nearly a laugh
March 28th, 2007 | 
Author: 
Big man, pig man, ha ha charade you are.
You well heeled big wheel, ha ha charade you are.
And when your hand is on your heart,
you’re nearly a good laugh, almost a joker,
with your head down in the pig bin,
saying, ” Keep on digging”, pig stain on your fat chin.
What do you hope to find, when you’re down in the pig mine?
You’re nearly a laugh, you’re nearly a laugh,
but you’re really a cry.
- roger waters
Then of course on the other end of the spectrum is the environmental damage caused by US companies in places they feel can be swept under a rug. Places I’m learning, like Peurto Rico. The picture above is in Ponce which is on the southern coast of the island. I’m told pharmaceutical companies did their “dirty” business in Peurto Rico for quite some time until of course it became more profitable and less restrictive to move their plants to Africa or elsewhere where environmental laws were almost non-existent. Of course this is true of many companies and not just Pharmaceuticals. These days in PR the plants just sit and rust. The sites are not cleaned up I’m told because it’s much cheaper to pay the fines than actually clean up the site. Interesting that. In the end the people who live near these squalid, abandon sites continue to ingest the poisons and carcinogens because neither the government nor the companies care one bit for the people. Shareholders of course prefer to know nothing other than the way to the trough. It’s all a numbers game where those at the top keep an eye on the profit margin and the body count. You can reap the profit until someone notices the growing number holes in the ground. Of course then, you just shut down and move on. All the while keeping the piggies pleasingly plump.
Photo by Carrie Medina. Used by permission. Thanks Carrie!
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Or stores could be asked to charge per plastic bag ( as they do in Europe)
Not as drastic, but would get the point across.
Yeah only a couple issues with that;
1. business only does the right thing IF the public will perceive it in such a way as to result in higher profit for the company.
2. In a land of waste and wealth the average American will pay the extra nickel without notice. In the end not solving the problem, just adding to the companies profit margin.
3. Alternative systems must be put in place which takes time, effort and organization. Again, there is no profitable reason to do that, so it’s not been done. Keep in mind that these are not “new” issues. Just ignored ones.
This is from the Sierra Club:
“Paper or Plastic?
The energy and other environmental impacts embodied in a plastic grocery bag is somewhat less than in a paper grocery bag. But paper is easier to recycle, being accepted in most recycling programs. The recycling rate for plastic bags is very low.
So, which is better for the environment? Neither! The fact is that the difference between paper and plastic RECYCLING is small compared with the REUSING bags.”
maybe Mr. Mirkarimi should have taken note…
yes, you are correct there. I know the impetus is to get people to use reusable cloth bags. However they did leave a loophole allowing for recyclable materials, plastic & paper. Which may make the law almost worthless in the end. On the other hand it may be a test of the community and governments willingness to address the issue. Hard to tell.
In the end you are right that we need to get as close to zero waste. Cloth bags would certainly get us closer.
I believe personal pride in trying to “make a difference” is also important. When I lived in Holland, the Dutch took pride in that they wouldn’t use plastic or paper bags at grocery stores (and as mentioned above, they were charged if they did – and the stereotype of a frugal Dutchperson is correct
, but brought on every visit a personal cloth bag or backpack for their foodstuffs.
While I still get plastic and paper bags at some grocery stores, I do lots of shopping at Trader Joes these days so I tend to lug around my canvas Canoecopia bag from a couple years ago to hold everything. I knew there was a reason I bought that darn thing!
Good points on some of Puerto Rico’s issues with abandoned industrial facilities. Not all former industrial facilities leave such an ugly scar like the one shown in the photo, but it still happens and you can still find places like that in the island.
The photo shows the former CORCO petroleum refinery facility that is actually located in Peñuelas, a municipality west of Ponce in the south coast of the island.
JC
Derrick, JC is correct about the photo being the petroleum refinery. The conversation about the pharmacuetical companies is another thing. This would be the second post with mixed up stories with my name on it. GEEZ, I’m keeping my mouth shut from now on !!! LOL-kqp
no real mix up, just the picture is a refinery, which does make the point.
but we’ll decide your punishment later. . .
I try to just carry things when I can, because I rarely do any hardcore grocery shopping. Once I accumulate a lot of plastic bags I donate them to the thrift shops. I should buy some canvas bags for groceries though.
Food for thought:
This article compares packaging and recycling across Europe: http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/2007/03/packaging-waste-facts-and-figures.html
There is a link embedded to comparison of packaging related waste in the houshold waste: http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/share_of_packaging_waste_in_total_household_waste_oecd
You better stop buying those carbon fiber paddles and big plastic and fiber boats then also.
Just imagine how much energy and polution generating byproducts are used to manuafacture just one of your kayaks and all the accessories compared to paper or plastic bags…then when they get old and cracked or you just want the newest latest greatest kayak they will use more energy to get chopped up and thrown in a land fill for Millenniums as they will have a half life of some radioactive material.
The answer is to make your own SOF kayaks using real seals for the skin because they are a renewable resource and the meat and fat could feed the hungry children of the world…the minds eye can picture hundreds of offshore seal ranches and me clubbing baby seals while picking out top choice skins for kayaks and the less than perfect skins for Grocery bags.
Just think about how much energy, materials and added polution went into making your computer and all the other hardware just to send a mesage to this blog…that to will end up as more polution in a landfill…thousands of times worse than any plastic or paper bag revolution.
Of course the above statements are kind of tounge in cheek but it should make us think and act more positively on our real needs versus what is on out want lists.
so…how’s that OIL REFINERY doing???-kqp