In the belly of the beast
12/11/2011

It's eerie, and a tragic waste of resources--especially considering the numbers of homeless--until you consider the energy that is being saved by not lighting, heating, cooling, flushing, watering, cleaning, bathing, and driving to and from these opulent desert playgrounds.  When I think of that I say a silent prayer to Creator: Thank you.  Please help us learn from our folly.  Please help us wake up. 

Our hotel is lovely and makes a nod to the environment by not washing guest towels unless left on the floor.  But the in-room coffee makers and 24-hour coffee shop serves everything in plastic or plastic-lined paper; then offers no option for recycling.  Ouch.  I bring my own coffee mug and request no plastic box for my meal--but I'm the only one of the hundreds of guests here.  Everyone else consumes and throws away.

As Julia Butterfly Hill asks, "Where is away?"

We are painfully short-sighted.