What is Digg?Sponsored by Dragon Age: Origins
Can't get enough Dragon Age: Origins? Play the flash game. view!
DragonAgeJourneys.com - Play the free companion flash game to Dragon Age: Origins.
70 Comments
- wynja, on 07/03/2008, -5/+24Damn, The Onion needs to watch their reporting. They've been getting too close to the truth to be extremely funny.
On a different note, you'll be happy to know that many cities with recycling programs still dump a portion of the stuff you send them to recycle in the land fills.
Also, we need to fill all the landfills we can as that will be the only source of oil left by the end of the century. - shoeshinecs, on 07/03/2008, -7/+20Doing things to reduce CO2 suddenly has no impact, but doing things that increase CO2 does?
It's high-time that someone parodied the sustainable lifestyle articles, but only because they come too often, not because they're wrong. Multiply this guy by 290 million or so and see the effect it has.
Give me *****, The Onion, that's why I read you guys. But don't give me this *****. - jakerudy7, on 07/02/2008, -5/+18funny- i actually feel this way
- bdogm, on 07/04/2008, -0/+9I wonder if I get carbon credits for digging this.
- djepik, on 07/02/2008, -1/+8You know this was satire, right?
- LeeSoong, on 07/04/2008, -1/+6Dugg for the correct use
of the word ' Sisyphean ' in a sentence. - Rotzooi, on 07/04/2008, -1/+6I know, serious reply to Onion article, not done, but I don't care; Unfortunately, in the US and many other countries recycling is still fairly useless. But if we keep at it, it will work, both for the environment and for the economy. My mother lives in Holland, where in many cities it is obligatory to recycle. Because they have so much well-separated trash, it's now a big business and has reduced the growth of landfills considerably. Almost 100% of wine bottles that are bought in Holland are getting recycled into new bottles. Their recycling programs work so well that they found out that paper-fibers disintegrate after getting recycled 10 times. They have tons of cheap but high-quality compost for sale in garden centers - made from people's kitchen and garden waste. I like that.
- haydesigner, on 07/04/2008, -0/+4I don't know if that comment was "trying to be funny by posing as stupid" or just plain stupid. Since it wasn't funny, I'm going with just plain stupid.
- Denneval, on 07/04/2008, -0/+4RECYCLE BOTTLE TOPS.
- inactive, on 07/04/2008, -0/+4Well that or having people recycle the container. Imagine everyone throwing their Big Mac box in a special recycle box at McDo, separating the straw and the cups in different containers. Imagine the amount of trash that would get recycled...
Actually, you don't have to imagine if you have traveled a little, seeing as America is of the last country not forcing fast food chain to have separate garbage bins. Americans are content with doing their part by watching a "Green Week" on TV and getting told by Scrub how recycling is important, but not actually doing it. But show them a plastic water bottle and damn! They just become crusader of Mother Earth! - vault, on 07/04/2008, -5/+8Leave it up to the one hippy in every crowd...
- egportal2002, on 07/04/2008, -0/+3I used to live in a town where you were asked to sort recyclables into 5 categories. OK, no problem, I'll do my part to save the environment. Left for work late one day, noticed the workers on the recyclables truck dump all 5 piles into the same bin -- so much for saving the environment ;-).
- cjstone, on 07/04/2008, -1/+3Sure, the impact of one individual is negligible (which I guess is the basic message of the satire), but added together, the actions of many do make a difference. Look at the flip-side: if one person dumps a gallon of gas in his neighborhood stream, no big deal. But if everyone in the country did, I'm guessing it would have a pretty serious impact.
In any case, I find it an interesting contrast between the feeling that one person's actions don't matter, and the vitriol toward Gore and his less-than frugal lifestyle. While it's true that some individuals' actions don't make a difference, there are folks like Gore whose actions do more than thousands of people toward making positive change (IMHO). His huge house might make him a hypocrite to some, but in the big picture, what he does by driving his social and political policies vastly outweighs any harm he does by flying around in jets to advocate them.
Seems, to me that folks just want things easy and like to look for an excuse to not do anything. It's either "look at the idiot recycling, as if it makes a difference", or "Why believe in global warming, when Gore's got a big house!" - LeeSoong, on 07/04/2008, -0/+2If knowledge is free,
why do Universities charge so much? - Murdats, on 07/04/2008, -6/+8anything you do on a personal level has no impact, we need to replace coal power plants because they generate the largest amount of CO2 of anything, once that has happened go nuts with your now clean electricity, and hopefully your now clean electric car.
