Some Ideas on How to Make Our World a Slightly Better Place

Yesterday, I posted a blog entry related to the changing climate (specifically, about the dire situation regarding the massive California drought). Among the topics covered in that blog entry, there was a bit about one particular politicians reaction to the drought, which is short, could be summed up to blaming President Obama, and focusing on ways in which more water could be distributed so that people could take care of emergencies, such as watering their lawn so that they would not have to deal with the stress of brown, less than perfect lawns.

It was mentioned that California, and much of the West in general, is a region that has long had problems with water access and water shortages in general. This has been such a persistent problem, that in cities like Los Angeles and Phoenix, some homes have gotten carpets for their outdoors that is made to resemble a perfect, green lawn. The idea with these is that home owners who absolutely want to have a perfect looking lawn get something that looks and feels close, but which nonetheless requires little to no effort to maintain, and which most importantly, reduces water usage considerably for wasteful water use on decorative lawns. If this idea spreads, surely water usage as a whole in these traditionally water deprived areas should go on the decline. Depending on how much it spreads, it could decline considerably.

Then, it went a bit into what I feel is the detrimental role that corporations play (in this particular case, Nestlé is the biggest culprit). It seems that wherever you go in the United States, as well as the wider world in general, whatever problems may exist, you can bank on a corporation taking an active role to make matters worse. This is done so that they might step in and profit from it.

Not all corporations are bad or systematically play a negative role in all situations, mind you. I am not arguing that they are all evil, or any such thing. I personally have long believed that in every situation, there are good people and there are bad people. Corporations are human made entities, and within each of them, surely, this law of averages persists. To put it in simple terms, there are good people who are at least trying to help, and there are bad people who are trying to take advantage.

Be that as it may, there are simply too many bad actions that corporations are behind to simply ignore. Some corporations simply do too much damage for us to look the other way. off the top of my head, I can think of some, such as Nestlé, Walmart, Goldmann Sachs, Bank of America, Halliburton, Black Water, Exxon-Mobil, and BP, who have done tremendous damage. Those, as well as those corporations under the umbrella of the infamous Koch brothers, who clearly are driven by a very extreme political agenda.

Since we within such a society are almost obliged, wittingly or unwittingly, play a role as active consumers, we should probably then focus on playing a positive role to the extent possible. That means that we have to be informed, conscientious consumers, and pick the products that we buy with a measure of discrimination that consumers to this point generally have not done.

Plus, there are other things that we can do outside of simply being consumers. More people are needed to take an active part in how things go, to play a positive role when dealing with all manner of things. This can be done by taking a more active part in your local communities (such as the local Parent Teacher Association, or city council, or some such local organization that tends to have big enough sway that they punch harder than their weight, often times).

In regards to climate change, there are things that we should begin to understand, such as how our daily habits often contribute to what at least strongly appears to be climate change caused by human activity. One of the prime ones is eating meat as much as we do. Some people have cut meat out of their diet altogether, and I commend them. However, this might not be for everybody. I, for one, love meat, and feel that human beings have always been made to eat meat. Just a personal slice of opinion, here, but bumper stickers expressing sentiments that meat is murder generally are not helpful, because it polarizes much more than it stimulates thought or action. I know people who are vegans, and who mean well, but who are every bit as militant and intolerant regarding their approach and their habits as religious fanatics and neocon political fanatics are. Perhaps it would be best to recognize that we do not automatically have to bend towards extremes, whichever direction these extremes tend to lean towards. If we push the rubber band too far in one direction, we run the risk either of it jerking back fast in the other direction, or of snapping altogether. Then, we have an even bigger problem to deal with.

So, let us take action now, while we still can. We have this option, so that we can minimize our negative impact, and lighten, if not eliminate, our footprints. As individuals, we can get more involved. As citizens, we can get informed, or stay informed, act accordingly, and vote according to what truly is best. Increasingly important, as consumers, we need to be mindful of what we buy, where we buy it from, and what the overall impact of our spending money on certain products can be. It is not the most ideal solution, and certainly not the most all-encompassing one. But action needs to be taken at every level, and by now, it is long past the time when action should have been taken. Let us begin the process of getting informed and staying informed, and following that up with some active actions in the meantime.

Below are some good links that I think should help. The first is from the wonderful Bill Moyers website, and it has some prominent figures with pretty cool suggestions on how we can minimize the detrimental impact that we (collectively, at least) are having on the environment. The next two were in yesterday's blog entry, but were worth putting again here. These are links to corporations that we should avoid giving our money to at all costs, as much as humanly possible. Then, another link to show corporations that we can feel pretty good about spending money on.

Here are the links:


PERSPECTIVES Ten Ideas For How We Can Save the Planet May 16, 2014 | Updated July 31, 2014:

http://billmoyers.com/2014/05/16/how-to-save-the-planet/


10 Great Progressive Companies Where We SHOULD Spend Our Money, December 9, 2014:

http://samuel-warde.com/2014/12/10-great-progressive-companies/



10 Right Wing Companies That Every Progressive Should Boycott, December 9, 2014:

http://samuel-warde.com/2014/12/10-right-wing-companies-to-boycott/