I don’t believe in recycling.

Avitable: Recycling is not the tooth fairy, it doesn’t require your belief in order to exist

For those of us that don’t have a dishwasher(a non human one that is… love you sly!), I wonder if we use more water doing things by hand than the machine. However, it requires actually no energy(carbon usage) to do them by hand versus the machine. I’d have to see the numbers on water usage of a machine versus the flow rate x washing time of my pour dish washing.

Let’s think about how fabulous I am to the earth.
I recycle all the time
I am slowly converting over to energy efficient bulbs in my apt.
I don’t have a car
I generally travel via high occupancy vehicles(public transit y’all!)
…
next steps
Start showering with someone to conserve water
Always have sex with the lights off to save energy (no more disco balls and strobe lights)
Stop clubbing baby seals!

It’s kinda like the tooth fairy.

The earth’s going to be around for a long, long time. We’re not going to be able to destroy it. It may, of course, become inhospitable to humans, but the earth itself will still be fine.

Environmentalism is really all about being selfish.

Avitable- I hope your joking. Although the planet will still be here, and yes it will be uninhabitable for humans. It will be a big floating dead ball…kind of like the moon. Non-environmentalism is about being selfish, not the other way around.

I actually agree with Avitable. As George Carlin once said… “The Earth is fine… the PEOPLE are fucked!”

Branden, the earth has seen way worse than us. No amount of plastic, radiation, or carbon dioxide we create is going to compare to what the earth has seen throughout its years floating around the sun. It will recover from whatever we do eventually and life, albeit in another form, will go on.
Let me remind you of some horrible things the earth has seen as we move backwards in time.

Several times in human history and slightly before, there were volcano eruptions so large, they compare to the nuclear weaponry capacity of the world right now(minus the horrible radiation effects, just taking about energy here). A couple of these caused enough particulates to be put into the air that the sun was blocked out and created a kind of nuclear winter. Ice ages and the death of many lives(and species) followed.

General scientific consensus says that around 65 million years ago, an object crashed into the earth and killed off about 50% of the existing species. Life recovered…

There are actually a total or 4(or 5) mass extinction events in the course of the history of life on this planet. The biggest of which was about 250 million years go, lasted a relatively short period of time, and killed off nearly 96% of life on the planet.
Life recovered.

Let us also remember that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere for most of the Mesozoic Era (about 180 million years) was much much higher than it is today. Life survived.

Going back farther, the turbulent time during the formation of the earth, followed by the violent formation of the moon (depending on which theory), seemed to put this planet in no condition to sustain life… but alas…

About the only thing that’s going to turn this planet into a lifeless ball is the sun. Whether its the sun’s midlife crisis as it becomes a red giant or some earlier change in activity that forces enough solar wind/energy to basically boil off the atmosphere, the sun will destroy this planet and all the life on it.
Funny that it is both the giver and taker… someone should start a religion. Now the sun is something worth making a fuss over!

Getting back to the point. Yes, ’saving the earth’ is a stupid arrogant statement used as marketing tool to get people to unify behind a common purpose. You’d think telling people ‘get your act together or die’ would be enough… but it’s not.

See! I’m not just a slutty queen! I have intelligent things to say too!

Yup, you are definitely a catch. Ain’t nothin like a well-educated ho.

Avitable - Of course you don’t. We’ve already established that you are evil.

Lee - I don’t think it’s accurate to say that it requires no energy to wash dishes by hand. There is a tremendous amount of energy involved in the processing/purification of water. There is also energy involved in heating the water. True, a single person washing one set of dishes may not use very much water and therefore in the long run creates a smaller footprint. If you use the average household as your guide, an energy-efficient dishwasher is best. Hope you and Sly enjoy the showers.

Avitable - I understand the point you are making, however the fact remains that humans are not the only form of life on this planet, and not the only life on this planet that matters. We are systematically wiping out other species. The last numbers I saw estimate the extinction of animal species at 1/week; plant species at 3/week. Unfortunately most humans don’t really care about an issue until it starts affecting them directly… so it’s important to highlight the fact that humans will soon be a distant memory.

Branden - It’s not likely that the Earth will end up devoid of life like the moon. Life will just change and adapt again.

Lee - We should also have a bit of concern that by some means the moon gets destroyed by a comet/asteroid/whatever. Maybe it should be “Save the Moon!” And was there a bit of an implied insult in the statement, “’saving the earth’ is a stupid arrogant statement used as marketing tool to get people to unify behind a common purpose.” Remember the title of this post is “Save the Earth.”

Sly - I prefer my ho’s to be dumb and pretty. Preferably rich.

First:
I feel my “fumes” are a gift to the earth, not noxious.

Second:
The best anti-recycling argument can be seen by watching Penn and Teller Bullshit, the first season.
The info they give is the basis for most of my anti-recycling ways. That and I’m lazy.

Killer - I hope you kept the receipt. … By the way… where in my post did I mention recycling? I know that the typical recycling programs instituted in most cities are failures. This post wasn’t about recycling!

Perhaps the title of the post should have been, “Save your species by washing dishes!” Despite my distaste for marketing, saying things like ‘Save the Earth’ is far more effective than
“Save the unnecessary depletion of worldwide taxonomic groups(including your own!)”
or
“Save your unborn descendants from cancer!”
or
“Encourage worldwide speciation!”
(that last one sounds kinky)

You guys are just as bad as the old people that have bumper stickers that say “Stop Global Whining” lol

Lee - *Folds arms forcefully* …meh..be that way.

geez jester,

i hope this isn’t the kind of information that might get you killed for sharing with us. you know, since you’re working for ‘big brother and all’.

anyway, maybe i’ll just eat off the same recyclable dishes. of course, i’ll wipe them off after every use! that would just be gross if i didn’t.

Where I live they have commercials that tell you that a recent model automatic dishwasher uses considerable less water than the average byhand washing. Other factors to consider are that Australia is very sensitive about saving water, and the commercial was put out by a dishwasher manufacturer.

Danny - I hardly work for big brother. I work for the red-headed stepchild.

Robguy - While you’re right to be skeptical of an ad put out by a dishwasher company, the research I’ve seen says they are probably telling you the truth.

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