of in each of our own personal decision-making spheres. Although of course one factor following on from our own choices is the example we set and subsequently the impact that might have in changing people's minds and behaviours! LordNigel is an intelligent and very aware person, I know fine well that he has very consciously pondered this very dilemma, as have I. I personally find the psychology around environmental behaviours quite fascinating. As I stated above, I'm not waggling my finger in anyone's face, but I am pointing at the elephant sitting in the corner, the one that none of us enjoy talking about.
I am quite aware that car-driving and meat-eating have serious environmental impacts, and I am quite aware that the impacts of flight emissions are different to those of emissions on the ground, in many ways they are worse (so I also apologise for my lazy terminology in referring to plane travel carbon emissions). But I don't think anyone is going to argue though that plane travel does not have disproportionate environmental impacts relative to many day-to-day human activities? I didn't realise that it was an either/or choice between eating a weekly burger and having an annual holiday. I personally am all for people eating much less meat, but that is another conversation.
Hi Kate, I agree with what you have written as well :).. In terms of planes and tourism, you are spot on, I do struggle and can see what is happening to our world with frustration at times.
Alannapendragon knows me well and is also correct, there is hope!! and I normally try to deliver this message in the form of positive small steps we can all do
True, if I could I'd travel using wind and boat everywhere I would. Instead like most of us I have to try and make the best of where we are now, in the consumerism world we live in. I do try to reduce my impact, by flying once every couple of years, and staying as long as possible. I also walk mostly, volunteer my time to care for native animals, car pool, avoid eating meat and do as much as I can (and share this way of living), with all those I interact with. I am glad people with your concern and passion are out there.
...You might notice my posts are fairly easy to read (I'm targeting family/younger people . I have a few younger followers some people I know whom aren't on Steemit themselves), so I'm not really targeting these posts for rigorous debate (even though it may seem I'm selling a message people should travel around and this is negative on the environment - the first step to change is awareness). I hope this is making sense? I will try to comment on some of your posts for some healthy debate and/or your most welcome to PM me at https://steemit.chat Cheers
Sorry for hijacking your family-friendly post! :-*>
I don't set out to be contentious, it just sort of happens naturally sometimes! (I love to debate about environmental issues)
As a bit of a tangent picking up on what you were saying about travel by wind and boat, I actually have a bit of a dream of learning how to sail and traversing the Atlantic in a yacht as crew, as I would like to make a habit of visiting Brazil every couple of years and I'm not comfortable with the air miles. It's a very doable dream I think!
Feel free to comment and debate on any of my posts! Cheers
I think it's amazing what you are doing. We all need to enjoy life in nature more, so we can learn to appreciate this wonderful world with all her beautiful, amazing creatures. Keep travelling, keep taking these beautiful photo's and show the world what beauty is out there. It is so easy to get lost in the negative, we need to open our eyes and see the positive.