Posted by: Carlos Hurworth on: December 15, 2009
I was in India recently, and nearing Christmas and engaging in sometimes frivolous conversation with rickshaw drivers and the like, I often asked “what happens at Christmas time here?” – The general consensus amongst all that I asked was “a really big party”. – Nothing unusual there. But I had to ask, because I had to wonder. – There aren’t decorations sprawling streetwards from businesses, or climbing lightpoles and strangling trees. Christmas music doesn’t filter from speakers in lifts or lobbies or halls or rooms. And there is very little (if any) advertising for “Christmas bargains!” or anything of the sort.
Across one small span of ocean from India’s east coast however, you will find Christmas has taken on a traditional flavour of the sort we are more used to here in the western world. In Singapore, carols infest almost every space, with version upon version of all of the tunes we’ve come to know. There’s advertising on walls, televisions, radios, buses, trains and their stations – the list is almost endless. And I realize finally, after much detachment from the Christmas that I am used to, that we’re only a matter of days away, and the typical push for consumption and money that we see in the western world is indeed, slowly filtering in to the east. Ah modern consumer culture.
But why not yet in India? – Is this some measure of capitalism’s impression on a nation’s thinking? Is it a sign of just how far Singapore has come, and how far India is from really being the player on the world stage that they are hoping to be? (Don’t tell them). Look up how they celebrate Christmas in for example, Vietnam, Africa, Peru, Samoa or Uzbekistan (all of which aren’t yet dictated by capitalist ideas) and the focus seems to invariably be on celebrating family and feasting (just like India) – not spending and consuming.
The fact of the matter is that now – more so than ever – Christmas is a time when retailers can push consumers to give their profits one last positive kick for the year. It’s the months leading in to it that determine whether or not salespeople hit their targets, and if you’re part of this machine (as we inevitably are in western society), you’ll jump right on to the train of thought that Christmas capitalism teaches. What’s the point of really pushing for that consumer dollar (or rupee, as it were) if they haven’t yet inherited our culture of consumption and growth?
Seriously though, do we (or does anyone) really need an excuse to encourage consumerism in today’s consumption and growth-driven society? Where over-consumption and the inherent consequences of it (pollution, waste, global warming, climate change, death, greed, hunger, excess, detachment, escapism – the list is almost endless) are continuously and increasingly inhibiting and harming our lives and futures.
Are retail and commercial organizations not simply “cashing in on Christmas” in order to improve their bottom line? Is the fact that India wasn’t gearing up for Christmas (even in December) – where big spending of a commercial nature is only now starting to really grow – some measure of their society’s ability (or current inability) to contribute cash to the machine that Christmas has become?
The point isn’t to get back into church, and pick up your bible and speak to “god” (whoever yours might be) on Christmas day. The point is that the capitalist machine further and further infiltrates more and more aspects of our lives, wherever and whenever it can. Getting back in touch with giving thanks for family, friends and our relationships, and sharing merriment ought to be far more important, especially over the behest of capitalism’s grave desire for growth – or should we call it a majority contribution to the destruction of our earth? I’m sure the rest of the world will soon follow suit, because money is most important, right?
Posted by: Carlos Hurworth on: December 14, 2009
When people think of India’s Goa, images of a state full of sex, drugs, alcohol, partying and pristine beaches are no doubt often conjured. Quite recently, amongst those on an Indian tour itinerary, a stigma has even seemed to have developed to traveling there, some opting to shun it in favour of a more genuine, wholesome Indian experience.
Contemplating my own journey there, I didn’t know what to expect. But after a positive and diverse experience, I was shown another facet of India – something very unique in itself, and its (self-proclaimed) Un-Indian-ness – and given much food for thought in a place that was in times gone by, being chastised for its over-bearing tourist culture, but now benefiting from thoughtful reforms.
Goa on the whole, is a prosperous state, thriving on its ever-booming tourist industry. In its capital, Panaji – away from the beaches that have burgeoned this boom – it still bubbles with the colour and life that its Portuguese predecessors left behind, also dotted with impressive white-washed churches, amongst the brightly coloured houses and buildings in the often narrow, European-esque streets.
