If I hear "Just doing my bit for the environment" one more time then I'm going to flip.

[Break]

Lots o' quoting, but there's lots o' sillyness in this thread, too.

"We won't be around long enough to see the full effect of global warming".

So what?

but them people who chime in with that line make me feel like I'm not fucking doing my part for the environment, they make me feel like they are so much better at "protecting" the environment than I am with their super powered re-usable shopping bag, huzzah.

The hell? From "just trying to do my bit for the environment, mate"? Either you haven't properly conveyed the mocking, holier-than-thou tone they say it with, or you're just being extraordinarily petty. When someone says "just doing my bit", they're looking for approval, not trying to point out your shortcomings. Do you have an inferiority complex, or something?

The recycling of plastics actually uses more energy and has more impact on the environment than it would to just make one anew. Pretty much everything is that way. Aluminum, though, is good to recycle. Making raw aluminum is fucking expensive, while recycling it is cheaper.

Except that the point is in not using a new bag, reducing the demand, and having the plastics company cut down on production.

The recycling of plastics actually uses more energy and has more impact on the environment than it would to just make one anew. Pretty much everything is that way.

It's more a point of finding new uses for non-biodegradable materials, than conservation of energy or atmosphere protection. Plastics will become more expensive in future, too, so it's better to refine the process before the pressure really starts up.

Not having a plastic bag for your shopping has about as much effect on the world's resources as spitting in the Sahara to stop it drying out.

A billion people have a lot of spit.

 

[WlknCntrdiction]

God, do you have to make a thread for EVERY little insignificant thought that enters your head?

God, do you have to make an insignificant and irrelevant post in my insignificant thought process thread?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Not having a plastic bag for your shopping has about as much effect on the world's resources as spitting in the Sahara to stop it drying out.

A billion people have a lot of spit.

And it's still not enough to make the Sahara wet.

 

[Break]

God, do you have to make a thread for EVERY little insignificant thought that enters your head?

God, do you have to make an insignificant and irrelevant post in my insignificant thought process thread?

Right, because a five-second throwaway comment is totally the same as several ranty paragraphs.

And it's still not enough to make the Sahara wet.

You got any evidence behind that? It'd certainly be enough to make a nice little chunk of it soggy. The point is, scientists say that we're less likely to break the planet if we don't use as many plastic bags. It's a few little actions that make a little difference. Who cares if it makes little difference in the long run? I'd happily bring all my own bags to the supermarket for the rest of my life, if it meant that it pushed off the apocalypse for half an hour.

 

[RetiarySword]

I see where your coming from, and I do care about the enviroment, as I live in it, and if that changes, and I fail to adapt, I die, the same story with every other person on the planet. Also I am only 18 so I probly will see the worse if sods law takes place!

The fact is I am worried about me, but for peolpe I know, I have a nephew who is about four, and will probly be affected by it, same with loads of other peolpe if they thought about it. But when people DO rub it in your faces, you just want to give them a napalm enima!

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

People who constantly point out their own virtues are really annoying. Personally I never do this (and I don't smoke or drink either!)

More seriously though, I wish attention wouldn't get shifted off genuine issues (nuclear waste disposal, disappearing rainforests, etc) and put onto a complete non-issue like plastic bags. There are worse things to be concerned about!

 

[Larenxis]

I bet I do more recycling than most of those people anyway, our 2 green bins at the end of the week are always full and sometimes I find it hard to put stuff out because they're already full when I really need them, god I wish the binmen came twice a week

Since you were mean to strangers in your post, I'm giving myself permission to exclaim "MORON!" I shall assume that we've all been in third grade and learned about the 3 'R's, 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle'? Well they are in that order for a reason. I'm so sick of people being like "Well, I recycle and drive a hybrid, so I'm doing my part for the environment" when they can stop driving four blocks to buy more bottled water. I'm not saying you're like this, but I'm saying that from your post, you seem like just another smug consumer. You know what's a good solution for full bins? Stop buying so much crap! I'll admit, I'm not doing all I can and I am humbled before my ignored potential, but I don't generally snap at old folks with bags. You want to make a difference? Talk to your manager about providing cardboard boxes so people without their own canvas bags don't have to use plastic ones. Don't grumble about it until you can get home and post a rant on a forum. And the Easter Bunny isn't real!

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

And it's still not enough to make the Sahara wet.

You got any evidence behind that?

Well, let's see.
If we ignore the idea of getting a billion people to spit at the same time and getting them into the Sahara; I can pretty much say that each person's spittle will dry almost instantly; but that's just first hand evidence. Let's look at facts.
The average person produces approximately 700mL of saliva per day (Wiki); so that's 700,000,000,000 millilitres or 700 million litres.
The Sahara itself is 9 million square kilometres (Wiki), so that's about 70 litres per square kilometer.

