Please read it here if you're going to read it through because those fools cut it to shit... no love for some gonzo eh!?!? Anyways enough ranting here she is...
Consumerism good, bad, or just part of life?
The holiday season can put many environmentally minded people in a very precarious position. One side of the brain says “protect the earth and everything on it” while the other says “enjoy the holidays and indulge a little.”
Combine this inner predicament with media messages which seem to only focus on consuming and one is left a cynical Grinch. Maybe that’s why he stole Christmas.
The media, specifically advertizing, has many times been an artery for the message of indulgence. Ads for anything from food to vehicles always seem to imply that those who have the most are the happiest.
Indulgence and consumerism in particular is amplified during the holiday season and it shows as people flock to stores and host gatherings of friends and family.
In recent years a pseudo-holiday well known as ‘Black Friday’ has emerged. “The day after Thanksgiving through Christmas was the time when stores made enough money to survive the year,” said creator of the Use Less Stuff Report Robert Lilienfled.
Black Friday’s creation in the 1960’s seemed innocent enough but it has evolved greatly since the 1990’s according to a Time Magazine article. Now it kicks off a series of sales in stores which aim to bring customers in and purchase goods, many, many goods.
I am on the front lines of this exchange as a retail employee. My frustration with, seemingly endless and blind purchasing of items by the masses spurred me to research consumption in the holiday season.
Americans consumption of food, energy, and waste production naturally increase along with their credit card debts.
Lilienfeld’s Use Less Stuff Report for 2009 shows that from Thanksgiving through New Years Americans generate 25 percent more waste per week than they do during any other time in the year. Total waste production deviates from normal monthly waste production by approximately 6 million tons as a result.
“There is no question, there is an increase disposal and recycling during the holidays,” said Ohio EPA representative Linda Oros.
Rumpke waste collection service representative Jonathan Kissell also confirmed this trend.
Neither Oros nor Kissell gave exact numbers. But Oros said that Ohio currently has 27 years of landfill space available, which she described as ample.
According to a 2002 study done by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources 56 percent of the waste which enters Ohio landfills is plastic and paper, two integral components to the holiday shopping spree. Do you really need that bag for that pair of socks, really?
American Electric Power (AEP) representative Jeff Rennie reported a 39 percent energy usage increases of Columbus Southern Power residential customers from November to December 2009. Customers consumed 510 giga watt hours in November of 2009 and consumed 711 giga watt hours in December of 2009,.
Roberts said that 3 percent of the total 39 percent is directly attributed to lighting, but he could not confirm the reason for the other increases, be it weather or some other factors.
Still the fact of the matter is that not all consumerism is bad. These numbers, while somewhat bleak for the environmentalist, are not just a function of consumerism but results of the daily comfort many of us enjoy during every season.
It has been said time and time again that making small changes in your lifestyle can help the environment, probably because it is true.
Remember there are three ‘R’s to recycling, reduce, reuse, and recycle. Oros suggest curbing waste by reusing house hold items such as paper grocery bags as wrapping paper.
Even landfills sometimes get into the spirit. Kissell mentioned that Rumpke’s Cincinnati landfill recycles the gas produced by the landfill, mainly methane and carbon dioxide, to power 25,000 homes in the Cincinnati area.
Consumerism also allows us to put money back into businesses, a good thing for this anemic economy. Furthermore some consumers take advantage of holiday sales to donate to people in need.
Plus who can’t deny the small euphoria produced by getting that gadget you always wanted or seeing the reaction on some ones face when they actually like what you have gotten them?
Blind shopping and buying simply because “it’s a deal” is detrimental to ones pocket book and the earth. But using ones brain can buffet the affects of media hypnosis saying “buy, buy, buy.”
“It’s all about the social stuff and we forget that,” Lilienfeld said.
Face it people will probably not remember every, or even most gifts they have gotten as time passes. But they will remember the time past.
My uncle always proudly tells the story of shuffling his four brothers, two sisters, and parents to church on a sub zero Christmas morning in his old VW when no one else’s car would start.
Sure, being inundated with messages of one time only sales may make us feel compelled to oblige. But then again how many times has your mom told you to clean your room? I know I’m still stepping over my wardrobe to go to bed.
Black Friday History url-http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1942935,00.html
ODNR Waste Characterization Study- http://www.ohiodnr.com/tabid/18030/Default.aspx
Use Less Stuff Holiday 2009 report- http://use-less-stuff.com/Archive/ULS-Report-V9N4.pdf
By. Austen Verrilli
For your viewing pleasure and in the eco minded theme haha. A jdm, mugen'd out,sick as f@@k, K swapped, hydrogen powered integra...Chicka what...I said it haha. Gracias Sticky Dill Joe for the pixors
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