I don't include you in that comment by the way. I like you and your Blogs and I think you lot and I are the only sane ones on this planet. The people I have in mind are the sycophants we have at work.
The other day at work I was caught in a meeting to discuss how we can improve our company image. (Personally, I think the best way to improve our image is by closing down altogether; but I said nothing).
Somehow, the discussion turned into our company being seen as being environmentally friendly, planet loving, caring for our children's future ... and such similar platitudes to make one's heart melt and to see me rushing out the door. But it was a business meeting and I was trapped.
Colleagues talked about global warming, climate change, burning fossil fuels, green sustainable energy, harnessing wave, solar and wind power, wind turbines, and similar other things they had read about or seen on TV and they were repeating them like demented parrots.
I kept quiet ... but my mind was thinking in all different tangents at the same time. This is how it went:
If these guys are serious about saving the planet they will have to make big changes to their lives.
They will have to give up their company cars for a start and use bicycles to go to work, and to go to meetings in other towns and cities millions of miles away.
They will have to stop flying everywhere and going on holidays abroad at least twice a year.
They will have to save energy at home and turn down the heating or air-conditioning altogether. They will need to burn trees or coal to keep warm in winter ... oops fossil fuels!
They will have to stop eating ready meals wrapped in plastic which is only used once and then thrown away. And drinking from one-use cups and bottles.
They will have to cut down altogether on all non-essentials which waste energy to produce, to market, and to sell, and serve no purpose whatsoever. For example, the cosmetics industry making all sorts of facial paints, nail varnish, perfumes and so on ... for men as well as women. The fashion industry which encourages us to change clothings earlier than we need to and waste materials for no reason at all apart from vanity. The entertainments industry with all their productions of music, films, videos, computer games and so on. All these will have to stop if we are serious about waste and saving the planet.
All sports like car and motorbike racing, and indeed all sports altogether should be stopped. They encourage use of energy, they encourage travel, they encourage purchases of souvenirs and such like useless products which serve no purpose apart from making people happy. People should not be happy. Life is meant to be miserable so that, having saved the planet, the next generation can be equally miserable as us.
At this point my manager woke me up from my reverie by asking me for my views about encouraging industries such as ours to sponsor more wind farms and building more wind turbines both in open spaces, in farms, and also out at sea.
I hesitated ... gulped ... and then said, "I am concerned about building too many wind turbines everywhere in case as they all turn round together the earth might take off and fly to outer space!"
Maybe it was a stupid thing to say. He suggested, politely, we discuss it privately afterwards.
What do you think about this?
