Is Nothing For Free In The Free World?
For about a dozen years I commuted into London to work. In the last two or three years before leaving paid work for good, and saying goodbye to the unwelcome commute, my evening walk from the office to the station was interspersed with calls for me to take a free newspaper. There were two main vendors: the one at the beginning of my walk would lazily thrust a London Paper into my hand, only for it to be batted away — every day, without fail. The one just round the corner from the station would call out, “Free Lite!”, but make no atempt to hand me a paper.
I took neither. These are not newspapers, they are the means by which advertisers sell their dreams to people who have lives so empty they need filling with stuff — gadgets, holidays, fitness clubs, cars, three piece suites…all padding with no content. The “free” papers eagerly taken by commuters are not free at all; they are gateways into the consumer’s soul, and the advertisers pay top dollar for entry.
Think about the next “buy one, get one free” offer you see. Why are they offering it; what is in it for the seller? The “free” item tempts the buyer into taking something they would otherwise ignore; it changes their behaviour and habits. It creates loyalty. The seller knows exactly what it is doing — that “free” item will pay off in the end.
This has got me thinking about what “free” means. In a commercial sense, nothing is for free — commerce and, more widely, the global economy, has to grow in order to survive, therefore even staying still will be catastrophic for the system. When you read or hear about growth “stagnating” this negative turn of phrase is intentional — without economic growth, civilization collapses. We are sold the lie that we need growth and, boy, are we sold it big time. Believe me, no company would give anything away for free unless they thought it would lead to a profit.
I am a pariah. My world is so cheap that I am considered to be economically non-viable. I am contributing to the contraction of the global economy because my net consumption of material goods has dramatically reduced, year-on-year over the past 5 years. I am having a new door installed at the back of the house — it came from my brother-in-law who was blocking up a doorway, which meant that a door I needed to replace the one that is rotting away didn’t have to be bought. I am growing my own vegetables — a few seeds, some compost and some rainwater and I am buying less food from the shops. We are having a wood burner installed at the end of the week, and much of that wood will come from people who want to get rid of scrap — I will not be buying much wood at all; nor will I be buying the gas that would otherwise have been used to heat my house.
There are few things that are free — clean air comes at a premium where most people live; clean water is at the behest of the privatised water company rather than public wells and boreholes; wildlife has to pay its way if it is to survive rather than be desecrated by “development”. But some things are really free, and I’m really enjoying myself making sure I get as much out of them as possible — and screwing the system into the bargain.
McCain Chairman Receives Almost $400K To Stop Cape Wind
CapeCodToday is reporting that high placed advisor’s in the McCain campaign were involved in trying to stop the Cape Wind renewable energy project.
Charlie Black, Senior Political Adviser to McCain: Senate lobbying disclosure documents reveal that lobbying firm BKSH
& Associates was retained in January 2008 by the Alliance to
Protect Nantucket Sound to “Defeat the proposal for 130 wind turbines”
and “promote alternative means to meet energy needs without sacrificing
Nantucket Sound.” Charlie Black was the chairman of BKSH until March. [Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act database]Tom Loeffler, McCain’s Campaign Co-chairman: The
Loeffler Group received $380,000 from the Alliance to Protect Nantucket
Sound from 2003 to 2005 to lobby against Cape Wind. The Loeffler Group
was founded by former Republican congressman Tom Loeffler, who remains its chairman. [Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act database]…
This after yet another of his advisor’s was forced to quit after it came out that he had been working FOR the government of Myanmar, and his other adviser from his ties to the Saudi government. It would seem to me that McCain is shaping up to be a puppet character that is being advised by a whole series of high priced power brokers for a variety of shady organizations and governments. Bush 2.0.
I can’t tell you who to vote for in the upcoming presidential election, but I can tell you that if you are thinking about John McCain because you for some misguided reason think he is any different than Bush, or any other republican, think again. This man has surrounded himself with the the dirtiest of dirty tricksters, people who’s only job is to shill for dictators and big carbon. Don’t be fooled, John McCain is NO maverick. In fact it is shameful that anyone would have every applied such a label to him.
(Ironic…)
CIRenew Chapter Meeting
| May 21, 2008 | ||
| 7:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
5/21 CIRenew Chapter Meeting
“Common Wealth: Making Clean Energy Work for Massachusetts”
Featured Speaker: Greg Watson, senior advisor, Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs
7 to 9 pm @ Waquoit Bay Reserve, Rte. 28, East Falmouth/Waquoit
—– Details —–
State Clean Energy Advisor to Provide Update
Watson special guest at May 21 meeting of CIRenew
Greg Watson, a senior member of Governor Deval Patrick’s energy team, will be featured speaker at a forum sponsored by the Cape and Islands Renewable Energy Collaborative (CIRenew) in Waquoit on May 21. The forum, “Common Wealth: Making Clean Energy Work for Massachusetts,” is free and open to the public; it runs from 7-9 p.m. at the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve on Route 28 in the Waquoit section of Falmouth. Light refreshments will be served.
Watson is senior advisor for Clean Energy Technology with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and Vice President for Sustainable Development with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. At the CIRenew event on May 21, he will give an update on state policies and opportunities regarding clean energy, economic development, and climate change.
