I am not an environmentalist. Realize this, please. I do not go around hugging trees, striking new building projects, or recycling like a crazy person. I do not believe in global warming, and in fact I think it is a hoax (really, people? The earth has cycles. It gets moody, too.).
However, as a child, I cried when my dad burned my favorite stump (I swear, that thing contained fairies), and I do love trees and nature and hippies. I am a contrast even to myself. I like eating plants from my own yard and learning about homeopathic medicine. I believe that mankind, Americans especially, can be more environmentally conscious and take care of our world better. We can still use gas and air conditioning (in Mississippi, if you don't use A/C, you die. Quickly. You try not to, and I will sit in an air conditioned room and laugh at you). Let us use and exhaust our fossil fuels in the ocean instead of piping it to Asia through the Alaskan pipeline: raw petroleum is here, it creates jobs. It will run out, as all things do, but by that time, man will have created and perhaps perfected a cleaner energy. As a rule, we should try to perfect ourselves and our methods, but know that nothing will ever fully perfect, and so we should use what we have in the best way.
I read an article about Sustainia, a move by Copenhägen* to make the city completely carbon-free by 2025. Kudos! I say to them. Kudos! Good luck, and I wish we could do that! I want to see this. I hope it works. I want to move where you are!
[Copenhägen is supposed to be the happiest city in the world, according to some statistics (ironically, it has one of the the highest suicide stats in the world as well--18% in rank. I suppose the eternal-night-months, lack-of-sunshine-so-depression-sets-in has an effect on the populace).]
Copenhägen has published a guide to its city of the future, which will include a bridge 195 feet above the sea for bicyclists to travel from one tower to another. Perhaps one of my favorite plans is to ensure that "all citizens should live within a 5-10 minute walk to green areas**." Unlike other plans for the future (such as Obama's healthcare plan––ehem, ehem––which will die and bring down healthcare with it. This opinion is based on the history of other, always-failing socialistic systems.), Sustainia is not a form of government, and is not "a utopian experiment, but a realistic image of a not-so-distant future**." Sustania wants to improve Copenhägen's effect on the environment through its construction.
I approve this. I also now plan on visiting the present's version of Copenhägen on my way back from Amsterdam (gotta plan that trip, eventually), and then another trip in 2025 when the conversion is completed.
*Copenhägen is fun to write.
**http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2012/06/guide-copenhagen-future/2209/
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