"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
- Native American Song
I'm in Taipei now! But in order to get there, I had to take a high speed rail as well as a subway. As you can probably tell by the title, I am going to talk about transportation. Add that to the quote, which is about ecology. Transportation and the effect on the environment. Yay.
Transportation is essentially the movement from one place to another. But in recent times, although with increased speed and distance coverage, the environment has been heavily affected. (NOTE: I am not a global warming advocate. I don't believe in the grim future such people shove in our faces.) However, human activities are changing the world. The high speed rail I took today? built up above everything using concrete posts. The subway? A long hole in the ground with electricity. Cars? Constant ignition polluting the air with toxins, and, if you so believe, burning a hole in the atmosphere. In the past, human transportation has not been much better either. Blowing holes into mountains for a train, or pumping a blimp full of flammable hydrogen.
Humans' attempts to move from one place to another shape, typically for the worse, the face of the earth. Nowadays, since humans developed more of a conscience for the earth, a few things have changed. Ethanol is more readily available, electric and hydrogen car prototypes pop up, and public transportation is advertised. I don't believe in some of these ideas, but the thought of trying to help the environment is nice in itself. This environmentalism has also lead to false claims about being environmentally friendly, retrogression from the increased conscience levels of humans. In 2008, China photoshopped a herd of antelopes running by their new, public train to show that the train was "environmentally friendly." This turned out to be a nice Photoshop job, and China apologized.
Well, transportation is a slippery slope. Everyone wants to get to the next place faster: by driving, flying, or taking public transportation. The faster and longer distance can be traveled, the greater the impact on our environment. More holes drilled into the ground, more toxins into the air, more concrete tracks made everywhere. Whatever.
(Sorry for the kind of short post today, written completely in an "Apple store" and a family friend's house. I have no internet in Taipei.)
Humans' attempts to move from one place to another shape, typically for the worse, the face of the earth. Nowadays, since humans developed more of a conscience for the earth, a few things have changed. Ethanol is more readily available, electric and hydrogen car prototypes pop up, and public transportation is advertised. I don't believe in some of these ideas, but the thought of trying to help the environment is nice in itself. This environmentalism has also lead to false claims about being environmentally friendly, retrogression from the increased conscience levels of humans. In 2008, China photoshopped a herd of antelopes running by their new, public train to show that the train was "environmentally friendly." This turned out to be a nice Photoshop job, and China apologized.
Well, transportation is a slippery slope. Everyone wants to get to the next place faster: by driving, flying, or taking public transportation. The faster and longer distance can be traveled, the greater the impact on our environment. More holes drilled into the ground, more toxins into the air, more concrete tracks made everywhere. Whatever.
(Sorry for the kind of short post today, written completely in an "Apple store" and a family friend's house. I have no internet in Taipei.)
i vote that you add a comments section :P
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