The Single Greatest Threat To The Environment

Well its not straws or plastic bags, the single most destructive element of capitalism is " Planed Obsolescence " which forces us to buy buy buy.

Its extremely wasteful because it causes us to continually mine for more resources which is extremely hard on the environment. Todays appliances for example typically last for 5 - 10 years now, I can tell you this I have a beer fridge in my basement I bought for $50 20 years ago and then when I bought it was 25 years old so I have a fridge thats 45 years old and chills my kegs perfectly to just above 0°C.

Todays appliances are electronic and when your circuit board fries its typically cheaper to replace the entire appliance than to pay a repair man to install it since it is no longer feasible for the average person to repair it on their own because of the complexity of it. I have a washer and dryer I paid $50 each for 20 years ago and when I bought them they were also 20 years old as well, I have since put about $600 worth of parts into them over the 20 years I have had them and did the repairs myself on them since they are fairly easy to fix. Appliances designed to fail aren't the only problem.

Printers designed to stop working not because they are broken but have only reached the pages printed limit, there are programs available to reactivate these printers to continue past their preset page limits, these programs can be found on the net. Also to mention is the ink cartridges themselves are mostly not designed to be refilled and are mostly so expensive on their own its cheaper to just buy a new printer one, as most people do.

And the list goes on and on. LED and CFL light bulbs are incredibly wasteful and if any one can tell me they have had either last as long as the package claims I'd be surprised. Even a regular light bulb was designed to last a set limit of hours of use.

Woman's panty hose are designed to last only a few uses before they tear, they use to last longer but were also designed to fail.

Vehicles are designed to fail in a set amount of time as well, they are now made out of cheap materials made to break or rust apart quickly in a short number of years so you are forced to buy a new one quicker than you would in the past. Everyone knows of a place where a farm tractor still sits intact in an old farm field for almost a century, change the battery and the oil and they still start, I personally know of a few examples of them starting after decades sitting in a field. Or even an old Volkswagen beetle with its frame still intact after decades sitting there.

Houses are now made out of cheap materials as well, in my province we have houses hundreds of years old, a modern home will not last nearly as long.

So many things in our civilization that are so cheaply made and cheap to buy it only makes sense to just buy new rather than attempt to fix them, made out of sub standard materials intentionally to earn more profit. Why all of a sudden is the government so concerned, the're not really their motives are to create energy slaves and net more profit off the backs of the working class. Why is the " Right to Repair " so stagnant in North America or even most of the world for that matter. It shouldn't take a genius to see the hypocrisy of it all. Apple for instance fights repair shops that do repairs on their products with threats of legal action, making most of their parts proprietary or difficult to obtain. Or that update designed to make your phone unusable, or the battery that just no longer charges.

Why is it that most of these people who push for environmental regulations own several large homes capable of housing numerous families, private jets, private yachts etc.. Imagine the resources these people use up telling us the rest of us the need to reduce our foot print, such hypocrites they are, I wouldn't want their heating bills. I hope everyone remembers John Kerry's " An Inconvenient Truth " which used pseudo science to terrify us all, most of those predictions never came true and were so far off the mark looking back at now it's actually hilarious to watch now. It was all based off of junk science, by the same people that have one rule for me and one rule for thee.

So if the powers that be are truly serious about helping the environment they will address this issue but I know they wont because they are the very people profiting from Planned Obsolescence.

Things like banning plastic bags are nonsensical because I remember we switched to them because of the fact we have to cut trees to make them.

Please feel free to add more to this list as I know there are numerous examples I could have added or examples from your own experiences.

Thanks

The biggest crock of crap on appliances is that green star, or energy star rating they have.

Oh! Look this new fridge will save 25 bucks in electricity over the course of a year! And with the electronic complexity, and inferior construction of modern "throw away goods", you have to buy 4 refrigerators in a 20 year span, where 1 used to last 50.

Sure you saved 100 bucks in 4 years on electricity and about 20 pounds of coal.

But you threw 4 refrigerators in the landfill and cost the environment dearly to build them.

I hear ya man. Total crock.

a reply to: enament

I actually do think plastics are a huge part of the problem.

I'll give you a perfect example.

There is this new fad to use microfiber rags. Some are even pretty fancy and pricey and claim it's saving the environment by recycling plastics. That is the key word "recycling". That kind of recycling is toxic.

I'll tell you the real natural way of recycling. In the old days people used real fibers, cotton, linen, wool. You could have a dress made from cotton. When it got too worn, you sewed it up into something smaller. Then you used the smaller pieces as rags. When the rags got too holey you could throw it in the garden and it would disintegrate back to the earth with zero toxins.

I do believe that plastics have their place, I just think we went way way overboard with it.
I think we need to get back to natural materials as much as possible.

a reply to: enament

The harsh reality is that the vast majority of these things are only profitable at repeatable scale. No profit means no production.

This isn't going to be a problem one can solve easily.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I agree with you, one only has to take a walk through any dollar store to have their eyes open, not to mention most of those goods are produced in China or any other country with lax environmental regulations, and are so cheaply made when it breaks you just go buy a new one.

