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#1 2007-12-05 15:40:38

Number04
Member
From: Calgary Alberta Canada
Registered: 2002-09-24
Posts: 162

Re: I am, therefore I shop.

With Christmas almost upon us most of us will be spending time with friends, family and the shopping cart. TV and newspaper ads tell us every day that our love has a dollar figure. They also tell us that going into debt can only show our love all the more.

Well, I ask all of you to take 20 minutes out of your life and watch a quick video and take some time to think about its message. I love giving gifts and I think it’s a wonderful practice. But, I try my best to be smart about it. Should I buy my brother that new video game he wants, or should I have him over for dinner one day, and actually get to know him better? Does he really need more stuff? Has stuff ever made anyone really happy?

Take a look and ask yourself the same question.


http://www.storyofstuff.com/

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#2 2007-12-05 17:42:31

Martian Republic
Member
From: Haltom City- Dallas/Fort Worth
Registered: 2004-06-13
Posts: 855

Re: I am, therefore I shop.

With Christmas almost upon us most of us will be spending time with friends, family and the shopping cart. TV and newspaper ads tell us every day that our love has a dollar figure. They also tell us that going into debt can only show our love all the more.

Well, I ask all of you to take 20 minutes out of your life and watch a quick video and take some time to think about its message. I love giving gifts and I think it’s a wonderful practice. But, I try my best to be smart about it. Should I buy my brother that new video game he wants, or should I have him over for dinner one day, and actually get to know him better? Does he really need more stuff? Has stuff ever made anyone really happy?

Take a look and ask yourself the same question.


http://www.storyofstuff.com/

I agree that consumerism was created on purpose and that it not in our best interest to continue to do this or to ever having started doing this consumerism at all. This urban sprawl is also part of this consumerism and wrong headed ideals.

But, this green idea isn't the way to go and will only kill billions of people as it end result. There is no such thing as sustainability or using renewable resources to sustain a human society. This green idea is only another way of killing off large numbers of people. Some people know this fact, but most people that are jumping on this band wagon probably don't know this fact.

Yes, they are right that we will have to retake the US Government and Yes, we will have to change the way that we choose to do things. They do not understand how a physical economy is suppose to function and it is neither by consumerism or by those green ideas.

Larry,

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#3 2007-12-06 12:51:24

Number04
Member
From: Calgary Alberta Canada
Registered: 2002-09-24
Posts: 162

Re: I am, therefore I shop.

What does buying less products have to do with killing people? The main point I got from the movie is that we don’t need all this crap. I’ve worked in industry and I’ve seen how much wastes is created, just so people can wear the newest fashions and drive the biggest cars. We can make light bubbles that last 100 years, so why do we keep buying bulbs that only last 6 months?

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#4 2007-12-06 15:54:43

Commodore
Member
From: Upstate NY, USA
Registered: 2004-07-25
Posts: 1,021

Re: I am, therefore I shop.

We can make light bubbles that last 100 years, so why do we keep buying bulbs that only last 6 months?

Because the people who make the light bubbles would be very, very bored after a short time.


"Yes, I was going to give this astronaut selection my best shot, I was determined when the NASA proctologist looked up my ass, he would see pipes so dazzling he would ask the nurse to get his sunglasses."
---Shuttle Astronaut Mike Mullane

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#5 2007-12-07 14:43:12

Terraformer
Member
From: The Fortunate Isles
Registered: 2007-08-27
Posts: 3,901
Website

Re: I am, therefore I shop.

I've never heard of light bubbles. What are they?


Use what is abundant and build to last

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#6 2007-12-07 19:38:54

Martian Republic
Member
From: Haltom City- Dallas/Fort Worth
Registered: 2004-06-13
Posts: 855

Re: I am, therefore I shop.

What does buying less products have to do with killing people? The main point I got from the movie is that we don’t need all this crap. I’ve worked in industry and I’ve seen how much wastes is created, just so people can wear the newest fashions and drive the biggest cars. We can make light bubbles that last 100 years, so why do we keep buying bulbs that only last 6 months?

I am not saying that we in the United States need everything that we are buying to use in this throw away society. I am not defending this throw away society at all.

All I am saying is: The green solution has some good points, but it in itself isn't a solution either.

My preferred choice is a Government Planed society based on the General welfare concept of the US Constitution. Under that kind of system, it would be based on what the best system to promote the best interest of the people instead of just satisfying some faceless Corporation profit concept of economics. In such a system, the government would be constantly looking to develop higher levels of technologies to both conserve resources and to advance mankind in the future. We would also be creating new resource for our future population too. If we go to higher sources of fuel like fission and develop fusion power, then we won't be burning Coal or natural gas to run electric power generator. It clean up the environment and it preserve those resources for other uses like for making plastic and other building materials. If all we do is cut back of using those expendable then it will not be a sustainable economy, because we will run out of those things, but only on a slower pace then what we are doing right now. We need to go from just consuming those resources and go to actually generating those resources artificially. That means we will have to generate a whole lot more electricity to produce those resource artificially, because it take a lot of energy to produce them if we do it artificially. We would also look into the possibility of developing anti Matter electric generators to supply the power that we will need to generate those resource artificially, because of the power usage that it will require to generate those resources artificially. Think Star Trek Replicators, that the direction that we want to go with future technologies that we want to develop.

Larry,

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#7 2007-12-07 22:37:45

Commodore
Member
From: Upstate NY, USA
Registered: 2004-07-25
Posts: 1,021

Re: I am, therefore I shop.

I've never heard of light bubbles. What are they?

I assumed he was referring to leds.


