Chris Paveglio's Environment::Thought::Action

All our fault

2008-02-21T16:28:00.000-08:00

Is it me? Is it you? Was it our parents? Or our grandparents?

Whose fault, whose greed?

I'm watching a show called Six Degrees Could Change The World, about how when the Earth warms up, glaciers melt, cities become flooded, and global warming affects us all. How did we get here? Who is really at fault?

I'd venture it's all of our fault. It's also largely our parents and grandparents who started it. It's our battle, our duty, to try to reverse a century of greed and consumption. We, the "First World", the industrial world, the people that go out to eat once a week or more, who eat lots of meat, who go shopping at places like Wal-Mart Costco Target et al, who need to buy new gadgets, who throw away such unnecessary items like plastic food packaging, we are the ones who greatly need to change our ways.

THIS MEANS YOU.

Not some token recycling of a bottle now and then. Every bottle you ever touch. You make a conscious effort to use less packaging of all kinds. You always shop with your canvas bag. You decide that you and your kids don't need a new xBox or PS3. You don't need a flat panel TV. You don't need 50 action figures, 5 will do. Heck do you even need 1? You stop driving your SUV and find at least 1 person to carpool to work with. You only drive on errands when you can combine trips to multiple stores at one time. You don't buy new sneakers even when the ones you have are OK, you don't buy new clothes just for style, you wear holes in the ones you have, and then you even patch them when feasible. You buy products that will last longer. You stop eating hamburgers and meat as much as possible, substituting chicken instead of beef, or vegetables instead of any meat.

Our first world lifestyle has been formed by our grandfathers and earlier. And much of it centers around accumulating wealth, being wealthy or rich and "having a lot". We have to really understand our lives are not made that much better by having lots of trinkets. We have to change our concept of what happy is. Happy is not being rich. Happy is having a comfortable life, enjoying what you have, not needing to have new stuff to make life seem better. Happy is knowing your lifestyle isn't using up as much energy as you did last year. Our ancestors knew this. Life was always better when it was simpler.

So how did we get caught up in doing ever more and buying more? Driven by greed of already wealthy businessmen, the economy shifted from using enough to using more, and seducing regular simple people with shiny things. Seducing otherwise normal and smart people to thinking that a new Chevy will somehow make you more attractive and have better sex, or a collection of DVDs is cool, or that no cool person would wear (insert clothing item here). It's all a scam kids. Stop buying stuff. Stop spinning your wheels in life. Get out, be active, engage your mind, don't sit around, don't get seduced by inconsequential things. And make caring for the environment around you, and your fellow man and neighbor, your top priority.

For a really eye opening movie about how we're tricked into buying stuff, check out the Story Of Stuff.

You are the world

2008-02-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

Ever since I bought the album, the songs of LIVE - Mental Jewelry have really struck me as some of the most thoughtful written. They are a a little moody and reflective.

A couple of the songs:

Tired of "Me"

You Are The World

10,000 Years

You Are The World is such a great phrase for 'today's' time. Heck, it can probably be said for any time in history. But with many problems facing the world, on a global scale, everyone has to think in terms larger than themselves.

10,000 Years has a message worth hearing as well:

Mr. President
I hereby pardon you of all your crimes
For they are just as much mine

Selfishness and separation have led me
To believe that the world is not my problem
The world is not my problem
I am the world
And you are the world

Ah, yes, the crimes of America are just as much mine as our President. Maybe it was apathy, maybe letting ourselves feel the need for revenge for 9-11, maybe we are just too selfish, driving around in our SUVs and letting litter fly around your neighborhood without picking it up.

The funny thing is, this album was released in 1991. I was in high school, didn't vote yet, barely cared about much except my car and dating. This 17 year old album is TIMELESS. It carries a message for everyone in every age. Still one of my favorites to listen to, and it's actually the best of all LIVE's albums.

Superbowls suck

2008-02-04T17:07:00.000-08:00

Most. Boring. Game. Ever.

Retarded commercial of the night: [Drawing] Strong man pushes a boulder up a hill, like Sysyphus. Finally gets to the top. Now we liken this guy to the biggest GMC Suburban SUV they make. And it's a hybrid. WTF? How about you make the truck smaller or lighter, then you won't have to push the big rock up a hill with such effort.

Sunshine movie

2008-01-13T15:13:00.000-08:00

Sunshine- cool movie. 3.5 stars. Almost a 4.5 if it weren't for the crazy killer at the end who sneaks around and KO's the crew. Very hard core science, although I think I sighed about several enourmous plot holes, or what would seem to be really horrible bits of engineering on their ship. Like really, why not have redundant vegetable labs, or at least some spare seeds?

But otherwise, beautiful and somewhat thought provoking. Better than I thought it would be after reading other reviews. Thank God it's not really a zombie. [Sunshine]

Potty Break

2008-01-13T15:10:00.001-08:00

The bathroom is now finished. We got a nice 4 light fixture, and I spackled the sh** out of the wall to fill in the big hole, plus put a support bracket *behind* the drywall (yeah I'm good). Knobs on the doors, upped the light, and now we're poopin' in style. I really like this room a lot now. The colors and patterns are great, it has a very Arab-esque feel. Like mosques with striped walls and vibrant marble. Sort of like the cathedral in Pisa has, that has a rather Arabian feel to it also. Now I just need a Steve McQueen poster.

Grow, Trees, Grow!

2008-01-04T17:58:00.000-08:00

First post on Blogger; not replacing Paveglio.com blog, but supplement.

Yesterday the Trees got planted. All 13 of them, for my development. 4 Maples, 6 Spruces, 3 Pines. They are very cute looking! I'm hoping they will grow in our mediocre soil, I feel confident. We picked good varieties. It feels like a major accomplishment for me, I've been 'working' on this project for about 4 months now. If it were just a homeowner buying a tree, it would be done in a month or less. But rounding up 8 other people took a while. Here's to green!