But the beaches and their attractions are where it’s at for most who come to India’s smallest state, and also what has helped it prosper. Traveling south from some of Goa’s northernmost beaches, you run the whole gamut of styles. From untouched and undeveloped, to once loved and now neglected. Deservingly, one of Goa’s most southern beaches – Palolem – gets much of the acclaim, and still attracts hoards of visitors that have seen it gain its reputation. But it wasn’t always fun and games.
A few years back, Palolem was so over-run with shacks and stalls and people trying to cash in on the tourist trade, that it was beginning to represent an illegal camping ground, not only spewing waste and pollution river and ocean-wards, but also leaking controversial amounts of noise into its once stilled air.
When I arrived there, a recent closing and demolition of all unlicensed traders gave the beach a vastly different feel to its former day. Although prices for accommodation and other tourist fare may have risen (in a slightly disproportionate fashion) the businesses that remained had a strong sense of community pride – no doubt borne out of their satisfaction of being amongst those still allowed to operate.
What remains at Palolem now, is a beach that is remarkably clean, with wildlife offshore; healthily competitive bars and restaurants, many serving excellent local and international dishes; a good spate of quality beachside accommodation, in creative, clean, communal and welcoming surrounds, all blanketed in an almost surreal and hedonistic, friendly community vibe. And the parties are still there. The people are still out to socialize. And there’s still as much fun as you need to accidentally stay there, far longer than you first expected.
Perhaps it’s not really India, but what has happened in Palolem, ought to be a model for many communities and cities within the country. – Palolem was one of the only beaches that was virtually litter free, and its surrounds continued its cleanliness – something of which was very few and far between. What’s more, is that there were actually people assigned to enforce the change of rules, as well as maintain the high standards that are no doubt being stressed.
India is striving to be a player on the global stage. Consumption and growth however, are seeing its massive population, clearly struggling with the ideas being inherited (or forced) upon their society by “the west”. The amount of waste – and the methods of disposal – coupled with a lack of education as to the damage such neglect will cause, will soon destroy everything that was once sacred in this country of vast wonder.
Taking a leaf from Palolem’s book will not only help to create an attitude of preservation and cleanliness and environmental awareness that will benefit all (completely non-existent to some people, who simply drop litter where they finish with it) but it will surely help to employ a workforce needed to shift the population’s thinking. The benefits for each individual community will only then proliferate. Call me idealistic? Spend some time in Palolem, and you’ll come to realize the possibilities – and the necessities – in a land of endless wonder.
Posted by: Carlos Hurworth on: November 3, 2009
In the leadup to the monumentally important Copenhagen climate summit, The UK Guardian is hosting forums involving MP’s who will be present at the talks, hoping to exert influence and see positive and lasting changes come out of the talks. Liberal Democrat spokesman for energy and climate change Simon Hughes was available for questioning this week. The following question was posed to him:
02 Nov 09, 2:50pm (about 20 hours ago)
The biggest quandary in my mind is the disconnect between the current economic system and the limits that both climate change and peak resources present to macroeconomics. We need economic growth to provide jobs and investment in our current system and without growth it would be difficult to finance the R&D and capital investment needed to roll out efficiency improvements, new alternative energy, transport and electricity networks. Professor Tim Jackson has recently written a very good paper on this problem – “Prosperity Without Growth”.
How do you and your party view this issue – is it possible to still have growing economies once environmental and resource considerations are added to the way we view economics? And if not, how do we provide new technologies the investment they need?
Thank you for your time today.
Tomas L. Martin
To which i responded:
I agree wholeheartedly with you. Moreover, whether it is “possible to still have growing economies once environmental and resource considerations are added to the way we view economics” is beside the point as far as im concerned. A radical shift in economic thinking – away from old models, that fail to incorporate externalities like species extinction, resource depletion, ozone destruction etc, and only focus on growth and production, rather than sustainability – is what is needed in order to ensure humanity’s longevity, while limiting the ecological costs that we pass on to future generations. This concept may seem improbable, suffocating (even negative), frightening or even impossible, but reduced consumption and a slow-down in growth is imperative, lest we further manufacture and quicken our demise. Do you think this is a possibility? How do you measure when an economy has reached the limits of its growth – where cost outweighs benefits? Is classical economic theory ready to move towards a more sustainable model?