"Yes, I was going to give this astronaut selection my best shot, I was determined when the NASA proctologist looked up my ass, he would see pipes so dazzling he would ask the nurse to get his sunglasses."
---Shuttle Astronaut Mike Mullane

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#8 2007-12-08 04:35:22

Terraformer
Member
From: The Fortunate Isles
Registered: 2007-08-27
Posts: 3,901
Website

Re: I am, therefore I shop.

I'd use a load of LEDs once they get round to making one with three materials in: red, green a blue, so when it's turned on all three glow and produce white light.


Use what is abundant and build to last

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#9 2007-12-10 04:59:30

maxie
Banned
From: Europe
Registered: 2005-02-15
Posts: 84

Re: I am, therefore I shop.

But, this green idea isn't the way to go and will only kill billions of people as it end result. There is no such thing as sustainability or using renewable resources to sustain a human society. This green idea is only another way of killing off large numbers of people. Some people know this fact, but most people that are jumping on this band wagon probably don't know this fact.

Why do you believe that sustainabilty is such a bad thing ? Do you have any arguments ? Besides, in Cuba, during the oil embargo, sustainability saved the life of millions. Am I getting something wrong ?

BTW, I think Number04 was reffering to light bulbs, not bubbles...

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#10 2007-12-14 11:03:15

Number04
Member
From: Calgary Alberta Canada
Registered: 2002-09-24
Posts: 162

Re: I am, therefore I shop.

What can I say? I’m guilty of blindly using spell checker .

While government intervention is a nice idea… they don’t exactly have a great track record. Quite the opposite actually being that they chose cooperation over individual every time. But, the consumer holds the power in the corporation. If no one bought lead toys from China, they wouldn’t make them anymore.

We live in a very, very wasteful world. People buy the latest fashions and gadgets at the cost of our planet and the well being of people in the third world.

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#11 2007-12-14 19:22:28

Martian Republic
Member
From: Haltom City- Dallas/Fort Worth
Registered: 2004-06-13
Posts: 855

Re: I am, therefore I shop.

But, this green idea isn't the way to go and will only kill billions of people as it end result. There is no such thing as sustainability or using renewable resources to sustain a human society. This green idea is only another way of killing off large numbers of people. Some people know this fact, but most people that are jumping on this band wagon probably don't know this fact.

Why do you believe that sustainabilty is such a bad thing ?

The concept of sustainability only works up to a certain point and then the idea fall on it face. The very concept of sustainability only slow down the use of those resources like iron and such, they don't eliminate this using up those resources up.

For example let take the energy problem. During the time of the American Revolution the energy source was wood burning fire places. Then we went to wood burning stoves. Then we went to coal burning furnaces for our energy. Then we went to natural gas furnaces for our energy. Now we need to go to fission power for our energy. We also need to develop fusion power for our future energy needs and maybe later on matter anti-matter generators some time into the future. Each new energy source is a higher density energy source that provides more power or electricity than the energy source before it. We can also support larger number of people because of those higher density energy sources. We did not solve our energy problem by growing more trees. We solved our energy problem by going to a higher energy density source rather than conserving would we were already using.

Do you have any arguments ? Besides, in Cuba, during the oil embargo, sustainability saved the life of millions. Am I getting something wrong ?

I never said in the short term, that you could not make it on what you have to work with. Short term being several years or maybe even thirty or forty yeas or even longer time frame even.

Your still using iron ore and you will always be mining iron ore to supply your needs and there only a certain amount of iron ore that you can mine and that it. You can recycle some of that iron that already been use to extend the supply of what you need to live on in a modern society, but it too is limited. You can also choose to limit the number of people that are using those resources and that will also extend the time that you will also have sufficient supply of iron ore. But, even doing all this with that sustainable concept of economics, you will still eventually run out of iron ore. because, we are still using that iron ore up. We may do it faster or we may do it slower, but there is no such thing as being sustainable and there never was such a thing as this.

The only way to get around this problem of running out of iron ore, is to develop new and more advanced technologies so we can glean more iron ore out of increasing poor and low percentages of iron in iron ore and to get new supplies of iron from some place else. As long as we are always developing new technologies, then we can always stay ahead of the curve of running out of stuff. Other wise we will eventually run out of stuff and then every things will stop.

Larry

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#12 2007-12-17 10:48:44

Number04
Member
From: Calgary Alberta Canada
Registered: 2002-09-24
Posts: 162

Re: I am, therefore I shop.

We solved our energy problem by going to a higher energy density source rather than conserving would we were already using.

That is the way that we DID to it, but who’s to say there wasn’t a better way? How many eco systems were destroyed due to coal mining because middle America now needs 2000 square foot homes? If you tell a fat man that it’s ok that he is fat because there is food available and he should eat as much as he wants, you haven’t solved anything.

But, even doing all this with that sustainable concept of economics, you will still eventually run out of iron ore. because, we are still using that iron ore up. We may do it faster or we may do it slower, but there is no such thing as being sustainable and there never was such a thing as this.

And it’s the environmentalists that understand this better then anyone. Everyone knows that we are going to run out, but why make it sooner? Why don’t we try to recycle as much as possible and use only what we need so that it happens much much later?



The attitude of “it’s going to happen, just let it happen” is one of ignorance. If we can delay disaster as much as possible, why would you not at least try?

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#13 2007-12-17 14:06:06

Tom Kalbfus
Banned
Registered: 2006-08-16
Posts: 4,401

Re: I am, therefore I shop.

To try and get off of this planet that's why. The fact is, most of the mass of Earth is made up of iron, I don't think there is any danger of running out of Iron, not unless we run out of Earth. Instead of sitting on this planet and worrying whether we'll use up its resources quick or slow, we should work on ways of getting of of this planet. Its kind of ludicrous to suggest that we'll use up all the materials in the Universe, so we've got to give up this planetary living. What we do while trying to find ways of getting off Earth won't matter a hill of beans.

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