Too much information can be a bad thing

For the past couple years or so, I’ve noticed that I’m not as happy as I used to be. I’ve become a lot more cynical regarding the leadership of our country and the world in general. As a result, I’ve also become much more pessimistic about the future. Not in regard to myself, but for my children and future grandchild if any should appear.

Yesterday, I picked the newspaper up in the driveway, took it out of its little plastic bag, looked at the headlines on the front page, pulled out the sports section to see which football games were on TV, extracted the crosswords and comics, and threw the rest of it in the recycle bin.

I’m sure there is a wealth of information in that paper for people who want to keep informed on such things as the latest politician who is admitting to an extra-marital affair, a private plane crash in Arizona killing a family 5, how many children die of starvation every day in Ethiopia, how many people were killed by the latest suicide bomber in Pakistan, how severely the coastlines of the world are going to be inundated by sea water due to global warming, nuclear proliferation, and the list goes on and on.

As if all that isn’t enough, today the Smithsonian Magazine which I enjoy reading, informed me that the Longhorned beetle is poised to destroy the hardwood forests of New England. This would be a bad thing, but since I wouldn’t know a Longhorned beetle if I ate one, I don’t know what I can do to help.

Lastly, according to the EPA http://epa.gov/otaq/consumer/f00013.htm, I have been responsible for dumping 303 tons of bad stuff into the atmosphere from automobiles in the 50 years I have been driving, that’s 33 lbs per day average even on days I didn’t drive. I’m ashamed, but then with a little further research http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_States , I found that CO2 emissions in the atmosphere increased ~6.3% in the 30 years prior to my kids being born. In the 30 years since their birth CO2 levels have risen an additional ~15.2%. I imagine those 6,000 plus diapers we had to change were a significant factor, but even if not, it’s pretty clear who is responsible for the rapidly approaching disaster. It's not me, it's them. Hell, I didn't even want kids!

So, now that I have no more global warming guilt, I can move on to other concerns like tsunamis, and asteroids.