Save and Conserve

In Rollingstone magazine's recent 40th anniversary issue, Bob Dylan was interviewed by Jann Wenner. Dylan is always full of poignant insight, and the two had the following exchange:

Wenner: It [global warming] seems a pretty frightening outlook.

Dylan: I think what you're driving at, though, is we expect politicians to solve all our problems. I don't expect politicians to solve anybody's problems.

Wenner: Who is going to solve them?

Dylan: Our own selves. We've got to take the world by the horns and solve our own problems. The world owes us nothing, each and every one of us, the world owes us not one single thing. Politicians or whoever.

Dylan's right, of course. The people out there who think "they" will come up with a hydrogen powered auto fleet are people who expect someone else to solve their own problems. The people out there who think "the oil companies" conspire to raise gasoline prices feel entitled to $1.00 per gallon gasoline - even though they drive gas guzzlers that get 14 miles per gallon. The bigger problem is that we're not even aware that our mode of living here in America is a problem. Until we accept that fundamental truth, there won't be any taking the world by the horns to solve problems. First step: get out of denial.