My sociology text is a bunch of BS. Americans care about the environment?

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

"Today, Americans have developed a genuine, and (we can hope) long-term concern for the environment." (Henslin 49)

Wait, what? Unless we here at DU are "average Americans", I really doubt that statement is true.

So, I CALL BULLSHIT!!! Yes, Americans, with their gas guzzling SUVs and plastic-packaged, animal cruelty ridden TV dinners care SO SO much for the environment. Those same environment loving Americans who criticize the Green Party for caring so much about maximizing the potential of our planet and improving our relationship with the only habitat we have? The guys in charge at KFC slaughterhouses who think it's somehow OK to dump fully conscious chickens into scalding hot water and then cut their heads off? The people who thought it would be a great idea to introduce an army-level vehicle that runs with a fuel efficiency hovering around 9 mpg to the American public? Oh, oh, and the people at GE who thought it was no big deal to release PCBs and unwanted chemicals into the Hudson River? Members of the two major parties who voted on the "Clear Skies Initiative", making it okay to increase the amount of emissions that major industries are allowed to release into the air we breathe? Clear skies, my ass! Mercury and nitrous oxide emissions make the air cleaner? Who knew!

Because of this and more, an increasing amount of animals are being added to the IUCN's Red List of Endangered Species. To the average American, the loss of something like salamanders or tree frogs, or toads... is trivial. I think it speaks volumes about how Americans are destroying the very backbone of their successes - the earth. The average American could CARE LESS about the environment.

:grr:

[GOPisEvil]

1. Oh, I think people care...when it's their immediate environment.

But when the environment is in another state or part of the world, the average American doesn't give a rat's furry butt.

:hi:

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

2. True.

People dump things in their own backyards. The only time they do care is when they find out that the things they are doing will hurt their own body or decrease their comfort level in some way.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

11. We have a paper mill here too.

When I'm in the general vacinity of it, I can tell just by smelling the air that the people living around there are suffering major health risks.

[KT2000]

3. Bullshit is right

even when environmental laws are public health laws people look for every excuse to deny them.

I was shocked when health studies showed the children in my neighboring town with extremely high levels of illness from paper mill pollution. Those of us who wanted the mill to clean up were shouted down by just about everyone - inlcuding the parents of the sick kids.
I think people have dollar bills where their hearts used to be.

[Redneck Socialist]

4. Oh I think people care about the environment...

they just don't care to do anything about it. The care up until the point that they might have to change their lifestyle a wee bit. Then they stop caring right quick.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

6. Then that's not really caring

nt

[Redneck Socialist]

14. Well, yeah

I was being somewhat sarcastic.

My point being people say they care about the environment but don't actually want to be bothered by making the lifestyle changes necessary to protect it.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

16. Oh, sorry

I missed the sarcasm. That's one of the worst things about the internet! :)

[Redneck Socialist]

17. No problem

I need to get in the habit of using smilies more than I do. Sarcasm really doesn't translate well on-line. :-)

[Zomby Woof]

5. As Lou Reed said

"Americans don't care much for beauty/They'll shit in a river/Dump battery acid in a stream/Then complain when they can't swim".

[Redneck Socialist]

18. Great song

That is one of my favorite Lou Reed albums.

[roguevalley]

7. You're wrong. Every poll puts the environment WAY the HELL up there.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

8. A poll?

You believe that a poll can accurately assess the level of committment that Americans have to issues of the environment? It's politically correct to say you care about the environment, but when it comes time to take action and really do anything about it, where are all these people?

[Redneck Socialist]

15. Sure people say they care about the environment

they just don't do anything to protect it.

[Kali]

9. of course they do

they watch about nature on the discovery channel and pbs and sent $15 to the sierra club and the nature conservancy don't they? You can tell by the bumper stickers on their suv's and the tote bags they carry in the mall.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

10. Oh yeah, definitely.

The cost of buying the annual Sierra Club calendar totally makes up for the costs of the emissions coming out of my H2.

[Zuni]

12. I think a lot of people do

there are three categories in this country

1. those who care deeply and do their part

2. those who don't harm the environment but don't do much, but worry about it

3. those that don't give a flying fuck and hurt the environment

I am probably between 1 and 2

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

13. I think more people lean toward 3

No offense, but I really think that our environment would be better off than it is if people "cared" to the extent that they wanted to do something about it.

[pmbryant]

19. This is true, in a historical sense, I think

Once upon a time, filthy air was viewed as a sign of "progress."

Before thirty-some years ago, we didn't have any such thing as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency, etc.

Now we have these things, and they are so entrenched in the public consciousness as necessary and good that the Bushies have to go around talking like environmentalists despite their desire to gut those laws and agencies.

--Peter