Will good intention doom us all?

For the last few months I’ve been using Blackle which is an energy-saving alternative to Google. The entire screen is black and according to the website it produces less energy because it uses black pixels as opposed to white pixels. I was quite proud of myself, not only was I searching the web I was also saving the Earth at the same time. However my ego was shattered when a report released earlier this week saying that the black pixels not only didn’t conserve energy but in some cases it essentially produced more energy to display the black pixels. I suddenly got an image of my head of a world drowning in water and polar bears scavenging for food in the desert all because Blackle had lied to me. Did my keenness to help Mother Earth harm her in the end?
There are numerous accounts throughout history of adopting a cause or discovering a cure only to have it lead to disaster due to insufficient testing and study. During the first Gulf War coalition army soldiers were provided with anti-anthrax tablets in the case of a chemical attack by Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces. Although these were given, and produced, with nothing but the soldier’s lives taken into consideration and the best of intentions it was discovered that these pills had disastrous side effects which are being felt in America, Britain and Australia. This same result can be seen with the vigor that society is taking up in combating climate change.
There are a multitude of methods to combat climate change with the most prominent being switching to public transport, hydrogen or electric based cars or simply keeping the car at home. These, according to the website nature.org, will multiply and lead to everyone adopting to take public transport. It’s not a bad idea, it will reduce the amount of cars on the road and will eventually lead car manufacturers to create energy efficient vehicles. There’s one small problem, our public transport system is at breaking point. Cityrail has numerous delays with its current load and it freely admits in recent advertisements that it has one of the most complex rail networks in the world. A mass migration from private to public transportation would cripple the service beyond belief.
The recent Live Earth concerts were a critical and a commercial success in raising awareness for the state of climate change in the world. They were also a success in proving that practicing what you preach isn’t exactly a motto for the concert goers. Photographs of the Live Earth concerts show an inexcusable amount of garbage on the ground. From plastic water bottles to sections of banners that had been ripped down the sites in Sydney, LA and other venues looked as if a tornado had hit a garbage dump.
Climate Change is a very real issue and as a society we do need to monitor and decrease the amount of carbons we put into the air but the Western World has taken up the cause of climate change with such vigor that it’s closing off any kind of debate on the subject and labeling anyone who disagrees with the science as neoconservative’s who are in the pocket of big oil. In our extremism to save the Earth are we doing more harm than good or will this dynamism of good intention be a form of drug fever for Gaia?