In the past I’ve written at least one post about the problems of consumerism. If this is a topic that interests you, check out The Story of Stuff a short 20 minute online documentary which gives the complete story of the shocking life of consumer goods and the darker environmental and social economical side to consumerism which all too often gets brushed under the rug as no big deal.
Sounds backwards doesn’t it? That is what I think of much of the environmental politics going on at the moment as they tend to look for scapegoats instead of attacking the heart of the issue. Like many people will attack the pornography industry for its message or should I say images which are in general degrading to women instead of the people who buy it. Not to say that the porn industry should be held blameless for the filth they are only producing it because people are paying for it. In a similar way I wonder how much of the whole environmental push at the moment is seeking its own scapegoats for political gain such as the oil industry as a popular target. Lets face it everyone uses oil, especially gasoline which needs to be refined. Yet in a way as a country we have shot ourselves in the foot by passing environmental laws so strict that it has become virtually impossible to build an oil refinery in the country, and thus driving up prices to some extent, which in turn leads us to accuse them of price gouging. While its true that the oil refinery process should be as environmental friendly as possible at a practical level. Although wouldn’t we be better off with a slightly less clean refinery process while using less oil as a whole? And that in my opinion is the key to the solution, because as long as people consume things industry is going to keep on making them for us. I hope I’m mistaken but I have a feeling that this is the part that many fail to get that bit that they might be the ones that have to change in order to improve the environmental situation. As small things add up and together are probably just as big if not bigger than the big things like oil refineries and factories that get all of the bad press. I often wonder how the people who demand stricter standards for industry would respond if Congress turned around and instead passed laws for stricter standards for personal houses. Like making it against the law to heat your house above 65 degrees in the winter or air conditioner cooling it below 75 in the summer; and outlawing summer dress codes from making people wear jackets and pants during the heat of the summer. Requiring everyone to have a compost pile and making it illegal to throw away in the trash anything that could be recycled or composted, and making everyone who has the land have a fruit and vegetable garden of a certain size to force people to eat more local foods, as well as requiring a certain presentable of one’s open land be covered with trees to combat rising carbon levels that everyone is making such a big deal about. And when you’re at ban having more than one television per household and dryers in favor of clothes lines in the name of saving electricity, as well as most disposable products and convince foods in the name of conserving resources and landfill space. I’m sure if any such laws were passed anytime soon most of the country would be up in arms and declare them as being unconstitutional as imposing too much on one’s personal life but doesn’t that prove the point? As one can not get results without putting in some effort, yet it seems as if as a country we are becoming more wasteful instead of less as time goes on.
