circuses

After mocking Leo Dicaprio in my last post I realized that poor Leo's really just collateral damage to something much more symptomatic of western society. I do not want to apologize (love, after all, is never having to say you're sorry--thank you, Harvard), but instead think about the relative divergence of cross-national issues like global warming.

One of the things that has most surprised me during my time here is that almost every Indonesian accepts global warming. This in itself is unremarkable, and could be dismissed as simply another way to be anti-American, but you see palpable results throughout society.

For instance, every single lightbulb in Indonesia is one of the new wave, long lasting, high efficiency type. Honestly, I have yet to see an incadescent lightbulb in my time here and have slept in rooms that cost $2/night that have them. For a country that is by no means modern this is incredible when compared with how most Americans could not be bothered to change a lightbulb. I understand that if you view conservation as a good, those who can most afford the luxury will be the last to change their behavior, but you would think that in the most developed country in the world we could perhaps count on some non-economic behavior. Moreover, in my short time here, the most popular and public activism and education on global warming has come from the Muslim student organizations, something that I find highly interesting.

It is true that in America a majority of people are convinced that global warming exists, but it does not change daily life at all. People can neither be bothered to change a lightbulb (or buy an efficient car) nor get out in the streets, something far less educated and advantaged people around the world do every day. Instead, glossy magazines offer up glowing profiles of Leo, Robert Redford, and various 'mogul[s] on a mission' to build every more expensive eco-hotels or designer clothes. In short (and I am not the first to say this, as I read somewhere that the figure is near $1 billion/year), global warming is an industry. Dispense the gaudy with one hand, if only to keep people from realizing how little the other hand is doing.