Global Convenience Store

"Just another tequila sunrise..."


Sherese: "What do you feel like eating tonight"

Lydia: "Macaroni - but I want to put in the cheese."

Sherese: "How about we go for sushi. You like the seaweed snack from Super Store. Do you want to try sushi? We can practice using chopsticks."

Lydia: "No, how about we go have butter chicken."

Sherese: done.


The dialogue above I have written to illustrate the title of this post, global convenience store. Back in the 80's my mom would just throw some veggies and beef in the electric wok if we were going to get exotic. Now I simply walk out the front door and can sample a variety of foods from a plethora of countries. True, I now live in the city opposed to the small town of CR. But most of us are (The mill in CR closed down last November).

I like the comparison McKibben makes from the term Global Village to reveal what it certainly seems to be - A Global Convenience Store. I think of Sun Quest holidays and how for one week of every year, the resort beaches of Cuba are as much nature as most of my friends have seen in that fiscal year. FOR $1500 DOLLARS YOU CAN DO PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING YOU COULD WANT TO ON A BEACH. (Or as my daughter told me, "Mama if we go to Mexico, we can have free drinks) I have never been on an all inclusive, and I imagine I am far too tainted in my consideration of the various ways I have come to understand how this pastime is depleting the earths resources. As righteous as that sounds, it is true. The industrially developed nations comprise 20% of the worlds population, but consume %80 of the worlds resources. After a few more mojitos, I might even tell start quizzing you on whether you think men or women have the largest carbon footprint, and you better not get it wrong. (Although when I was asked this question, I thought it women because of the Soccer Mom image -SUV, driving kids around here and there). But men flying business class *slap head in wake up motion* of course.

Point being, and what I think he gets at, is how the electronic environment supplants our interaction with the places we inhabit. Now of course, I find this fascinating right now because of the emergence of internet, googling, on-line communities, chats, networking and second life. (a virtual world where people have avatars and can act out many many scenarios). But McKibben himself is now organizing a global campaign on the internet to bring the "global village' to a consensus that this planet needs desperate action to reduce out current 450 plus ppm of CO2 to 350. McKibben, what is that all about?