Thursday, November 11, 2004

What are we doing?

Switching from driving an average car to a 13mpg SUV for one year would waste more energy than if you...


Left your refrigerator door open for 6 years
Left your bathroom light burning for 30 years or
Left your color television turned on for 28 years

The planet would like to bitterly say: Thank you SUV's, thank you Hummers, thank you coal and oil and tons of plastics and thank you non-biodegradable soaps and detergents and clorox, thank you politicians and everyday consumers (me included) for not pushing for safe alternatives to our cheaply made and expensively sold products..products that have their death built into them so that you will have to buy another one and another one and another one..thank you for making sure that everything we eat has a chemical lab stored in it..thank you for so much.

Global warming ..yes it's real and it's coming and we are helping it to come faster than ever..I would think those of you out there with kids would have to worry about this even more becasue we are helping to make their world a real mess..We are going to have a water crisis world-wide by 2025 ---the arctic is melting---the polar bears have only decades to survive and then poof! all gone, along with lots of other living things --ice caps are melting at alarming speed---Summers are getting hotter and hotter...and on and on..

The Pentagon has a study which predicts wars and famines and disappearing cities (and it's not fantasy) all thanks to climate change:

What can we do? It's not that hard actually--every Dinar we spend is a vote, so vote for cars that use less gas (or for public transport) , vote for appliances that last longer... don't fall for all the fashionable electronics we have to keep buying..there's nothing cool about them--get what you need only, and enjoy what's left of nature---ask the shops to stock organic food, natural products, healthy choices--why pay to kill yourself? Watch what you waste and what you consume...There are tons of ideas I am sure you guys have billions of them swimming around in your heads..Does anyone's work-place encourage paper-free work? Do you guys recycle? Where do you recycle?

We have organic stores in Kuwait (2 in suq ilSalmiya and 1 in the Qurtuba jam3iya, right? and the organic meat shop in salmiya on the street where La Baguette is in old Salmiya...and organic choices in some supermarkets...what else is there? We don't have any Hybrid cars yet, as far as I know...we don't have a great recycling system, i'm not sure why and the way we waste water and electricity is kinda crazy..If anyone has any info i'd love to hear it..

8 comments:

kwtia said...

Hey Shady, Hope you're having a happy 3eid..
yes, How do you stop implusive useless consumption?? Especially in a place who's entertainment is consumption based..I suppose get info out there on how really terrible the effects of this type of buying and polluting are.. I think most of us lack knowledge about the real consequences of our actions/our consumption..Also there should probably be creative ways to replace the rush people get from consuming..alternatives that are less depleting could be offered by responsible entrepreneurs..ahh my mind is a little fuzzy from the shock of food today...I am drawing a blank...people could offer up ideas..or maybe mention things they have seen in other places that could work..what do you think?
Above all we should have local organizations that can act as both lobbyists and watchdogs, oganizations that really work. Not like the sorry things we have now that call themselves environmental orgs...They should target problems and educate the community and should encourage creative solutions..

Oh, and I hope that we don't have to reach the point where our depleted resources force us to curb our polluting and consumption..I hope we get on the problem sooner than that.
By the way, there is a company that takes SUV's and changes them into ecologically better vehicles..they were providing it as limo service to the stars on Oscar night..I'll have to check that out..and also I'd like to know more about what Norway is up to, you have made me curious now.
By the way..Downloading the banner is really easy, off the site that it links you to..
Peace right back at you.

Drunk'n'Gorgeous said...

Eid Mubarek dear =)

kwtia said...

Ayamich Sa3eeda D&G! Hope you're having a happy restful break..

Q said...

kwtia, more SUV's means more gas consumption, which means increase in demand for oil, which means prices will go up, which means kuwait will sell more oil for higher prices, which means there will be a surplus, which means the govt will give everyone 200KD extra, which means it will be spent shopping or in the stock market, which means more money moving around, which means Kuwaiti are happier :)

LONG LIVE SUVs!!!

kwtia said...

I hope that 'profit over people' post was sarcastic Q :)..otherwise your kids are going to be asking you tough questions about how come you cared more about making profits from oil rather than worry about their poisoned earth and waters and their damaged bodies...
It's already showing in us though, our disregard for anything above money...8 out of 10 patients are cancer patients(said by a researcher doing the Harvard study on Kuwait health last spring), children have high rates of leaukemia and skin diseases(there is a whole ward in london just filled with Kuwaiti children i was told last year..you will have to find out which hospital that is)..70% of kuwaitis have malfunctioning livers due to toxic overdose(doctor told my uncle who had liver problems, this week)..and on and on..
but yeah i know lots of people who could celebrate short lived profit..sure..it's one choice I guess..

kwtia said...

Shady, hi, I am running around doing eid things which drive me crazy, because as an Infp :), I stress the 'I' (introvert), I get really stressed having to go around mingling with hundreds of people for two days..
this is my excuse for no posts..
news gathering routine..I guess i just go through the papers and webzines that I like (some of which are in the sidebar to your right) and a story or several catch my eye and I either go back into the cobwebs of my memory if I already know some stuff about it, or back into books I have or I google (usually all three work together) and then I guess it's being interested in something and worryied or curious about why it's happening that drives you to eventually want to include it in your posts or the way you look at life..
I don't know, that's the routine I guess. Once you go through the news regularily enough you become a news junkie..and then good luck trying to go through life not having access to the web..
Sometimes you find a story and you are interested in it but you have no idea how to process it, so you put it out there and have it sort of do it's own thing..
what turned you off news? Is it too frustrating?

Anonymous said...

Dearest Kwtia,

I commend you on your efforts and salute you for wanting change. Unfortunately, not many kuwaities are as far-sighted as you and they cannot even begin to comprehend anything beyond the "I want it and I want it NOW!" mentality.

I found this quiz, and thought of you.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3996689.stm

Anonymously,
Me :)

kwtia said...

Shady, I know what you mean about the integrity of the press..they are rushed, underpaid overworked and they are controlled by the same corporations that do all the stuff that the reporters should be investigating but can't...but there are good guys out there, and using a variety of sources can get you a bigger piece of the puzzle..
The trick is wanting to bother, choosing to care about what is happening..
Anonymous, thanks for the great quiz..good stuff to know..I had never seen it before..