General Discussion
CHECKING OUT AT THE STORE
The young cashier suggested to the elderly lady that she should bring her own shopping bags because plastic bags werent good for the environment.
The women apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days.
"The cashier responded, " Thats our problem today, Your generation did not care enough to save our enviournment for future generations."
She was right - Our generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, Pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the green thing back in our day
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every shop and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.
But she was right. We didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's nappies because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts - wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that young lady is right. We didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house - not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the country of Yorkshire. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the post,we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
But she's right. We didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the tram or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
But isn't it said the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?
Remeber: Don't make old people mad. We don't like being old in the first place, So it doesn't take much to pxxx us off.
This article was composed by a lady in Australia her name is not known but the above has recently been published in the Samaritans news letter i was shown it and thought i would share it with the good people of Dawlish
My cynicism of 'modern' greenies is based on the actions of govt, here and elsewhere. Whilst working in a govt dept in the UK there were notices all over encouraging workers to turn down the heating to 18deg at home yet the building was uncomfortably hot as the building manager explained govt regs meant he had to maintain the heating at 22deg, despite complaints from workers being too warm. Many hundreds, yes hundreds of pages were printed on inkjet printers and thrown directly from printers into a shredder, I won't bore you with the details why we did this but many, many thousands of pages a day are printed then binned (immediately) in govt offices.
Now we have suggestions that motorway speed limits should be raised to 80mph so using even more fuel and generating more CO2. Added to this the obsession to build more runways and airports I have completely dismissed all the BS the govt gives us about our effect on Global Warming as simply a way of imposing extra taxes. If Global Warming was a serious problem then the govt would not be implementing policies to increase the wastage of materials and resources and then tell us we shouldn't use plastic bags for our shopping.
Why should I buy a bag at the supermarket then buy even more bags to put my rubbish in, I'll continue to use the free supermarket bags for my bin.
That's my rant to start 2013. Global Warming, yes please, why is it taking so long?
Life is to short to be bothered with all this Green bullshit stuff. Supermarkets are the biggest polluters in the country anyway, without worrying about free carrier bags. The motorways are clogged up all hours by their lorries. If governments where so concerned they could invest in modern incinerator plants that can burn most rubbish and convert it into electricity the burnt gases are cleaned and send back to the incinerator. The company I worked for had this technology in Sweden 20 years ago.
@Wriggler.yes but there`s China,Russia,other eastern european countries,USA and there freeways(especially LA freeways) all spewing out smoke from chimneys thick as anything(except (LA freeways).i just cannot understand why people want us to "go green",when other countries just will not do it.global warming,I am just not convinced, not yet anyway.
She didnt mention how kids need 'top of the range' expensive mobile to communicate by text with mum from bedroom to kitchen and not shout down the stairs.... 'whats for tea'. If only you could take away the mobile expense.. just may get communication again..do you remember talking?.
@Paul. soylent green is the ultimate solution - food for all, population control, reduced demand on natural resources, lower co2 emissions as a result and therefore less global warming. a win-win scenario
Just out of interest i was wondering if anyone knows there personal carbon footprint mine is 4.37 tonnes of CO2 per year there are websites where you can calculate your own
Something was released just before Xmas. It stated that Global Warming stopped in 1976 (wish I'd noted what it was - sorry)!
Even if this is the case (and I don't believe that any of us has the information to make an informed decision) it still make sense to recycle - even though someone is making a lot of money from our free labour - for the sake of OUR environment. Doesn't it?