Author of stories for children, Scientist and Philosopher organic cotton products, comments on life, the universe and everything, photography. Conservationist, Environmentalist. Lives on the pale blue dot. Humanity must tread more lightly on the world
The shopping centres are as good if not better than those in other countries yet only a percentage of the population can afford to go to them. They are, as all shopping centres are, full of goods made with exploited and lowly paid labour. Seen on the road out of Asuncion, Paraguay in 2012, as we leave on the long distance coach for Buenos Aires. A journey that for us leaves around 6pm, maybe earlier, if I remember correctly and arrives the next day, 19 to 20 hours later. 29th February 2012.
Cashew nuts are very good for us unless you are unfortunate to have an allergy. But like many things that we in first world countries take for granted and pick up every day, only stopping probably to reflect on the price, is what and who is involved in getting the cashews to us.
Looking at the side of the packet which I have never done before tells me that they were grown in Vietnam. So the cashews have covered a lot of food miles probably by burning fossil fuels so there’s the aspect of climate change to consider as well.
Cashews produce of Vietnam
We should but few do, ask ourselves what sort of life the farmers or the people working in the growing and packaging of these cashew nuts lead. Are they well paid, well housed and do they have clean running water? Do they go on holiday and do their kids go to school? All normal things that the people buying the packet of cashews take for granted and would complain if they had to live without them. We all need to think about our impact on the planet but also the many invisible people that supply us with food.
Then of course there’s that plastic packaging. Where’s that going to end up? Incinerated, polluting the air we breathe or as nano sized plastic particles that may carry toxins or pathogens into our bodies and possibly end up giving us a serious health issue?
A lot to think about as we are going to have to change whether we like it or not.
Below are a few more photos of food miles and plastic pollution to think about.
Food milesDumb idea Fiji bottled waterChocolates in plasticInside the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria, La Rambla, Ciutat Vella, Barcelona, SpainMarket scene
Can anyone remember when large digital screens started to be used to bombard privileged first world consumers with advertising and marketing of products, often produced with exploited labour in third world countries? It hasn’t been going on for that long but in the time of drastic greenhouse gas emissions it’s a disaster. Perhaps this will be on humanity’s tombstone, “The monkey went extinct because of its love of advertising, marketing and exploitation of other human monkeys and all other forms of life on Earth”. We cannot continue to consume at the rate we are consuming and we are morally bankrupt if we continue the exploitation of other Homo sapiens.
Can you imagine how many CO2 molecules are being released in powering the screens in the building below?
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.
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.
First posted in December 2020. A fancy coffee machine is unnecessary and creates extra waste. All you need is a cafetière and a kettle.
Everything we do is a loading on the environment. Every coffee bush is sitting in a monoculture where once there was a diverse ecosystem. Further to that there’s a huge amount of human exploitation in the growing of the coffee while certain large corporations employee some very clever people to make sure they don’t pay much tax, if any, on their huge sales. There’s a big disconnect between what well known brands make in profits and the wages earned by the coffee pickers. If you really do need to use a machine then make sure that your capsules are being recycled rather than ending in land fill as capsules add an extra dimension to the environmental loading of coffee. If you don’t need a machine then just use a kettle and a simple cafetière like this one from Bodum.
First blogged in December 2020. It reminded me to think of all the workers in the world that pick tea. Have their lives improved in the two years since? Possibly not, think about it. I doubt whether their wages have gone up in line with the actual price of tea.
I noticed on this particular teabag for some reason this message. I don’t know how many different messages there are on the teabags in the box but this one for some reason caught my eye. We don’t normally use teabags preferring loose tea but we were visiting a relation. The message got me thinking because for most of the time we ignore such marketing and in this case it might have had the opposite effect to what the advertiser sought. One might think how wonderful that someone has hand picked leaves for this and the other teabags in the heavily and unnecessarily plastic wrapped box, but that’s another story. So I asked myself what sort of lifestyle did the person who picked the leaves for my teabag actually have? How many hours did the work and in what conditions and how much did they get paid? Did they have clean drinking water and proper sanitation? Did they eat a varied diet and have a proper roof over their head? Was their life in any way as easy as mine where as a first world citizen I can buy teabags without thinking of the cost to my bank account or the costs in terms of properly paid human labour and loading on the environment. Think about the things that you take for granted and try to learn about the reality of the people and places behind them.
Blogged almost two years ago in December 2020. Very little, if anything has changed. First world countries need to consume less to tackle climate change.
First world economies work on exploiting third world workers and their environment because otherwise scenes like this would not occur. If workers were paid a similar minimum working wage in value terms to first world workers then world trade would have to slow down. We would have to repair, reuse and recycle what we consume and not just dump it outside a closed charity shop for others to scavenge over. Our first world economies have no values for the destruction of the environment they cause nor of the pollution that they leave behind in far away lands. These places are remote from the bright glossy marketing of these goods in their consumerist palaces of shopping both on the street and on the internet. Time to change our ways and start paying the real price.
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.
Paul Noël 