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With all the bad stuff happening now


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There's a lot of bad stuff happening now in the world.

 

We have some unmistakeable signs of changing climate happening around us, and nobody knows quite where it will lead, but whatever happens it won't be good.

 

We have war and instability brought on by our addiction to oil, with terrible consequences for people in other countries.

 

We have pretty miserable working conditions, slaving for hours to live in expensive, non-optimal housing, and to buy lots of fairly useless things.

 

All of these aspects feed off one another in a grim spiral. We know how to stop it, but we don't want to take the necessary steps.

 

With all this going on, I don't feel like getting in an oil-powered car or worse, a plane, and going off to ride up a snowy hill on an oil-powered lift, to ride down it again on a highly engineered plank. I think to do so would be irresponsible and wrong in the circumstances.

 

So I'm done with winter sports.

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Well, I have thought about that stuff too. It can seem overwhelming and depressing at times. And i think it is rad that you want to limit the damage we all bring to this world. But perhaps going cold turkey is not the only way.

If you don't want to drive, there are less harmful options, like bussing or you can make driving as efficiant as possible by carpooling.

Don't like big corporations taking over the hills or polluting lifts? Educate people about the problems and maybe generate a little change. Start a zine addressing these issues. Or, you can just make your own no-tech wooden old-school skis or board and hike the pow. You don't need hi-tech stuff to ride it anyways (and its probably more fun, too!)

Sick of clothing companies getting their stuff made in countries with no snow by people who will never have enough money to even dream of it? Write them. Find places that don't. Organize gear swaps. Make your own. There are people who feel just like you, and would love some alternative. I know i would.

I love snowboarding to death. But that doesn't make me blind to its problems (i hope!). And the day i am convinced that snowboarding it taking away from the world more than it gives will be the last. I like teaching it, and make a living from it in the winter. And i am sad that increasingly only the affluent are my customers. But for me teaching snowboarding is also about teaching respect for nature. I am perhaps a litle vain to think that this might have some effect, but i also remember that i got my respect for the mountains and nature in the same way. If we can actively pass that on, it might have a bigger impact than just withdrawing completely.

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I'm afraid it doesn't give anything to the world - that's exactly the point. Using lots of resources to get to a hill and ride all over it is not respecting nature, however good it might feel. It's self-deluding to imagine that it isn't harmful. I'm just sorry I shut my eyes to it.

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That is taking things pretty much to the extreme. I am just going to have to be "irresponsible and wrong" in your eyes.

 

What else is going to be given the shove in your world?

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Of coure its harmful. Almost anything we do is.I became vegetarian because i am very concerned about the damage a meat-based diet does to the world, even though i love it. But even that is still harmful, because some of the foods i eat come from far-away places that takes up a lot of resources. Maybe thats the way you feel about snowboarding right now.

But do you really think people can develop an appreaciation for nature if they don't have access to it? I think skiing and riding is a great way. Personally, it has given me lots to be appeaciative about. I read a quote once, and i don't quite remeber it per vetim, but it went something like 'In the end, people will only save that which they respect, and they will only respect that which they value". So in my case (and i hope in many others) skiing has given peple a reason to value nature. And yeah, the modern ski industry does not focus so much on these things, but is it better to cut oneself off from it, or to try to change it? People will continue to take lessons, regardless if i am teaching or not. I hope i can impart some of this. I hope that people will look at Global Warming, and even if it for the selfish reason of wanting a longer ski season, they can be persuaded to change their habits.

If you are so adamant against consuming the fuel to drive a car to the hill, do you also refuse to consume other petroleum products like plastics? I guess i am wondering what the goal of this is. Not that i doubt you motives, i hope to share them myself. I am still searching in my own life to what i should sacrifice and what i should keep, and i'd like to know what changes you made.

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You abstaining from something you get a lot of pleasure from is not going to change anything. The lifts will still move. Not enough people will be so radical.

