Sprolling around the world
“The things you guys talk about are just too big for voters to handle,” someone was telling me the other day. “While other parties are talking bread-and-butter, you’re talking about the planet.”
Well, this is partly true: the Greens do take a broader view than most other parties. This doesn’t prevent us, however, from coming up with concrete proposals that would change people’s lives now, for the better. For one example, in our energy policy launched this week, we proposed the Government to help people buy and install solar water heaters. This is one, concrete way we can help tackle the enormous-scale environmental problems of peak oil and climate change.
However, as much as we do think about the day-to-day, it is worth taking a step back from time to time and try to understand what our consumerist society is doing, in broad, sweeping terms, to our planet. A blog I’ve just been pointed to (hattip, WorldChanging), called Sprol, allows you to do just this.
It describes itself as:
A planetary sightseeing blog. Visit some of the worst places in the world via satellite imagery. Our mission is to use space imaging to show people the visual macroscopic effects of our decisions and behavior. Since previous generations have not had the advantage of this viewpoint it is our responsibility to use it wisely.
It really is a fascinating site. Go visit, and hop around the world.
May 29th, 2005 at 9:39 pm
Fascinating, absolutely, but also deeply depressing, looking at open cast mines, industrial farms, nuclear power plants, mega-malls and the like and reading the commentary which explains in great detail just exactly how we are fucking over the planet big time. We are so doomed.