Yep. There is insanity rife. The plasticity of Homo Economicus is truly terrifying. It'll bend into any shape to please the God Economy. Another side effect of oil production. Who'd have predicted those ancient forests would have been the death of us? Funny old world.
And the plastic situation is just awful. I happen to be near Lake Ohrid in North Macedonia at the moment, which is a beautiful lake — and the amount of plastic in the streets, it’s awful ☹️
It's so confronting when you see loads of plastic waste like that, isn't it? You're right, it is awful. But it's just occurred to me that hiding it away, like we do in Australia, is really no better. It's out of sight and out of mind, but it's still here :(
Like you, I've tried to extinguish plastic consumption from my life, and have found it to be virtually impossible. Pretty much everything I eat except cabbage and eggs comes wrapped in plastic. It seems like unless you go Tarzan and live in the wild, growing your own food and wearing skins, you're stuck with plastic. If enough people cared, it might be possible to make some legislative changes, but sadly, most people don't.
That makes me sad to hear, Roseanne. We can buy most vegetables loose at our supermarket, but they do also pre-pack a lot, particularly organic. Yes, it's impossible to avoid and a homesteading life is hard work!
I, too, am surprising how little society thinks about plastic.
I’m still trying, and fighting discouragement, so far I haven’t heard or thought of any real solutions to this problem. Except for large-scale changes to the industrial infrastructure. Still I’m hopeful and happy to hear ideas for what I can do.
It's awful how much plastic is everywhere. Like you, I try to avoid plastics, I do a lot of shopping at a refillery shop, where I take along containers to fill up with the products I want. Sadly a couple of other refillery shops have recently closed in Edinburgh, where I live, and the local supermarket has stopped selling loose vegetables. So it's actually becoming harder to avoid plastic, just when we need it to get easier.
You're right Juliet, it's practically impossible to avoid plastics. Gosh, that's terrible that the supermarket has stopped selling loose vegetables. I'm really sorry to hear that. We have a co-op at the local high school that opens for just 4 hours a week and sells refills. I've thought about joining, but everything's more expensive, and the cost of living has skyrocketed here. It's always the way that you pay a premium to be a more responsible consumer. It's out of our reach at the moment.
Yes Alia, you provoke many thoughts. You have followed the plastic trail to the brain and if we are smart we should respond with solutions. Jonathan Foster is right about our 'funny old world'. Because I am not sure plastics are even close to the dumbest thing humans have ever done? What a long list we have to chose from. Swarming to overcrowded mega cities where we are easy pickings for dangerous viruses, earth-altering land clearing and poor agricultural practices, toxic chemicals of myriad kinds, abuse of river systems and killing off so many species were only preludes to the scale of our human impact in the Age of Climate Change. When I saw the irradiated victims of nuclear testing in Kazakhstan, children born with no eyes and some with 'mermaid-tails' on tiny twisted bodies, I realised the predatory part of our brain still overrides reason. But we are also custodians. We must seek solutions, including sensible de-growth and moderating our catastrophic destruction of nature. Rather than settle for a passive acceptance of 'our' whole world self-destructing I think you are on the right trail to elucidate where we can take small steps individually and shape big picture strategies collectively. Edward O. Wilson writes of many good paths forward in Half-Earth. He concludes in an earlier book, The Future of Life, with surprising optimism, that humans may still create a true earthly paradise in the 21st Century but his essential ingredients are 'reason and commonsense'. OK, now we are all laughing. Thanks for a great piece.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Jeff. I'm not sure it is quite the dumbest thing either, these are all things we can't adequately compare, each terrible and destructive in their own way. Nuclear radiation is certainly the most horrific thing humans have ever created and the victims in Kazakhstan would have been distressing to see. I remember your story there. When I think about what we've done that has the broadest impact on all life on Earth, I would say it has to be pollution in general (coupled with its antithesis, deforestation), because of its ability to alter the climate and spread toxins such as the ones found in plastic to almost every living creature on the planet.
I was just looking at the premise of Edward O. Wilson's book Half-Earth and it's really quite sad how far off we are from his vision (just 17% at present). Half an Earth should be more than enough for humans to hoard for themselves. We really are worse than parasites :)
But yes, as you say, we are always in a position to change, and we do change, often with one step forward, two steps back, three sideways and then another two forward. It's a silly little dance, but we do what we can to get there :)
Yep. There is insanity rife. The plasticity of Homo Economicus is truly terrifying. It'll bend into any shape to please the God Economy. Another side effect of oil production. Who'd have predicted those ancient forests would have been the death of us? Funny old world.
