New Scientist: Five eco-crimes we commit every day

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427361.900-five-ecocrimes-we-commit-every-day.html

Five eco-crimes we commit every day

25 November 2009 by Dave S. Reay

WHEN the UN Climate Change Conference opens in Copenhagen next month, all eyes will be on the delegates' efforts to broker a deal that will prevent catastrophic global warming. Yet amid all the talk of caps, targets and trading, it is easy to forget who is ultimately responsible for the mess we find ourselves in. I have long argued that climate change begins at home. Each of us in the developed world has played our part in creating this problem and, while there is no doubt that coordinated global action is needed to tackle it, we can each be part of the solution.

So, ask yourself this: how green am I really? You might think you are doing your bit for the environment, but even if you shun bottled water, buy local produce and reuse your plastic bags, chances are that you have some habits that are far more environmentally damaging than you realise. What's more, if everyone else is doing these things too, their detrimental effects really add up.

1 Coffee

…

2 Toilet paper

…

3 Fast fashion

…

4 Laundry

…

5 Food wastage

…

[sasquatch]

1. What do you suggest we use instead of tp?

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. (You may want to read the article)

(Or you may not.)

[Dead_Parrot]

3. It's obvious...

http://www.dealoz.com/9780061939891/e10

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Somewhat satisfying

But not terribly practical or comfortable…

[Dead_Parrot]

5. Yeah. Better wait for the paperback.

:D

[ZombieHorde]

6. Those 5 things are not crimes. nt

[XemaSab]

7. Coffee makes me pee

:(

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[notesdev]

9. 6. putting out fraudulent charts hyping global warming hysteria

[kestrel91316]

17. Oh, look, it's another RW sockpuppet denialist!!!!

[Nihil]

10. One point that hit home to me with an "Ouch"

> We live in a "wear once and wash" culture.

I think our household is guilty of this one - not as bad as 92.5% unnecessary
but certainly more goes in through habit than out of necessity, especially in
the Winter when (e.g.) one's shirts are not receiving perspiration like they
do in the other seasons.


> Much of the rest is made up of items that are stuffed into the washing machine
> simply because they are on the floor instead of in the wardrobe.

This has definitely been a problem whenever we nag the kids to "tidy up your
bedroom": They have a tendency to think that any clothes not in the drawer
or wardrobe must need to be dumped in the wash pile instead ...
The trouble is that unless you manage to intercept them en route, it is often
too late by the time the washing machine is being filled as there would have
been other (genuinely) dirty washing put on top.

:-(

[pscot]

11. Laundry is an American obsession

All those years of soap commercials....

[BeFree]

12. Yeah, right

Attack the individual while letting the big corps and big polluters slide.

That is the real age of stupid when the big problem makers are ignored and the blame is placed on people just wanting to wipe their butts clean.

[freeplessinseattle]

13. Fast Fashion? oh no, not my Depeche Mode!

sorry, couldn't resist. (DMers will get it)

Interesting article though, thanks!

[Dead_Parrot]

14. Everthing counts...

:o

[XemaSab]

15. Grabbing hands grab all they can

:(

[Dead_Parrot]

18. All for themselves... nt

[Javaman]

19. It is a competitive world...afterall. :) nt

[Dead_Parrot]

22. And I'm hungry like the wolf

Err, wait a minute. That's not right...
:silly:

[OKIsItJustMe]

16. I prefer

“Thanks for the input Howard.”

— Frank Furillo

[GliderGuider]

20. I'd add eating any oceanic fish to the list.

Farmed fish is destroying the ecosystems of the farming areas, and the wild fish are almost gone. Eating any kind of ocean-grown fish is an act of ecocide.

BTW, that includes those nifty fish-oil capsules that we are being sold as "enlightened nutrition."

[Noseyaboutpollution]

21. I see worse every day.

[NMDemDist2]

23. well, I'm doing pretty good on that list

got rid of the TP, only launder my uniforms and wear the pants at least twice, the stuff I wear around the house can sometimes go a week before I need to wash it, haven't bought 'new' clothes in years, I'm a thrift store gal and haven't even hit the thrifts in months

i do waste some food, but it gets sent to the compost pile mostly

I'm doing pretty good and when my car hits 150K miles in 2010, i will buy a hybrid or one of the new clean diesels if the electrics aren't out yet

and if you're wondering about the TP thing, I got one of these, best $100 i've sent in a long time and it's paid for itself already in TP savings

http://www.biffy.com/

[joshcryer]

24. I wanted to make my own topic about this but it fits here: The food waste from Thanksgiving is...

...still sitting in our dumpsters here, almost two stories high. I'm not exaggerating, the maintenance men put big pieces of plywood in the dumpsters to allow for more garbage, I don't think the garbage men can even get it, and it's been sitting here, not picked up, since Thanksgiving. It's crazy. It's gotten to the point where the ground around the dumpsters is surrounded by large plastic bags of refuse. It's amazing really. Normally the dumpsters aren't even half full because this apartment complex is in the ghetto and half of the people are evicted / half of the apartments are empty.