I have no doubt that if we cannot move towards a more sustainable way of economic thinking – where we pay the true cost for goods and services, for example (factoring in the costs on the ecology – which are ignored, deemed “externalities” by current economic theory) that the demise of our planet will be crippling and sudden. Most economists would baulk at the concept of limiting growth, and i sincerely doubt whether the vast majority of them currently practicing economics (as well as those who are teaching future generations of economists) would be able to pose a compelling answer as to when an economy reaches the limits of its growth – when the costs outweigh the benefits of increased prodution. Resources and funding need to be directed towards renewable energy, public transport and carbon efficient industry, amongst many other efforts that have been ignored for too long. Nobel prize winner Wassily Leontief once remarked that “departments of economics are graduating a generation of idiotic savants, brilliant at esoteric mathematics yet innocent of actual economic life”. Undoubtedly, his words encompass all neoclassical economic theory, blatantly out of touch with people, and totally dependent on mathematical models. As our ecology continues to suffer, and our resources near their limits, are we truly ready for this essential shift in thinking, or is the bottom line of those practitioners who deem growth and consumption an economic necessity destined to doom our existence?
Posted by: Carlos Hurworth on: October 29, 2009
Ms. Anna Bligh MP.
The following comment will preface the context of this letter, which i hope you will take very seriously. While i am certain that this will not be the only letter of this kind that you have received lately (and will certainly see more of) i believe i speak for a massive amount of people regarding the issue i am addressing. This is a comment made on a page addressed to you:
- Glass and glasses exist for a particular reason, and that is because the style, construct and quality of the vessel from which you drink – be it wine, a beer, a cocktail or anything at all – has a great effect on the taste, texture and all other characteristics of the drink you are consuming. When you are at home and having a tipple, do you use plastic to be safe? Or do you use your favourite Riedel wine glass, in order to enhance the bouquet of your Beaujolais?
Eliminate the aspects from clubs that make them “high risk” – or enforce measures for venues to monitor them – dont dilute the experience that the public are having at these venues, and further kill the ever-struggling bar and club industry in Brisbane!!
Your plastic cup idea in high risk venues is aiming to implement an ignorant plan that will see Brisbane’s entertainment districts suffer. While the middle class – detatched and distant from the scene that they are despising – are singing the praises of a government that is “finally listening”, obviously there is outcry amongst those who see a different despair for a city that has long lived in the minnows of the capitals of southern states – and undeservedly so.
What is a “high risk” venue anyway? Is it something just as ambiguous and wide-ranging as a “terrorist” in the US’s Patriot Act?
Furthermore, your plan is yet another example of government attempting to create the impression that you are acting on behalf of your people, by applying a metaphoric, poor quality band-aid, to a gaping wound, in order to stem the flow of blood from a potentially crippling injury. Insisting that the venues “responsible” for the violence incur the subsequent costs (by forfeiting business with shorter operating hours, or in the case of your proposal, by paying for 1000’s of various plastic cups a week to stock their venues with) is a weak and transparent attempt by you and your government to pass the buck, find scapegoats and assure voters and the police (or fool them into thinking) that you are combating the problem.
I wonder how many of these voters you are trying to win favour with have actually had direct experience with one of these alcohol fuelled violent outbursts you are alluding to? And conversely, how many of them are standing by, nodding their heads in self-righteous agreement with your senselessly strangulatory policies?
I trust they will be thinking little of the consequences of disgruntled revellers pouring streetwards at 2am, wondering where to go? – Or of the prohibitive costs of supplying plastic cups, and then subsequently disposing of them. How about the ecological cost of all the needless waste that will be created in these venues?
