I consider myself to be a progressive of a sort.  I’m all for saving the earth and all that, but then I observe the goings on at the Sustainable Campuses conference here at the UofA all I can think of is ‘What the hell is the point?’.

I mean really, all we have here is the proto-educated elite coming together to make some noises about sustainability, recycling and earth saving in general to each other confirming their ‘green ethos’ and noble intent; a perfidious waste of time, but I imagine it looks darn good on the CV/resume.

I can guarantee that this cohort, like the previous and the one before that, will have their high expectations and noble goals quashed by the reality of the situation facing them ahead in their life path.

Being the educated elite they will gravitate toward the upper middle class of society, reaping the benefits and privileges of that socioeconomic station.  Only a very few will retain their ‘earth-friendly’ principles; most will happily defile the earth and others in the maintenance of their lifestyle thus propagating the cycle.

Lifestyle maintenance will be the end of us all.

Who wants to sacrifice comfort and security for the greater good?  Is that ethos even mentioned anymore in this capitalistic money based society anymore?  Why think of others when you can have a new big screen TV (insert techno gizmo/must have here)?

I’m certain that some good does come of such gatherings.  Raising consciousness and what not.  Incremental change is all that we can hope for, but unfortunately incremental change will not be enough.  Nor will the small progressive changes happen soon enough or on a significant scale to change the sodden downward spiral of our crumbling civilization.  When we finally flame out and the human population inevitably crashes only then will lessons be learned.  Mmmm… society based on greed and exploitation, not a good thing.  It worked so well as long as resources were available.  Not so good once said resources were all exhausted.  On our ruined shell of a planet, at least we can be proud of the fact we recycled our paper cups (at least some of the time).