Rant

I'm so miffed.

Not so much that I do very much about it, nor even that I complain much about it, but just enough that it is often at the tip of my tongue and ready to explode given a sympathetic audience or a particularly happy and loving tree.

I'm not even miffed over just one thing, there are a plethora of things about which I am miffed. I might even describe one or two of them in this post if I get around to it.

Okay, so let's target the first one. Consumerism. I've already written a document about becoming a post consumerist, and I just wonder how many people could get that far and become one. I am certainly on my way, and am not nearly as much of a consumer as other people I see. Buy this, buy that, think of how far this was shipped and how much damage to the enviroment took place in creating that. When will people learn that enough is less than what they have? Bigger house, bigger car, consume more electricity, water, gasoline. To whose benefit? Are you really happier for the bigger house or bigger car? Could your extra money have been spent better had it been given to a worthy cause to help other people?

Why don't companies produce goods that last? Why are we living in such a disposable world? Why aren't technology and modern materials becoming more prevalent to solve some of the problems that are plaguing us today? Why hasn't anyone thought of devising a way to suck GHG's out of the atmosphere and ship them off into space?

Next, Politics in Canada. I am so irritated with Stephen Harper and the Bloc, I don't know if Layton and Martin's most recent deal is good or bad, but what I do know is that the Gomery commission really is feeding the seperatist cause. Living in Quebec I have lived through the last two referenda and do not want to see another one. I'm also fed up of our rep by pop, we need to have at least a moderate fraction of our government in the House by popular vote. This way at least some Green representation would be helpful. The Senate? Appointed by the PM time after time to allow party line laws to be pushed through? Doing favours for people, winning seats this way? Creating bills to fill in budget requirements so you don't get less money next year?

Why do I feel I have to vote one way, living in Quebec, that if I vote for any other party it is like handing a vote to either the BQ or PQ? How is it that some of the people in this province think it is the government rather than simply a political party, that has shafted us out of money? Why do they insist that the solution is to seperate this province from the country? How is that a solution?????

The Environment. Yes, I am an environmentalist. Am I an activist? Not so much, do I talk about it with people? Yes. A couple of weeks ago I saw a guy throw a tissue or napkin out of his car, check this out for the story. It bugs me how on garbage day we put out one bag every two weeks, and on recycling we put out two bins every week while for all of our neighbours it is the reverse. I am also irritated by the amount of packaging that persists in products. You know that hard plastic that is near impossible to break open that covers small loose products? Whatever happened to shipping things in boxes that are easier to open, easier to recycle and just better over all? Must we see the product in transparent plastic in order to know whether or not we are to buy it? Aren't we all highly educated consumers based on our television commercial education?

Transportation. How is it that so few control so many? Why is it that we can't have affordable hybrid or affordable electric cars on the road? If these were mass produced in place of the gas guzzling vehicles that everyone drives now, wouldn't we be polluting a whole lot less? What about the tiny cars they have in Europe? Why haven't we seen these cars in major cities in NAmerica? Why isn't more funding going into making fuel cell technology an affordable reality? Why isn't more research being done like what Shec-Labs is doing? Public transportation here where I live is okay, but could be much improved, and I am sure this is the case in many cities everywhere. Get single-passenger vehicles off the road - tax these people more, somehow, and use that money to make public transit the envy of everywhere else. Stop with the trucking of goods from city to city - how many trucks or intermodal containers can a train carry from one city to another? Yes, an individual train engine pollutes more than an individual truck, but two engines can carry 150 trucks no problem. It may even be debatable that the cleanest running train engine out performs the dirtiest truck on the road. Air travel??? I'm not even going to go there.

I guess I've lost some steam now, I can think of a few more topics I could cover, but I can bring up the energy any longer to continue.