{"id":39367,"date":"2018-10-19T06:59:35","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T11:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=39367"},"modified":"2018-10-19T06:59:35","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T11:59:35","slug":"when-it-comes-to-sustainability-were-a-society-of-distracted-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=39367","title":{"rendered":"When It Comes to Sustainability, We\u2019re a Society of Distracted Drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

When It Comes to Sustainability, We\u2019re a Society of Distracted Drivers<\/a><\/h3>\n
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We human beings are all, in effect, driving this planet\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“If we’re asleep at the wheel,” writes Heinberg, “the likelihood of calamity skyrockets.” (Photo: St. Joseph Health\/stock)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Driving is dangerous. In fact, it\u2019s about the riskiest activity most of us engage in routinely. It requires one\u2019s full attention\u2014and even then, things can sometimes go horribly awry. The brakes fail. Weather turns roads to ice. A driver in the oncoming lane falls asleep. Tragedy ensues. But if we\u2019re asleep at the wheel, the likelihood of calamity skyrockets. That\u2019s why distracted driving is legally discouraged: no cell phones, no reading newspapers or books, no hanky-panky with the front-seat passenger. If you\u2019re caught, there\u2019s a hefty fine.<\/p>\n

“The economy, entertainment, jobs, sports, and politics are all fine and suitable objects of attention\u2014as long as we first ensure that society\u2019s speed and direction are safe and sane.”<\/span>If you think you hear a metaphor coming, you\u2019re right. We human beings are all, in effect, driving this planet. We\u2019re largely responsible for whether it continues more or less as it is for another few thousand (maybe a few million) years, or tips rapidly into a condition that may not support human life, nor permit the survival of myriads of other creatures. But we\u2019re not paying attention to the road in front of us. Instead, we\u2019re distracted.<\/p>\n

Our personal distractions are often compelling. Most of us need to make a living. We like to make time for family and friends. We enjoy a wide range of entertainment options.<\/p>\n

Our collective distractions seem just as important. We want the economy to grow so that there are more jobs and higher returns on investments.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When It Comes to Sustainability, We\u2019re a Society of Distracted Drivers We human beings are all, in effect, driving this planet\u00a0 “If we’re asleep at the wheel,” writes Heinberg, “the likelihood of calamity skyrockets.” (Photo: St. Joseph Health\/stock) Driving is dangerous. In fact, it\u2019s about the riskiest activity most of us engage in routinely. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[7669,22417,1081,769],"class_list":["post-39367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-survival-2","tag-common-dreams","tag-distractions","tag-richard-heinberg","tag-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39368,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39367\/revisions\/39368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}