Somehow, Passport -- the insider's guide to gay travel, don't you know -- tracked me down at my home, and slipped its discreetly wrapped self into my mailbox. The cover, adorned with the obligatory bare-chested and hairless man, advertised a story with Christopher Rice. Now, that's generally enough to make me set fire to any publication without opening it -- do I really fucking need another paean to nepotism in my life? But, I was bored so I flipped through. One thing stood out, from the lead editorial on the global warming crisis, inspired by Al Gore's recent film.
"[W]e must encourage our elected officials to dedicate themselves to passing laws making it mandatory that 100 percent of the energy we use come from renewal [sic], non-polluting sources within the next 10 years. The time for hesitation and apathy is over. It is up to us as individuals, and as members of the human race, to take control of our destiny."
Because nothing says "I'm serious about the environment" like wildly unrealistic policy proposals that couldn't happen even if the oil companies and Greenpeace got together, held hands, sang Kumbaya and emoted really, really hard. What makes it even more delicious is that this proposal's coming from a magazine that owes its existence to the cheap and easy travel by air and car afforded by petroleum-based transportation.
I count myself among the people who think global warming is a serious concern, who would like to see U.S. dependence on foreign oil lessened (and eventually eliminated), who wants to see alternative fuel sources such as hydrogen powering our transportation. It's hubristic to think that human endeavors have no impact on the environment -- it's also hysteric to believe that the world has degenerated into some big, Malthusian train wreck, when all evidence is that technological advance have generated such astounding quality-of-life increases (and not just in the West).
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