Green Peacocks and Other Hypocrisies

I’m sick and tired of being preached to by the Hollywood elite and politicians on how I need to be green and reduce my carbon footprint. I feel like I’m doing my part here. I recycle everything. I haul loads of recyclables to containers every week because we don’t have curbside service for this out in the country. I make only one trip a week to town in order to conserve fuel. I try to use those stupid, mercury-filled energy saving bulbs wherever I can. (This in spite of the fact that mercury is considered a toxic substance and if we drop one of these beauties in our house and it breaks, we’ll have to evacuate and wear hazmat suits to clean it up.) We heat our home with a super high-efficient water source heat pump which uses the heat or coolness of the earth to heat or cool our home.

The hypocrisy of the self-appointed green gods and goddesses who think they’re wise and all-knowing and infinitely qualified to talk down to us ‘common’ folk and tell us how we should live in order to save the planet while they flit around in private jets, plan hundred million dollar inaugurations and basically go right on consuming enough energy to supply power to a small country for several years, is fairly annoying and more than a little insulting to my intelligence.

So here is my plan. I like to think of it as a green coup d’ etat.

Stop supporting all forms of entertainment that require more than a small amount of energy consumption. Don’t attend any big, outdoor, lighted, high-wattage, power consuming sporting event, music concert, or political rally. If it requires more energy consumption than a simple PA system, then you shouldn’t support it. After all, Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand believe that we should drive hybrid vehicles and hang our laundry out to dry (respectively). I believe we should stop attending the Sundance Film Festival (which more than 20,000 people attend annually. Hint: It’s held in Utah and they don’t walk to get there.) and stop going to Barbara Streisand concerts. Let’s help out these two green gods by showing them we can really get behind their cause! No more film festivals and no more BS concerts. Let’s face it people, we’ve had enough BS in our lives. Go to the park with your dog. It’s infinitely more entertaining and a lot greener than a BS concert. If you require musical entertainment, ask your dog to sing, he’ll do a much better job and it won’t cost you more than a dog biscuit.

Recently, NBC decided they were going to go ‘green’ and encourage all their viewers to do the same by displacing the normally colorful peacock with a green peacock. I was watching a football game on a Sunday afternoon. I consider this a fairly green activity since I stay at home rather than driving sixty plus miles to attend a game, thus saving fuel—something I wouldn’t do anyhow as I can’t afford it! Anyhow, as I tried to watch the game, my gaze wandered back to that stupid green peacock and I felt my blood pressure rising. What gives them the right to tell me to go ‘green’? The energy used to power just that one football game could probably provide energy to an entire neighborhood for a day. Am I the only one who sees the hypocrisy in this? I turned off the television and went for a walk.

I can’t wait for January 21st. On January 21st, the presidential inauguration will be over. If you turn on the television, all the news is about the inauguration. The coverage of it is over the top. It's gotten so bad that the media will work it into almost any story. Even something as obscure as the mating habits of Tasmanian Devils isn't immune to an inauguration mention.

I’ve heard the inauguration is going to cost one hundred forty million dollars. Think about all the people travelling just to get to the inauguration. It is estimated that nearly two million people will travel to DC to witness this event. Two million people will travel by car, bus, train, and plane. Once they’re there, they’ll have to utilize other forms of transportation to get from their hotels to the events. I’m sure they’re not all driving hybrids. That’s a lot of fossil fuel. I can’t help but wonder why they’re doing this? It’s like watching the migration of millions of elk in Alaska. Only the elk have an actual reason for migrating. The Obamigrates have no really good reason for doing this. Think about it. How many of the estimated two million attendees will actually get to see anything of real significance? Most of them will be staring at the backside of the person in front of them. Millions of gallons of fossil fuels consumed just so you can stand in the cold and say you were ‘there’, when you weren’t really ‘there’ at all. All you did was take your politically-correct, so-called mini carbon footprint and stay on the BS train that the gods want us to keep riding.

In addition to the event in DC, the PIC (President Inauguration Committee) has planned many Regional Inauguration Balls across the country with orchestras and big-name performers like Sheryl Crow. James Taylor and Carole King so those that can’t make the trip to DC can still participate in the event a bit closer to home. Of course these ‘balls’ aren’t going to be low-tech, low-power-consumption events either. And I’m sure all the attendees aren’t walking to these events either.
And what about the power necessary just to stage and secure the inauguration? Think about all the vehicles needed to deliver stage, lighting, porta-potties, and barricades. Think about all the vehicles that the security personnel will be driving, most of them running all day. Think about the power consumption of all the high-tech equipment needed to insure the safety and security of the president-elect and all the inaugural attendees. That’s a LOT of energy.

Perhaps all this sounds more than a little nuts. I mean, can we seriously give up our concerts, our political rallies and our football games? No, not really. And it’s not really my point. I don’t think we should have to give up the things that make our lives easier or more enjoyable. I don’t want to give up my clothes dryer!

My point is that all this ‘green’ talk coming from the mouths of people who aren’t really willing to suffer even a modest amount of discomfort or inconvenience is beyond ridiculous. I agree that we need to find alternatives to fuel our vehicles and heat our homes. But I am really tired of hearing how hard-working, ordinary people need to shoulder the burden of this while the self-appointed ‘green’ gods and goddesses go right on living in their seven thousand square-foot mansions, driving sports cars, and flying all over the world as I sit in my small house, trying to relax by watching a football game while being mind-f**ked by a green peacock.