Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
You shouldn't need to ask "what is wasteful."
|
Ahh...But I
should. To quote
Don Camillo "You have your loudspeakers and we have our bells. If only one can speak, that is tyranny. If both can speak, that comrade, is Democracy." Let me offer a counterview to each of your examples.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Using "disposable" plastic containers that fester for a thousand years in a landfill, as opposed to cleaning and re-using containers, is wasteful.
|
How do you sterilize plastic? (I have a microbiology degree, I'm somewhat familiar with the subject.) Don't sterilize it? You'll pick up some interesting pathogens over time. (Trust me). Go back to glass? Why do think people went to plastic in the first place? Because it cost more to manufacture and sterilize bottles that it cost to make plastic bottles. While the cost of plastic goes up with oil, the energy costs to make glass and sterilize it go up just as fast (or faster). Which should we waste more of, energy or landfill? You pick.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Idling your (post-1990) car for more than a minute, as opposed to shutting off your engine, is wasteful.
|
The most polluting time for a car (internal compustion engine) is the first couple of minutes of running. Do we trade off air pollution versus fuel efficency? (That's always been my big grumble with standard hybrid cars. They get around it by using smaller engines, therefore less pollution.) Besides, do you always know how long you'll be idling? And what if you car doesn't restart? Been known to happen...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Using an incandescent light bulb that uses eight times the power of a compact fluorescent bulb is wasteful.
|
Mercury, make us dead! (The original latin was shortsighted.) I voluntarily use compact fluorescent, but what about the mercury they contain? (which isn't in incandescent bulbs.) Our kids are going to bitch about
that one, and who going to pay for the recycling? (You just can't dump in the environment...) Which is a bigger waste over time? You pick...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Letting the water tap run for ten minutes, when you only use a minutes' water, is wasteful.
|
Let's see, we stop water from flowing into the sea by artificial means, then when we let it go, it's wasteful... Hmmm.... It evaporated from the ocean and falls as rain that flows down into the resevoirs, completing the loop...It's a closed loop...
I shouldn't be so tacky, but people seem to want to live where there is a natural shortage of water. As long as technology can fill the taps, and people who live in such areas are willing to pay the price, why not?
You may lead the forceful relocation. (To paraphrase Richard Blaine in Casablanca - I recommend you not try to relocate Texans...)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Most of these things are common-sense choices, and you shouldn't have to ask someone else for "definitions." Usually, it just requires some thought, maybe after someone else has pointed it out to you, and the waste becomes crystal clear.
|
Sense is never common (R.A.Heinlein), nor are choices "crystal clear", as I have noted. The problem is I
do think, and I don't automatically buy somebody else's world view. You should always question
everything as that is the path to knowledge.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Who enforces it? Who grants the power? We do... with our votes.
|
The same votes that brought us existing copyright at life + 95, curbs on free speech during elections, stripping people of their property rights without recompense, and endless blocks on economic development? Mazel tof, tovarich...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Yup... and I don't want to be around when the kids figure that out, and are in power when serious steps have to be taken. Who do you think is going to be first in line to have their resources limited? The ones who wasted it in the first place...
|
Maybe they won't care, driving around in their electric cars, charged off their rooftops. Or maybe they'll shoot the Fed and The Federal government for debasing the currency to nothing...
Me, I'm going to listen to Mama Chola and Her Tijuana Trash, live at the Monterrey Mechanical Jazz Festival.... (Crank it up!!!)