For centuries the powers that be have been deceiving us; I didn’t have sex with that intern; I am not a crook; Saddam Hussein could launch weapons of mass destruction within 30 minutes, the list goes on.
One particular noteworthy occurrence of the government talking advantage of the public’s emotions was during the second world war. In order to “help the war effort”, park railings and sometimes those at house fronts were taken by the government to melt down and turn into weapons. The truth of the matter was that the railings were useless they were all covered in thick lead paint and melting them down to convert into any kind of weapon would have probably resulted in a gun that was melted by its own fire. It later became apparent that government had simply dumped the railings, and they were only taken to give the public the feeling that they were helping the war effort. A similar thing happen in America where the government encouraged housewives to knit sweaters for the troops despite the face that automated knitting machines were infinitely more productive. (And by infinite, I mean a vary large integer.)
The bottom line was the government had it under control, and they just wanted to make the public feel a little better.
My thought is simply this: What if it’s the same thing with recycling?
Google currently spend more money on energy than hardware, there are millions of factories and large industries that make a large contribution to global warming simply because it’s a more efficient way to produce their products. Could it really be that in my humble abode, sorting out the rubbish into infinitely (large integer again) many small boxes so that the bin men mix it all up again by tipping the entire thing into the back of the same truck, would have any bearing on the environment. I mean if your going with the old earth theory -which is another blog post in itself- surely the earth has been though ice ages, before humans even existed. And even if we were genuinely a threat, does the average consumer really have any power or influence, or is the ominous council green box just another way to make the proletariat feel better about themselves while the government just sort it out.
PS:
Next time I promise to stop all this pondering crap and actually do a post about computers or something at least distantly related to IT. Probably that review I said I’d do on open office, but never got round to.
Also the date for the first (experimental) video blog post will hopefully be here on the 25th of June. That gives me 6 days after exams to write and produce the thing.
