As I continue to analyze my place and existence in the Anthropocene I have done a lot of analysis of aspects of my lifestyle I have taken for granted and questioning whether or not they are responsible activities to engage in from an environmental standpoint.
I drive an older “gas-guzzler” type car instead of a hybrid or motorcycle. So I was thinking, is my use of a high-horsepower muscle car irresponsible? If taken from face value, it sure seems like it, but after reading the first few chapters of Jane Bennett’s book “Vibrant Matter”, I wasn’t so sure. Bennett talks about how the things we waste don’t leave us. They sit in a landfill and serve as a symbol of rampant American consumerism. Sure my Camaro burns more gasoline than a hybrid, but had I not decided to rebuild that Camaro, it would have ended up in the junkyard. That piece of American muscle history would have been scrapped and its various parts would have been spread to several different landfills and continued to harm the environment for years after I’m dead. Its battery leaking corrosive acid, chassis oxidizing, oil seeping from the most intricate cracks and crevasses of its worn and tired engine block. All while I drove around in a new car. But that’s not what happened, instead that Camaro was saved from waste and given new life. That fact coupled with the fact that I only drive it once a week makes me feel pretty confident that my decision to drive a muscle car is not necessarily irresponsible from an environmental perspective.