For the Future

I just finished watching Design E2 on my local PBS station so green design is on my mind.

Tonight I learned that a building in lower Manhattan, the Solaire, has been made to process the air it puts out to be cleaner than the air it takes in, and that absolutely baffles me.

We can recreate the things we make in ways that not only enhance and enrich our lives but also the planet on which we exist. No, this is not fantasy, science fiction or a Hollywood blockbuster film. The concept of Green design is a real and practical answer to the problems of pollution and energy use we have faced since the Industrial Revolution began.

Its funny but even as I write this I ask myself why I should care about all this environmental stuff. I mean aren’t these things very trivial in the grand scheme of things?

You know the Jesus-is-coming-back-tomorrow-so-let-it-all-burn scheme of things?

Seriously Corey, you only care about this hippie stuff because you live in Seattle, a city known for its laid back West coast liberal attitude towards life, politics and the environment. You’ve just been brainwashed by the romantic ideals that come from being surrounded by a large body of utopian dreamers and out-of-touch burnt out leftovers from the 60’s “love and peace” generation.

These are all things I ask myself on a weekly basis, and are answers too which in varying degrees may be truer more often than I would like to admit. But even with all of those variables being thrown into the stew of my thought process I still don’t see the harm in being a “forward” thinking individual. Is it really so bad that I explore and wrestle with the idea that we produce, consume and waste in ways that have great potential to effect life on this planet for not only my generation but many generations to come?

I see more harm in choosing to do nothing with the information I’ve found than to try and figure out better alternatives to the way we live our lives. I mean it’s hard to mess up what’s already been destroyed.

I pose this question to you: What is our responsibility in this generation to the generations of tomorrow?

Any thoughts? Any answers?