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I don't think there is a viable solution right now, the video is there just to shake ppl heads.
I found a very pessimistic article, here is a little piece of it. Ill post the complete one on my blog.
The United States, which has 6% of the world's population, uses 30% of the world's energy supply. 20% of the worlds population, (in other words its wealthy consumer class), is responsible for over 50% of its 'greenhouse effect' atmospheric pollutants, 90% of its ozone-depleting CFC gases, 96% of its radioactive waste... and so on.
No serious commentator environmental issues denies that the present levels of world pollution and rates of environmental degradation are a severe problem, and will need to be substantially curbed if we are to avoid irreversible damage to the eco-system .
A lot of attention (and even more lip-service) is being paid to the problem, and attempts to find more environmentally friendly and sustainable methods of industrial and economic activity are high on the agenda of many institutions, such as pressure groups and industry.
But almost all these solutions assume that the industrial and economic activities of the impoverished 80% of the world's population will remain at a low, and therefore less environmentally- damaging level. In doing this, they ignore the fact that IF the majority of the world's citizens are also to achieve a consumerist standard of living, (as would be their right) then all of the present levels of global pollution and waste are going to more than quadruple. If 20% of the world's population produce the current degree of harmful effects, then 100% of the world's population doing the same will produce 5 times this damage 5 x 20 is 5 x 20, no matter what your political or economic beliefs may be.
A: We continue to have a high standard of living and deny the rest of the rest of the world the opportunity to do the same. We then use green technology to bring the pollution we produce down to a level the biosphere can absorb without sustaining long-term damage,
or B: We 'allow' the majority to develop, and lower our standard of living, with every individual then living a lifestyle that produces no more than their 'share' of a sustainable global rate of pollution.
Option B is not compatible with our consumer culture, as long as that culture continues to tell us, 'More is always better.'
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I don't buy anything other than food, electricity, internet access, and I pay rent.
Every once in a while I buy something like toothpaste or razors.
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I am a student, I don't have my own house I live on campus in an university apartment, but I pretty much buy everything I want, things I own that are worth noting(some are gifts):
A Honda Accord 2007 EX
Ipod Mini 2gen
Ipod 5gen 30G
Ipod 5gen 80G
Ipod touch 2gen 16G
3 cellphones
2 laptops
Nikon S600 camera
Sony Handicam 60G video camera
2 gaming desktops
2 webcams
2 LCDs and 1 CRT
A 42inch HDTV
4 mice
3 keyboards
A laser and a bubble jet printer
A 5.1 Speaker system
ELEVEN flash drives: 64MB, 256MB x2, 512MB x3, 1GB x2, 2GB x1, 4GB x1, 8GB x1
Around 6 pairs of headphones
2 External storage devices: 80GB and 500GB
Countless CDs and DVDs
clothing worth in the thousands
5 wallets
4 backpacks, 4 shoulder man purses
3 badminton rackets, 2 tennis rackets, one squash racket, 2 soccer balls, a basketball, 2 Frisbee.
About 12 pairs of sneakers
Around 10 belts
2 negative-ion hairdryers
2 electric shavers
2 lotions, 2 facewash, 3 bodywash, 4 body fragrances, 4 hairstyling products
Starcraft, 2 legit copies
These are approximately 1/3 of the stuff that I decided to keep when I went to university, I threw the rest away.
I just realized if I were to wear everything I own in my closet once, I wouldn't have to do laundry for 5 weeks.
Thank god for having a good family friend who lets me store all this stuff in his basement, or it'll cost me a fortune to store everything at Public Storage...
Yah, fuck the earth, let's hope it doesn't blow up in my life time.
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Omg this is complete fucking bullshit, trying to make it the responsability of the individual to stop consuming. What the hell else should we do with our money? I you wanna save the rainforest, make some regulations politically.
Yes, we need to preserve the planet, but hey USA, try signing the fucking Kyoto agreement like every other goddamn country in the civilized world instead of telling people to just "not consume". Then tax accordingly to naturally decrease consumption.
The video is right though, you should care more for earth. But do it when you vote.
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this is 2009, all u need is an internet connection
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On August 14 2009 07:36 ImNotBisu wrote:
Yah, fuck the earth, let's hope it doesn't blow up in my life time.
it won't, hence these environmentalists are having a tough tough time convincing me to give a damn.
but i still don't buy a lot of stuff at all; although that'll change as soon as i'm not a student.
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On August 14 2009 07:43 Blyf wrote:
Omg this is complete fucking bullshit, trying to make it the responsability of the individual to stop consuming. What the hell else should we do with our money? I you wanna save the rainforest, make some regulations politically.
Yes, we need to preserve the planet, but hey USA, try signing the fucking Kyoto agreement like every other goddamn country in the civilized world instead of telling people to just "not consume". Then tax accordingly to naturally decrease consumption.
The video is right though, you should care more for earth. But do it when you vote.
