In Most Cases (But Not All) Taking Responsibility for the Natural Environment Is Easy, Painless, and Cost-Free

Fortunately, most of the actions that we take every day to conserve natural resources and reduce our impact on our environment come at little or no cost to us—financially and otherwise.  For example, we’ve pretty much succeeded in getting Hummers off our roads, and what did that cost us?  Not only are we all breathing a little better air, but with the possible exception of a few hardcore military/death fetishists (or whoever favors transportation like that), we’re actually happier and more comfortable.  Hummers gave drivers and their passengers an unpleasantly rough experience on the road, and subjected them to constant glares, not to mention an occasional obscene gesture.

While most such transitions are completely painless, it’s most certainly not universally the case.  Take the concept of eating bugs—especially the munching down on undisguised insects that may have been roasted or fried in oil, as pictured below.  Homo sapiens (certainly Western civilization) is a very, very long way from possessing the psychological readiness to include insects in our diet at this level, regardless of what we may be told (and I’m sure it’s true), i.e., that these little guys are almost all protein and are grown with near zero eco-impact.

I’ll make you a deal: we’ll feed the insects to our fish, and then we’ll eat the fish.  Fair enough?  Otherwise, this is a non-starter, for most of us, at least.  “That dog don’t hunt,” as they say.