Virtual Greenies

At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite, I’d like to  sound off a bit about today’s generation of socially-internet-linked ‘activists’.

I grew up in the late sixties / early seventies. The hippie revolution was just coming to a close. The war was over. John Lennon was spreading power to the people. Aids was an un-known, gangs (and tattoos) were only for the really really mean guys – not for school kids. My mum and dad weren’t really into the ’scene’. They may have smoked the rare joint at a party, but no flares or tie-dyed jeans in the cupboards. Just Business magazines and science books. My uncle and aunty on the other hand were die hard hippies. Uncle Paul had side burns a mustache and cool brown sunglasses. He went knee boarding at Wamberal beach. Aunty Lindy had hair down to her knees, was always laughing and to me  epitomized  ‘hippie’ They went kayaking and drove half way round Australia in a  Kombi  van. I thought they were so cool. Growing up, I was always waiting for the next wave of the hippie revolution. The next ’sleep in’  ,  ‘woodstock’ , people-power movement. It never came  and i wonder if it ever will.

Today’s generation is faster and more intelligent than mine. What we could have done with broadband internet connection in those days. Social networking is really a great thing. But i wonder how many people actually USE it , and how many just try to make a fast buck on the logistics of it all.

I just signed up for Celsias. it will be interesting to see what they get up to. On Facebook I have the Lil Green Patch application.

It all seems a bit glossy to me. In my day (sounding old now) if we were concerned about something, we’d stick it to the man. Protest outside the oil company offices, even camped out on the lawn in front of parliament house once. I’m pretty sure we got noticed enough to piss a few people off and at least stop and think. I wonder just how far these application things go though.

You know. I’m very skeptical about this ‘Save the rain forest by using an application’ scheme actually. how much impact are they having on the rain forests of Indonesia ? Where exactly did they save 36 million sq feet ? I’d really like to know how they do that in countries such as Africa and Indonesia where forests are being felled by the kilometer daily. These guys are linked to PayPal so you can contribute money, but are they linked to WWF ?

Forests play a huge part in the equilibrium of things. Multinational companies and third world governments who don’t give a rat’s arse about the environment have direct control of the world’s biggest , last remaining rain forests. Schemes like this one can create a false sense of security. “Phew, well I’m aware of the problem and I did my bit today by feeding seeds to the virtual Macaw !” The slash and burners of Sumatera would be laughing. It’s nice to be happy with my friends on Facebook , send a cute little apple seed doll (or pay for and exotic frangipanni) but it spooks me a bit. shouldn’t we be getting angry ? These forests don’t just grow back at the click of a mouse. When they say a square kilometer of forest is lost every day, they’re (WWF – I guess ?) talking about 100 year old trees.how about I send you an orangutan carcass. Or some elephant tusks ? At least it’s more realistic. I’m going to take a look into these Lil Green Patch people and see what they’re really all about – if the are legit, i’ll be happy to support and promote them. I’ve started my own blog about the environment btw.

indogreenies.com I’m not sure yet what I’ll do with it. I’m living in Jakarta Indonesia and i see the real shit that goes down, or burns up, first hand. It’s frightening. Really. most people in the safe house of the western world have no idea how bad the situation really is until they’re flying over it on the way to a holiday destination. “What’s all that smoldering field down there ? Shouldn’t that be forest ?”…….

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