- DrSnugglebunny, on 07/04/2008, -2/+4I'm cynical about this kind of cynicism, although a less cynical kernel of me appreciated it.
- bassjam5, on 07/04/2008, -0/+2If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem!
Recycling reduces my garbage volume by about 1/3.
Just think of it in terms of an aluminum can. How much energy is used to extract alum ore ,refine it, melt it, roll it in bars? As compared to shipping cans to a foundry, melting it, and rolling it into bars. All of that diesel full wasted by those big earth movers. Glass and Plastic is the same kind of thing. Most of my recycling is beer bottles, beer cans, and newspapers. Easy to recycle with curbside pickup. - bigbchew, on 07/04/2008, -2/+4I'm sure that's what they tell you.
- Lazydriver, on 07/04/2008, -1/+3Tis not oil, but methane.
- LeeSoong, on 07/04/2008, -1/+3Embrace nihilism.
The end of the world is not only inescapable,
you should encourage Earth's utter destruction as soon as possible.
The surviving humans will be forced to seek a new planet to infest, and repeat an endless cycle of expansion and destruction... - LeeSoong, on 07/04/2008, -0/+1"Are you Saved?"
Don't dare ask that question in North Carolina,
you'll get arrested...
http://digg.com/political_opinion/Talk_about_Jesus ... - inactive, on 07/04/2008, -3/+4Until corporations become responsible and make all containers biodegradable well have to watch our garbage pile up. I don't think we can do better.. Recycling will remain something middle class people do to make them feel good.
- dcshiderly, on 07/04/2008, -2/+3Didn't Penn & Teller kill the idea that recycling actually does anything useful, and is actually a drain on resources?
- stillrealvicz, on 07/04/2008, -1/+2Err- just how exactly is sorting your garbage into different heaps 'recycling'? You are still hoping that it will be dealt with properly, not just taken to china on some rustbucket and buried in landfill. Do you KNOW where it goes?
- domokunt, on 07/04/2008, -2/+3Captain planet... he's our hero... gonna take pollution down to.. a little bit less than it is now.. yeah
- darthzaphod, on 07/04/2008, -0/+1A few months ago my boyfriend and I started recycling everything we could--cardboard, paper, plastic, glass--and I can't believe the difference it's making just in our own home. We take the trash out far less frequently than we used to, and it just makes me feel a little better knowing I'm not wasting a lot of stuff I don't have to waste. It's something that shows me just how much we use of all this stuff--we go through a lot of plastic containers, a LOT of paper, a lot of cardboard...it's pretty eye-opening.
However, one thing that frustrates me is that our local recycling center only takes plastics that have a number 1 or a number 2 on them (inside the three-arrow circular recycle symbol). I assume this is because anything else is a different type of plastic that my local center cannot process. Start keeping an eye on all the plastics you use, and you'll be surprised by how few of them are 1 or 2---many are 4, 5, or 7...plastics that we cannot recycle for some reason. That's frustrating, because they have a recycle symbol but our only option is to throw them away.
But I still do love recycling, if only because it makes a positive impact on my home--even if the positive impact on the rest of the world is negligible. - marx2k, on 07/04/2008, -1/+2I recycle my trash so less goes into the local landfill. I'm not sure what people see so as so hard in putting one type of trash in one bucket, the other type of trash in another.
- Murdats, on 07/04/2008, -3/+4you sound as annoying as people trying to convert me to their religion.
- Intangible360, on 07/04/2008, -3/+4You do realize that it takes millions of years for oil to be created from decaying living material, right?
- Ransack, on 07/04/2008, -0/+1This guy will never make an impact...
He forgot about changing out the old lightbulbs to new efficient flourescent ones! - Stevethegreat, on 07/05/2008, -0/+1You said it yourself, it is CHEAPER to buy a reusable item, because you pay less per minute of usage. The same is not true for Prius or Hummer, though. ANYTHING cheaper is better for the environment, to buy a cheap t-shirt which will be torn by two days use making you to buy a new one, is not buying a cheap T-shirt AT ALL, it is buying an expensive T-shirt (one that has low usability in relevance to its price). As such buing a new car is ALWAYS wastefull, it's better to reuse (aka second-hand cars) and if you live near your work, NOT to buy one at all.
