you know what really bugs me?

How nowadays, car companies are doing "so much" to make their cars more "environmentally friendly".

Likewise, appliances are mostly all built with "energywise" stickers on them, boasting about how they're doing their part in saving the environment. Same with anything you buy out there. more time passes, the more it seems that the items you buy have to "help the environment".

The problem I have is, why is it that my mom still have a TV she bought in the 70s, you know, the big ugly ones that came in the wooden furniture piece, (which I think is kinda cool actually) and it still works? She still uses the same refrigerator she's beein using since the mid 70s...


My grandfather has an old Lincoln he's been driving for freaken ages, at least 25 years.


But, having purchased my fridge 4 years ago, it's already busted. Washers, dryers, televisions, any freaken appliance you can think of nowadays has a lifespan of what, 7-8 years?


As for cars. . . These supposed car companies that claim that give a slight shit about the environment, are the same companies that make cars that will last us 7-8 years rather than 20-30 years. Where do all the scrap useless cars go afterwards?


All this environmentally friendly garbage we see out there is a HUGE hypocracy. They couldn't give a shit about the environment.

When there's a real problem and the government is afraid of their own livelyhood and of those of their immediate families, that's when some real changes will take effect. Until then, I'm not buying into this whole "you should buy with us because we use popcorn as packaging material cause we really care about biodegratable materials" garbage, when their item will last me a fraction of the time it normally would....


Vent over.

 

Todays cars are more friendly to the environment. They use much less gas than older cars. And todays car production pollute less thanks to new technologies.

And many more electric cars is being made today. I think they will get popular soon.

 

Who gives a fuck what people are trying to do! Everybody! needs to smarten the fuck up, they need to make every car electric, stop making gas cars NOW! Make driving gas cars illegal! Who gives a shit if its an inconveinace to some people, too bad! It's better then having your grandchildren freeze or burn to death because of global warming. the people who support this are just as sick as child molestors or serial killers.

 

Fuckin Car jockey's are a bunch of loser's who need to grow the fuck up an stop worrying about playing with their toys

 

It is marketing, that is the purpose of big business. It always has been, it is nothing new, it is just a new veil they hide behind now.

 

http://beta.legaltorrents.com/get/98-story-of-stuff

Download
Watch
Hate the world

I basically mean this in the consumerism / planned obsolescence way, not the "hidden social costs" way because it's 90% bollocks.

 

Lots of environmental damage created by cars doen't even come from gas. It comes from the fallen forests of Brazil, wich are massively used to make coal in the processing of steal. So a car that last longer would be very environmentally friendly. Of course electric car would be nice, but it's only half of the problem.

 

All the TV's in my house I picked up from the garbage. So you could say I recycled them.

 

On a lesser scale, clothing is the same way. The material is paper thin and the quality poor. You can find vintage items from the '50s and '60s that have held up amazingly all this time, but imagine all those flimsy t-shirts in fifty years - will second hand stores even be around then? None of the products will hold up over time and the garbage pits just keep piling up.

I know this isn't exactly what you were saying (as none of these clothes advertise being made to last, like the appliances you mentioned) but it does bother me. It's just so much waste.

 

It's funny that people will buy things from these "environmentally friendly" companies and think they're actually helping the environment. It'd help the environment a lot more if they didn't buy anything at all, or bought local whenever possible. On a related note, suburbs are probably the most environmentally destructive places to live, but you don't see anybody moving into city apartments. Going vegetarian or vegan would help a lot more than buying an "environmentally friendly" shirt with the words "Think Green" emblazoned on it, but you don't see that happening a lot either. I mean, if it actually affects your comfortable consumer lifestyle, it's just too much work. To blazes with future generations.

 

Tparkboy, maybe caffeine isn't for you. I cannot afford a non-gas car, but I carpool with my gasoline minivan and walk whenever I can. A law like you are proposing would make it impossible for me to get to work, and leave me unemployed and homeless. Laws are not the answer here, but a cultural shift is in progress. It will be slower in coming, but they tend to be more effective that way.

Ludicrous, there is always the embroidery of "Think Green" on a bag made entirely of recycled jeans. I didn't emboider it, but I only use denim that can no longer be worn. Vegetarianism is on the rise, because meat is getting unaffordable, but I think that there will always be omnivores in the world. As for Veganism, I am unconvinced that it is a good idea when free-range milk and eggs are available. The same instincts that made me leave meat behind warn me now against a Vegan diet.

Personally, I think that the best thing anyone can do for the planet is to garden responsibly. Even if all you can grow is a spider plant under a desk lamp, it is something. If you can, fill your windows with herb gardens (Basil scents a home beautifully.), plant random vegatable seeds in weeded alleyways (That is FUN.), or get a plot in a community garden. I wish I had a house with a yard, because I would tirn that yard into dinner. As it is, both of my balconies, all of my windowsills, and a community garden plot are getting overrun this year with vegetables, food/medicinal/magickal herbs, and my favorite flowers. I am planning a worm bin in the kitchen, and have found the city's free compost pile. YAY! Hopefully, while I will probably have to use some artificial chemicals this year, this will be the last one.

