Journal benhocking's Journal: The blame game 2
Someone was talking to me about how upset they were that everyone was blaming Bush for our current environmental problems. After this very insightful person explained the reasons for being upset, I decided I agree.
There are two components here. (1) Bush is not at fault for our current environmental problems. (2) That he is being blamed for them is a bad thing. (If you're a Democrat - or just anti-Bush - the second component does not necessarily follow from the first.)
Wait, hear me (us) out.
First of all, Bush is not at fault for our current environmental problems. He is (partly) at fault for our future environmental problems, but not our current ones. It has taken us decades, if not centuries, to get where we are today.
Secondly, by blaming Bush, it gives people an excuse to ignore the ways that they (we) themselves (ourselves) are contributing to the problem. Replacing Bush with an environmentally friendly president, while a good idea, won't magically solve all our problems. We need to take other steps, such as driving more fuel efficient (and less polluting) cars, walking or riding a bike when we can instead of driving, following the 3 R's (reduce, reuse, recycle), and educating those that we can.
P.S. I'm not blaming Rita or Katrina on our environmental problems. Hurricanes happen, and they always have. Things could have been done to prepare N.O. better, and many people share the blame for that, but that's a completely different (and I'm declaring off-topic) topic.
Re: (Score:2)
Not been had (Score:2)
I know the person who made the comment quite well, and the arguments I made are almost completely stolen from that person. She doesn't like Bush (never has) and knows that choices Bush is making now will have long term harmful effects.
The point is, other than complaining about Bush, what can we do to help the environment?
(I do understand why you would think what you thought - I have heard similar lines of argument as well, which is why I hope I was completely clear that I'm not letting Bush off the hook