GRRR...

OK, I apologize in advance for the general venting that is about to occur. But, in my defense, people really bug me sometimes.

I posted my post 'Take 30 Seconds to Save Sea Turtles' at another website and got this response:

Is there evidence anywhere that any shallow internet poll has ever actually determined any government policy? I donât mean to be rude, just blunt: what possible reason would a foreign government have to respect your wishes?

Itâs mostly the laz-ee-boy attitude that I think gets to me, the idea that it might be possible to stop resource waste or whatever by sitting comfy in an office chair and oops, look what I just did! saved the world with a mouse click again!

Is that even feasible? In the real world, I mean. Could educated people believe such tales?

I donât really know, but what seems more reasonable is to examine the motivations behind the Bahamanian exploitation of the sea turtles. If it is money, then offer to pay them more to let the turtles be. If it is a technology thing where their nets cannot differentiate, then offer them free technology which can. If it is a deep-seated cultural symbiosis with the sea turtle, offer a troupe of anthropologists to try and bend their traditions a little. There are oodles of ways to make a difference, but câmon now, a mouse click will change a politician? That defies credibility.

Mind you, how can I expect to sit here in my comfy office chair and change the activist policy of a science blogger with a single painless comment?

Firstly, what the hell is the harm in trying? I know some people are so busy that they really feel that the time spent clicking a button to donate to world hunger or testing their vocabulary to donate free rice is simply too much time wasted. But for most of us (especially those with the time to write five-paragraph long comments to a blog post), it probably wonât destroy our schedule. So why not?

Secondly, it is obviously better to tackle an issue at its core. Last I checked, however, not everyone has the resources to solve every problem that they care about. For example, I canât single-handedly stop the Bahamas from killing turtles â I canât bribe them, I canât provide some new technology to solve whatever problems they have, and I canât magically become a group of anthropologists to make a difference. In fact, I can do almost nothing. But almost nothing is still not nothing â I can send a letter to a guy and see if it makes a difference. After all, if Iâm not the only one who sends a letter, and, in fact, thousands do, then it might occur to the politician that something is terribly unpopular, and if politicians know something is terribly unpopular, they might make the logical leap that they might look like a better person for stopping it, which is incentive in itself, since if they âlook betterâ they might become more popular, making it more likely that theyâll keep their job as a politician a little longer. If I am the only one who sends a letter - well, shit happens, and nothing will change.

Finally, itâs not like Iâm deluded, and it is definitely not âlazyâ to do small acts to try and make a difference in life. I donât think that the letters will change anyoneâs mind and suddenly end the senseless killing of turtles - just like dropping off a can of tuna at a food drive doesnât feed every starving child in Africa or wherever food is being sent. But isnât it better to do something little, even if it makes almost no impact, than do nothing and say âwell, what I couldâve done wouldnât have been much anywayâ? Carrying your own bag to the grocery store doesnât stop millions of plastic bags from choking marine life, but it does stop one bag from doing it.

Itâs like the story most people have heard about a wise man and boy/girl/whoever throwing starfish into the sea. He asked the person, âwhy are you doing that?â They said âBecause, the sun is up and the tide is going out. If I donât throw them in, theyâll die.â Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, âDo you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You canât possibly make a difference!â To which the person responded âIt made a difference for that one.â

Iâm not saying everyone has to go try and save the sea turtles or collect bottle tops for breast cancer. But wouldnât it be nice if everyone did one little thing every day to try and make a difference? If you wonât be that person, fine. It's your life and you don't have to spend any time thinking about anyone but yourself if you don't want to - after all, I didn't force you to read my blog. Just donât try and convince other people not to do whatever little part they feel like to change the world. Like Ani Difranco said in one of her songs, (which, for the record, is one damn good song called "What If No One's Watching?")

âIf youâre not trying to make something better, then as far as I can tell, you are just in the way.â