Day 7: Don’t Bother with Green Hype. Choose Technology.

Today is the last day of my experiment. This was a good learning outcome for me. It opened my eyes to how things are and how things will be in the future. Now I would advise everyone who sees my blog to watch a documentary called FUTURE BY DESIGN from http://www.freedocumentary.tv/future-by-design/. This is going to support whatever I have told against the green movement. Technology has changed everything in our past our present and it will change everything on our future as well. No matter how much negative stuff people like Colin and other authors say about what is going to happen to this beautiful planet and stuff like that, I advise people not to believe in them and waste your time, as it is never ever going to happen. The earth will never be destroyed by humans, unless there is a war. If it does it will be for the selfish reasons, due to a few people of highly-developed nations.

All non renewable, natural resources will be replaced with nanotechnology, which is the future. Energy will be produced from space that is from vacuum. We will use anti-matter and other resources to produce energy. Enough energy can be produced from very little of the above mentioned resources, which can last the entire earth for a long time. At the rate we are developing all these inventions, it is likely to happen within 2020. And then what we will look back and laugh at all these people who wasted paper and other resources to let us now about keeping the world clean. There will be solar powered robots everywhere in the planet, who will be fishing for the waste we have produced.  After development of this kind of technology, we will reuse all our waste in a positive way.

All transportation will be changed and magnets will be used for travelling. I would advise people to invest in technology.  Please, visit http://www.shimz.co.jp/english/index.html and click on projects. The world is going to change in a big and positive way.

We humans always developed the technology to get us out of trouble and we will do it again and again and again. I do not agree with anything Colin says in the book and I think it is not a good idea to give up one’s dream and hopes. I would rather enjoy my life to the fullest and invest in high technology companies like the one mentioned above.   And develop other companies similar to that, make a profit along the way and be happy. Giving up my life and living like Colin is not for me.  It never was and it never will be.

Day 6: Green People and the Natural Cycles of the Earth

This is the second last of the experiment and I am not happy, nor am I sad, that it is going to be over. I was talking about technology in my previous blog entry. Now I know that for every million pounds of atmospheric gas, no more than 350 may be composed of carbon dioxide. The problem is we are already at 387 parts per million.

Now let’s go back to the history of our planet earth. Our planet has been bombarded by meteors and asteroids more than thousands of times may be even millions and what happened? Nothing.  The planet is still standing strong. And let’s go back to Ice Age now. If there was no excessive carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere that time them we would not have been here.  Whoever thinks that excessive carbon dioxide is bad, then they should look back at Earth’s history.

I researched a lot of stuff and I am annoyed by all these “green people” talking like they are correct and know everything. The earth has a natural cycle and it naturally emits a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.   As it has a natural cycle, the Earth will automatically get really hot and will again go into the Ice Age and return back to normal, despite of any human interactions.

And as far as pollution is concerned, Colin did not mention anything about advanced technology which is being created and researched every day in order to get rid of pollution.  Now there are electric cars, solar cars and a lot of other technology is going to be out in the next decade. Oil is likely to be replaced and all natural, non-renewable resources will be gone in no time.I have seen a quite a few documentaries on this and I think everything will change.  It is just that authors and green media are just showing the negative sides of everything for their own benefit.

In my next blog, I will prove that I am correct.

Day 5: One Small Step is Just One Small Step

Today is the fifth day of the experiment and I am getting kind of bored and frustrated trying to do all this as this is something I have never done. And it is kind of time consuming to accomplish such tasks, especially with a busy life. I wish I could make a robot which would take care of all my duties to keep the world green.

I told myself that I won’t smoke and I am doing that pretty well I am not emitting carbon into the atmosphere anymore and I hope it goes on forever. When I did some calculations again I found out that I barely emit much carbon foot prints when compared to a lot others. I do not possess any car in Holland. I do not even use a bike when I need to travel. I take the train, but am I happy with this. No, I want all the good things in life.

I wonder how Colin managed to give up going for holidays and cancelled his wife’s too? And moved it into another date. And how he gave up travelling on planes or anything that emits carbon. I think his Mom is correct: one person’s action cannot cause any results when it comes to things like this.  It has to come from at least 10 % or more of the total population of a city for a start. These are realistic numbers. Now Colin uses a bike and that bike is used out of resources, which is metal. He lives in a house made of cement. He still uses a lot, which pollutes the environment still.  If it is tough for him, then people can imagine how tough it is for us.

