The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

It was sunny today, a few days past the Vernal Equinox. I was back in the woods, splitting trees into firewood, what once upon a time was considered sustainable forestry. Now burning wood is considered about as ecologically correct as using shale oil in Chinese factories or soft coal in Wisconsin power plants or Saudi oil in my pickup truck.

Energy. I wish we had solar panels on my shack roof, wind turbines powering the well pump, battery power in my truck. I wish I weren’t cutting my trees to keep warm, even those alders that are old and dying soon no matter what I burn for fuel. I wish nuclear power plants didn’t blow up and contaminate half the Pacific and we could dump radioactive waste in a deep hole into the earth’s core.

About everything we do, seems like, is denuding the countryside, scarring the mountainsides, polluting the skies, acidifying the oceans and killing the planet. Paper or plastic? Give me a break….

I got friends and neighbors recycling, buying Priuses, moving into the city and using mass transit, downsizing, desperately trying to be Good Stewards of the Earth. Me, I decided long ago it seemed sort of hopeless. So I got a vasectomy at 21 and figured a kid or two less would be a helluva lot more efficient way to reduce waste and consumption than recycling my bottles and papers, cans and plastic containers. And no, I didn’t get a tax deduction for it — in fact, my friends got one for having kids. Don’t ask me, I didn’t make the world. And my progeny won’t have to pay the piper.

I know, I know, without the children our species dies out. Procreative Urge. Breed or go extinct. But I figure we don’t ALL have to make babies, even if it goes against the Genetic Imperative. And I also know we won’t be rewarded, we won’t be thanked, we won’t really be accepted, okay by me. Just don’t think I’ll high five you for recycling or making the right choice at the grocery check-out line when you bring your own cloth bag or you buy a car that gets an extra 5 mpg. Your 3 kids pretty much canceled that out….

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2014 at 2:46 pm and is filed under rantings and ravings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.