The Power Is Yours!

This week there was a viral Facebook campaign trying to get everyone to change their profile picture to a cartoon from their childhood to increase awareness of child abuse. While I thought the reason for the campaign was pretty lame, I did think it was fun seeing all the cartoons popping up and bringing back memories so I opted for Captain Planet and the Planeteers on my profile.

This inevitably got the theme song stuck in my head, and it got me thinking about the impact of enviromentalism on recent generations. I remember growing up learning about the greenhouse effect, the hole in the ozone layer, and global warming. And then there was climate change and carbon footprints. I can't remember a time when I didn't feel guilty for throwing away something recyclable or boiling a full kettle of water for one cup of tea. But what's really sad is that it doesn't feel like we're any closer to changing our behaviour en masse and actually doing something to reverse the damage we're doing. Seems like we're all just waiting for everyone else to make a change because we can't see the point if it's just us.

However on a lighter note, the end of the world has made for some excellent music. I was driving into work today listening to the new Disturbed album "Asylum" when I realised "Another Way To Die" is about the environment (which I wouldn't expect from a band like Disturbed so it shows how wide reaching this issue is). I also love the opening song on Rise Against's "Appeal To Reason" called "Collapse (Post-Amerika)". Its lyrics are full of such vivid imagery as "When our rivers run dry and our crops cease to grow" and "When the air that we breathe becomes air that we choke". The catchy chorus and power chords don't hurt either.

Sidenote: I found it particularly amusing that the Daily Mail accused the Facebook campaign of being a smoke screen for paedophiles, so typical of them!