Timothy A Mast: Articles
Going Green?
About the disrespect for ourselves and the planet

January 17th 2009 - Here we are in the year 2009. Happy New Year! Of course the Chinese New Year is a few days off, but it will be here soon. As I look at the consumerism here in the USA, it has undergone a large reduction. Personally, I think that is good. Why? Look at how much we consume is plastic? Almost everything seems to be made of plastic these days? What happened to metal? Well, it does not last 500 years. Well, plastics that last 500 years might be our undoing.

Not too long ago the Olympics were being held in Beijing. There were some complaints about pollution there, and some even made outright demonstrations about it, and were reprimanded. From my understanding, China had all the plants in the Beijing area shut down for about a month to reduce the pollution there. That's one month! And, there was still a good amount of pollution there for the Olympic games. We didn't seem to mind once we got caught up in all the drama of the Olympics and Michael Phelps with 8 gold medals. We're all happy. What happened to Tibet? Are they happy?

The Olympics are over. China is back up to full pollution. They do not seem to care if they pollute. Wal-Mart does not seem to care if they pollute.

Once upon a time, when Sam Walton still ran Wal-Mart, about 95% of everything there was made in the USA. Now it is the opposite. Probably 95% of everything there is made in China. China does not care about pollution, and thus its people and everyone else. Therefore, you can extrapolate the Wal-Mart does not care about people or the world. Since Wal-Mart is the world's largest company and cares more about their pockets than whether the next generation will be able to breathe without wearing masks, perhaps we should think about shopping elsewhere.

We now have energy saving light bulbs with enough mercury in them to warrant a warning. Where are they made? China. Now, truly, how many people are really going to dispose of them properly? We also have plastics in our landfills, breaking down and emitting toxic petro-chemicals. Many of our pollutants act as pseudo-estrogens. Excess estrogen in the body promotes breast cancer.

I have to often laugh when I see the Weather Channel's Green segments. They are part of the sad irony. I am glad that people are becoming more environmentally conscious. But that also means being globally conscious. While money is the main driving force behind business, pollution will continue to be an issue of tantamount proportions. When greed is there, people just don't care.

Obviously pollution is an issue. Most companies have set themsleves up overseas, where pollution controls are either non-existant or greatly reduced. The answer for that is simple--MONEY. Unfortunately, the human race can be quite stupid. Rather than encourage other countries to reduce pollution, our companies go there and create even more pollution. How can we be so assanine? How can we be so short-sighted? We are only hurting ourselves. But, it will probably take millions of people dying before we choose to change the way things work.


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Timothy A Mast
1406 Falcon Dr
Louisville, KY 40213
United States
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People and their ignorance or stupidity