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There is something especially unsettling about visiting Las Vegas these days -- and it is not the town’s lascivious culture. A voyage to Sin City in this moment of ecological and economic crisis is a journey to a giant concave mirror reflecting back the magnified -- and ugly -- truths about this epoch of cataclysmic consumption and hubristic hedonism.
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HUH?
The essay is like curb appeal for a house being sold.
This doesn't have it!
It looks like the author managed to get his Vegas trip paid for by writing a short, mindless article about it while on approach into McCarran.
Great article. Thanks for running it.
Enlightening. Please post more of these articles.
A good cautionary essay. One question we might ask ourselves is where will we as a society be in 10, 20, or 50 years? What about resources?
epoch of cataclysmic consumption and hubristic hedonism.....are we talking about the upper elite of the Cuba Castro power structure where they live high on the hog while Cuba's regular citizens live on a $10 a month.
Just a FYI, Cuba's standard of living for its regluar folk is about 1% of what it was during the 1950's.
Oooopppsss.....did I something bad about the dicator that the libs just love, love, love.....
Nance, quit spinning and attacking libs over nothing. There was nothing in this article for you to spin it that way. It was talking about America/ the West needs to realize that our resources are finite. We need to have a good standard of living, but it has to be sustainable. Not just for this generation, but several generations down the line. This also refers to all of us. Not just some tiny island minority suppressing its majority.
Lets see.....the West provides a ton more in education, health care and help for the poor than other society in existance today.
Yes.......the libs praise Castro and his thugs that live like kings and put their feet on the neck of their citizens and libs love to beat up the West.
@jfnance, I'm not sure what planet you live on, but here on planet Earth NO ONE is a big fan of Castro -- and I'm about as liberal as they come. Perhaps you got stuck somewhere around 1971? Welcome to the 21st century, come in to the light, it won't hurt you!
UHHHH WADJA SAY?
People and org's who think Castro is the best thing:
Jesse Jackson
Oliver Stone
Dan Rather
Jean Paul-Sartre
Naomi Campbell
Jack Nicholson
Chevy Chase
New York Times
Congressman Serrano
Congressman Rangel
I could list many more but you have to have your head bury in the sand if you do not know that a significant portion of the left love Castro.
When he dies then you will all the major newspapers and the major TV networks paint him as an angel.
And STILL where in the hell did this come from? Nance, this is an article about sustainable lifestyle... IN THE US. Are you just such a partisan that you can't appreciate the idea that maybe people have to conserve resources for future generation, or do you simply believe in eternal supply? BTW, where is Castro, or Cuba, or Communism even thinly referenced in this article?
Um, Castro?
Really?
Nancebot9000 has malfunctioned everyone. Faulty programming of the logic circuitry has him screaming non sequiturs about failed dictators on an article about the energy consumption of Vegas.
It's a new level of irrelevance, even for Nance.
The libs want a total managed society where each one of us is told what to do, where to go and how much to consume.
Yet, they refused to be critical of societies where their managed society wet dream is fulfilled like in Castro's Cuba.
I think your kool aid has been spiked with barbiturates, jfnance32. You aren't making much sense, old friend.
How DARE this writer question our consumption! To even ASK about this is TREASON and must mean you love COMMUNISM and CASTRO!
LOL, how dumb.
Nobody is claiming that we need to tell citizens what to do and how to spend their money, but we are saying that we need to raise awareness of our situation globally in reference to our resources. While T. Boone Pickens is certainly allowed to buy all the red meat in the state of Nevada and leave it out in the sun for a week, it would be frowned on. The public would say that there's people starving who might have wanted that. By the same reasoning I can own a Hummer, have a huge backyard pool (or two!), have a huge lawn, and keep all my lights burning as long as I wish. I can do that, you can do that, we all can do that, but how long can we be so irresponsible? That is the question. How long can Vegas keep on putting up golf courses? How long can we keep driving huge hummers that get 10 mpg on the freeway? How long can all of this be sustained before something breaks?
