Dixon is a first-year Environmental
Fellow from Evansville, Indiana.
SAM CARAVANA / THE DEPAUW
Though I exceedingly dislike him, Holden Caulfield from "Catcher in the Rye" and I share a mutual interest. We both seek solace in walking during the night. Mainly, we enjoy the streetlights that compliment the darkness. No matter my stress, a walk to Roy past sundown can instill a surreal feeling of completeness that few other actions bring me. There is irony in such pleasure that my environmentalism alter ego points out to my literary, let’s-add-depth-to-something-exceedingly-simple side. The irony of lights is the pleasure they radiate while simultaneously changing the earth.
Even a second-grader knows that humans burn coal to power everything, including lights. Though some still argue the opposite, many people in the general population know and agree that global warming is occurring because of this combustion of fossil fuels that a large portion of our lives depend on. The illumination that makes me feel so absolute is also the illumination whose source will cause a shifting northward of biomes, which will eventually force humans to farm inhospitable soil. The source powering the glow is also the source of carbon dioxide that will cause sea level to rise to the point that some islanders will have to move to bigger landmasses because their isles will only be habitable for fish. The disheartening statistics about how global warming has increased so rapidly, the number of biotic aspects it affects, and the number of people that think it does not exist makes me wonder how I could ever achieve comfort basking in the light of such negative warning signs.
The reason I enter a state of ecstasy when I am walking along the lamp-lighted pathways lies in the way I have grown accustomed to the luxury of electricity. In addition, I am exponentially removed from the process of producing the electrical currents that sustain my fortunate lifestyle. I do not see the laborious task of mining or the processing of coal or the carbon dioxide molecules randomly moving into the atmosphere. This makes my using electricity and innocently adoring the lights lining South Locust Street and College Street remarkably comfortable.
These lights serve as a symbol for America’s consumption patters. We indulge in activities that are unsustainable and experience no direct, tangible consequences. This creates difficulty when the general public tries to understand the costs of consumption and the work necessary to create the product. If people are not aware of a problem or detrimental trend, they cannot change to resolve a dilemma. We love the very habits and lifestyles that are making the existence of life on earth more and more challenging because there is a disconnect between these two occurrences. This ignorance is the irony of lights.