 

Things like that I can't change. What I do is this, I try to minimise these 'evil' wasteful things in my life as much as I feel I can. I am fairly environmentally conscious - more than average.

 

And I do other things where I can make a difference - some volunteer work in the local old peopls home and at the local kominkan when I can, that kind of thing. Without wanting to sound cliche, I do these things because I want to do something for other people who can't help themselves, I really get some satisfaction from this.

 

I am not going to give up some of the pleasures in my life when doing so will have about zilch effect in the big picture and a huge effect on my modest enjoyment of life.

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What else is going to be given the shove in your world?

 

Good question. The answer is, imported luxury products, and as far as possible non-luxury products too. Meat and fish. Packaged food. Overseas trips (unless by sailing boat \:\) ). Work for industrial clients. Flush toilets. Long showers. Car trips

 

Some of it is going to have been done gradually as it requires the understanding of my family (and my industrial clients). I'm just starting where I can. So anything that involves unnecessary travel is out, as are many imported products. It doesn't seem particularly extreme, particularly in view of some of the extreme distortions in our society (and weather) at the moment.

 

As for what anybody else does, that's up to them...

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Thanks

 

So you never going back to the UK for a visit then?

 

Wasn't the sailing boat made from wood (hence a dead tree), or maybe if not wooden by some evil industrial company?

 

How do the family react to this then?

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Far be it from me to dissuade you, but as someone who loves the sport, i am wondering if there i not another way to continue the sport without costing your convictions.

Would you still go if you didn;t have to go the 'industry' route?

What about hiking or backcounty riding? Have you ever consitered making your own powder board?

I am thinking alot about it lately, and am getting a little tired of all the gimmicky products. I would like to see snowboarding return to its roots, with no (or minimal bindings) and powder-only riding.

Do you hike, or have any interests that involve interaction with nature? You mentioned sailing. Anything else?

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I agree with the general concern.

 

Fwiw, some notable commentators, such as Seymour Hersh, say that the driving force behind the Iraq War was the Christian Fundamentalism of the Neo-Cons. I'm not sure whether push has come to shove yet with oil.

 

If oil production has peaked, that may slow the rate of climate change-causing emissions. There is no substitute for oil, so people will just have to do without. The real danger is possibly that the scramble for oil will lead to nuclear war. Provided that some computer malfunction or trigger-happy Neo-Con in a failing USA doesn't give us one first.

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I say that someone develops technolgy to harness all the energy from the hot air and the methane given off by the bullshit that politicians spew! Japan could be energy-independent in days! The Presidential Debates alone could power the Midwest! No more rolling Blackouts! Justifications for their wages! Everybody wins!

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rach, thanks love, I'm fine. Just facing up to some stuff that I've really been ignoring.

 

It's not all grim. I'll just do what I used to - ride my bike to the mountains and walk up them. And grow stuff to eat. It's got to be nicer than going to the supermarket. And I'll still have my snowboard and snowshoes if the climate takes an unlikely turn.

 

Mr Wiggles, Seymour Hersh appears very knowledgeable about Iraq, but I think most of the neocons are Zionists rather than Christians. I'm not sure whether or not the oil crisis has hit either, but there are a plenty of other reasons to make some changes.

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I think the best thing one can do is try to be a part of the solution... support alternative energy sources (hydrogen cars now available, shame it's not to yer average punter yet), cycle to work, no needless journeys, live in small, energy efficient apartments, live near a mass transport hub, don't take flights for the sake of a week of hedonism... support enviro incentives/tax pollution to it's full value.

 

The first world HAS to develop the next generation of technology to match current living standards without environmental costs, because regardless of the consequences 4 billion people are all gunning for it and they'll do it the old way or the new way.

 

I share Ocean's sense of doom, but having no children yet, and being somewhat of an optimistic nihilist, not a sense of hopelessness.

 

(now if one could only get the populist/nationalist/military expansionist (but most definitely not republican) autocrat out of the white House...)