- hiikeeba, on 07/04/2008, -1/+2It may not go into the local landfill, but I'm sure part of it goes into someone else's landfill. Our town accepts glass for recycling, but can't get anyone to to take it, except a landfill 150 miles away.
- cjstone, on 07/04/2008, -0/+1Got any sources for some of these claims? I'm with you on hydrogen, but recycled paper is used for a lot more than insulation, and I'm also curious about your claims regarding aluminum and glass.
(And Penn an Teller is not an adequate source, IMHO) - Sponky, on 07/05/2008, -0/+1Recycling codes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Univers ...
- wynja, on 07/07/2008, -0/+1You do realize that we can create pressures and temperatures that make nature look like it's swimming in the kiddie pool. Thus effectively turning garbage into oil in months rather than millions of years.
Oh, and yes methane can be harvested immediately. - Sponky, on 07/05/2008, -0/+1*****.
Buying a quality item that will last years is a hell of a lot better for the environment than cheap disposable alternatives. REDUCE, reuse, recycle. - TheGuruStud, on 07/04/2008, -1/+2/s I'm sure
- fquednau, on 07/04/2008, -0/+1Whom do you cite? I have seen other statements on the merits of recycling paper.
- Metalhaid, on 07/08/2008, -0/+0Well, if you kill yourself then you become a toxic wastedump of formaldehyde and all that other stuff they pump into you...then you become part of the human landfill called a cemetary in a metal box that's designed to resist corrosion...I guess you just need to stick around and do your own very small part in a very inconsequential manner. Plus, think of the superiority complex you'll derive when you see your neighbor put his plastic milk jug into the regular trash, not the recycling bin!
- marx2k, on 07/04/2008, -1/+1"Err- just how exactly is sorting your garbage into different heaps 'recycling'?"
Well, you see, the recycling heap goes to the recycling center while the trash heap goes to the landfill.
"You are still hoping that it will be dealt with properly, not just taken to china on some rustbucket and buried in landfill. "
I'm pretty sure cities follow regulations to ensure that recycling gets as much recycled as possible. - alwaysmrsghost, on 07/04/2008, -0/+0Stop being so suspicious.
- fredBG, on 07/04/2008, -0/+0"cities" following regulations on that matter or any other is the material news are made from...or is it?
- DiggStarFleet, on 07/04/2008, -0/+0@Ransack... yes, he should have mentioned that.
- cvxdes1, on 07/04/2008, -1/+1@LeeSoong - I don't encourage any destruction. All I said was that we're not going to destroy the world without some serious effort. That's like, nukes or something.. not your 18mpg Honda and your 1980's inefficient microwave.
Stop trying to sell me your religion. - sunshine8705, on 07/07/2008, -0/+0People try to convert me to their religion as well...they're annoying...
- madchem72, on 07/08/2008, -0/+0I found Jesus last week.
He was behind the fridge. That's where everything ends up, eventually. - Azerael, on 07/04/2008, -3/+3Whatever you're smoking, I want it.
- Fordi, on 07/04/2008, -1/+1The only form of recycling that is energy, economy, or ecologically sensible is aluminum. Paper recycling is dirtier than paper manufacture; plastic recycling lets off more CO2 than plastic manufacture (though has positive energy gains when converted to diesel fuel via TCP).
Biomatter should be composted - and it is, in landfills; most modern 'fills capture the output methane and run a small gas turbine plant off it.
As for finances - since the government pays subsidies in the amount of around $8 billion to recycling, they're making a 'profit' - that is, they're running their businesses off of handouts.
In the US, recycling *isn't* important. We have a lot more land than we could possibly fill, and while 30 years ago, we had a mere 2/3 of our total landfill space free, today we have ... 2/3 of our landfill space free. Seems to be a good business equilibrium. - Metalhaid, on 07/08/2008, -0/+0100% of wine bottles in Holland are recycled?! Ew...no more Dutch wine for me. Well, tried to be funny and failed miserably.
- wattersm, on 07/04/2008, -2/+2As Penn and Teller said, if recycling was worth the time they would PAY YOU for it.
-
Show 51 - 70 of 70 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is