Monday, August 22, 2005
I was enjoying my coffee and laptop time at a local coffee shop the other afternoon, when four nice-looking and seemingly intelligent KU students at a nearby table got into an elevated conversation about the Green Movement and ecosystems around campus. Let me be specific; they thought it would be a great idea if no combustion engine vehicles were allowed on campus anywhere. They even talked of a “no exhaust” bubble around the campus up to four blocks. One of the young women said she really hated those big semi-trucks that smoke so much.
Although I agree that we need to clean up our air, the KU campus isn’t the center of the world. Other cities better qualify for the “Big Clean Up” ideas. We tried adding more MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether) to gasoline, which promptly polluted ground water. Methanol isn’t much better. Ethanol from our own corn, however, would work great.
I couldn’t sit idly by while unfounded thinking by smart folks was filling the air. I simply asked one question of the students, “What exactly would their ideas accomplish?” After a little stammering and thought, they all responded to the old guy (Yes, I went to college and got my degree in the yesteryear). They basically said it would help the air and environment. I told them that it might provide cleaner brain cells on campus. They enjoyed that comment.
I pointed to a pair of the new style rubber sandals that one of the young ladies had on and asked where she thought they were made. “China or the Philippines, I guess,” she responded. I asked one of the guys where the leather on his backpack came from. “The same place, I guess,” he said.
I told them they were like Pogo, from the comic strips. “When you look for the enemy, you’ll find the enemy is us.”
The sandals were made from a vinyl and synthetic rubber in Italy, shipped to China, and glued together in a small factory by hand. The glue is illegal in the U.S. because it is a carcinogenic until dry. The leather straps are made from U.S. cowhide shipped from our shores to Malaysia, cut to strips in an open straw hut by kids, assembled with snaps and buckles in a small factory, boxed and shipped to China for final backpack assembly. The buckles were made from melted down old ships in India. You get the idea.
All of these products contain or were made with dangerous chemicals under primitive conditions. They were shipped over the Great Pacific in container ships, driven by diesel or sometimes by trailer train to distribution points in the U.S. From there, the products are sorted and sent to your local store of choice (by the dirty diesels, of course).
This is the world economy of 2005. Can you make it better for the people of the world? Or would you prefer to hold your breath and hope the problems just go away?
I am on my second retirement from home construction, and working on tornado and disaster relief with FEMA (Federal Emergncy Management Agency) and the Red Cross. I currently drive one of those big diesels for work. At least I drive a 2005 Volvo when I’m off duty.
So students, I charge you to stop living in an isolated campus bubble. Do your homework about what you say and think beforehand. Be aware that Pogo is right. You are also consumers, therefore responsible. Besides, when the cold winter wind blows, do you really expect to see all us old folks walking to campus?
Sorry for the message down my long nose. Actually, you guys are our future, and I’m proud to be living in such an enlightened age. After all, when we were young, words such as environment and pollution didn’t really exist. We hadn’t done our homework yet!
Respectfully,
Charles Broadie
A regular Lawrence visitor
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