We Have Met The Enemy, And He Is Us

Memorial Day weekend for me usually involves the burning of petroleum. Lots of it. If I wasn't trying to take advantage of the hot weather and to get out on the river, I'd fire up the barbecue. If I wasn't driving to a new campsite, I'd burn oil on a long visit elsewhere.

Not this weekend, though. I stayed home and didn't burn oil directly. Instead I burned oil invisibly, through the installation of myriad items for the housal unit and ribs on the barbie. Instead of using charcoal lighter fluid I used a new chimney-style fire starter for the first time (and indeed, I will be using this thing forever, where has this been all my life?). The ribs? Who knows: they were likely shipped in by diesel truck from a processing plant in Greeley, CO after the animal was raised on corn on some Nebraskan feedlot...about as energy intensive as you can get.

Thing is, there's this tremendous background energy use in the way we do things here just to feed me, and I feed myself some pretty bad things. I tried to counter future heart disease from these beef ribs with a large green cabbage salad, reducing the chances of future colon cancer. I have no ability to grow food myself, not without chopping down several large trees that would completely offset the loss of food energy inputs by increasing my cooling costs. I am totally and completely subjected to the whims of our global food supply network. Shrimp from Vietnam, cherries from Fresno, tomatoes from a hothouse in Canada, Mexican cantaloupes, wheat from Eastern Washington state, beans from Louisiana...on and on.

I only barely scratch the surface with some locally grown produce, but the bulk of my food supply is awash in cheap fossil fuels.

Again, I'm not going to be made to feel guilty for this -- this is simply a function of the way we've built things here -- extreme energy intensity is built into all our social and physical arrangements in this nation. I may personally feebly try to reduce my own consumption, yes, but in the grand scheme of things I can only reduce my own direct consumption efforts, my end-use efforts.

That said, I didn't directly burn much energy this weekend, the so-called start of the driving season. Admittedly, I've not once ever spent this weekend memorializing fallen soldiers, not once. Ever. Historically, Memorial Day for me has always been about consumption, and this weekend is no different. I can pick up my Sunday Bee and spend the rest of this morning thumbing through sales events at virtually any consumptive depot, and spend the rest of this day driving around to these depots to save a few dollars on any number of things. There will be a lot of blue, red and white displayed on these ads, yes, as the message is clear: "Consume, American." I am absolutely doing my part.

In the background of all our barbecues and our parades and the Indy 500 this weekend lies wanton energy consumption, either directly or indirectly consumed. Every American holiday is not complete without the gross consumption of resources -- Easter and Halloween candy/lawn ornaments, Christmas gifts, 4th of July fireworks, on and on. Pogo said it best in 1971 for a poster for the first Earth Day festival. Now some forty years later it still rings true -- we have met the enemy, and he is us.