Comments on: Throwing the World Away http://www.meganlindholm.com/2009/01/12/throwing-the-world-away/ Authoritative Archive Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:53:42 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: nerwende http://www.meganlindholm.com/2009/01/12/throwing-the-world-away/comment-page-1/#comment-19 nerwende Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:35:02 +0000 http://www.meganlindholm.com/2009/01/12/throwing-the-world-away/#comment-19 <p>I've always felt that the biggest difficulty in recycling and also just being a "good" consumer is knowing how to do it right. Most of the time there is no ideal way to do it, and often it's really difficult to choose even the least harmful one. If I wash the cans before recycling, aren't I wasting precious clean water? Would it be better to burn the milk cartons in the fireplace rather than have them transported in trucks to the place where the material is processed to be used again? Should I buy local vegetables during winter when they are grown in energy-consuming greenhouses, or the ones that are flown from the other side of the globe? This imperfection (if that's the correct word) is of course just how things are in this planet and ecosystem while we humans are a part of it, no matter how correctly we try to live.<br /> I think I want to re-read Alien Earth now.</p> I’ve always felt that the biggest difficulty in recycling and also just being a “good” consumer is knowing how to do it right. Most of the time there is no ideal way to do it, and often it’s really difficult to choose even the least harmful one. If I wash the cans before recycling, aren’t I wasting precious clean water? Would it be better to burn the milk cartons in the fireplace rather than have them transported in trucks to the place where the material is processed to be used again? Should I buy local vegetables during winter when they are grown in energy-consuming greenhouses, or the ones that are flown from the other side of the globe? This imperfection (if that’s the correct word) is of course just how things are in this planet and ecosystem while we humans are a part of it, no matter how correctly we try to live.
I think I want to re-read Alien Earth now.

]]> By: 20thlvl_rogue http://www.meganlindholm.com/2009/01/12/throwing-the-world-away/comment-page-1/#comment-18 20thlvl_rogue Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:28:05 +0000 http://www.meganlindholm.com/2009/01/12/throwing-the-world-away/#comment-18 <p>You are so intelligent and thought-provoking. I almost don't feel worthy to even comment to you.</p> <p>I think we <i>have</i> run out of oil. M. King Hubbert, who correctly predicted the US oil supply peaking in 1970, predicted a global peak in 1995. But in the early 1970s and 1980s oil prices spiked due to embargos and geopolitical events which caused industrial societies to become more efficient in their use of it, so it pushed back the peak until now.</p> <p>We're in a recession as a direct result of oil staying over a hundred dollars a barrel last summer. The only reason oil prices went down is because of the recession. As we get out of the recession demand for oil will go up again and the price will spike back up putting us into a worse recession than before, and it will be this gradually decline of ever increasing recessions from here on out.</p> <p>As for the whole recycling thing, I try not to do it. My dad was the opposite of yours and badgers me about washing cans and stuff out, so now I have an aversion to it. Kids do the opposite of what their parents do. </p> <p>And plastics may not biodegrade but they do photodegrade. That's why I think the "Pacific Garbage patch", you know that hundred mile wide stretch of floating plastics in the Pacific, I think that's actually good because it will allow the sun to reach the plastics and photodegrade it. The earth has protection mechanisms in place like that.</p> You are so intelligent and thought-provoking. I almost don’t feel worthy to even comment to you.

I think we have run out of oil. M. King Hubbert, who correctly predicted the US oil supply peaking in 1970, predicted a global peak in 1995. But in the early 1970s and 1980s oil prices spiked due to embargos and geopolitical events which caused industrial societies to become more efficient in their use of it, so it pushed back the peak until now.

We’re in a recession as a direct result of oil staying over a hundred dollars a barrel last summer. The only reason oil prices went down is because of the recession. As we get out of the recession demand for oil will go up again and the price will spike back up putting us into a worse recession than before, and it will be this gradually decline of ever increasing recessions from here on out.

As for the whole recycling thing, I try not to do it. My dad was the opposite of yours and badgers me about washing cans and stuff out, so now I have an aversion to it. Kids do the opposite of what their parents do.

And plastics may not biodegrade but they do photodegrade. That’s why I think the “Pacific Garbage patch”, you know that hundred mile wide stretch of floating plastics in the Pacific, I think that’s actually good because it will allow the sun to reach the plastics and photodegrade it. The earth has protection mechanisms in place like that.

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