Make 2023 (2021) the year of not buying something

First posted in January 2021.

Part of the problem of climate change, deforestation, species extinction is related to the amount we consume and currently business as usual merchants want us to continue spending and consuming. This isn’t possible on a finite planet and is morally wrong when we know of the exploitation of human labour and the environment. So how about making a list of things that you don’t buy this year, that you do without? If we all didn’t buy something it would make a big difference. I can see the problems for people. A younger me would also spend and spend again but I have become old enough to reject the advertising by what the marketing and advertising people tell me is essential for my life and happiness. So why not try and not go shopping whether it be physically when allowed to do so or on line? Make a note of items that you have decided not to buy and at the end of 2021 count up how much money you have saved. There are those that will say that these people in 3rd world countries need the work and while true they need more than economic slave wages and that needs to change too.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

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Killing the Earth for shopping

First posted in January 2021.

Western, first world countries rely on cheap and often exploited labour to fill the shops and increasingly so the internet with cheaply made throw away rubbish. Perhaps no more so than in the fast fashion industry which is always so shocked at finding exploitation in its supply chains. Shops turn over at quite a rate either for a new brand or a refit and this is where they also exploit the environment. Here we see one shop being refitted for a brand and at the end of it the wood and whatever materials are covering it will be placed into landfill or burnt causing more pollution. If workers were not being exploited and there was an actual true value put on the resources used for this “cheap” hoarding this sort of waste and wanton destruction of the environment for the business as usual model of capitalist growth would not be possible. Make 2021 the year when you shop and consume less. Our political leaders want us to consume more but we must stop if we want to have some sort of sustainable and equitable future.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

Killing the Earth for shopping

I first posted this on the 3rd of January 2021. Our attitude in 1st world countries to consuming goods that are produced unsustainably by exploited 3rd world labour causing great damage to the environment continues.

3rd January 2021

Western, first world countries rely on cheap and often exploited labour to fill the shops and increasingly so the internet with cheaply made throw away rubbish. Perhaps no more so than in the fast fashion industry which is always so shocked at finding exploitation in its supply chains. Shops turn over at quite a rate either for a new brand or a refit and this is where they also exploit the environment. Here we see one shop being refitted for a brand and at the end of it the wood and whatever materials are covering it will be placed into landfill or burnt causing more pollution. If workers were not being exploited and there was an actual true value put on the resources used for this “cheap” hoarding this sort of waste and wanton destruction of the environment for the business as usual model of capitalist growth would not be possible. Make 2021 the year when you shop and consume less. Our political leaders want us to consume more but we must stop if we want to have some sort of sustainable and equitable future.

Over there, Campbell Park, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England

Just over there, that’s where all the people are busily looking at goods and products made in third world countries where the workers are paid a poverty wage and their environment is severely damaged. All to keep the happy shoppers of Milton Keynes and other such places happy. Meanwhile the park is almost empty.

Manicured landscape, disrupted and destroyed ecosystems but what for because few are using it even on a beautiful day like this one in the photograph? If this space is not being used and keeping it looking this way requires lots of climate change causing fossil fuel use perhaps it would be better to leave it to return to being a meadow or woodland. The issue here is that very close by is the shopping centre which would have been very busy with people having driven there using up resources and causing climate change while buying goods made by exploited labour in countries far away. We need to change drastically. At this point in Campbell Park, Milton Keynes we were perhaps five or at most ten minutes walk from the shopping centre on a warm Spring day and yet the park appears very empty. We always found the wonderful Campbell Park very under utilised when we lived in Milton Keynes compared to say London parks. 24th May 2009.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton T-shirts and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

Our Etsy shop, https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Bitcoin’s not for Ethiopian clothes workers – it’s a private party

A few days ago the magical monopoly money made out of thin air was valued at around $50,000, simply human madness. It’s a private party of course and only those rich enough can play. For instance the Ethiopian garment workers earning $7 a week who keep the consumerist economies afloat so that they can play the Bitcoin game will never be able to participate. If an Ethiopian could use all their weekly $7 to save for one Bitcoin it would take them over 137 years. Alternatively if 137 Ethiopian workers starved themselves and didn’t pay any bills for a year then they could buy a Bitcoin assuming that the price hadn’t changed of course or that while they saved they weren’t charged negative interest by the global banking system. There is something deeply disturbing and immoral about money and wealth and few it seem question the system especially when consuming the work of exploited third world labour.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/2/9/bitcoin-nears-50000-as-cryptocurrencies-ride-tesla-wave

Make 2021 the year of not buying something

Part of the problem of climate change, deforestation, species extinction is related to the amount we consume and currently business as usual merchants want us to continue spending and consuming. This isn’t possible on a finite planet and is morally wrong when we know of the exploitation of human labour and the environment. So how about making a list of things that you don’t buy this year, that you do without? If we all didn’t buy something it would make a big difference. I can see the problems for people. A younger me would also spend and spend again but I have become old enough to reject the advertising by what the marketing and advertising people tell me is essential for my life and happiness. So why not try and not go shopping whether it be physically when allowed to do so or on line? Make a note of items that you have decided not to buy and at the end of 2021 count up how much money you have saved. There are those that will say that these people in 3rd world countries need the work and while true they need more than economic slave wages and that needs to change too.

Killing the Earth for shopping

Western, first world countries rely on cheap and often exploited labour to fill the shops and increasingly so the internet with cheaply made throw away rubbish. Perhaps no more so than in the fast fashion industry which is always so shocked at finding exploitation in its supply chains. Shops turn over at quite a rate either for a new brand or a refit and this is where they also exploit the environment. Here we see one shop being refitted for a brand and at the end of it the wood and whatever materials are covering it will be placed into landfill or burnt causing more pollution. If workers were not being exploited and there was an actual true value put on the resources used for this “cheap” hoarding this sort of waste and wanton destruction of the environment for the business as usual model of capitalist growth would not be possible. Make 2021 the year when you shop and consume less. Our political leaders want us to consume more but we must stop if we want to have some sort of sustainable and equitable future.

An education outside of school and university

20 years ago today my partner and I arrived back in the UK after having spent a year backpacking and travelling around the world. It was a big part of my life education and I grew up a lot on that trip and learnt a lot. It changed my outlook completely from small and narrow minded British citizen to a broader outlook. Another bit of my education came a few years later with our first of many trips to Cuba. That first trip cemented my “Another World Is Possible” mindset. With my corporate redundancy two years ago I have been able to study the environmental changes happening to the life support systems that support all life on Earth, including the dumb human monkey. The current economics and business as usual models are almost completely disconnected from the processes that run the planet and brought us in 2019 to 415ppm CO2, a level not seen for millions of years. You cannot see it, feel it as distinct from the other atmospheric gases or smell it but its level of presence is an existential threat to our existence. For me I have completed the circle and my mindset is now the deepest red and the deepest green. Hasta la victoria siempre.

And Soon There Will Be None

The sad state of our world as our greed consumes all that there is. There is no link between economic growth and the limitations of Earth’s systems and therefore we are exceeding the ability of the Earth to provide what we need. Humanity does not know the meaning of sustainability and many of its individuals do not care or even want to know.

R.I.P. life on Earth.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/06/european-demand-wood-rapidly-shrinking-drcs-rainforest-180626122319969.html