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I disagree about the need to meet current living standards. People need to reduce their expectations of what 'living standards' include. But if they think about it carefully, they may see that the costs are too high, and reducing the standards is a hidden blessing. I don't see new technology helping much either - cutting demand is the first thing.

 

I hope that by my actions, one unit of what is commonly called 'demand' will be eliminated.

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I too disagree with the need to meet today's living standards, unfortunately, many others clambouring for the dream, or at least the dream for their children do not.

 

More to the point, even meeting basic 'needs' and 'expectations' for developing nations without dramatic effects on the environment will require future technologies to be widely available.

 

It's laudable, however, for individuals to act unilaterally, and look forward to the time I can wean myself off oil dependency, to name but one vice. Hopefully, pollution tax will make that easier, and provide a viable alternative.

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It's tough when you think of all the people in soon-to-be consumerized nations getting up to speed using resources for all the great stuff that it's their turn to have...China being the example that comes to mind.

 

The arithmetic is not in favor of a happy result. The whole thing is picking up speed and becoming ever more wastefully ravenous, polluting and destructive.

 

As Ocean pointed out in another thread on Peak Oil, a car is only one way we depend on oil. Anything made of plastic, anything delivered to your market or konbini, planes, trains, most electricity, even things not made of plastic are using oil to get made and get to you.

 

The more you can drop out of this cycle, the nicer it is for the planet. But it seems things are going to get much, much worse. I wonder what kind of water, air, transportation and lifestyle my baby will have when she is my age, in the year 2045.

 

Sad to say I have little faith in any solution or agenda for change, just fear of an apocalyptic or completely poisoned denouement. Dropping out is an option for now, but one day there may be nowhere to hide.

 

\:\(

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If the future bothers you, I think you have to do what's in your power. You can't fix it all yourself.

 

Opt out where you can. Vote for political parties whose manifesto you agree with rather than for the second worst choice. And write letters to your elected representatives to show them that you support tougher regulation of waste, whatever the 'damage to the economy'.

 

Now I'm drinking locally produced wine. It's bloody horrible as you'd expect, but if everybody did it, imagine how fewer oil-powered ships would be plying the seas. And when my current box of cigars runs out, that's it. Unless I can grow my own baccy...

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Ocean I would love to do what I used to do. Live 5 minutes walk from the nearest lift. I parked my car for 1 to 2 weeks at a time. I only used the car to by food in town and my favorite pizza.

When better hybrids are feesible I will be the first in line to buy one. I still think you need to get back to nozzle and take the fatty tour. This might clear this dark side up.

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I'm pretty happy to know I'm not alone.

I know I was ignorant before and I'm learning many things from lecture series I am taking now, about Globalization, WTO, IMF, ODA, GMfood...

It was pretty tough for me to know about this world better. When I read "A People's History of the United States" first time, I got so depressed. The more I wise up, the more I get disappointed...

 

I think I have to be wise as citizens and consumers so that this world may get better.

Maybe you influenced me, ocean. ;\)

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I don't really care whether Ocean11 gives up snowboarding, his car or his dart board. However, I do think the interesting proposition will be getting his family buy into willingly making do with less. Good luck to you on that!

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Ocean's right. You do what you can. Education and information is a big part of it, but unfortunately the first layers of information visible to people are shaped by ad revenue and entertainment concerns.

 

Even when people hear about the other side of things, a lot of them don't want to hear any more or figure there's nothing they can do about it. Look at me. I am filled with dread, but don't do much beyond make nasty comments to relatives with blue toilet water or gallons of lawn insect killer in their garage. "Um...where do you think that stuff GOES when you flush it away? Want a drink of water? How about a fish dinner?"

 

I guess it comes down to what you can live with, both outside and inside of yourself. It helps me to hear things like what Ocean said. I have other friends who say similar things. Education and information.

 

With friends and family, you have to avoid the I'm good/you're bad, I'm right, you're wrong approach. Ocean's post was exemplary in this regard...it just says what he is going to do. A fine example. Thanks, Ocean.

 

\:D

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