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Showing results for tags 'Natural Resources'.
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Here is an interesting thread from nearly ten years ago: "Grocery Bag Taxes and Bans - An Effective Means to Reduce Waste" by legant on donrockwell.com Ten years later, I'm *still* not sure whether paper or plastic uses less natural resources, when all things are considered (included recycling), although I vaguely remember discussing it before here, so if anyone can find that thread, please list it. I want to use the bag - paper or plastic - that is the least harmful to our world (assuming, of course, that I'm going to choose one or the other). This article says "To produce paper takes twice the energy used to produce a plastic bag," but I have absolutely no idea as to its reliability: May 13, 2014 - "Paper Comes from Trees" on theworldcounts.com There are *so* many things to consider - plastic comes from petroleum. What about recycling? Number of uses? Biodegradability? The felling of trees? The drilling for oil? Plastic "islands" in the ocean? It's all so overwhelming - *surely* there has been a credible scientific study done by now which recommends which type of bag to use in which situation, no? No lectures, please. It's obviously better to use none at all - and I avoid them when I can - but let's assume it shall be one or the other: Which should it be? It boggles the mind how many trees were cut down to produce newspapers in the past century. Newspapers are as immoral as chemical companies spewing their pollution out through their smokestacks. I don't know how much "energy" it takes to run this website, but I'll bet it's one hell of a lot less than if it was a newspaper - I'm proud to be 100% digital, always have been, always will be. Of course, there are broken-down computers to be disposed of, so *nobody's* hands are entirely clean. Solar power and electricity - those are our future. -
I'm curious what people think about the moral issues (based strictly on resource consumption) of people who have, say, ten children. (My mother had seven sisters, a brother, and some step-siblings, so I'm every bit as much a part of this as anyone else.) Given that there are simply too many people in this world (my own opinion, shared by many others), is it an act of selfishness to have a big family? Note that I'm not talking about government rules and regulations here; I'm merely talking about having a lot of kids. In general, I'm a bigger fan of "societal pressure" (e.g., mink coats have fallen out of fashion) than "regulation" (China's "one-child policy"). On the other hand, I despise political correctness (see this post) which is a form of societal pressure. But if the human population keeps growing, we're going to screw ourselves mightily. Isn't it ironic that by screwing each other, we end up screwing ourselves? Amazingly, this issue can be fixed in a single generation, but the workforce would need to shift from ob-gyn to mortuary. As a separate, but related, issue (logically extending from the preceding paragraph), is "burial" a selfish use of resources? (Both of my parents are buried in Aspen Hill, so again, I'm every bit as much a part of this as anyone else.) Personally, I'm not convinced that graveyards are an abuse of our land - in fact, I'm not convinced that they don't *protect* our land by preventing development - just like railroads (think of all the rails-to-trails programs - it turns out that the railway lines were unintentional conservators of the earth, and I think graveyards are the same way, assuming coffins are made from natural materials that decompose).
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In light of the San Francisco ban on petroleum-based plastic grocery bags, in favor of biodegradable (e.g., corn byproduct) plastics, does anyone know what WF, TJ or other socially responsible grocers will do? Other than emphasize the use of paper. For the chains, will these efforts be implemented nation-wide? What is currently the recyclable content of their bags?
