Advocates, medias, publics, and politicians must all stop pretending that the most pressing issues of our time (or their potential solutions) can be understood through 30-second soundbites or Tweets.
The generation occupying positions of corporate and public power, along with the slightly younger cohort that advises ministers and VPs, were the same generations who supposedly received the most school education about "the environment". Simple knowledge and practice nuggets like the Three R's, conservation, CFC avoidance--instilled by Captain Planet, the Smoggies, and countless doe-eyed fresh schoolteachers--were supposed to be the keys to "saving the planet".
Despite such sustained and widespread supply-side efforts, the group now in power is the one to oversee mankind's broadest and most adverse actions to the lifeforms, objects, and peoples in our surroundings. One wonders how bad practical realities might be, had no push been made to educate. The current simple practice, to think and act locally without rational regard to how the pieces connect, can only result in piecemeal policies that are correctly derided as conceptually and practically insufficient, but by critics who also share the same quality.
Think, for a moment, why you were (probably) taught that recycling cans is no different than recycling bottles or tetra-paks, all reinforced by policy to collect deposits at the cash register. You know all about recycling beverage and food containers, despite the fact that the three materials and energy economics are all different. Sand is one of the most abundant inert materials known to mankind, and requires just as little energy to melt as bottles. Metal is one of the rarest and most reactive materials known to mankind, and smelting is exceedingly expensive energetically. Plastic/paper/metal drink containers rely on petro-chemical, agricultural, and metal production supply chains, and are used in that combination in drink containers because the combination resists natural and human attempts at degradation. Yet, the parts in lesser combination are a substrate for all kinds of chemical and biological activities.
Think, for a moment, why you were (probably) taught that recycling cans is no different than recycling bottles or tetra-paks, all reinforced by policy to collect deposits at the cash register. You know all about recycling beverage and food containers, despite the fact that the three materials and energy economics are all different. Sand is one of the most abundant inert materials known to mankind, and requires just as little energy to melt as bottles. Metal is one of the rarest and most reactive materials known to mankind, and smelting is exceedingly expensive energetically. Plastic/paper/metal drink containers rely on petro-chemical, agricultural, and metal production supply chains, and are used in that combination in drink containers because the combination resists natural and human attempts at degradation. Yet, the parts in lesser combination are a substrate for all kinds of chemical and biological activities.
Landfill bulk is a wholly inadequate policy or scientific lens through which to simultaneously view all three phenomena, yet that remains the basis of our political, personal, and public discussions.
We must strive to hold and accept conversations that are at least as sophisticated as the subjects we hope to discuss.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328585.900-how-canadas-green-credentials-fell-apart.html
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