Why is it that those who sin cast stones?

Question

I am not understanding people who on here ask about people who polute, companies who polute and ask about them being evil while they're typing away on their computers on the internet. Where do they think their computer and electricity comes from? Where do they think their clothes come from? Where do they think their shampoo bottles, their toothbrushes come from?

How can these people be judging the companies and the people around them when they're no better? It irks me. It's not like they're in hemp clothing sewn by hand, peddling hand made bicycles to power their organically made computer to voice their 'green' opinions. Do you think they grow their own soap products? Toothpastes? Do they all walk and bike -everywhere- they go?

How many here really do grow their own hygene products and make their own clothing? I'm curious. It would be neat to know how you do it. I know people used to do it, in the pioneer days.

Answer 1

Lye: animal fat+ carbon/ash+water= soap. Was discovered by accident out of Rome from the burnt remains of Gladiators washing down from the disposal areas...Ugh. But I get your gist. The free market has done more for man kind then any regulatory agency. In reality I dream of going back to basics, but get caught at the cross roads of practicality-vs-convenience...Don't we all?

Answer 2

I am afraid it is not that simple. Indeed the world is complicated.

There are various degrees of sins regarding the environment.

- Most (progressive) companies acknowledge they have an impact on the environment and try to improve their eco-balance

- Some companies are really honest and push very far their efforts to improve the environment and reduce as much as possible their impact

- Some like Exxon know very well about their impact, deny it, lie to the public and try to stop others to act.

There is indeed a need to judge accuratly based on objective parameters companies for three reasons:

- the first on is for taxation purpose in order to put a price on pollution which in turn will lead the price of the product to reflect its real societal cost.

- the second one is to inform the public about the effects of companies as people have a right to know.

- the thrid is to "compare" companies and identify good practices. Let´s take your example of the shampoo bottle: a company which has one well engineered out of recyclable plastics might be an example for others

Answer 3

The facts show that putting the clothes on your line should save you money, but will make no difference if we all did the same and rode bikes to work! It is a NATURAL occurance and it comes from the sources mentioned in other places at this site! I want to keep my factory clothes workers to work, so I will buy mine. It is good that you recycle solids.. We all should, especially plastics. God bless, Earl

Answer 4

It`s the fleecing of the pockets that I have a real problem with. I would not complain so much if I didn`t have to pay so much for everything. I know things are not priced fairly, I worked in many places in shipping and receiving and know things are marked as high over cost as possible. When the merchandise doesn`t move as well, the price is lowered or put on sale. Pick pocket until the money flow slows down.

A fairer way would be to price things to make you a fair profit after all expenses. The exception to this is the airlines, they are operating at a loss almost everyday. Don`t understand their logic, but then nobody would fly if they priced things at a profit. Especially now with the fuel thieves feasting on every bodies pockets.

Answer 5

The first step to awareness is asking the right questions.  The next step to a solution is admitting you have a problem.  After that, it's the hard work of getting it done.

Roosevelt said "Do what you can, where you are, with what you have."  Computers and global networks are vastly more efficient than travel, mail or even phones.  It's the cheapest fastest way to get the word out.  

Personally, I've spent thousands of dollars increasing the efficiency of my home and purchasing the most fuel efficient gas cars you can buy in North America.  I purchase only what I need.  I wear the same clothes over and over until they wear out.  I rode only a bicycle only for several years, then only a motorcycle, until it finally became impractical.  My grooming habits consist of a bar of soap, some organic toothpaste, and one 12 pack of disposable razors per year.  I am in the process of purchasing a second acre, next to one I own.  My life goal is now to turn them into a farmstead and retire there.  I'll ditch my car, grow vegetables, chicken and fish and be satisfied with what I have.

What irks me is people who post here, who put opinions out in the world, who have not the first clue of the true nature of things.  If they had any idea of the obscene assaults perpetrated on our world, every minute of every day, they would fall to their knees and beg forgiveness from whatever God they believe in.  

We are all responsible for this, we are all sinners, save the aboriginals of the world.  They ask only to be left alone and we can't even do that.

Should we stand by and do nothing?  Or do the best we can and hope for the best?

I gave up the dream of utopia a long time ago.  Now my wish is that we don't bring Armageddon.

