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I saw this news item on the Fox News Channel website and I was wondering what in the world this means to y'all. I thought it was kinda weird, but what do I know.

The Australian Conservation Foundation has a complaint about Christmas that you may not have heard before — they claim holiday spending is damaging the environment. The group has released a report titled "The Hidden Cost of Christmas," and says every dollar Australians spend on new clothes as gifts consumes four gallons of water and nearly 10 square yards of land to produce.

What's more, gifts like DVD players and coffee makers generate 780,000 tons of greenhouse pollution even before being used and each box of Christmas candy wastes 44 pounds of natural materials. The ACF is calling for "eating, drinking and giving gifts in moderation," and giving gifts with a low environmental cost, like gym memberships and charitable donations.

Last edited by crazyred at 16-Dec-2005 10:34

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

??

OK, thats bizzare.

We aren't all like that *pushes cuckoo back into her ear*



To be honest i've not heard of the group or the concept, but I strongly doubt it'll have any effect on our habits. For a start, regular people over here would have no idea how much a gallon is and well, its all a bit airy fairy.
If i knew how much damage a single MP3 player caused, it might give me cause for thought, but those numbers are too big to make people feel like their $30 gift will have any impact whatsoever.

And who is to say what a waste is? are we conserving our sugar for a more needy holiday lolly? I don't like candy canes, but i'd bet someone somewhere does

I really should watch the news more, but its all been so sad recently I have been avoiding it
This bit is mildly amusing though (not the thing itself, but the way its presented and the hope that it'll change things)

odd bunch we are

Last edited by Callatya at 16-Dec-2005 11:11

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Lol , I already pointed this sort of stuff out in another thread, they are of course completely correct, but what the hell do you do about it when at least one third of the worlds wealthier inhabitants have a several hundred year tradition of buying crap for each other each christmas? Certainly no generation before us has ever bought quite so much unrequired and useless crap.This is just a reasonable statement that we need to look at what we do in this fairly recent time of massive cultural capitalism and materialism in our societies. We expect it like we have always done it, and 50 years ago we didnt have the numbers to make the impact, and we didnt have the products available to do it with. We will find out rather quickly that its completely unsustainable. A christmas gift used to be a small singular gift, a small toy with no complicated chemical processes or manufacturing to produce it, or a simple present of food and clothing, even fruit.Just a small gestures of friendship or beloved items intended to last years. My father was lucky if he got a tin toy and a tangerine for christmas and he came from a family that was anything but poor. Now 65 years later everyone goes totally ape at christmas.We could easily spend in 10 years of christmas more resources than our ancestors did in the previous 600! Its gotten totally out of control.

I think most people are in for a bit of a shock when they realise what being environmentally friendly really means to their lifestyle. Not that ultimately they have a choice in the matter. 50 years from now the choice will be simple. Change or die. Its better that people start now, gives us less to do in the long run.People still havent really awoken to the fact that unless we change our ways pretty soon we will se some quite devastating developments in our lifetime, and that survival odds for the next generation of our children will be really very bad indeed.

Its no longer the wacko's walking around the streets with boards on their backs saying the "end is nigh". The human population probably began a load of pollution significantly heavy to begin the ruination the environment at about the time of the industrial revolution, and weve gotten almost geometrically worse every 20 years since then, Most people have no idea how far off the board weve gotten.

Were really are in trouble.



Last edited by longhairedgit at 16-Dec-2005 21:51

most people are in for a bit of a shock when they realise what being environmentally friendly really means to their lifestyle

I think the best we can hope for is environmentally courteous, friendly seems that little bit too hard to accomplish. Short of going back to live in caves and huts and the like, everything we do has a serious impact one way or another.


I've done my bit though I've not wrapped anything, and Xmas cards are being replaced with emails or letters and photographs for those who will accept that. There's no pleasing some people with donations and letters, they still want hand cream and cards!


For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett