just to ramble on here (sorry im bored at home from work)...
what has always bothered me about "conservation" is how the real "leaders" in it try to force things on us.
i wrote a paper in college entitled "the myth of a generation". basically it showed how personal curbside recycling was brought upon us by a falsification by the EPA and the media of the time, later in an actual EPA report, saying their data was flawed and invalid.
either way, today my taxpayer dollars go to taking plastic bottles from peoples homes, and sorting the 250 diffferent types of plastic that can NOT be mixed when recycling them.
the whole conservation movement started back in the 80's because of this, brought on actually by a mob deal to unload some waste. LMAO. i wont go into detail, because you can look it up yourselfes, but there was a barge of garbage that no port would take because of the mob connections, and the thought of possible toxic waste hidden. this barge was on the national news if you remember, and the media blew it up to say there was no room for our garbage anywhere
hence curbside recycling was born. one of the biggest taxpayer drains, with a gross loss overall, resulting in nothing to help the environment.
did you know that it takes up to 20% more fossil fuels to recycle curbside paper than it does to make fresh paper? the de-inking and bleaching of this curbside paper creates actual toxic waste, that is monitered by the EPA in it's disposal.
industrial peper recycling (from printing companies, and the like) is different. their paper is pre-sorted by the company, and actually makes the peper cheaper, it's the homeowner and their newspaper mixed with the glossy glamour magazines that hoses up the works. yet these people insist in believing the myth they are "helping"
yes i could jump on the bandwagon, go work at the local recycling plant, and get paid $15/ hour to cut the little rings off the plastic bottles. (you did know that those 2 types of plastic can not be recycled together right?)
on to the use of gasoline, or lets go straight to crude oil. many don't know, and cover their eyes when the actual statistics are shown that the oil fields (only the ones currently harvested) in alaska can provide the USA with fuel for over 100 years alone (at the current growth rate). the "worry" is the reserves, and where they come from.
dont forget OPEC is a bunch of sheiks in the middle east that the USA has absoultly NO control over, and bows to pretty much every wish, heck the whole world does. did you know back in the 90's 1/4 of the national debt was owed to these same sheiks? we borrowed money in the 70's and 80's from them for different things, and still owe alot of the money today.
what does it matter that they control gas prices? ask yourself why 2 summers ago at the height of usage they decided to decrease production to raise prices? they were even open about it, and it was the first wave in bringing US prices above $1.75 at the time.
88, though thinking you (you as in anyone) are "helping" and can change the state of affairs, sadly there are sooooo many different political sides to it (both sides, commone you dont really think some liberal groups DONT profit off the recycling programs do you?)
oh well the thought of the day is over, time to go fly! ; )
