On the Ecological Frontlines

First off, there is nothing about Thailand in this post. I'm guessing that it will take years to clear the smog and crap from my lungs. I pointedly ignore, well, nothing to say.

So.

Inklings came when I was in Togiak Call it cognitive dissonance: here's the lefty eco guy with a ponytail looking at Lund V-hulls propelled by decade-old two-strokes pissing oil.
Hey! You should be operating a four-stroke!
A four stroke costs as much as I make in 6 months.
Oh.

Pebble mine is hope--it's a place with steady, year-round work.
A man without teeth, wearing worn-through jeans, a wool shirt that looks as old, and a slicker as much duct tape as vinyl in the 40-degree driving rain. "If I could get that job driving truck, I could buy my daughter a new jacket, the first in three years."
Of course you want this guy and his daughter to succeed.
But it's the biggest open-pit mine in the world, at the headwaters of the last great salmon run in America.

"Burnables go in this bin, stuff for the dump in that one....
"Plastic? It burns great."
I snuck plastic into the dump bin until it was time for a dump run and I helped toss bags of toxic and rusting waste onto an open patch of tundra before lighting it on fire as much as possible. When a gust of wind came through, anything light enough to blow away--namely plastic, flaming or otherwise--blew into the bay.
Which is the greater evil: burning plastic outside your back door or giving it a chance to blow into the bay, first?

Nepal has big energy problems, especially above the snowline. It's too cold to support harvestable forests, but there isn't enough electricity to provide heat (and light) enough for basic survival cooking, let alone accommodating tourism or providing comfort.
Options?
Raise prices and pay for the wood you can't harvest or haul yourself.
Or get one of those solar oven things.
I saw two solar ovens. The first was set up in a front yard. It had an umbrella-like dome on top of a satellite dish that held a black box with a couple of large downpipes.
Eventually, I found a set of instructions on one side of an interior panel. Something like, "Pour water into Holding Tank One. Seal with Rubberized Stopper and Invert to Activate Osmotic Filtration. Once Osmotic Filtration has completed, attach Hose A to Outlet C. Assure Hose B is secure on Tank D, secure the Reflector Panel, and invert unit to working position."
WHAT?
No wonder it was rusted stiff.

The other filter/solar heater was two stops down. A buffalo was eating out of the main reflector bowl. A goat was standing in, and trying to eat, the interior dish.

Meanwhile, every establishment in town belched sooty green-wood smoke from its chimney.

And in the developed world, well out of sight, scent, and sound of electrical production, oversized televisions belch messages of conservation to the portion of the world removed enough from it to live with--through?--cable.