The skyrocketing costs of fossil fuels and their impacts on local residents and our economy are already critical concerns, and they represent looming threats. Watson will talk about Governor Patrick’s near- and long-range plans to address these issues and other challenges through conservation, efficiency, and renewable energy.
“Greg’s knowledge of the Cape and his inside post with the Patrick administration will shed light on the actions the Commonwealth is taking to help struggling consumers pay their bills and to maximize local advantage from efficiency, wind, solar, and other clean options,” said Chris Powicki, president of CIRenew.
Watson, a resident of Falmouth, is known to many on the Cape as former Executive Director of the New Alchemy Institute. Currently, Watson is taking the lead for the state on the Offshore Wind Collaborative, working with the U.S. Department of Energy and GE. Other roles include Executive Director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative; with Second Nature as its Director of Educational Programs; director of The Nature Conservancy’s Eastern Regional Office; and Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture. Watson serves on the board of directors of Ocean Arks International and the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture.
The meeting will conclude with Q&A and time for conversation and networking. Information will be available on CIRenew membership and on local clean energy programs and activities. To learn more about CIRenew, visit www.cirenew.org.
National Geographic: Changing The Climate One Advert At A Time
This month at your local news stand, and in supermarkets up and down the Western world, you will find National Geographic Magazine devoting an entire issue to the realities of climate change. It’s their “Changing Climate” edition. It’s not the first time National Geographic has featured on The Unsuitablog: last time they were filling their regular editions with car adverts, showing that their primary motivation is to make money.
But, a whole edition on climate change, surely they wouldn’t stoop so low as to place unsuitable adverts, would they? I didn’t need to read the text to know that it would contain the usual superficial sycophantic articles about issues that need to be given the acid rather than the warm flannel treatment — we are talking about global catastrophe here, guys! I also didn’t need to read the Solutions section to know that the only solutions presented would be straight out of Ikea and Walmart, and nothing to do with actually changing the way humans live.
I didn’t have to read the text, but I did — and I was right on both counts. But one thing that struck me was the apparent absence of adverts throughout the magazine; a pleasant surprise, I may add, considering the normal consumer rush that readers are subjected to each month.
And then I looked inside the front cover…
[Read the rest at The Unsuitablog]
One Person Can Change The World
If you ever met me in real life you would eventually hear me go off on a rant about global warming, climate change, politics, etc. One of the main reasons I created this site was to provide a platform for my views, and the views of other people, who are interested in changing the way the world works. I feel like there is a deep soul crushing dread facing people my age (old enough to know about problems, but young enough to not have been the cause of them). People in their late teens/20’s/early 30’s look out at a world filled with massive, complicated, serious problems.
I don’t know about others, but these problems (global warming, world wide conflict, climate refugees, peak oil, invasive species, species extinction, the list goes on and on) puts a very large “But” into all my future plans. For instance, “I would really like to own a home some day, BUT, if climate change gets really bad I figure I will just have to move to where ever the earth can support me” or “If I started a family it would be great, BUT, if global conflict grows due to peak oil and climate refugees I really don’t want to bring children into a world like that.” or “Wouldn’t it be cool to visit *location*, BUT, can I really justify the carbon footprint of that plane trip.” or “I really like to eat fish, BUT, overfishing and mercury pollution from coal plants may have made my fish supply unhealthy.” You get the idea.
There are also people who deal with these problems by ignoring them. They would rather live in a state of blissful ignorance. The main problem with this strategy is that every day this option is available to fewer and fewer people (mostly the rich, and the inhabitants of rich countries). This option is slowly being removed because people are starting to notice the effects on a personal scale more and more. The spring flowers are coming up earlier and earlier every year, gas prices go up 10 cents a week, your basement flooded for the first time you can remember, the pine trees in your back yard were killed by some invasive beetle species, you can’t afford to feed your family anymore, your beach house was washed away in a storm, your home was destroyed by a winter tornado, your entire city was flooded by a giant hurricane… The list goes on and on. More and more people are waking up to the absolute need to radically change their lives to a sustainable model.
That is why when I got this email yesterday I was truly moved. I often feel like I am “going through the motions” like Cassandra I am screaming about the end and no one is really paying attention. It is good to have your faith restored once in a while.
Ann writes:
A while back, you guys sent me a book “Stop Global Warming Now”.. It sounds corny, but it has helped to change my life. I have used that book to help stop a toll road from going through my subdivision, historic oaks and the Spanish Lake Basin (home to 2,000+ year old cypress trees and bald eagle habitats). I am pretty much taking over my parish’s (aka; county) recycling efforts and working with a coalition of 11 environmental groups to fight a coal fired plant in Baton Rouge, LA. Before, I was just a mom who wanted to use less energy at home. I am well on my way to a new career and I have never been happier. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thank you Ann! You really made my day and I hope you are having a wonderful time being the kind of person you want to be. Thank you for letting me know that our simple gift made a difference in your life. If you want to share your own story of positive change please do so in the comments, who knows the best ones might just get a present (hint: I still have some cool books laying around someone might want…)
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