Environmentalism!

As the residents of Percopo 2, west wing, north side noticed this week, Rose-Hulman has implemented a new policy to conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions: simply turn off the power. Rose-Hulman, however, is not the only group to simply turn off power this week (although I’m told the partial two and a half day blackout was due to repairs in the power system). No, a family in New York City also decided to do a yearlong experiment and live with no environmental impact. Of course, they still breathe air and eat food, but in the spirit of ecological adventure, they completely turned off power in their apartment and restricted water to 7-8 gallons per person per day. While I applaud the spirit of conservation and admit I do indeed have an environmental soft spot, living in a cramped New York flat with no electricity could be mildly unpleasant. Succinctly said, New York City is not the ideal place to pretend you’re an outdoorsman. They also decided to give up all packaged products and to haul food home from the market in, get this, a laundry basket pulled from the garbage. I hope they used a gallon of water to wash it first. That, however, wasn’t the biggest complaint. No, the biggest complaint would be a conspicuous lack of toilet paper. Somehow I wish BBC hadn’t published that part.

The news this week also said that the Northwest Passage finally opened this summer. I suppose that means the Arctic ice melted more in recent years and it is now possible to sail boats north of Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The good news is that Russia and Canada are now fighting over the Arctic Circle, its resources, and its waterways. Yippee! A defunct former superpower against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Hockey Smoke Bullwinkle!).

Before this, the Arctic was clearly a chunk of useless ice that if melted could easily submerge New Orleans once and for all (Take that Hurricane Katrina). The bad news is that more people than ever are making noise about global warming. Ironically, global warming has been occurring since the last Ice Age, while unsustainable population growth, large scale environmental destruction, pollution, and consumerism have not. So instead of global warming, I have a new problem to solve. Solve the environmental problems people are causing on the planet. Let warming take care of itself. Honestly, one good eruption of Yellowstone, which incidentally is a 40 mile wide volcano crater that has erupted at least twice in the last 1.2 million years, could do a very efficient job of changing the climate. And while I don’t recommend becoming the outdoorsman of Rose-Hulman (your roommate won’t appreciate the smell), it would be nice if you’d recycle this copy of the Thorn when you’re finished.