Why I Don't Recycle Part 4: Final remarks and internet memes

I thought it was only appropriate to have my first opinion-based blog post be an elaboration on my last facebook wall post, where I mentioned as an example how I am morally opposed to recycling.  Unfortunately, I soon realized that I had a lot more to say about this subject than I thought, so I'm going to break this post down into four posts to make it easier to read.  You can check back here over the next four days to read it in chunks in order to prevent you, dear reader, from looking at six pages worth of material and saying "fuck that shit".  As always, feel free to comment.

Now like any of my opinions, they’re not perfect.  Some counterpoints:

If you’d rather keep this current ecosystem in stasis because you personally think pandas are super cute or something, then alright.  It’s the equivalent of me rooting for fungus at the expense of other species, and if you just admit to yourself and other people that you want to preserve this current ecosystem for its aesthetic appeal then I’m fine with it.  Just don’t be a hypocrite and say you’re actions are noble and sacrificing. 

You can easily say that all my talk of a world I want to see is irrelevant because neither I nor my children will probably be alive to see either outcome.  But then I can say the same thing to my opposition.  Chances are whatever you do with your life will barely effect the outcome of the situation.  But we might as well try; I’d rather be jousting at windmills then doing nothing with my life.

When I discussed the kind of resourceful people that will invent new technologies and lifestyles to save the human race from extinction once it’s a big enough threat, you might argue that a) it is threatening enough RIGHT NOW, and b) uhh, isn’t green technology the kind of advancements that you’re talking about?  First, we’re not entirely sure how bad humans are screwed right now.  While the current supply of fuel and gas will certainly run out by the end of the century, new technologies to find new oil deposits as well as alternate fuel sources and awesomely useful resources like nuclear energy make it hard to determine when and if we’ll ever be truly strapped for power.  As for global warming, it’s still unknown just when we’ll be severely negatively affected by it (and it certainly won’t be the day after tomorrow), and honestly I’m not too worried for survival of humanity because of increased floods and wild fires.  Even the most extremist, alarmist reports state that the world won’t go to hell until you and I are too old to care.  Secondly, current green technology is nowhere near enough to permanently save us.  Modern “environment friendly” technology and lifestyles are nothing more than stall tactics.  Here’s a good example of the difference between creating renewable resources the “green”, “smart”, “future-conscience” way that the general public currently thinking of, and the innovative way I keep talking about.  We think recycling is a great way to save the environment because reusing old materials to make new ones is a simple plan with an obvious beneficial outcome (not to mention it’s a very easy way to feel better about ourselves day to day, and that’s how Americans like their altruism- with minimal work).  However, if you think critically about recycling, it falls apart.  Even if every single person on the Earth recycled their recyclable goods then a) the non-recyclable goods would still be screwed and b) eventually everything would still run out because matter is lost in the recycling process, and even if just a few grams of matter are lost a day eventually everything would run out as material is burned up or blown away in the wind.  But we’re not even blessed with that situation in real life because most people on Earth do not recycle; meaning recycling is nothing but a stall tactic.  And even THAT isn’t the case, because most recycling plants are inefficient.  The current technology seems to consist mostly of sorting out the material, and then either wasting massive amounts of water and energy to create the new recycled products or just leaving the sorted trash in warehouses until we can think of better ways to recycle it (seriously).  On the other hand, the kind of technology used to mine trash for minerals and methane gas is being worked on right now (and as all Starcraft players know, everything in the future is built using only minerals and gas).  Using this Mr. Fusion-esque technology, we can mine our massive landfills for necessary materials efficiently in the future.  So if you really want to save our future, throw all your trash in a landfill.  In short, it’s much more likely for humanity to develop the technology to save ourselves under the pressure of looming extinction than the calm ignorance of thinking that the “green” lifestyle will save us.  Admit it, when you see a commercial from a big company promising new green technology, you feel a little more calm and complacent about the environment situation, and a complacent population is a doomed population.

Truer word were never said.

Now you can point out that the current green movement is a necessary step to those future innovations; they lead to better technologies, inspire young intellects to start working towards solutions, and most importantly finally make citizens and their governments recognize the problem so that the demand for the solutions are increased.  I would agree with you too, it’s always better to be prepared.  Except that those citizens and their governments are stupid as hell.  People will continue to panic about the environmental end-times like society is currently doing until enough businesses and politicians pledge to “make the world a better place for tomorrow”.  Give it 5-10 more years and people will feel like they’ve done enough to care for their environment, will grow bored, and worry about something else.  Scientists developing ways to harness new resources will get less funding, and nothing will be done as America wakes up with an empty Bread Basket.  So stop getting excited about the green movement’s ability to “save the world”.  All this greenwashing is going to lead to nothing but a content and lazy population.

Because this is your brain on green.

Finally, if you’d like to counter my argument about it being cool if humans could beat the record for biggest caused extinction with your own point that it would be just as impressive, if not more so, to be the sole species to stop the trend of extinction and death that this universe has lived with, then fine.  Many people would probably agree with you over me, and if not for my other points in the last paragraph, I might too.  That is, until I watched the show Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.  In this anime, the Big Bad villain of the show is the Anti-Spirals, a race who after realizing that the show’s metaphor for evolution and natural life processes in general will eventually cause the destruction of the universe due to life forms using up too much energy and resources as they evolve and advance their civilizations.  In response, they suppressed all other alien species in the universe and placed the survivors under strict control on their respective home planets, while the Anti-Spirals themselves sealed their entire home planet in an internal stasis.  This is the eventual outcome of thinking “green”.  While the Anti-Spirals plan might keep the universe and what little life there is alive forever, what kind of life is that?  An individual’s life, as well as the “life” of a society, a species, an ecosystem, a planet, and the entire universe all consists of birth, a long road of good and bad times, and eventually death.  Environmentalism, essentially, is a fear of this death; a fear of your own death and the death of other people and life forms.  If you want to “save the environment”, it’s probably because you find it hard to except that your life, your children’s life, and the world around you will eventually die.  But it will.  And we just have to except that, and look forward to the new life that death will bring this world.