Earlier in Oil & Gas eyes your public lands I asked a question of Interior’s plans to “solve” America’s energy woes by opening up vast public lands to the oil & gas industry :
Are energy reserves that may or may not be accessible on your public lands worth the cost to wildlife, our environmental heritage, our children’s environmental trust ? Is $4/gallon gas the problem ? Is domestic extraction of fossil fuels on public lands the solution ?
It seems to me that all of these symptoms might be pointing to a deeper problem.
George Wuerthner explores the government’s shallow responses and the deeper problems in Living Large in America: Cars and Cows – featured in Counterpunch.
Wuerthner’s piece is also in New West.
Brian Ertz
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What George writes makes so much sense that it is a “certainity” that his advice will be ignored. Tune it to any TV “news” program and you see the same old talking heads repeating the same old political cliches. Why do these TV programs not invite such “rationalists” as Jeffrey Sachs (Comman Wealth), Leon Penetta, Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson (Kansas Land Institute), Lewis Lapham, Edward Wilson (Harvard Biologists) and, yes, even Andy Rooney who has a lot of Common Non Sense! These are just a few individuals that could change the tone of our national debate.
Excellent essay from George. Americans having to tighten their belts, literally and figuratively, is a good thing.
Rampant consumerism and obesity, mindless entertainment, and endless wars are all symptoms of this “living large” syndrome.