Eco-Drunk-Driving-Shooters of the 21st Century

This piece is based on a few news clippings I have had sitting around. The news may be less than fresh, but the principles hold true.

RAINFOREST ALLIANCE SUPPORTS SUSTAINABLE TEQUILA RESEARCH

The headline stood out from the other news.

NEW YORK, New York, (ENS) - The Rainforest Alliance has awarded a research fellowship for a project to develop and implement sustainable management practices for the production of mezcal, an alcoholic beverage.
Tequila is the most popular and best known type of mezcal sold in North American liquor markets.

Taken by itself, this study would simply be a case of scientists finally addressing an overlooked issue: Can your average college student feel politically correct while hugging your average toilet bowl? However, another article came my way, analogous to the first. This concerns environmentally benign machine gun ammunition.

The Department of Defense buys millions of bullets every year, each tipped with a lead slug. Our soldiers spew hot lead at targets on firing ranges all across the country, creating toxic waste sites. The Pentagon solution: non-lead bullets, tipped with tungsten. Army spokespersons claim that they work just as well, and that the soldiers can't tell the difference between firing them and firing the old toxic lead ones. (Although now there are doubts about their eco-friendliness) I suppose it would be difficult to get someone on the receiving end of these eco-bullets to testify as to the indistinguishable feel of tungsten.

Eco-tequila and eco-bullets. And yet there is more. Ford Motor Company, maker of the Bronco, the Expedition, and the Split-Level-Ranch sport utility vehicles, has developed the hybrid Escape SUV. As long as you don't crush an endangered species as your vehicle rolls over, you'll feel warm and fuzzy, kinder and gentler, compassionate and yet conservative as your vehicle rights itself and then totters onto its doors for yet another revolution.

And what an insidious revolution it will be. I can imagine some rednecks of the near future, weaving efficiently along a back road in their hybrid SUV, half empty bottles of eco-tequila swilling around on the floorboards. Their laughter will seem hollow as they gamely fire non-toxic eco-bullets at lonely road signs. Each will wonder to himself, as he forces a grin at his companions, why isn't this as much fun as it used to be?

Or are we missing the point here? Researchers will tell you that a minority of American drinkers, including underage drinkers, suck up over half of our favorite addictive drug. Less binge drinking would help spare the wild agave plant. If we used less oil from the Middle East and cleaned up our foreign policy in general, we would need fewer soldiers firing fewer practice bullets. Or non-practice bullets. And at an average of 1.2 occupants per car, do we need so many vehicles, hybrid or not, capable of carrying a platoon?

We have a bad habit of trying to put technological bandaids on human behavior problems. You can armor your thumb, or you can stop swinging the hammer at it. Not swinging the hammer involves forethought and a certain kind of maturity. In the case of alcohol and crude oil, redefining what is socially acceptable, what is truly necessary, and what is merely self-indulgence. Sure, I am all for sustainable agriculture, non-toxic materials and hybrid vehicles. However, these techniques are secondary in importance to lifestyle change. Changing our daily habits is the most important and least popular method of improving our society and our environment. Just ask the guys who replace the road signs.