Need I mention the license holders, venue owners, security staff, alcohol sales reps, wine makers, wine growers, cab drivers, promotional teams, employers, employees, dj’s, entertainers, cleaners and others also, who will be at a loss to cope with the effective pay cut that they will all be enduring, with regard to the 2am close proposals, and the reduced business that plastic cups in clubs and bars will herald. Add all this together, and the downward spiral is initiated: by you, your peers, the police and its beauracracy.
Most of all, have you any idea the liftetime that plastic lasts on our earth, and the costs the environment will pay? In his book ‘The world without us’, Alan Weisman, investigating the mark we would leave behind, and how the earth would cope, were we to disappear from existence, quotes researchers who estimate that the world’s oceans harbour around 3 million tonnes of plastic. – And that is only an accumulation of 50 years of plastic’s existence! Further to this, Weisman also noted that “the real reason the world’s landfills aren’t overflowing with plastics” is because “most of it ends up in an ocean-fill” amazingly resistant to degradation, and washed or blown into our waterways and eventually out to sea, where salt and cool temperatures make them more resistant to degradation, and algaes protect them from the sun – virtually forever, or at least many millennia after we will cease to exist, and earth’s oceans and ecologies continue to suffer.
Even biodegradable plastics end up in minute particles in the ocean that plankton – feeding much of the worlds oceanic ecology – and microscopic bacteria, still haven’t evolved sufficiently enough, in order to break them down. Insisting that we contribute still more plastics to a world already beginning to struggle with it (in the very short time that is has existed) is irresponsible, to say the least. (If you doubt this point, consult chapter 9 – Polymers are forever – of Weisman’s book)
“Plastic is still plastic” he continues, and “the material still remains a polymer.” He also notes that plastic is not biodegradable in any practical time scale. “There is no mechanism in the marine environment to biodegrade that long a molecule.” And that’s not to mention all the plastic still stuck on the land. – I think it is worth repeating how irresponsible and thoughtless your idea is.
Real commitments on your part would involve funding increased training schedules for license holders, owners and managers, as well as strict training for staff in clubs (on responsible service of alcohol, and foreseeing, noticing, controlling and restricting potential troublemakers) – which includes those behind the bar, as well as security staff stationed inside venues, and at their doors where increasingly, troublesome revellers are being ushered in, by poorly trained, ignorant and unintelligent security staff, without a view to the damage that these affected people could go on to cause. Real commitments would take into account all factors in the equation – including tourism, entertainment and culture, promoting social interaction, supporting and attracting business and enterprise and anticipating the effects that a loss of employment hours will have on a city’s young, who one day (with government support or not) hope to go on to be successful – not just the votes of the conservative middle classes. Your solution is a massive cop-out that will see discerning customers staying at home, and the entertainment industry in Brisbane suffering a slow, and painful death, with little left to be proud of in what has so often been a burgeoning and then suffocated scene.
Real commitments would involve precious time and money, which you are effectively saying, you are not willing to commit.
Posted by: Carlos Hurworth on: October 27, 2009
First and foremost: many people who frequent the venues you are proposing to close at 2am are there to socialise. Alcohol is a lubricant to this social interaction, and applying ludicrous limits to its consumption will cause patrons to consume alcohol at a faster rate, with the earlier closing time in mind. The subsequent results need no mentioning.
Secondly: ALL research into successful alcohol and drug policy correlates with education and treatment increases, and decreases in mandatory restrictions and sentences. Citing examples of European cities and their early closing hours is a weak example – the cost of alcohol related vandalism and violence in the UK, per year – where binge drinking amongst youth is ridiculously rife – is in the billions of pounds to the taxpayer and government! Having worked in the UK, i have seen first hand how glaringly irresponsible vendors are, and with no fear of reprimand. Insisting that license holders and owners inherit these costs by forcing them to lose business, rather than committing government money and resources to this problem is a vote-buying campaign, and a blatantly deceitful buck-passing maneuver, that ignores the fact that politicians should be campaigning to enforce increased proper education of responsible service, and recognition of problematic behaviour within venues for service and security staff. Suffocating the entertainment industry in Brisbane will slowly cause the deaths of many businesses, cause unemployment (leading to further problems, and perhaps crime) and relegate our nightlife to something that we can no longer be proud of.
