Boomtown Redux

The NPR commentary bordered on ecstatic as they reported on the level of economic growth (measured in GDP) the US is currently experiencing and the projections for its continuation. Highest numbers since 1984.In his speech to Congress, Biden crowed about the surge and framed it as an existential race with China, a match between the inscrutable commies and American know-how. The man knows how to fire up re-blooded Americans, no doubt, but not one word about emissions. And Americans can always be counted on to spend and consume, with no thought of emissions. It is how we have been programmed. In my distant youth, my mission in life was to flee growth and development, to escape from the San Francisco Bay Area and find refuge in the great Northwest. I had witnessed environmental destruction on a scale that would be hard to describe and I thought I could settle in a place far enough removed that the Promethian forces could be kept at bay. Alas. The little mountain valley I escaped to is now being over-run by the wealth that was made through that destruction. The all-white, conservative lovers of capitalism are flocking to the "great readout", buying up land, building huge rachettes, buying brand new mega-trucks with the stimulus they got from the government they hate. So they can carry hay bales for their thoroughbred horses. If you think you are going to make a left turn onto the highway at 5:00 you can forget about it. I have seen this movie and it's not pretty...but I'm too old to move again.