Dead birds and fish wash ashore as 13-square-mile oil spill reaches Southern California coast https://t.co/8M59Zc0Tnk

— Jeffrey Levin (@jilevin) October 3, 2021

After a huge oil spill, Southern California is facing an environmental disaster—and the local air show at Huntington Beach was cancelled.

This morning, I read about the accident that caused approximately 120,000 gallons of oil to leak into the Pacific Ocean. What a sh*t show.

But as if that wasn’t enough, the annual Huntington Beach air show was cancelled. Sorry for the sarcasm.

The thing is that for years we had been told that there aren’t many alternatives to offshore drilling because otherwise, there would be a devastating effect on our energy supplies—and I highly doubt that.

As long as we hold air shows that waste incredible amounts of energy, we can’t argue for offshore drilling.

When environmental activists protest against pipelines and offshore drilling, lobbyists argue that we need these infrastructure projects to keep our energy supplies going—but does that include wasting energy?

Is it our birthright to waste energy? I don’t think so.

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I never saw the point of air shows. Why would we have a parade of planes polluting the skies for our entertainment? How is that even entertaining?

Earlier this year, I wrote an article on air-conditioning that suggested using less of it—and people got pretty upset about that idea. And I am pretty sure that asking to put a ban on air shows won’t be welcomed by everyone.

But that doesn’t make it wrong.

When we talk about how to stop climate change, many of us are willing to do a lot to protect our planet. Folks stop eating meat, try to use public transportation, and buy products that are manufactured in a sustainable way. At the same time, other folks insist on running their air-conditioning 24/7, driving huge cars, and polluting the sky for fun.

There needs to be more balance. We can’t have half of the population changing their behavior while the other half insists on not changing anything.

If you believe that air shows, monster trucks, and billionaires flying to space represent the American way of life, then I got bad news for you: that lifestyle needs to change.

And most importantly, this is not about politics at all; it’s common sense.

And if someone insists on having these displays of technological superiority, then I can only ask these folks to invent technology that is actually superior to what we have right now.

The moment we are able to run planes on renewable energies, you are more than welcome to watch air shows and monster truck rallies—but until then, that sh*t needs to stop.

If there is a desire to have these things, then we need to work on making it possible.

But there is no point in drilling offshore to cover our “needs,” as long as our “needs” include these ridiculous events that destroy our planet.

Instead of wasting huge amounts of energy for fun, we should talk about why we even think that it’s fun to hold these events.

Nobody wants people freezing in winter because of a lack of energy, nobody asks anyone to never use air-conditioning, and nobody gets forced to become vegan—but how about asking to stop the obvious stupidity of wasting energy for fun?

The upcoming weeks will be challenging for Californian officials to deal with the fall out of this oil spill, and unfortunately, it won’t be the last environmental disaster caused by our endless thirst for energy.

Let’s take this as a wake-up call.

Canceling an air show because of an oil spill perfectly sums up the irony behind our attempts to find a more sustainable lifestyle. Just imagine how long you could run your air-conditioning with the energy one of these planes waste on a “fun afternoon.”

Maybe it’s time to rethink what fun actually means. In my opinion, destroying the planet isn’t fun at all.