I am one hundred percent with you enament on this. We have to stop this crazy consumerism we have created. There is no reason that we should have to buy a new phone every three years, or buy a new car because everything electonic in it is getting all corroded from the weather. Do we need all that technology in cars, the more that can go wrong, the more that will go wrong. Planned obsolescence has been around since I was a kid, I am sure it predates that. But in the last thirty years it has gone nuts. Another thing, do we actually need an electric canopener, it is so easy to open a can with a good manual can opener and it is easier to wash a hand crank one...every time you do dishes we wash ours when we use it, it only takes a minute. It does not take any room on the counter either, and you do not have to hold the can up to it. We have been brainwashed belong belief.

a reply to: loam

So why in the past were things made to last and at the time manufacturing was booming in North America? everyone who wanted a job had one.

a reply to: enament

Ah yes, the Light Bulb Conspiracy. Back in the day the industrial complex built things to last a person's lifetime or close to it. But, that noble agenda was quickly realized there is no sustained profit in it. Now we live in a "throw-away" society. My grandmother's frig was 57 years old when we finally decided to replace it. Still worked fine, both the frig & top freezer. Now you're lucky if one lasts 7 years.

a reply to: rickymouse

I agree too much electronics in vehicles, people are now too lazy to crank a window, I still would have a hard time doing without the heated seats though as it can get as cold as -34 °C here where I live and thats without the wind chill. The Green New Deal is a scary thing for us here especially since you can't heat your home with pixy dust.

a reply to: EndtheMadnessNow

I personally know of fridges that are more than 70 years old that still work, less efficient mind you, but they work.

a reply to: enament

Less materialism, affluence and innovation.

Those three things were hyper accelerated by the very thing which is now the subject of this thread.

Not saying it was good or bad. Just explaining the mechanics.

a reply to: enament

I can relate. It's challenging especially when perfectly good hardware becomes "outdated."

Most recently, I came across this when I was working on someone's tablets. One was an older iPad, running a version of IOS 9. A friend of mine was looking to play one of their favourite games on it.

The game was a simple one, playable in a browser or as an app. The app wouldn't install because the operating system was too old? As an app, I don't think it is unusually taxing or anything, after all, it can run in a browser. I tried downloading an archived version of the app, and that worked temporarily. Shortly afterward, it stopped working again. I figured that the app had auto-updated. I tried the same procedure once again. No luck, it said it couldn't connect?

I removed the app, cleared its data, and tried going through the online portal in the browser. I kept trying to redirect me to the app I removed? My suspicions were aroused, I tried to visit the page in desktop mode. That worked.

Idk, maybe I would have better luck with IOS. Few browsers support version 9, nowadays. I couldn't install the app, and once again the game only worked using a browser in desktop mode.


At a glance, there was a surprising lack of technical support available. Unusual, considering the game has a large following.

That had me scratching my head, what is someone supposed to think? Often these older devices are completely capable of doing the basics of what most people need to do. I get the impression, that often software gets more bloated rather than streamlined.

I'm much more familiar with technology than some of my older friends. Troubleshooting issues like this reminds me, that sometimes the end-user can do all the recommended steps, and still run into challenges due to software design.

It bothers me sometimes, I see others becoming anxious when dealing with these kinds of issues. I get the impression their lack of experience with the technology makes them fearful, that they may break something.

People who think they know about the environment by interpreting science that does not agree with itself.

Doing the wrong things is just as bad as doing nothing.

originally posted by: enament
a reply to: rickymouse

I agree too much electronics in vehicles, people are now too lazy to crank a window, I still would have a hard time doing without the heated seats though as it can get as cold as -34 °C here where I live and thats without the wind chill. The Green New Deal is a scary thing for us here especially since you can't heat your home with pixy dust.

I have no problem with the cold, the wind blowing at you at thirty below is cold though if you don't have the right clothes. Must be that 1.7% eskimo/inuit in my genetics but I like the cold weather. I usually just wear a sweatshirt in the winter unless it is real windy or goes below below zero F.

a reply to: enament

It’s not capitalism it’s consumerism.
Everyone wants new stuff every few years and they buy the cheapest product to fill that need.
A five year old iPhone works just fine but everyone wants the new one.

a reply to: enament
The amount we waste is hard to fathom.
We have thrown away so much stuff its now in the blood of all creatures on the planet before they are even born and can be found in the form of tiny particles at every place on the land and sea.

Way to go industrialised society

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Something to note, the biggest offenders is the third world, of which most of our manufacturing is being outsourced to and Beijing Biden isn't going to stop it but will only increase it over time. With low worker safety regulations and no environmental standards.

The crux of it in the long run is no jobs equals no money with the outcome of no one being able to afford anything to buy stagnating the economy.

So what I gather from reading this, the problem really is freedom, if the governments of world should adopt socialism, and by extension become communist. Then they can solve the global climate change problem......

a reply to: SuperDave90

Your comment holds no water since in the booming age of manufacturing years ago things were built to last and people had enjoyed more freedoms then than we do today.

Sorry I accidentally gave you a star and for some reason I can't take it back.

I think electricity started it all.

All we need to do is get rid of the grid and go back to the good old days.

We can burn all the landfills in our steam engines.