Conservation? Only if I profit from it.

So theres this sudden reinvigorated trend for conservation. It seems that every government, company, secret society, gang and sheep that craves to be hip wants a piece of this pie.

Do not be deceived.

When it comes to so-called worthy (pun intended) issues, it boils down to the most principal factor that has always manipulated humankind… money. ‘We pledge to recycle, to conserve, to reuse, to recycle, to reduce pollution... blah blah blah’ they say. Well im sure we all missed the latter part, ‘only if its profitable to us.’

Recycle glass, aluminium etc. Sounds noble? Well the fact is that its CHEAPER to produce glass, aluminium and practically all the ‘recycled’ products from recycled materials. Recycled aluminium costs 95% less energy to produce and recycled paper costs 70% less energy to produce. Well nobody would give a damn if this gallant cause is not lucrative. We sure as hell dont know that paper coated with plastic or aluminium foil, and papers that are waxed, pasted, or gummed are usually not recycled because the process is too expensive. Sorry recycling is only done if it saves us MONEY.

Woot… the Beijing Olympics 2008, we vow to reduce pollution. We would have reduced the horrendous pollution that we have neglected since the beginning of time but our Chinese researchers recently discovered that the Chinese people have evolved to be able to survive in conditions of high levels of pollution. However, for the sake of the billions of foreign dollars that this event could fetch, we vow to reduce pollution.

Im sure we dont need to be rocket scientists to figure out the conservation equation. Profit = Conserve. No foreseeable benefits = Feign ignorance.

Japan threatens to pull out of the International Whaling Committee (IWC) when there has been a failure to lift the ban on commercial whaling. At an IWC meeting in 2006, a resolution calling for the eventual return of commercial whaling was passed by a majority of just one vote. Go Japan!

As of December 2007, the US still refuses to ratify the Kyoto Protocol; where countries pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the levels specified for each of country in the treaty. ‘Stop illegal logging or we will impose sanctions on you.’ Bleh.

The Yangtze River Dolphin was declared functionally extinct in 2006. Im sure the economic returns from the Three Gorges Dam project justifies the loss of just another mammal. No living thing in the past, present or future will ever possess the ability to halt the progress of the Decedents of the Dragons. Dragons > Dolphins.

Lives have been lost for this lost cause.

Dian Fossey, a strong advocate for the saving of mountain gorillas from extinction, was brutally murdered on 26 December 1985. I guess there was an urgent shipment of gorilla hand ashtrays and gorilla steaks to complete.

Until the opinions of the common individual matters; and governments around the world responds responsibly with common sense to blindingly obvious facts, I have thus decided to be a hypocrite and pretend to conserve only when people notice me. Armed with all the easily accessible green information, Im sure I can easily pass of as an expert on conservation. After all, if there is no probable advantage for me, I dont see the need to be a tree-hugging hippy freak.

*Reference: Wikipedia