 

shit doesn't hold up anymore because its made overseas where workers are paid by the item, and the quantity rather than quality of their work matters. in our parents and grandparents day, when things were built in the U.S. by unionized workers, the emphasis was on quality. when something broke, you took it to the repair shop or the repairman came to your house. now we toss it in the trash and buy new because these services no longer exist (way more trash in landfills). sure you paid more upfront for those products but you were actually getting something for your money, unlike the very affordable shit walmart sells.

for christmas, my grandmother still decorates her house with general electric light strands she bought in the fifties. they still work. i bought a brand new strand of LED's from walmart this year. they burned for two hours, then promptly shorted out, just like every light strand i've bought in the past three years eventually does. outsourcing ruins shit, including worker's lives, the economy, and the environment.

 

pretty well all my Christmas deco's are older than me...Including the tree. I dread the day I have to replace my older Christmas lights with the new LED ones. I think the "colour" from them is hideous.

 

Just because something is made overseas doesn't mean it's poor quality. Phillips products made in the Netherlands are some of the best. Braun from Germany are just as good.
And with the way unions are, I'd much rather not buy from unionized workers. (well, mostly when it comes to cars)

 

i didn't mean that everything made overseas is crap. i meant when its made in places like china, where workers are encouraged to value quantity over quality. i was really only talking about wal mart stuff, or hell, i should just say sweatshop stuff. i'd buy most anything from europe, because its usually of very good quality.

some unions do overstep and demand too much (UAW for example wants more money for unskilled labor than some people with college degrees do) but i challenge anyone who doesn't like unions, whatever, to read up on the horrible stuff that happened to workers before unions (industrial revolution, current sweatshops still in existence today, etc.). then ask yourself if you'd be okay with working in those conditions.

and btw i totally know what you mean about the LEDs. they're horribly ugly but they're way more efficient, so i'll continue to use them.

 

You think I care if you have to hitch hike to fuckin work or not, my daughter won't have a life, so fuck your mini van man

 

Well clegg,

IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE TO DO A 180...Without compulsive spending and conspicuous consumption funded by unaffordable debt, we would fail as a country. So we can't expect things to last very long - as the formula sates we must always be buying stuff.

You ever hear the saying...'I got the tiger by the tail and can't let go?' That is how it has developed in the US of A.

Lets say everyone becomes voluntary simplicity and frugal squirrel devotees. We recycle, reuse, repair and just say no to buying more crap. If we stop buying all the stuff that America imports from China - who keeps the billion plus people in China from starving, so they do not go back to old ways of trying to take over the world?

And on a more local level, if the consumer stops consuming even US goods, the US companies go bust, everyone loses their jobs and his or her retirement funds will collapse.

What about growing a a garden...nothing wrong with that? Lets say everyone starts growing 'victory gardens' in the backyard as food has become unaffordable. So some of the few farmers left in the US go bust cause their food just rots on the shelves unsold. Now there is less food being produced and at even a higher cost to those that can afford it the least.

What about more taxes? Tax the little guy so DC can pay for their compulsive spending disease. More taxes = less for us to compulsively spend 'trying' to buy happiness = lower earnings for the greedy corporations = raise hell with the DOW = less cap gains tax income for the gov to squander = everyone's retirement funds sink lower and lower = even less compulsive spending since everyone is poorer.

Back in the day, (prairie and turn of the century) citizens were more of a self sufficient nature. Most of us have lost that skill of self sufficiency and we have shifted gears to be dependent on gov and a few other such as farmers or oil producers or China to take care of the whole pop of the US. The problem is, it is very hard to go back without causing a lot of pain. (Actually a lot of deaths)

Hell, the impotent people of modern day and age can't even make pancakes or peanut butter sandwiches and have to buy them ready made in the store...it's really scary.

 

It's called Greenwashing, when companies try to make themselves seen as part of the solution to environmental solutions by paying more money on their PR to promote the green image than actually taking measures to reduce their impact.

 

I will always eat meat, always drive my one ton 4 door dully deseil pickup or my half ton pickup and screw you guys for wanting it a law to make gas powered stuff illigal. how would we get our crops in the feild or get my cows to the sale barn. I guess we can go back to the old ways with horse drawn equipment. But oh wait you cant do that because that would take more animals that produce them farts that kill the air oh my god what are we gong to do the worlds going to come to a end. If you would go back to the old way of farming it would take billions and billions of more farmers to produce what we do now. it takes 2 months to plant our crops 2 months to spray our crops and 4 months to harvest our crops with the amount of land i got right now. hmmmm let me see that would all go away nope not going to do it most of the people that are so extreme are so wacko that they make me sick. wake up america!!!

 

i don't mean to be insensitive but when i saw the name of this thread i immediately thought of "ya know what really grinds my gears" lol