The big push lately has been on reducing your carbon footprint, or being environmentally conscious. Hollywood superstars are zipping around in Toyota Prius, and former Vice Presidents are making movies about how the sky is falling. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for low impact living, heck I’m an Eagle Scout with years of experience backpacking and leaving no trace of my passing through the woods. But here’s where I think the reality deviates from the fantasy of Earth friendly. Consumerism, waste, and excess.
As consumers we are compelled to buy. We are told that it’s good for the economy, supports jobs, and it will make us happy. I’m guilty too, my shopping list is just as long as the next tech hungry geek. But think about half the stuff you buy; How long will you use it before you’re bored, it breaks, or is outmoded by something newer. I’ll skip picking on Microsoft (and their latest “must have” products that do the same thing as their five year old products) and go straight to Walmart and Ikea. Many will say yeah Walmart is evil, and Ikea makes crappy furniture, but that’s not entirely true, and is too general. Specifically I want to point out the multitude of cheaply made gimmick items that litter the shelves of stores, and the products that used to be built well but now in the interest of reducing costs are being manufactured to meet the lowest common denominator, us, the consumer. My kids see commercials every day that say buy this, it’s great! Almost all of these products are the same product that was available a year ago, or is of such trivial entertainment value that it will be thrown away in six months. Cheap toys that break, consumable products like play dough, and floam (why would anyone need that crap anyway???), A new model of Barbie for each new dress or make-up trend, action figures for each new movie that comes out with the same characters as the last movie. It may seem trivial but all this adds up, we spend more on little disposable things, and have less to spend on well made furniture and products that should last a lifetime. We have to shop at Ikea and Walmart to compensate for the multitude of small “insignificant” leaks from our wallets.
Where does it go? After we’ve had our fill, or used up our latest fad product it goes in the trash, into landfill, into the earth, the air, the water. How much use did we get out of it before it was “useless”. Cars fit into this equation as well as anything. How long before your car is too used to keep driving? Did it wear out, or break down? Is that new blinged out Hummer too cool to pass up, or is saving the earth too important to not buy a Prius? If you have to get rid of a car to get a new one, where does the old one go…the garbage basically. How was the new car made?; If a product causes more harm in it’s production, or end disposal, but is more friendly during it’s life is it ok? I like the ideas of electric cars, but have concerns about how the batteries are produced and what happens to them when they die, is there a significant impact on the environment? Consider that most batteries are either largely lead and acid, or heavy metals like Nickel, and Cadmium. Not only are these scarce materials, they are very destructive to obtain and dispose of.
Lastly excess…How much do we really need? Americans eat too much, drink too much, watch too much TV, and most of all shop too much. Do we need all this stuff? How much could we save if we cut our spending by 10%? How many people actually have a savings account, or retirement? How many people have more debt than income?
What’s the solution? Global warming is more than a problem of gas guzzling SUVs vs. solar panels and composting. It’s a problem of mentality. We don’t think about the consequences of our actions, not just for tomorrow, but decades down the line. If we can’t plan for our own retirement properly, how are we ever going to plan for saving the planet on a scale of hundreds or thousands of years. I think the real trick is small steps in the right direction. Spend less money on crap, save your pennies for a better produced, more valuable product, and don’t buy so much of anything and everything. Instead of buying a Prius, get all your friends to write letters to congress telling them that you want more MPG out of every other car on the road. Instead of making E85 “capable” cars that have no fuel available, figure out what the best solution is first, before starting down a path that is just as short-sighted as the present path.