While browsing the internets, I came across a series of pictures. These come from the Facebook picture album of a friend of a friend. They come from a project called "Fingerpainting for Sustainability." I googled it, but nothing came up. Given that I found these pictures on Facebook, I am led to assume that a college educated person made these posters. Let's start with this one:
I'm not entirely sure how shorter showers are more sustainable. As far as I know, the water in my shower goes back into a pipe and goes back to a processing facility. So, I haven't really destroyed or used up any water. I think the assumption must be, more water in my shower less water in the lake. I guess that's true. In any case, I'd recommend another poster though:
Don't Subsidize Biofuels to Save Water.
So this sounds reasonable; buying in bulk reduces packaging which reduces the need for landfills. I'm going to turn to a well-informed professor of mine,
Dr Dan Benjamin, on this one. He's written a piece for
PERC, on the
Myths of Recyling. He notes that extensive packaging actually reduces waste by reducing breakage. This isn't exactly what this poster is getting at, but buying in bulk may increase waste. If I get food in bulk I frequently can't eat it all before it goes bad, so I would have to toss the waste food. My caption would be: Buy in bulk if it makes sense to.
This one has to be my favorite. Clearly the answer to our problems to is to stop building factories. Let's forget for the moment that the paint and the paper in this poster were both made at a factory. Factories aren't the problem. Almost everything we consume comes from a factory. Factories are good and we should build more of them. Pollution on the other hand is bad, and that's what we want less of. Instead of building fewer factories, we should be building cleaner factories. There are a number of ways to get factories to be cleaner, but the most efficient (by which I mean best for the environment and people's consumption) is to price the pollution. If firms (and ultimately consumers) have to pay more for goods that damage the environment we would either consume less or switch to greener technology. My alternative caption:
Make them pay to pollute.
I'm not entirely sure how shorter showers are more sustainable. As far as I know, the water in my shower goes back into a pipe and goes back to a processing facility. So, I haven't really destroyed or used up any water. I think the assumption must be, more water in my shower less water in the lake. I guess that's true. In any case, I'd recommend another poster though: Don't Subsidize Biofuels to Save Water.
So this sounds reasonable; buying in bulk reduces packaging which reduces the need for landfills. I'm going to turn to a well-informed professor of mine, Dr Dan Benjamin, on this one. He's written a piece for PERC, on the Myths of Recyling. He notes that extensive packaging actually reduces waste by reducing breakage. This isn't exactly what this poster is getting at, but buying in bulk may increase waste. If I get food in bulk I frequently can't eat it all before it goes bad, so I would have to toss the waste food. My caption would be: Buy in bulk if it makes sense to.
This one has to be my favorite. Clearly the answer to our problems to is to stop building factories. Let's forget for the moment that the paint and the paper in this poster were both made at a factory. Factories aren't the problem. Almost everything we consume comes from a factory. Factories are good and we should build more of them. Pollution on the other hand is bad, and that's what we want less of. Instead of building fewer factories, we should be building cleaner factories. There are a number of ways to get factories to be cleaner, but the most efficient (by which I mean best for the environment and people's consumption) is to price the pollution. If firms (and ultimately consumers) have to pay more for goods that damage the environment we would either consume less or switch to greener technology. My alternative caption: Make them pay to pollute.
