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DEFINITION: In planned obsolescence, products are intended to be thrown away as quickly as possible and then replaced.
FACT: Planned obsolescence is different than true technological obsolescence, in which some actual advance in technology renders the previous version obsolete—like telephones replacing the telegraph, or, television replacing the radio. New technology honestly replacing the old is rare. Today’s mobile phones, for example, which have a life span of only about a year, are not technologically obsolete when we throw them away and replace them with new ones. That’s planned obsolescence at work.
FACT: The manufacturers of products realized there is an eventual limit to how much people could consume. At some point, everyone would have enough shoes, stereos and cars. There would be a total saturation. If factories are to keep manufacturing there cannot be a saturation of goods. This is bad for business. So economists came up with a system to keep consumers buying. An American industrial designer, Brook Stevens, popularized the term in the 1950’s and defined it as, “instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better and a little sooner than necessary”.
FACT: Some obsolescence was planned to be not just soon but INSTANT—with the advent of disposable goods. The first breakthroughs were disposable diapers and sanitary pads. And soon we were sold on disposable pens, cooking pans, cameras, rain ponchos, toilet brushes dishes, etc. Now, there are larger items that are not advertised as disposable but are treated that way. Appliances and electronics break down routinely and it is often expensive and time consuming to repair these items. New ones are so inexpensive and convenient that we just replace them. The longevity of an item is planned and the current life-time is 6 months to 2 years.
FACT: Planned obsolescence is an accepted feature of our lives. We barely notice it. The widespread social acceptance of ever quicker obsolescence is the key to success of the system. These are keys to this system: 1) The cost of getting something repaired needs to be close to, or greater than, the replacement cost, urging us to throw away the broken one. 2) Replacement parts and servicing need to be hard to access. 3) Current products must be incompatible with the new upgrades or accessories. 4) The appearance of the thing must keep changing, providing an incentive to throw out the older model, even if it is working fine.
DEFINITION: Perceived obsolescence is when an item isn’t broken, nor is it obsolete at all; we just perceive it as such.
FACT: Perceived obsolescence is where personal taste and fashion come into play. The ever-shifting hem lengths of women’s skirts; the flat heels that are in fashion one season only to be replaced by skinny spiked heels the next season; the width and color of men’s ties and suit lapels; this year’s hot colors for mobile phones; thin, wafer-like watches versus the big, indestructible looking watches; even apartment buildings and automobiles: this is all perceived obsolescence at work. Retailers and manufacturers want you to believe that you can’t wear the same color or cut from one week to the next and that you’ll be less cool, less savvy, and less desirable if you do.
FACT: The American industrial designer, Brook Stevens, also explained, “We make good products. We induce people to buy them, and then the next year we deliberately introduce something else that will make those products old-fashioned, out of date, obsolete… it isn’t organized waste. It’s a sound contribution to the American (world) economy.” This strategy has worked now on a global scale. Planned and perceived obsolescence continues to dominate and define consumer culture today, and we dispose of perfectly good products at an ever-increasing rate. Whole industries are hard at work spending billions of dollars each year to manipulate us into buying something new, better and different.
The result of planned and perceived obsolescence is that most nations of the world have become throw-away cultures maniacally striving for the newest, the better, the most unique and popular. The consequence is that we have trashed the world with throw-away products. They are everywhere polluting the planet; in our soil (dump sites), in our air (industrial polluting gases and chemicals) and in the oceans (floating plastic in five oceans).
Wastage of Food and Buying more than you Need
WASTAGE OF FOOD
FACT: In the USA, 40% of prepared food is thrown out to become garbage. In several countries food is lost before it can be eaten. Depending on the crop 15% to 35% of a crop can be lost in field. Another 10% to 15% is lost during processing, storage and transportation. In countries where production is more efficient, the throw out waste is greater. As the food rots in landfills, it generates methane gas, a gas that is 21 times more toxic than CO2. Globally, half of the water used to grow food is lost or wasted. In the USA 100 billion pounds (45 billion kg) are lost to waste by retailers, restaurants and consumers.
FACT: In contrast, only 4 billion pounds of food are needed to meet the needs of the hungry in the USA. 30 million people go hungry in the USA on a regular basis. It also costs an estimated $1 billion to process all the wasted food. Studies at the University of Arizona show that if Americans cut their food wastage in half they would reduce the USA’s environmental pollution by 25%. In the United Kingdom food waste accounts for 20% of its greenhouse emissions and if they stopped throwing out food the impact on CO2 reduction would be equivalent to taking off 1 in 5 cars from the road. In the UK 30.8% of all food purchased is thrown away.
FACT: Food waste from the USA and Europe could feed the planet three times over. In the USA food waste has increased 50% since 1974. Food waste accounts for more than 25% of the total water consumption and 300 million barrels of oil a year. The main reasons for food waste are poor planning, busy lifestyles, bad habits, laziness and too large portions for both ready to eat and prepared food.