Now we can either slow down, slowly. Minorly adjust our lifestyle to the changing environment, or we can burn the candle at both ends until a catastrophe is imminent. In which case we would have to radically and forcefully restructure our lifestyles. Which way do you want it Nance?
And by the way COWARD you still haven't answered the question of where in the hell is Castro, Cuba, or communism mentioned before you brought it up?
The Sky is falling...the Sky is falling...it is just snow.
I guess you want to pass a law that limits people to having 2 babies.
"The libs want a total managed society where each one of us is told what to do, where to go and how much to consume."
Did you hear that from Limbaugh? It sounds like something he would say. What utter nonsense. Only a dimwit would believe something like that, and I'm shocked you would post it Jim.
By the way, that sounds like the U.S. under Bush. It's how I feel when I get on a plane, make a phone call, use the Internet, or try to voice my unpopular opinions. Well, formerly unpopular opinions.
See, there's a little glimpse into Nance's mind.
Ferret makes a reasonable and gentle point that it's not crazy to question your level of consumption.
Nance reads and interprets that as, "The sky is falling!"
Someone's a drama queen.
"I guess you want to pass a law that limits people to having 2 babies."
More jfnance32 putting words into people's mouths when he's lost the argument. How sad!!!
Drama queen......I am not the one predicting the end of the world because somebody owns a Hummer or has a golf course.
Yes, your characterization of what ferret said was overly dramatic.
Then you intentionally misinterpreted a normal statement to mean something completely different.
My wife does that alot. She is overly dramatic.
You are alot like her!
Yes, a drama queen.
Over on the other thread, you're grossly exaggerating and freaking out about sunspots.
You've become unhinged, Nance.
On the other thread, you were doing your regular BS calling people liars what your own falsehoods. That is not unhinged. That is your MO.
Linking owning a swimming pool, owning a Hummer and keeping your lights to the death of plant is normal garbage dramatic hype from the left.
Most friends & aquaintances of mine lean left or right depending on topic; they aren't hard core left or right on EVERYTHING. I think this is generally the case with rational people. Those that cling to a certain dogma right down the line tend to rightly be characterized as having "drank to much kool-aid" and are prone to spout rhetoric
that has been put in thier brain like a cue-card from their revered leaders, such as Rush.
It's really the difference between thinking for yourself or having others do it for you.
Why do people even waste their valubable time falling for trolls baiting them with BS?
Let's all make a New Year's resolution NOT to respond to anyone that doesn't post using their real name - and writes comments in a logical and rational manner!
Life is too short and waaaaaay to precious to waste on ignorant, stupid, idiots, or left-wing looney tunes, or the lying, cheating, thieving, radical right-wing, neo-con, nut-cases!
It's time for the moderate minds in the middle to speak up doncha' thunk?
JD, I'm with you - and Nance - I don't love Castro or Cuba......
No limit on babies - we have goofballs on their 18th kid (and counting) What would these people do with their nights?
The article's author, David Sirota, usually presents a well-reason argument for his point of view. In this piece however, he relied on one article published on 2/13/08 by a biology researcher and a physics guy; which was rebutted within days by one of our UNLV scientists. The article on which Sirota wrote was inaccurate and misleading, as written. Sirota never bothered with so much as a search engine query or he would have had many of his readily-accepted myths easily clarified. The myth that gaming is the sole element in southern Nevada's economy is easily challenged. The myth that, by the casinos in town turning on lots of lights, gaming is running the state into bankruptcy is laughable. Sirota left unquestioned the false assumption that, because Lake Mead has dropped dramatically, we will be waterless by 2021. In reality, water availability here is of a serious enough concern that human beings must change their behavior, and they have. Not to mention the fact that we have aquifers, rivers and other lakes from which to draw. All of which makes a huge difference in the conception of Las Vegas as a moral failure, without a care about our own future. Yes, we've made mistakes; but make available all of the facts before using someone else's erroneous presumption as his basis for whipping out an inflammatory and unfair piece for a slow news day. Anyone can take a cheap shot at any city; just close your eyes and stick a pin in a map. Unfortunately, it appears that's what was done.