The Flight Not Taken

I thought that this section of the novel was one of the more interesting ones. It begins by giving a brief background on the origins of energy production and use. One of the images that stuck with me throughout this chapter, was the picture of the 4×4 on parked on the street. Squarzoni condemns the owner for owning such a carbon emitting vehicle on page 182. He portrays the thoughts that must be swarming through the buyer’s head, while considering this car. And sure enough, they are all legitimate reasons that we all use, to convince ourselves of choosing the more luxurious path, as opposed to the virtuous path.

There is a line on this page that says, “’Live life.’’ And isn’t this the main problem? This consuming, earth-depleting, perilous life that we live and so frantically hold on to, is all we know. There were points in this section that just had me thinking, “No! Don’t take the burgers away too!” There was also a quote on page 194, that read, “The inhabitant of the rich countries must immediately decrease their emissions to the level of a malnourished person. No one wants to do that. I certainly don’t.” This was a very summarizing quote because it perfectly paints the picture of the extent to which things would have to change, in order to create a drastic difference in a short amount of time, but also expresses our unwillingness to carry out that kind of change. None of us want to give up our standard of living. And there, on the same page, is again that picture of the 4×4, almost daring us to judge its owner.

Another thing that I found very interesting was this constant picture of gears turning. Squarzoni made gears representing several things, churning the machineries of time and damage. In one picture, money was turning the gears of soda production, which was turning the gears of cars and household appliances. This made me realize that all these things are connected. Everything is intertwined and the more we consume, the more we consume. The facts in this section were very interesting and made realize how hard finding an actual solution will be. Because, it’s like he said: “Climate change is not just a matter of individual behavior. The problem lies in how our society is structured.” So it’s not just a matter of turning off the lights when I’m gone, but convincing society to turn off their lights when they’re gone. It’s not a matter of not getting on the plane, but stopping its trip altogether. And just how do we go about doing that?

I will just end by taking a page out of Mitasha’s book, and make a text to world connection, with a video that this section reminded me of. If you have the time, look up “Energy Blues” by School House Rock. (I don’t know how to upload videos…) This was a very short, animated song that explained a lot of the historical facts in the origin of energy, as mentioned in this section.