Not really soaking is it? And that's with a full day's worth of spitting from a billion people.

It'd certainly be enough to make a nice little chunk of it soggy.

Yeah, and strangely enough, The Gulf War Oil Spill has been estimated at between 190 million litres and 2 billion litres; 3 times your spittle.

The point is, scientists say that we're less likely to break the planet if we don't use as many plastic bags.

And, to be fair, I'd ask for that proof as well.

It's a few little actions that make a little difference. Who cares if it makes little difference in the long run? I'd happily bring all my own bags to the supermarket for the rest of my life, if it meant that it pushed off the apocalypse for half an hour.

BUT...if Mr. American Corporation (Not blocked by Kyoto) is producing billions of plastic bags; that's speeding the apocalypse up by a year.

Sorry, 364 days and 23.5 hours. I forgot about your bags.

Recycling may be a good thing, but there's NO reason to joyous about staving off Armageddon when someone's undoing the whole country's work.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

In a capitalist society, the loss of a mere thousand or so customers of product A is enough to decrease the production of product A, simple economics. Sorry, but I'm with Break on this one.

 

[Knight Templar]

Plastic bags, we'd be in shit without them!
Or
Plastic bags, built to last 1000 years!



I reuse plastic bags for all kinds of things and those enviro bags(we call them green bags) will never go away. Plastic takes time but in the end it will go away, green bags will outlast the earth itself.

 

[Fronken]

Heck, if we aint gonna live to enjoy it, why give a crap about the enviroment?, lets just live our lifes to the fullest and dont give a hoot, just like our ancestors did

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Being smug and misinformed is not better than being a cynic. For instance, more energy is used during the manufacturing of a single car than the car will ever use up itself during its lifetime. So replacing the worlds gas guzzlers with hybrids is an awful, ironically bad solution, and those who have already bought into it are actually unwittingly contributing to the problem pretty badly.

 

[YuppySlime]

Heck, if we aint gonna live to enjoy it, why give a crap about the enviroment?, lets just live our lifes to the fullest and dont give a hoot, just like our ancestors did

Alright, I can't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

But anyway, as shitty of an attitude as that is, I agree with it.

Be it selfish, petty, ignorant, whatever, I honestly don't think anything we do to help the environment is gonna save our asses. No, I think our problems and impending doom lie elsewhere, and will inevitably be caused by other things. Really big bombs, for example. Or, you know, some kind of nasty plague. Hell, global economy collapsing resulting in chaos around the world. To me, these things seem more likely to occur than GW or a diminished O-zone layer actually extinguishing human life as we know it. I'm not saying it couldn't, I just think that some other serious shit is gonna go down before that can fuck us up.

So fuck it. Enjoy the time you got left.

 

[YuppySlime]

Heck, if we aint gonna live to enjoy it, why give a crap about the enviroment?, lets just live our lifes to the fullest and dont give a hoot, just like our ancestors did

Alright, I can't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

But anyway, as shitty of an attitude as that is, I agree with it.

Be it selfish, petty, ignorant, whatever, I honestly don't think anything we do to help the environment is gonna save our asses. No, I think our problems and impending doom lie elsewhere, and will inevitably be caused by other things. Really big bombs, for example. Or, you know, some kind of nasty plague. Hell, global economy collapsing resulting in chaos around the world. To me, these things seem more likely to occur than GW or a diminished O-zone layer actually extinguishing human life as we know it. I'm not saying it couldn't, I just think that some other serious shit is gonna go down before that can fuck us up.

So fuck it. Enjoy the time you got left.

 

[YuppySlime]

oops I posted twice. I just edited it so it'd be less of a bother. Someone delete this one yeah? Goddammit it did it like, 3 fucking times.

Yeah, how can these get deleted?

 

[Larenxis]

I'm going to have to disagree with ya, YuppySlime. I really like living, a lot, and I want to leave a positive legacy. The sacrifices one has to make to stop screwing up the environment doesn't lower my quality of life enough to just give up.

 

[YuppySlime]

Yeah, I guess I gave up.


But I just honestly don't see anything we do actually making a difference. The whole world will never get on board, and thats what it would take to actually "save the planet". Even though its not the planet thats in need of saving, its us. The planet will be fine, we're the ones who are fucked.

 

[Easykill]

It's funny, I'd say it's gotten to the point where no single person can make a difference, yet people who want to get stuff done must always try to convince those people who think that to participate because their numbers together are huge. Like a hammer is composed of many, many particles that are each insignificant but strong as a whole.