The book is motivating but it is certainly never going come into practice there are much better alternatives, which I have found, but it will take a lot of time as well. I think I have wasted the least amount of waste in my entire life time in this week.  Even though it is not so much, but it is something.  But, again, I wonder what is the point in making a difference, which will not make any real difference?  We humans are incapable of such things and therefore we need technology.

Day 4: A Skeptical View of the “Green Movement”

I am very happy with my carbon foot print. I just found out any kind of freezing systems give out a lot of carbon and it is one of those things one cannot do much about. Only those who has the ability to go to a grocery store everyday can make their carbon foot print go lower. It is my fourth day and I am kind of not liking monitoring my consumption. For college students there is no time to go monitor such things even though we also feel bad about what is happening to the environment. The most annoying thing to me is it is the older generation for which we are doing this. We are the ones who are paying for their actions and it is pretty humiliating.

I continued my research on recycling takes place and I am not at all shocked by what I have found most plastic is not actually recycled they are just used to make other smaller products which cannot be recycled at all. Therefore for every recycled plastic there is another product which cannot be recycled at all. Things people don’t tell us it is amazing. I think a very good portion of the green movement is fake as the best of them are profit making organizations and very few are non-profit organizations and those that are non-profit will not be able to make any kind of difference to the amount of waste being produced every day.

Everything is related with business it is all profit or loss. Anyone can set up a business and sell products which they will advertise and show as green and people are likely to purchase them as well.  They do not have the time to see how it is manufactured.   For example: Do we ever see where the chips inside our cell phones laptops and other electronics come from? How they are made? With what and where the amount of resources used?

It is obvious one can get enough attention by showing the horrible photographs of places. My advice to people is never believe what you see from a secondary medium go there and see it yourself to believe. This is 2011 and trusting something blindly is a very foolish thing to do.  I may be wrong but I do know a major segment of all green companies are just making a fool out of us just like many other companies selling other products do they see to their move as business and I know why as from the moment we are born we are taught to compete and win. We cannot blame people for wasting the ultimate blame should be on the society and the way were bought up blaming it on people who waste more is a very foolish move which people make.

Day 2: Green for $green?

Day 2

Today is my second day. And I am doing alright on not smoking I have actually stopped smoking even before the first day I feel good and healthy now. I am re-using my plastic bags now and dumped most of them so they are all gone now in the recycling process. Whenever I realize that I have decreased my plastic use by 40 % in one day makes me happy. I get a large rush of dopamine in my brain every time I figure out I am contributing to the reduction of plastic production and plastic waste. I know I can minimize my plastic use even further and I am looking forward to that.

Now, when it comes to paper I am very shocked. It cannot be minimized the use of paper is too vast. Even after recycling all paper, I think people will want more. What is more shocking to me is Universities teach us about the misuse of papers and trees dying but they take no measures to go and tell the director or whoever is in charge to get rid of paper or at least use e-books or some kind of technology. Webster students have to pay a lot for the books and they are barely ever re used. Even the No Impact Man book uses paper the book lost its’ value to me when I realized that how can one talk so much about utilizing earth’s resources so much where as the person cut off hundreds of trees for his own books it does not make sense to me. But I am a business major and the more I am looking into this the more I am realizing it is all about money. I may be wrong but my observation about paper is not making me happy at all. And I am very unhappy with these people who talk about paper and wastes it themselves it makes me think they are behind making money their main motive is not to give people information on the eco-system I may be wrong but this is what I believe now.

I am doing the best in conserving water. I never used to waste water anyways. It is the simplest task among all the others mentioned above. All you have to do is switch the close the tap on time and do not let excess water flow it is that simple. People who are used to take long showers waste a lot of water they are advised to use a bath tub instead as it saves more and thanks to those who spend 10-15 minutes in the shower as they are saving a lot. Conserving water does not mean you drink less water drink more and more water as our bodies is filled with it. I am happy with my water consumption rate as I know I am not wasting much water. Let’s see how I function on the third day. I wish to do some research on the connection of saving resources with money as I think there is a lot of wrong people who are getting paid for the wrong reasons in the green industry.