Thanks for an excellent read, Alia. :)
Ha! This has to be up there among my favourite comments ever 😂
Thank you so much for including my piece!
And the plastic situation is just awful. I happen to be near Lake Ohrid in North Macedonia at the moment, which is a beautiful lake — and the amount of plastic in the streets, it’s awful ☹️
You're most welcome M. E.!
It's so confronting when you see loads of plastic waste like that, isn't it? You're right, it is awful. But it's just occurred to me that hiding it away, like we do in Australia, is really no better. It's out of sight and out of mind, but it's still here :(
Like you, I've tried to extinguish plastic consumption from my life, and have found it to be virtually impossible. Pretty much everything I eat except cabbage and eggs comes wrapped in plastic. It seems like unless you go Tarzan and live in the wild, growing your own food and wearing skins, you're stuck with plastic. If enough people cared, it might be possible to make some legislative changes, but sadly, most people don't.
That makes me sad to hear, Roseanne. We can buy most vegetables loose at our supermarket, but they do also pre-pack a lot, particularly organic. Yes, it's impossible to avoid and a homesteading life is hard work!
I, too, am surprising how little society thinks about plastic.
I’m still trying, and fighting discouragement, so far I haven’t heard or thought of any real solutions to this problem. Except for large-scale changes to the industrial infrastructure. Still I’m hopeful and happy to hear ideas for what I can do.
It's awful how much plastic is everywhere. Like you, I try to avoid plastics, I do a lot of shopping at a refillery shop, where I take along containers to fill up with the products I want. Sadly a couple of other refillery shops have recently closed in Edinburgh, where I live, and the local supermarket has stopped selling loose vegetables. So it's actually becoming harder to avoid plastic, just when we need it to get easier.
You're right Juliet, it's practically impossible to avoid plastics. Gosh, that's terrible that the supermarket has stopped selling loose vegetables. I'm really sorry to hear that. We have a co-op at the local high school that opens for just 4 hours a week and sells refills. I've thought about joining, but everything's more expensive, and the cost of living has skyrocketed here. It's always the way that you pay a premium to be a more responsible consumer. It's out of our reach at the moment.
It does seem very unfair that ethical shopping is generally more expensive (often a lot more expensive) than regular shopping.
Yes Alia, you provoke many thoughts. You have followed the plastic trail to the brain and if we are smart we should respond with solutions. Jonathan Foster is right about our 'funny old world'. Because I am not sure plastics are even close to the dumbest thing humans have ever done? What a long list we have to chose from. Swarming to overcrowded mega cities where we are easy pickings for dangerous viruses, earth-altering land clearing and poor agricultural practices, toxic chemicals of myriad kinds, abuse of river systems and killing off so many species were only preludes to the scale of our human impact in the Age of Climate Change. When I saw the irradiated victims of nuclear testing in Kazakhstan, children born with no eyes and some with 'mermaid-tails' on tiny twisted bodies, I realised the predatory part of our brain still overrides reason. But we are also custodians. We must seek solutions, including sensible de-growth and moderating our catastrophic destruction of nature. Rather than settle for a passive acceptance of 'our' whole world self-destructing I think you are on the right trail to elucidate where we can take small steps individually and shape big picture strategies collectively. Edward O. Wilson writes of many good paths forward in Half-Earth. He concludes in an earlier book, The Future of Life, with surprising optimism, that humans may still create a true earthly paradise in the 21st Century but his essential ingredients are 'reason and commonsense'. OK, now we are all laughing. Thanks for a great piece.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Jeff. I'm not sure it is quite the dumbest thing either, these are all things we can't adequately compare, each terrible and destructive in their own way. Nuclear radiation is certainly the most horrific thing humans have ever created and the victims in Kazakhstan would have been distressing to see. I remember your story there. When I think about what we've done that has the broadest impact on all life on Earth, I would say it has to be pollution in general (coupled with its antithesis, deforestation), because of its ability to alter the climate and spread toxins such as the ones found in plastic to almost every living creature on the planet.
I was just looking at the premise of Edward O. Wilson's book Half-Earth and it's really quite sad how far off we are from his vision (just 17% at present). Half an Earth should be more than enough for humans to hoard for themselves. We really are worse than parasites :)
But yes, as you say, we are always in a position to change, and we do change, often with one step forward, two steps back, three sideways and then another two forward. It's a silly little dance, but we do what we can to get there :)
Thorough and eye-opening piece. We are, as a species, silly in the sense of idiocy. Darwin is spinning in his grave.
Thank you, Kate! Yes, we are very silly sausages :)