This post it a bit of a follow up to my New Year's Anti-Resolution. First let me begin by saying that I am a follower of the Dude philosophy. I can sit on my ass, take elevators up one floor, and eat fast food with the best of them. I know these things are bad for me, but I continue to do them. With all this green on the brain, I've had a bit of a personal revelation. It has really sunk in that not only are these lazy habits bad for me, but they are bad for the environment.
Our society has recoded the word "lazy" into the more palatable word "convenient." It is not that I am lazy that makes me drive five minutes to a store two blocks away rather than walk, it is that it is more convenient. We rationalize such behavior by arguing that we are just too busy to do things the slower way. Meanwhile we waste our precious and limited time by watching an average of 4 hours of television per day. All the while we are getting more Jabba the Hut like, creating more waste, and depleting the earth's natural resources. Burning dirty fossil fuels to power our elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks. This realization and addition to my personal shame has truly motivated me to stop being so convenient. I just hope it sticks.
In closing, economists should coin a new industry term; the Lazy Industry. This would include elevators going into 5 story buildings, moving sidewalks, escalators, fast food restaurants, and cities that build endless stretches of highway while being completely devoid of bike routes. What else should be included in the Lazy Industry?
Note: Most of the pictures above came from public Flickr accounts, but I was too lazy to write down the creators' names. Please email us if you want them removed.
