7/9/08

Contradictions in Saving the Plant



I lost a paragraph here somewhere? I wonder where that went?

Reusable fabric shopping bags that reduce plastic waste in landfills and reduce jelly-fish impersonating baggies in the sea, which might I add, cause an estimated 100,000 sea-thing deaths. Naughty bags are also made of ethylene – which is a by-product of fossil fuel production. According to Mark Watson, “bags are a menace even in the manufacture, before they start getting out and murdering turtles”. But I digress. Fabric bags are often made in China. Which means they’ve been shipped just about everywhere in the world before they get wherever they are going. Not only that, but they are made by under paid workers, who are the prime culprits for CO2 pollution. Research shows that China is one of the greatest producers of CO2 which is partly due to a large population of people living under the poverty line, lacking the financial ability to use low emission vehicles and often use DIY diesel converted engines which emit far more than a standard (but far more expensive) engine.

People are encouraged to seek out products that are sourced closest to home as possible. Here in Ireland you can negate your carbon badness when buying flowers by buying those grown in Holland, instead Kenya. Unfortunately, flowers from Holland have a greater carbon footprint than those from Kenya because of all the heating and lighting involved in their cultivation. Retailers still get away with marketing the Dutch roses as ‘guilt-free’. Contradiction? Ik denk het wel.





The Independant is the leading newspaper on climate change, although it regularly advertises for RyanAir and EasyJet. These are two airlines that make up a bulk of short-haul flights that are easily taken overland. Flights in general emit approximately 130gm CO2 per passenger, per kilometer versus approximately 60gm pp/ppkm on rail based travel. Cheap fares and regular routes are a huge contributer to CO2 emissions in Europe and the leading newspaper on climate change endourses them. Ill show you oxymoron.



Like my pervious water or electric fuel versus oil fuel. Access to water is a problem in many countries. Elecricity sourced from non-renewable resources is more common than renewable forms. Your emissions are just moved from car to elecricity source.


1 comment:

Matthew Brook said...

Your a bit of a green machine ain't ya girl. ;)