At the same time it just makes me feel powerless, all the effort I go through to not make this problem bigger is all too small to have any effect, the powerlessness against the system is real. I can change my habits, advocate for others why I believe that's good but it all fall into deaf ears while the incentives are there to just consume, throw it away, rinse and repeat.
It just makes me exhausted while not feeling I've helped to make the world any better, and in the end I still get flak from the mindless consumers if I bring this up as it's a damn boring subject to participate when one doesn't care about it.
To many people don't value values or morals, and only prioritize their own experiences. I find it hard to maintain relationships with people who only talk about their career, business and consumption, as it is hard to have any kind of discussion about "we COULD, but SHOULD we" in regards to purchasing the latest car, iphone, a new house etc.
You'll never change people. It makes me sad as well.
That's not true. As recently as 50 years ago my relatives had pigs and they ate or otherwise used every single part of the animal, even the teeth, without throwing anything out. And they weren't poor, either. It was simply a mindset of utilizing what you have to the best of your ability.
The same way the dairy industry doesn't exist in Africa due to the EU. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a2sJz8G3fE (DW Documentary)
Africa has become a dumping ground for the Western world's problems while being wrapped up as feel good.
Best summary of the problem https://issafrica.org/iss-today/despite-the-hazards-ghanas-i...
>political science Professor at the University of Pisa in Italy, says: ‘If hazardous waste leaves European ports illegally, that’s because it’s easier to export illegally from [European ports] than to import to the European Union (EU).’ He says while Europeans control what enters their soil, ‘they don’t care very much about what is exported from their countries.’
I don't understand why people buy these. I don't vape, but it is my understanding that you can get reusable vapes with cartridges that are very easy to replace, and which are probably more enjoyable to use.
People should just smoke pure tobacco (pipes, cigars) but those are too inconvenient.
The only exception is if the vape juice contains something it "shouldn't", like the vitamin E acetate debacle, but if you put the same wrong things in tobacco, you get the same issue. This problem is avoided entirely with a verified source of ingredients.
Partial combustion products will always contain, at minimum, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a verified carcinogen. The hotter the conditions, the more complex the precursors, and the more incomplete the reaction is, the more nasty junk you will create. Vaping might or might not be bad, but the chemistries of smoking includes the full set of chemistries of vaping, and then way way more, due to the incomplete combustion of the much larger molecules in plant matter.
Bottom line: probably don't put the volatile reaction products of substances heated above 100°C into your lungs: tobacco smoke, vape, campfire smoke, car exhaust, brake dust, etc. But some reactants are far worse than others.
https://academic.oup.com/jnci/article-abstract/96/11/853/252...
They're still terrible for you and disgusting to be around.
There is some evidence that they are used by people who never smoked, though. The smoking reduction seems like a convenient excuse for these companies. In actual fact smokers or former-smokers is a limited and dwindling market. They want to expand aggressively, notably in younger populations.
At the time I was having to put in a lot of long shifts. It helped until it didn't. Patches work great, strongly recommended.
My understanding is that the FDA recently banned flavored vapes, however the wording of the rule made some reference to the ban being for “cartridge-based” vapes, presumably to target Juul over roll-your-own-vape-juice type systems.
This lead to a loophole where the disposable vapes, being disposable and not cartridge based, can be flavored.
It’s still incredibly easy.
If you could magically make every person in the United States look at these photos for 30 minutes, nothing would change about how we live and consume.
All that matters is that my streets are pristine.
I've been prone to such biases myself, but the truth is very different. Billions of people, including hundreds of millions in wealthy regions, still simply do not know about this. They genuinely do not know that e.g. plastic recycling is a fantasy. They have not seen these images. Of course, many have and just don't care as long as their streets are pristine - the people you're talking about very much exist. But there's even more people who are simply unaware.
It's very easy to take a nihilist view that nothing matters, as it completely absolves oneself of any potential responsibility whatsoever. But it doesn't reflect reality.
No! I actually do take personal responsibility by:
• Living in a small apartment in a dense city
• Never having driven a car - I never even learned to drive
• Never flying in an airplane – last flight was 10+ years ago and have no plans to fly again
• Eating a plant-based diet
• Not ever having kids
But I will concede that none of those things matter.
> This is of course untrue, given that we know that there are people who have changed their behaviour after learning about realities through articles such as this one.
That is neat! People in general will not change their behavior.
> That is neat! People in general will not change their behavior.
Unless you rolled out of the womb with the plans to live in the manner you've described, there must at some point have been things that changed your behavior. Out of everyone living like you and me globally, the ones who have been raised by their parents to do so are a really tiny minority. I've lived on two opposite sides of the globe, and in both places they count for <1%. The rest of us has implemented lifestyle changes after being faced with realities.
Honestly probably just the result of having weird parents who didn’t discourage weird decisions by me as a kid. We lived in a small house (without air conditioning) in Florida and spent summers on an even smaller (and even hotter) wooden sailboat.
So I was never afraid of doing things most people wouldn’t consider just to see what would happen.
And even more honestly I just like living this way.
If the Earth was cooling down and we had to warm the planet up by driving more or whatever I’d live the same way I do now because I like it. I wouldn’t care about doing the right thing for the planet.
So I can’t fault the people who just like living a different way that happens to bad for the planet. They like their lives so let ‘em go nuts.
None of these are taking responsibility. This is just a normal nihilistic life style being spun as meaningful behavior. You not having kids isn't making a sacrifice because there is no world in which you have kids.
Can you point out where I said these things were a sacrifice?
I actually don’t think any of those things are sacrifices — they all add to my quality of life. Obviously I have to guess on the kids thing and I can’t be 100% sure about the driving thing, but I’ve flown before and it sucks. I live in a smaller apartment now than I did when I was younger. I ate meat for decades. So I know the alternatives.
> You not having kids isn't making a sacrifice because there is no world in which you have kids.
Of course there is! I have just chosen to not make that world a reality.
> This is just a normal nihilistic life style being spun as meaningful behavior
Then the same can be said of somebody who says that eating meat and having kids is good?
What lifestyle isn’t nihilistic by your definition?
We have, however, had some success at taking collective action; compare trying to convince individuals to make a moral decision not to use disposable technologies with a regulation that requires manufacturers to make their products repairable/recyclable/etc.