For some people, life at the office can be mundane, boring and in some cases even a painful experience. Luckily for myself, its not the same at all. I prefer to think of it as being in Highschool all over again. Our conversation topic today over coffee at 10 am was "how to get your MP to pick up your bar tab...." really how does that come up in normal everyday conversation? My co-worker suggested that "hitting on" your MP was the sure fire way to get free drinks and after about fifteen minutes of endless chirping, we changed topics to the whole green/organic/fair trade issue.
Disclaimer: All of my eco-friendly, vegetable eating, green-consious fair-trade oriented friends be warned... what im about to say will most likely, at the very least, mildly offend you. But its the facts........
Why is it an issue? BECAUSE ITS THE BIGGEST PUBLICITY STUNT SINCE THE 1960'S WHEN THE PHRASE WAS COINED. I will do my best to break this out into some specific examples to show you why the green revolution is not only a hoax (for the most part) but also horribly dangerous to both the economy and the health of people everywhere.
Organic Farming
This one is a real winner. Ok so you just came home from the local famers market with all the organic foods you need to make your latest vegan creation... but what have you exactly brought home in your eco-friendly reusable grocery tote bags (actually a good idea). The term "organic" may not be as indicative of the origins of your food as you may think.... The term itself is a sales brand which has different levels based on the actual product. 100% organic is the highest level meaning that at least 95% of the product is derived from "organic" methods.... which by the way are not completely free of fertilizers or pest/herbicides... if you cheap out and go with the less expensive "organic" term... now your down to 70% organic which has alot more of those horrible chemicals that you hate so much. as you move on to "made with organic" catagories.... well you can fill in the blanks....
on to the important part.... If you think that organic farming should be the standard practice for all agriculture.... you hate humanity....
HOLY CRAP Mark.... what a myopic view point! but wait, is it really? here is a fact for you.... At our current population globally we cant even manage to feed the people we currently have on this planet (6.7 billion). now take the global food supply from commercial agriculture and reduce it by 25%...... thats what we would have to deal with if we went to 100% organic.... Scientists dont genetically engineer crops to create a food that turns people into zombies, or make children grow third eyes in their foreheads... they engineer these strains of the crops to resist things like drought, disease and insects. They also modify them to improve crop yields and planting density. If we were to impose mandatory organic practices on farming world wide, we would have to systematically select 25% of our population to starve to death.
But they don't advertise that on the organic produce shelves......
Green Building
This one is especially funny. ATTENTION RESIDENTS OF WESTBORO AND THE GLEBE.. if you paid over 300k for one of those nice swanky condo's in a LEED certified building...... i am pointing and laughing at you. the whole "green building" concept is a complete and utter joke. Much like communism, it was a great idea on paper, but in reality it proves to be wholly unrealistic. Once a LEED building receives its final certification, thats where the requirements for sustainibility end. You see, there is no requirement for the building owners or maintenance staff to actually use/maintain any of the features that gave the building its LEED certification in the first place. I could buy your condo building and convert it into a rubber tire incinerator and still call it a LEED certified building.
When you buy into a LEED certified building, you are buying into a brand, nothing more, and a brand that usually adds about 30% to the price tag.... i hope you feel good spending an extra 90k on a 300k condo just because you think your saving the planet.
Green Power
im going to tackle green energy in this section too, mainly because it has become a major thorn in my side since that asshat McGuinty decided to force sustainible energy down my throat for a small fee of double the price i used to pay.
Lets look at all the ways we have to make cheap electricity that we either dont fully utilize or we utilize quite well but we allow people with the collective iq of a bag of sawdust to control and regulate on our behalf.. (im talking to you Hydro Quebec)
Hydroelectric - ok well if you ignore the whole "flooding large areas to create reservoirs" issue, it really doesnt get much greener than this. elevation drop plus water = energy. in quebec alone, there a dozens of facilities operating on numerous basis. to put it into perspective, one of the generating stations (Robert Bourassa) produces enough power to supply a country the size of belgium.... thats over 5,000 megawatts. In fact between the James Bay development and the Manicougan reservoir in eastern quebec, those two projects total almost 15,000 megawatts of electricity. That is enough to power ontario twice! This is the part that gets me, we sell most of this power to the states for peanuts.... fractions of its market value. Why? because Hydro Quebec are morons. Now in ontario, the green police are out in force rationalizing the 50% increase i will see on my power bill by saying that the investments in wind and solar energy are sustainible and will help ontario become a green leader. Wrong. it will help us become the laughing stock of the planet.
Wind power - woo hoo, great look we are using the naturally occuring winds to generate power... but wait there is more.... they dont work during high winds and if you are a migratory bird, you probably wont like it since it will most likely kill you. oh and they are horrendously expensive....
Solar power - with a whopping 15% efficiency, a design life of 15 years and a monster price tag, it makes total sense that the ontario power generation is buying this green energy (generated using a material that contains more toxic chemicals than i care to list) at 80 cents per kwh or about 100 times the going market rate...
While i agree, we need to get away from coal and gas fired plants... but come one.... lets do this in a sustainable manner.
Every generation method has its advantages and disadvantages. Free clean energy does not exist, everything has an impact. Balancing those benefits and detriments is what will create sustainable energy....
Eco Friendly Products
you know those nice CFL bulbs that they keep touting as the best thing for the environment? well it does reduce the energy consumption significantly but they are still a fluorescent meaning they still are loaded with mercury vapor.... yeah its not that great for the environment... We are bombarded every day with this "green" badge on just about everything we buy. Hell BP even re branded itself with a green image.. "beyond petroleum". I suppose its not all bad, but i think society in general has gotten pretty lax when it comes to being informed about much of anything lately that doesnt come to you via CNN or advertisements.
If my rant has had any point at all (which im not convinced it has) it should be this. Before you buy something because its "organic" or "green" take some time and do the research.... find out why its superior to the conventional alternative before spending your hard earned money based on the "feel good" sensation you get. 9 times out of 10 its nothing more than smart advertising. The term "eco-conscious" is almost synonymous with "eco-stupid" these days mainly because people dont question or think before they buy into these stupid ideas. This green washing phenomena is the same campaign that the big oil companies use to make themselves look like they are enviro-conscious....
In short. be smart, use your head, and at least try to see through the BS.
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