The police force governing my hometown in Brisbane, Australia are attempting to impose a ban on venues staying open later than 2am, in order to quell a problem with violence that they are saying law enforcement bodies and the government themselves are struggling to cope with. While the middle class – detatched and distant from the scene that they are despising – are singing the praises of a police force and government that is “finally listening”, obviously there is outcry amongst those who see a different despair for a city that has long lived in the minnows of the capitals of southern states – and undeservedly so.
Furthermore, this act is yet another example of the cops attempting to create the impression that they are acting on behalf of its people, by applying a metaphoric, poor quality band-aid, to a gaping wound, in order to stem the flow of blood from a potentially crippling injury. As i mentioned in my response to the column in The Courier Mail – one of News Limited’s newspapers in the country – insisting that the venues “responsible” for the violence incur the costs (by forfeiting business with the shorter operating hours) is a weak and transparent attempt by the police to pass the buck, find scapegoats and assure voters that they are combating the problem. I wonder how many of these voters they are trying to win favour with have actually had direct experience with one of these alcohol fuelled violent outbursts the police are alluding to? And how many of them are standing by, nodding their heads in self-righteous agreement with these policies? I trust they will be thinking little of the consequences of disgruntled revellers pouring streetwards at 2am, wondering where to go. Or of the license holders, venue owners, security staff, alcohol sales reps, wine makers, wine growers, cab drivers, promotional teams, employers, employees, dj’s, entertainers, cleaners and others who may be at a loss to cope with the effective pay cut that they will all be enduring. And the downward spiral continues…
When will this beauracracy realise that these kind of solutions lack the foresight to get a job done, and done well, with finality? – For years the American government has imposed incredibly though laws and mandatory minimum sentencing on drug and alcohol offenders, that has not only seen their drug problem escalate in many states, but has caused their prisons to be astonishingly over-filled, at an even greater cost to the government and taxpayers.
In the UK – where closing times of almost all venues are notoriously early – alcohol related problems are amongst the worst in the world (for stats, see other articles in this blog: ‘Binge drinking in the UK’) and education for those selling and/or dispensing alcohol is virtually non-existent, whilst recognition amongst staff of over-intoxicated customers is extremely rare. – What does this say of their country’s need (and our own!) to curb their problems?
Real commitments would involve funding increased training schedules for license holders, owners and managers, as well as strict training for staff in clubs – which includes those behind the bar, as well as security staff stationed inside venues, and at their doors where inscreasingly, troublesome revellers are being ushered in, by poorly trained, ignorant and unintelligent security staff, without a view to the damage that these affected people could go on to cause. Real commitments would take into account all factors in the equation – including tourism, entertainment and culture, promoting social interaction, supporting and attracting business and enterprise and anticipating the effects that a loss of employment hours will have on a city’s young, who one day (with government support or not) hope to go on to be successful – not just the votes of the conservative middle classes. Real commitments would involve precious time and money, which the Queensland Police force, and perhaps the government is effectively saying, they are not willing to commit.
Posted by: Carlos Hurworth on: October 26, 2009
Climate change. Climate and change. Two words that are more and more being spoken together in ever more concerned tones. While endless theories abound as to how, when and where our demise may occur, and what may cause it, what if it were already too late? – Currently, we are consuming in one year what it takes the earth one year and three months to produce, and with population levels set to reach 10 million globally by 2050, one can only imagine that this disproportionate amount of consumption will increase. So why the climate change?
Overpopulation may be one thing driving the changes in the earth’s atmosphere, but combine this with overconsumption and inefficient ways of production and disposal, and we rape the earth even more. For too long, growth has been the driving force of our economies, spurring on consumption, and feeding the bottom line of a generation of CEO’s and shareholders, only concerned with their immediate and swift success, at the demise of mother nature, and without a scerric of thought for the generations to come. Kyoto protocols and UN agreements on climate and emissions may be one thing, but the biggest and most determining factor in the whole equation requires a massive shift in the way we think of our economies and their growth.