Answer 6

let's see, where to start.

so you're into computing.

i'm an old IBM assembler programmer.

just so we get our backgrounds straight.

i'd like to digress a bit first.

(my daughter hates it when i do that -- i take forever.)

AGW is not a 'croc', it's real.

it's not the sun, it's not warming from an ice age.

CO2 really is the problem.

i could go on forever, but this description is better than mine.

http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rpt_briefs/clim...  

however, to your question.

"Why is it that those who sin cast stones?"

magicians live off this.  it's called misdirection.  make 'em look somewhere else, so they won't follow the real action.  (if you follow the global warming deniers, you'll see lots of this.  email me if you want me to talk you ear off (or in this case, fatigue your eyeball out.))

however, before we even get there, you make a mistake.

you assume they think.

they want a tax cut.  if it's financed by deficit, which is ultimately stealing from their children and grandchildren, they don't care.

so not only do they not think, they have no morals either.

lastly, i do sew.  (or i used to.)  there is a specific style of shirt i like that i cannot buy.  if i want one, i have to make it.  i also rarely find pants that are right, and almost always have to shorten them.  (no, it's not that, really, i'm under-tall. :-)

have a nice day.  oh, even more lastly, i normally don't reply to folks with private Q&As.  i understand the reasoning.  but trolls do the same.  for you, however, i made an exception.  (probably much to your dismay.)   ;-)

Answer 7

Liss, I think we're all sinners on this one, but I don't think we should go around trying to place blame.  What we need to do is deal with it, any way we can. I'm a part-time miner and people try to demonize mining, too, even though EVERYONE depends on it.  Collectively and individually we need to figure out the best way to deal with these problems. I'm a scientist and I know that global warming is real, but I'm not sure what to do. It's difficult to understand what the best approach is.  I think the best we can hope for is to educate people about what's going on and hope that they change things voluntarily, but if they don't we may need to incentivize them to change, or at least remove incentives for living a wasteful life.

Answer 8

You forgot to ask if they live in caves!!  LOL

Answer 9

There are many places in between the extremes of living in a cave growing all your own food and wasting resources like they are unlimited.

A good steward (as we should all be) of the environment can still drive a car (I recommend Hybrids) or Scooter (up to 100 mpg), use electricity (preferable from a renewable source as many utilities now offer for a small fee), wear clothes, and shower.  It's quite easy to live a modern comfortable life and use less than 1/2 the energy of someone else living next door.  That's the kind of good stewardship we should all strive toward. There's no reason or expectation for anyone to give up all modern conveniences, just to use them much more wisely.

Edit:

Mark Anthony - I made suggestions, but I didn't dictate how anyone should live.  The key is that since we all share limited resources, each person must consider that (and occasionally be pressured by society, since we all know some people are completely irresponsible and inconsiderate of others) when making lifestyle decisions.  If someone wants to drive a Hummer, yet balances that by installing solar panels on their roof, that would still fall into the category of good steward in my mind.

Answer 10

Its about creating utopia, and forcing people to conform to the ideals of the perfect society.  Ken stated it best, we should all be good stewards however he already states how he thinks people should live without regard to what they think, he even has decided what vehicles they should drive.  This is my problem with the global warming debate, no matter how you slice it, in the end it still is about controlling the way people live.

Answer 11

Not sure how you can "grow" soap.  The soap that I make comes from lard, lye and water.  But I do make my laundry detergent from it as well.  

And I sew, garden, cook, recycle, make compost, live in a small home, use a clothes line, and generally just don't get out much.  Is that what you mean?

Answer 12

Well let's see, how do you know they don't ride a bamboo built bicycle, haven't considered that Dell, while not the best PC, has the best cradle-to-grave policies in the industry, could easily be running off a solar and/or wind and/or hybrid system, could certainly be using composting toilets, in fact probably could be wearing hemp, especially if in the NYC area, where they could also use mass-transit, and may not even own an automobile?

In other words, your question isn't anything that makes sense, it's just being incredibly judgemental, and since you have not bothered to take any time to fully research these things, you're actually being very pre-judgemental.

There's also another possibility that people are starting to research how to do these things, and can spread knowledge, even if they can't afford these things, so they can help that way.

I'm also always curious, what kind of things are you doing?  I'm always looking for new ideas, and hopefully I can add them to my green list.