You've Heard It A Thousand Times

"I'm melting! I'm melting!" - Polar Ice Caps


Global warming. It isn't really news, but tht doesn't make it irrelevant either. All the fossil fuels we're burning are ultimately causing polar bears to drown and/or eat each others young. That's right, every time you drive a car, buy something from a factory, have something shipped from China you are condemning a polar bear to it's death. It may even be a baby polar bear that dies. Feel guilty? You should, though that's not really my intent. The guilt is a bit of a plus because sometimes it motivates people to do something. Take me for example. I'm mostly interested and worried about the food industry, but the problems entailed with that go far beyond eating vegetables and not using pesticides.
People in New Orleans joke that while other people eat to live, we live to eat. Whatever the reason may be, everyone has to eat. How many of us actually think about what it takes for that burger to get on your plate. Some people think of it is terms of hours worked. Others only think about the calories, or rather, try not to think about the calories. The truth is that a lot has to happen before you can unwrap that warm, tasty indulgence. Even if we only look at the meat it still has a high impact on the environment. Your one hamburger can contain up to about 100 different cows. (That should make the vegetarians out there feel a little better.) Of those 100 cows they're all, most likely, factory farmed. Meaning the cows are being mass produced rather than raised. And what are they being produced on? Corn. Michael Pollan, one of my heroes, explains in one of his books that basically everything is corn. And where does said corn come from? Yes, farms, but more specifically big Industry Agriculture. Like the cows, the corn is being mass produced on farmland.
It's basic supply in demand. There's a huge demand for corn therefore we need a huge supply of it. The machines used to sow, water, and harvest the corn all run on fossil fuels. Not to mention the pesticides also used on the crops. The burning fossil fuels create greenhouse gasses, which as we all learned in middle school, are what's causing global warming. And the pesticides are a whole other environmental matter that create a whole array of problems.
All of the pollutants, funk, and crap we think we're throwing away, or don't even think of at all, always make their way back to us. There's so many chemicals in most of what we eat that are harmful to us. To anyone who tries to refute evolution you're a moron. The fact that people are surviving in places like California with all its smog, is more evidence that human beings adapt to survive the new environmental conditions. Don't worry Darwin, I got your back.
I didn't start this blog to bombard you and scare you with facts. I'm not trying to tell you that you're living wrong and making the world worse for future generations. I'm not here to say that society is wrong and we need to renounce things like fast food (though we should), grocery stores, and other basic everyday luxuries. My only goal is to open your eyes to the consequences of even your smallest decisions and to suggest ways to leave less of an impact.
One person can make a difference. You may be tired of hearing that, but it's true. Even if every person in the world changed one thing about their lifestyle the world would be a much better place for it. Skeptical? Come on, what do you honestly have to lose?