SOME OF THE COSTS OF THE CONSUMER SOCIETY
Electric Cars and batteries need lithium, and a lot of other metals and minerals as well. Lithium mining requires huge amounts of water, and it poisons a lot of that water. Getting the other materials needed to build cars and batteries and etc also creates lots of damage and lots of poison. And remarkably, the dust that comes off of our car tires when we drive is very toxic and is, not surprisingly, everywhere. And not to mention the plastic we all seem to have in our brains now.
The mining that is the basis of so much of our Consumer Society is, unfortunately, poisonous wherever it is. Mining is seldom talked about, but it is a major environmental disaster.
But … who cares; we want electric cars and everything else as well, and when we buy them we provide the money necessary for further investment in more mining and water poisoning and etc.
Are We Willing to Do Without?
One question is …. are we willing to do without cars of Any Kind?? And are we perhaps willing to move towards ‘less’ of everything? Veggies flown in from Mexico and California all winter. Massive over-packaging. Monster homes that are centrally heated and cooled 24/7 and 365 days a year.
The Conversation Canada Isn’t Having
But that discussion about ‘using less’ is never held in Canada. Are we willing to go towards, hopefully, great public transportation in order to minimize the need for lithium and all the other metals and plastics and other things needed to build our cars. Can we stop the rush to AI? How about fewer cell phones and the huge level of technologies and poisons that make that industry possible? Real cups when we go out for a coffee?
The Only Way Forward: LESS
Because really (in my opinion) the only way into the future is the road towards LESS. Meaning less of just about everything, but certainly we can have Less Waste. Especially here in North America where we are probably the world's greatest consumers and the world's biggest wasters. We are a Consumer Society. The amount of ‘waste’ in Canada is really off the charts and it's been that way for a long time. Maybe it's time to at least talk about, or consider, a change??
