Funny thing about recycling. Here where I live, we have to take our recyclables to the proper containers, not to mention storing and sorting them at home. Then a company, which is not the municipal trash collection, picks up all the recyclables and take them to the recycling plant. They get paid for this. The plant recycles the materials, and sells them at a cost they decide. The hilarious part, is that then, the City Hall
has to buy a minimum fixed amount of recycled paper and other recycled stuff at a cost which is higher than new paper!
In other words: the people have to sort out their garbage and dispose of each kind seperately. A company is paid by tax money to collect and recycle it, then is allowed to sell it at any cost they want to. Then the city is forced to pay more tax money for overinflated recycled paper.
But it gets even better: state wanted to build a waste disposal and recycling plant, in a very eco-sensitive area. They make an international (european at least) contest, and this company wins (ran by government-party leechers). Then, the cost quadruplicates, and they find out that it was badly built, toxic waste is spilling into agricultural soils and fresh water streams. To add insult to injury, it's capacity reached its limit in 5 yers, instead of the 30 promised. So, the government makes a new contest to fix the plant.
The same company wins. No work is done, the money disappears, and the company is bankrupt. The plant is still leaking. This has been in the courts for years- but everybody is still out, pillaging what they can. While this plant ran, the cities surrounding it were forced by law to take their garbage there, in spite of being way more expensive than other facilities already in use, and in spite of most mayors complaining about the lack of conditions of said plant.
On another note, a teenager caught stealing Easter almonds in a supermarket was convicted in just a couple of days.
My 2 cents on the climate matter: if the ruling elite really believed that the greenhouse gases were that dangerous, they would force the industries to comply with eco-friendly practices. They don't. Just tag us along. Even otherwise meritory causes are plagued with the ritual of stealing money from those who have less, effectively crippling the economy and forcing more and more people to enter state-dependency. In other words, they will make us feel responsible and guilty of all bad things that happen on this planet, but leave out those who could actually make a change for the better- but never do.
Another 2 cents: we (us here, or at least me) don't know what is happening with the climate. It's changing, yes, for sure, but the whys and hows have to be given by science, through detailed, long-range global and Solar observation. None of us "ordinary people" have the knowledge or the means to find out for ourselves, so we depend on scientists, who depend on investors, who are, usually, social predators. In order to communicate their findings, scientists must use some means: either the scientific media, controlled by "elite" institutions, funded by you know who, or the mass media, controlled and funded by you know who. What we get, at best, is a very diluted truth, with heavy rethoric and blaming. We only know what we're told. When we seek knowledge for ourselves, in our chosen fields of practice, we can feel heavy peer-pressure and bias against unorthodox thinking, leading to conformity or segregation. But very rarely, discussion.
It's easy to believe we know something because we read about it on a magazine, or TV show. We know very little. So, having these sort of arguments is really only useful to show the different aspects of a single question. We know that the climate scientists found the need to lie and discredit valid information to get their point across-this is not a good indicator of the presence of "truth", but it is a clear marker of a political grasp of science, which, quite frankly, won't help at all. It's good for radicalizing ignorant people, and to force all others into submission (tax-silence-discredit).
Man is part of Earth, not from outside the eco-system. That the people should be happy is basic ecology. And we have knowledge now to do much better, without as much cost to the environment. Cheap solutions only exist because most people are not allowed to have a lot of money, or any at all, but still must be made to desire all sorts of things and stuff to spend the little they have.
One last point: there's no reason for a global project, which is intended to "SAVE THE EARTH" to cost ANY money... Just do the f***ing thing. Know what I mean?
Cheers
T