At what point does an economy reach its limit? When is growth too much? When is it enough? When do the harms of growth outweigh the benefits? And with what aspect of economic thinking – still currently riddled with maths and absent of the irrational, and the random aspects of human nature – do we measure the cost on the earth, our home. Surely one must realise that without a place to live, the fruits of our labour will be null and void? But surely too, there are many who simply don’t or won’t care, when their eyes are on their own gleaming prize, that they will soon take to their expensive grave. – Leaving the young to grow and struggle, inheriting the costs of their mistakes.
Ego: Our ability to be self-aware. It’s perhaps one critical element that sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom, and perhaps what may be one of the most influential instrument in our demise, lest we manage it in a sensible and functional way. In his book “The World Without Us” which investigates how the world and its flora and fauna would fair if – for whichever reason – we disappeared from existence (as has happened in ages passed) Alan Weisman poses a grim question of our folly: Speaking of baboons – the primates possessing the largest brain after homo sapiens – he says that “If human crops (in our absence) revert to a mosaic of woods and grassland, and if baboons fill our keystone slot, would they be satisfied to dwell in pure natural beauty? Or could curiosity and sheer narcissistic delight in their unfolding powers eventually push them and their planet to the brink, too?”
Posted by: Carlos Hurworth on: October 15, 2009
With sharp rises in knife crime and other gang related violence – both within alleged gangs and towards the general civilian population – recently, youth crime has been a poignant issue for many in London and the UK as a whole. While all youth crime statistics have seen a rise (there was controversy earlier this year in relation to a manipulation of government figures released that suggested there was a decline in youth crime, later exposed as not taking into account penalty notices for disorder relating to minor offences and anti-social behaviour, which were decidedly significant) the biggest rises have been seen in relation to crimes relating to violence.
In recent years the murder rate in the country has been said to have tripled, while the government has continued to scramble for ideas on policy to reduce youth crime and its related problems, often coining the phrase “broken Britain” when referring to the country’s problems, and blaming their peers and opposition for the alarming figures and failures.
Almost irrespective of the type of crime they are involved in, it is hard to understand just what can bring the country’s youth to be where they are today. Youths and children are joining gangs at increasingly alarming rates, and the average age is continuing to drop; gun crimes are more frequently being committed by under 18’s, and more and more youths are using and selling drugs at much higher rates than the rest of Europe. Many of those ending up committing and promoting crime suffer a lack of education. Be it at home, amongst friends, at school or university, the values we place on society and ourselves, as well as our role within these structures has a lot to do with how and what we are taught, and the methods through which we learn them.
While London may be one of the hardest cities in the world to break free from the socio-economic demographic you were born into (i.e. children born in to poor families are most likely to be poor when they are older, and vice-versa for the rich) the education system – within normal society and also in the UK prisons – seems to be failing Britain’s young. Most recently, figures reported that literacy and numeracy levels in prisons here were at their lowest ever – a culmination of a steady many years of decline. And the story is the same on the outside.
Unfortunately, for many of the UK’s young, their struggle within an education system that is falling short of its essential targets, offers them little hope for a successful future, in an increasingly demanding society. What’s more is the fact that most of the schools in poorer areas are acknowledged by the government as failing, and many of the children enrolled in these schools will be incomparably disadvantaged by what the government statistics show as extremely poor results – and at GCSE level only. Without any prospects, and a grim picture of adult life, youths and teenagers in Britain are surely losing hope, and quickly going off the rails, encouraged and recruited by gang members preying on their disillusionment.
Speaking at a conference for the Australian Association for Research in Education, at the University of Adelaide, Toni G. Cross and George F. Lewis – both of Sydney’s Macquarie University Institute of early childhood – commented that “children born into socioeconomically disadvantaged families often have poor educational outcomes, exhibit more externalising behaviours and more depressive symptoms”.
How many of these children are growing up to struggle with unplanned pregnancies and unexpected children, is also a warning that the government is falling down when it comes to sex education and reforms that dangerously encourage low-income couples into having children. A lack of education on Sex and Health, as well as family planning – imperative in limiting unplanned pregnancies – in underfunded schools exacerbate the situation further still – the Guardian reported late last year that the only requirement for Sex and Health education is a small unit as part of the science curriculum. The same report also stated that even the curriculum that is recommended to British schools is vastly inadequate when it comes to educating children about their health. It’s an unfortunate cycle that perpetuates an endless struggle.
