A Few Things We Forget Too Often

The Story of Stuff reminds of many aspects of life we just pass by, things we are aware of, actually. These aspects are clearly there in full existence, but we tend not to think about them too much, either because we are too busy dealing with routine tasks of everyday life, or because we believe those problems are beyond repair. Going back to the wild (to the point when we did not know the taste of the forbidden fruit) is not an option, for sure. But being more aware of these problems, and thinking about them will bring more good ideas about what to do for our future, and the planet’s future. Some such thoughts:

1. Human system – most of all, the economic system – is a subsystem in the eco-system. The subsystem cannot be sustained if the larger system is broken.

2. GDP calculation misses out so many important factors. Annie suggests subtracting the social costs associated with pollution and inequality from the GDP calculation. Personally, I suggest subtracting the social costs of health problems caused by harmful materials, processes, and pollution. This will strike at people’s mind more directly, because, after all, it incurs actual out-of-pocket costs for them. (My eczema gets worse with pollution. So I can say I feel the side effect of material development physically.)

3. Developing countries rich in natural resources are problematic in environmental issues in numerous ways. It is not simply because these countries are fallible to very eco-unfriendly resource development arrangement with multinational corps. These governments are heavily dependent on the revenue coming from resource industries, while the taxes from other sectors are meager. Thus the citizens of these countries are in so-called “weak contractual relationship” with their government. The government is less responsible for the general well-being of the nation, including environmental issues. If the resources are in areas occupied by indigenous people, the problem gets worse.

The Story of Stuff: A Big Dreamer

The audacity of hope – is my summary of The Story of Stuff. One, it is audacious because the world the author is aiming at is truly a brave new world, with quite a dash of transformation to the way we live. Two, it is about hope, because the world is a better world (I am not countering Heidegger or Lao-Tse in this argument). And three, it is the audacity of hope, because of the miraculous but realistic chance of attaining the goal.


In so many cases we meet the dilemma of having come too far to go back. But the moment of change is instantaneous. It takes only a blink to make your mind. Yet again, we always have an endless cache of excuses to put forward. What about the side effects, known and unknown? Will others participate? (Think about the Kyoto Protocol.) What about all the administrative expenses? Will there be a consensus? (Most probably, not.)


In the era of the discovery of new worlds, there was an epidemic of dreaming of perfect world. Some romantic poets – notably Shelley, Wordsworth, and Coleridge – planned to build a perfect society of their own in the new world of America. The world was to be a perfect one, full of peace and love. But people in the world had to share values. So they formed the group with friends. But alas, we know the well-known furious dispute between Wordsworth and Coleridge. Even friends differ in opinions here and there. (You want to hear about the outcome? Of course they did not make it.)


However, gradual changes are always possible, and very doable. For example, going veggie overnight looks almost impossible for most of us. But most of us can, very easily, decide to go meatless one day per week. (http://www.meatlessmonday.com/join-the-movement/) Most probably you will not be able to reduce your water use to the level of the people in India. But you can put a 2-liter bottle filled with water in your toilet tank to save tons of water per month right away. In this book, you can find hundreds of little things you can do to reduce waste.

Meat Diet Is Worse than Cars for Global Warming

Do you know eating meat is more harmful in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission than driving cars? According to Meat Eater’s Guide published today by Environmental Working Group (EWG), if a 4-people household abstains from eating meats one day every week, the resulting reduction of GHG is equivalent to abstaining car use for five weeks. Take a look at the following chart showing the impact of meat diet, shown in equivalent car mileage for GHG emission. (You can check out the guide at http://breakingnews.ewg.org/meateatersguide/eat-smart/, where this chart is from.)

Lamb is the worst, followed by beef, cheese, then pork. Be mindful of post-production GHG as well. Not only production, but disposal of meats also generate large amount of GHGs. Meats from ruminant animals (such as cows and lambs) generate methane gas, a GHG 25 times stronger in greenhouse gas effect than CO².


What you can do is very simple, and easy. Do not eat meat one day per week. Meatless Monday is a campaign promoting reduced consumption of meat, by pledging to go meatless one day every week on Monday. Besides the benefits for our green planet, you can also expect health benefits, since meat diet is directly related to many serious health problems such as heart diseases and cancers.

You can join the movement by signing your pledge at the following link: http://www.meatlessmonday.com/join-the-movement/

Little Things We Can Do – 1. Stop Using Garburators

Water pollution is much worse than solid waste in that it cannot be geographically contained. In other words, you get a whole lake of water with mild contamination instead of a small stack of soil with high contamination.

To decompose a cup of coffee (120ml), 1,800 liter of water is required. Complex technicality set aside, this means your cup of coffee includes 1.8 grams of substances to be decomposed by the microorganisms in water. If you use kitchen towels to absorb the remnant of coffee, you contaminate a couple of paper sheets. But if you throw it into the sewer, you contaminate as much as 1.8 tons of water. A simple story indeed.

Then why do garburators (garbage disposal) matter here? Garburators let you dump solid wastes into the water! A spoonful of spaghetti can be disposed of in solid form and occupy a tiny part of a landfill, if you dump it in the garbage can. But if you flush it down your kitchen sink using the garburator, it will contaminate some tons of water in no time.

When I first arrived in Canada, I was surprised by people’s indifference to this problem. A part of the reason would be Canada’s plenty water resources. I met a very well-educated lady in her 30s who held positive views about environmental protection. While talking on the topic of environment, I found out that she had never thought of garburators as a polluting device. It took me quite a while to make her see the point. Perhaps this is only natural, because most of us do not question the way we live our lives.

There are disputes about this matter, sewage versus landfill for food waste. The best solution for food waste is composting. But if you have to choose between sewage and landfill, I would suggest landfill. My primary reasoning is the scarcity of water resources. Even worse, the vast majority of water resources – be it seawater or fresh water – is common goods, which means nobody is given the ultimate responsibility to protect them. That is why we have several “trash islands” floating around in the high seas.

Stop using garburators. There are alternatives. You begin making changes.