Comments on: Oh How Fickle We Are

By: FiL

FiL — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:38:26 +0000

Yep, during my 15 years in the UK I never figured out why, despite the pervading damp & cold, houses were built with one-brick-thick walls and insulation was a legendary substance, second in rarity only to golden fleece.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:47:19 +0000

It’s for the wife. She is from Scotland – believe me I have tried suggesting moving somewhere else often enough. The Scots, for a Scandinavian country, are surprisingly prone to the cold. My workmates are always whinging at the slightest chill.

By: crash

crash — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:17:51 +0000

Well. You can heat up the outdoors if you want, although to be honest I’d recommend a coat or going indoors. It would be de trop to suggest ‘not living in scotland’ as another alternative to those who favour the year-round al fresco effect. I would like to apologise for falling off the wit/sarcasm tightrope on the wong side, too tired and caffeinated, y’know.

By: crash

crash — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:59:25 +0000

Yep

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:54:21 +0000

Oh, and we bought one of those patio heater things (don’t ask) about three days before this whopping great news story broke about how environmentally damaging they are. So we stood there in the garden thinking, well what do we do now, just throw it in the bin?

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:52:58 +0000

The most offensive thing for me about the avalanche of green adverts we’ve had to suffer recently is the fact that the companies in question are just doing the same old shit they’ve always done. ‘Ooh we manufacture tellies but we recycle some of our office stationery, so now we’ll kid on we’re green’. Fuck off.

And Mentok, whilst you are right about the potential of biodegradable plastics these are, in the overwhelming majority of instances, not used at all. Although hopefully this may change soon.

By: crash

crash — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:37:56 +0000

The fact that commerce is trying to “sell” environmentalism simply demonstrates that most people are now at least somewhat educated on the subject and regard it as a value. And that’s a good thing, no? I would hold with that ‘fucking excuse/more shit’ thing. I’m not that much of a fundamentalist – I can see that, for example, it’s better to buy an efficient and economical hybrid car than an SUV – but an awful lot of the time that sort of ‘better’ is marginal compared to the real ‘better’ of refusing to play. I can this smugly because I don’t drive, never have, don’t (and won’t) fly, and generally do the buy local thing whenever we can. I can entirely see the point in investing in disaster management though – maybe it will make people think about just how fucked we really are.

By: Mentok the Mindtaker

Mentok the Mindtaker — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:13:59 +0000

One more Cliff Claven-esque observation:
“Plastic is a hydrocarbon, and hydrocarbons basically come from oil so, simplifying slightly, without oil there is pretty much no plastic.”

I was astounded to learn recently that this is not strictly true. You can make plastic out of vegetable oil. Further, such “natural” plastic is truly biodegradable. It doesn’t just break up into smaller bits of plastic, like the so-called biodegradables you get now; it eventually (decades, sooner with more heat) actually turns back into vegetable oil.

Funny how you don’t hear much about it, eh?

By: Mentok the Mindtaker

Mentok the Mindtaker — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:09:05 +0000

Dammit, Crash, quit beating around the bush and let us know how you really feel

What bugs me the most is the degree to which emotion and prejudice has clouded the minds of everyone from politicians up through to the scientists. It’s hard to decide which is more maddening – the irrational denial or the exaggerated hysteria.

Although I don’t have a sniff about the science myself, I work with many many engineers and geoscientists. Years ago, before it got trendy, I had a lot of convos with them on climate change.

What I’ve gleaned from those discussions with real live scientists (rather than scientist/lobbyists) is that there is in fact a Middle Path both in terms of the science and the reaction to it.

One of the biggest things my engineer friends emphasize is that we need to put much more emphasis on adaptation and a little less on mitigation. Cutting back on emissions, yes, very important, but at this point we’re probably fucked anyway so we might as well get on with the job of investing in dams, retaining walls and water storage.

As for the hypocrisy of business, to wit “IT’S JUST A FUCKING EXCUSE TO FIND ANOTHER REASON TO SELL YOU MORE SHIT” well, yeah. The thing to remember about commerce is that it’s like the hypothalamus of our society. It just reacts, it doesn’t think.

By: crash

crash — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:52:00 +0000

The maths might be complicated but the peer reviewed science all (ALL) says that climate change is happening because of the way we are behaving. I’m all for contraryism as well but the thing that fucks me off most about commerce’s response to environmental concerns is that IT’S JUST A FUCKING EXCUSE TO FIND ANOTHER REASON TO SELL YOU MORE SHIT. I”m waiting for some vaguely respectable science to write about the positive environmental benefits of bat shit so that we can all be told that conflakes now come with added bat shit. It ends up being fairly simple – consume less. Don’t use / reuse / recycle. Be good. Don’t let the bastards grind you down. Face it, we’re fucked, but won’t it be glorious to go out at least trying to shout about the right thing.