-Anik

Day 1: Plastic, plastic everywhere

Day 1

Today I am writing my first no impact experiment. I look around my house and I find a lot of plastic. At first it just seemed to be a lot but the more I dig in my old boxes and stuff, the more plastic I find. And when I remembered that in class we were shown how plastic pollutes the earth and specially it’s oceans and the fish we eat also eats the plastic we dump in the oceans, so ultimately I am eating plastic too.

Well I just start to clean up my house a little bit and find more and more plastic items from bags to pen and tons of other stuff which were of no use to me. So I gathered them all and piled them up in one corner which I will recycle soon.

Looking at my lifestyle I have realized  that there are certain items I want to consume less and give up which I and the eco-system really have no need for. SO I decided to change the following habits :

–          Quit smoking. ( I have tried this tons of times but I only succeeded to do so only for 2 weeks at a time let’s see where I can go now )

–          Quit using plastic bags plastic items. ( After seeing the videos in class I am not going to use plastic if I have no other option only then will I use plastic )

–          Use paper more efficiently. ( I don’t know why Universities including Webster just give e-books to everyone it will save costs as Universities will be able to buy them for cheaper as they will purchase them in bulks and students won’t have to pay much for the books too and trees will be saved unfortunately some uncaring uneducated and ungrateful person in the middle wants more money hence it is very unlikely that this will happen.)

–          Using water more efficiently. ( I am going to try and make the best use of water and not waste it I know how precious it is for me and for the world  this a major resource and should be utilized properly for a better future )

So these are the changes I am going to make this week. Let’s see where I end but certainly I am trying my best. I have realized that it does not take much effort to make such changes, nor does it take much time all it takes is a mind which is willing to make use of resources efficiently.

-Anik

Positive consumption

I am Anik. I am from Kolkata, India. The main things I consume in a day is water, eggs, milk, bread, rice, vegetables, fruit and electricity. The main things I consume in a week are energy, transportation and internet.

In order to be modern I need technologically enhanced items at my house that includes the latest tv, computer, tablet, phones, fridge and washing machine.  In order to be happy I need a lot of money, need to own a lot of assets with a very future value. I also need to be healthy and be around my loved ones and good food.  The things I need to consume in my life are water, air, food and clean energy.  The things I want to consume in my life is luxury. Luxury cars, houses, hotels, luxury private jets.  The items I most desire are Lamborgini Aventador, Bugatti Veron, a fleet of private hyper sonic jets, and a nice house so I can take shelter in it. My preferred methods are consumption are buying stuff online and buying stuff directly from the store.

The social signals that influence my consumption the most are derived from what everyone else is consuming and finding the best from it (quality) also advertising . I am not a big fan of the whole green campaigns but I like it when I see alternative energy or any alternate source which does not adversely effect the eco system.

Experiment

We each had to bring ten items from our house and performed three different experiments which comprised of auctioning and bartering. In end experiment items were sold for fake money.

Methodologies

Bartering was interesting everything was running smooth and in order. There was a variety of items which participants choose from. The negotiation between people who wanted the items took place with the game rock, paper and scissors. There were a few who wanted only money and a few who wanted the items.

Auctioning was more interesting as this time money came in and all the participants began using their own strategy. It was very simple and easy to do the highest bidder wins.

Small stores were set but each participant with fixed prices or negotiate able prices. At this point every thing was crazy it was almost like a mini market where traders were buying and selling their goods. This was definitely the best part of the whole experiment.

Ideas for documenting the exchanges

The best idea to document the exchanges is definitely by capturing it on video. A more detailed form of documenting the exchanges is by assigning each participant an accounting form in which they will be asked to fill in the exchanges so it can be used later.

Explanation of group dynamics and outcomes of process

There was a competitive nature amongst everybody. The outcome of the process was to show how we can get certain items without paying for them.

Personal reflection

The experiment made me realize what can be achieved if people were willing to exchange their goods instead of just keeping it. Same for their cars, houses or any other item. A lot of money can be saved in the process. However there is no assurance of the exchanged goods as they are not directly purchased from stores therefore it is risky. Personally this made me think as to what can happen if the same experiment actually works in reality. After some research I realized it does happen but not to a scale which can make a big difference. The experiment definitely made me more aware of what I consume and what I can do to make a positive change to this planet.