SOLUTION: From a very early age we must teach all children that they must not waste any item—especially food. We must learn to choose carefully what we eat and to eat everything. Families must be encouraged to make a house-rule that no food is to be wasted and stored. You must eat everything you select or are given. And this attitude must become widely disseminated in our culture and our education system. Human behavior can be modified and adaptive. There is no alternative way to look at it; waste of any food or any item is wrong. We must do what is right. To see that the whole world is throwing away up to 50% of their food is a shameful and disgraceful act. One billion people are dying of starvation while the others are throwing away billions of kilograms of food. This is an atrocious act that must stop at once. We must tell ourselves to eat everything that we choose and we must teach other’s this same attitude and behavior.
How Cows are Destroying the Planet
COWS, PIGS and CHICKENS ARE MAJOR POLLUTANTS
FACT: The raising of cows produces more than 400 gases causing health problems to workers, surrounding residents and to farm animals themselves. Animal waste decomposes and fills the air with hundreds of polluting gases. There is more than 335 million tons of manure processed annually in the USA alone. Air pollution is also caused when huge amounts of stored manure are sprayed onto open fields.
FACT: Cow and pig farms in one USA state alone produce 300 tons of ammonia every day. The spread of methane gas (23 times more poisonous than CO2 gas) increased 25% in 14 years (1990 to 2004) in the USA. Industrial animal feed also plays a role in pollution. Animals are kept alive with synthetic fertilizer of low quality, grain-based feed that their bodies are not designed to digest. This feed fattens animals cheaply and causes chronic indigestion producing higher methane emissions. Producing the huge amount of crop for animal feed also pollutes the air with 68% of all nitrous oxide released into the air in the USA coming from animal feed crop.
FACT: Major pollutants from livestock: Hydrogen Sulfide gas-- limits the ability of cells to use oxygen. Causes skin, eye and respiratory irritation, nerve and heart disorders, seizures, headaches, chronic coughing, comas and death. It’s mainly associated with hog production. Ammonia—causes eye, skin and breathing problems and is released in large quantities by chicken and hog production. Endotoxins—poisons produced by dying bacteria causes bronchitis, asthma, breathing disorders and heart attacks. Carbon Dioxide from decomposing manure causes dizziness and kills confined animals by asphyxiation. Methane gas—23 times more potent than carbon monoxide gas.
FACT: Groundwater pollution is a huge danger from livestock production. In the USA spontaneous abortions are linked with groundwater pollution from local farms and drinking wells. High nitrate levels are being discovered in many states that produce livestock; California, Indiana, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Maryland and others. Still-born babies result from drinking water high in nitrates. Salmonella, E-Coli and fecal coliform are 10 to 100 times more concentrated in animal waste than human waste and more than 40 diseases can be transferred to human beings.
FACT: In Ontario, Canada more than 1300 cases and some deaths from intestinal disease were reported from cattle manure contaminated drinking water. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 400,000 people were sick and 100 people died from manure contamination of drinking water. In the USA, 70% of all of the antibiotics produced are added to animal feed to speed up livestock growth. This makes us less able to treat diseases related to meat-based bacteria. Hog farms emit hydrogen sulfide, a gas that leads to brain damage and death from manure pit emissions. Manure catch pools often spill into rivers and wetlands killing hundreds of millions of fish. 10 States in the USA have been affected this way. Runoff from chicken, cow and hog waste create algae blooms which eliminate oxygen from water and create “Dead Zones” which cannot support life at all. In the Gulf of Mexico dead zones extend 6000 to 8000 miles along the Gulf coast.
The fact that to sustain cows, pigs and chickens requires surface area and materials that vastly outweigh the benefits of consuming them. Given that we can consume many things why should we consume items that have so many dangerous and polluting aspects? Perhaps it is simply put that we are just accustomed to eating beef, pork and chicken and we no longer consider life without them? We must look seriously at what affects the consumption of cow, chicken and pig have on us. Given the visible increase in sickness and maladies, in toxic substances in the environment and in the presence of poisons in our body; should we not be very vigilant in making sure we minimize such materials? Eating chicken, pork and beef certainly makes us more exposed to such dangers.
The methane gas produced from cows alone contributes 33% to the total pollution of the world. That is a huge polluting affect on the world! In addition, various bacteria and toxins are carried through cow, pig and chicken meat. These bacteria travel through meat only. Fatty materials from meat enter our blood stream and deposit fat tissue in our veins which narrow our arteries and lead to heart attack , stroke, high blood pressure and Diabetes. We simply do not need to consume meat for its destructive affects vastly outweigh any benefits . We consume it as a source of protein but there are many other sources which can be used, i.e. beans, rice, nuts, soy products, sea food, etc.
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