What the hell else should we do with our money? The point is that if you dont buy all that useless shit you can work less and play starcraft more ez right ?.
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Omg this is complete fucking bullshit, trying to make it the responsability of the individual to stop consuming. What the hell else should we do with our money? I you wanna save the rainforest, make some regulations politically.
Logging companies avoid regulations by just declaring bankruptcy and leaving the country. Mining companies in the United States do the same regularly and leave billions in damages to the taxpayers to clean up.
The real issue isn't the environmental impact per person, its the exponential growth of human population. Regardless of how much we lower the impact per person, if no restrictions are placed on human populations, we're fucked either way. Natural methods of population control; Mass infections/Pandemics, Wars, Famine are all the target of increasingly effective concerted counters. This isn't a bad thing, but if you let the quality these events used to balance run unfettered, the resultant problems we're going to face are only going to be more devastating.
The analogy of forest fires in the western US suffices: Fires used to burn out the underbrush and saplings, as well as small trees around. Old growth forests with large, 50-500 year old trees, however, would resist damage by having bark too thick to burn away during the relatively mild fires. When forest fire prevention was instituted in order to stop private homes from being burned down, the result was an accumulation of fuel and the growth of those previous mid-sized saplings to a height where the fire could now bridge to the canopy of the old growth trees. The resultant fires burned much hotter and devastated the entire forest, leaving no trees behind the stop soil erosion. The soil, after subsequent cycles of blazing inferno-level fires became inferior for hosting forests, and now regrowth rates are less than half what they used to be, with investments in fire fighting increasing almost yearly.
Basically the same thing is happening, but we're the trees.
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I'll NEVER exchange my freedom and my confort for anything and surely not because of some silly speculation from ecoligions (yeah, ecology is a religion now, imo).
I live in Tokyo and here, consuming is normal. Everyone buys things and we all wanna buy the latest gadget and change our toothbrush every week. And guess what ? Japan is considered as one of the best country for the Ecology.
If we, people, have to give up our freedom and go back living in caves under some shitty dictators, even if we "save" the earth, for me, it's a complete fail.
I enjoy my 15°C A/C in my room full of PC awake 24/7 with Optical Internet Connection. I enjoy my game consoles. I enjoy my big american pick up. I enjoy being able to go back to Paris just for a week end to see my girl. I enjoy my many things considered as "bad" but, come'on, this is LIFE.
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And guess what ? Japan is considered as one of the best country for the Ecology That's mostly because Japan imports most of their material needs instead of performing in situ resource extraction and because Japan has the percentage of forested land in the western world, most of it being forest which has been protected for 300 years or so.
Doesn't mean that consumption itself isn't doing bad things, its just that Japan effectively exports the effects to primary resource exporting countries.
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On August 14 2009 07:12 decafchicken wrote:
My social studies professor made us watch this video. I just remember wanting to stab the fucking girl in the face.
lol agreed, this bitch is retarded and takes way too long to explain each point ( and there are lots of them).
I'm sure some/most of this stuff is true but completely exaggerated and ofc biased.
And yea, I don't have money to buy things. I mostly just use the necessities. I haven't bought a new piece of clothing in over a year and a half. I haven't purchased any frivolous things (except for sf4 recently). And I just realized something, Pirating shit on the internet is BETTER for the environment. Pirate 4 life.
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I buy stuff knowing that I am contributing to the end of life as we know it and that I can't do anything about it. Oh well, this end probably won't come for a long time - the earth is more resilient than we give it credit for. Just revel in your consumerism, people, and let future generations suffer!
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NeverGG
United Kingdom5399 Posts
I've cut back myself a lot recently - I realized I was shopping just for shopping's sake and stopped buying things like CDs, DVDs, food I only wasted and random other crap. My only vice is books and magazines (especially photo books because they help with my photography.) The only downside to that is they weigh a tonne and take up lots of space. (I need to ship a box back to my Mum asap!)
The only things I really want right now are;
Camera lenses and accessories for my DSLRs.
Photo books and magazines (only a few select titles a month - I've cut way back on my weekly book store trawls.)
Food and other necessities like toiletries etc.
A new laptop!
A digicam (nothing special.)
A PS3 and some games for it.
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I consume, to exist...
I say consume or be consumed.
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the only way to stop consumerism(and all derived problems) is some sort of global communism, but earth would have to unite into 1 country(or a big enough majority that can overturn capitalist countries) before that happens.
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The last expensive thing I bought was my computer in November 08. o ya then theres my Blackberry Storm bought in may
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That video made me sick. I don't buy much stuff so I'm good tho 
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I don't want to start with how bad the video was t-t
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This video is retarded. What's the point of life if you can't enjoy it? Humans really don't *need* much besides shelter and food, but being alive just isn't the same as living. I enjoy getting new clothes and electronics, traveling to new places, and eating new foods. We can all start somewhere, like using fewer plastic bags. It pisses me off so much when I'm working at CVS and people ask for a bag when they have 1 tiny thing to carry.
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EPT