Government needs to address the distinct lack of resources that the nation’s poor receives when it comes to education, as well as the current standards it is applying to its schools and its teachers. The differences between the opportunities that the rich get, compared to those who aren’t as well off are simply shocking, as we have seen. Outside of the education system, local, and even nationwide projects that get youth involved within the community, are vital to create a sense of belonging and worth for kids today. Government should also be encouraging businesses to get involved. Youth need to be acknowledged for their value to their community, in all its forms.
In as multicultural city as London is – a city where there is such a diverse range of people expressing their opinions and practicing their beliefs – such unity will always be a considerable battle. In its essence though, education will always cause a greater understanding of what divides some of us and hence, give us the knowledge to overcome our differences. The young just need a commitment from those who they are supposed to be looking up to.
Posted by: Carlos Hurworth on: October 12, 2009
The following was written in response to an article published in the Evening Standard newspaper. Newstand advertisements called it a “£2,000 pound per year electricity bill warning” rather than seeing it for the warning that it actually should have been…
By creating an impression of simply being a “warning” against what could be a 60 percent rise in household electricity bills, your recent front page story (£2,000 a year bill for your power – ES Friday October 9) ignores the fact that a rise in prices of goods and services that are diminishing our earth’s resources is what’s needed in order to slow the destruction of the planet we are living in.
What’s more, is that it fails to clarify that the “massive levels of investment needed” and the subsequent “high likelihood of consumer bills” is a reflection of the cost of providing cleaner, greener energy, in order to provide (and hopefully) ensure the sustainability of our earth’s resources in the future, and for generations to come.
At present, there is very little that we pay for that factors in the true cost of the damage we are causing to the planet we live in. Politicians, economists and the media alike fail to acknowledge how much continued inefficient electricity use, and overuse (for example) costs the environment, while ignoring the limits to economic growth, and overlooking whether or not further growth or increases in supply and demand are necessary, or simply detrimental and destructive.
In the capitalist, consumer age we live in, on an ever overpopulating earth, profit margins lick their metaphoric lips at the idea of increasing supply, to support an over-demand. – And this excess in demand, is clearly now what we are insisting of our earth and its resources, all the while ignoring the drastic environmental costs of our choices.
“£2,000 per year for your power bill” should herald a change of thinking where humanity becomes more aware of the factors in our lives that are contributing to the diminishing of life’s existence; where we accept that a rise in price should promote a decrease in consumption and where we finally accept that we should be paying the true cost – i.e. a price that tells the ecological truth about the products that we are buying – for goods and services that we desire and need.
It’s time that our consciousness shifted towards accepting responsibility for the costs of our footprint on the earth, rather than choosing to pass it on to future generations – lest we witness our own, unsustainable demise.
Posted by: Carlos Hurworth on: October 7, 2009
Amongst just eight people or so on a recent night of a few drinks at a friend’s place, we managed to amass around a cubic metre of waste without even trying. I was amazed, and the rest of us were made aware when i exclaimed look how much waste we’ve created in just one night! …
I saw the front of a magazine today. A magazine that i assume, is aimed at up and coming businesses and entrepreneurs, and profiled (i assume) successful businesses, business men and women. “Nokia is creating 13 phones every second” its CEO (or similar figure) quoted on the front cover, told us “we will soon be the biggest entertainment network in the world”. Impressive for some. – What do you think? Consume, create, stimulate, grow? Or will it only impress a certain mind? And for the risk of making a sweeping generalisation, what does it imply about the target audience? Do i really care about making sweeping generalisations? Is it not better that you (the reader) think about this situation (at the very least) and come to your own conclusion. At least you’ve cogitated.
My most immediate thought was i wonder how many tonnes of landfill and waste those phones and their components and accessories will create? So it caused me to write this bunch of lines and words forming sentences and paragraphs…
Create, consume, grow, stimulate, pollute, ignore, prosper, die…
