- I was reading an article yesterday about this guy who's been living without money, and he so perfectly stated that "The degrees of separation between the consumer and the consumed have increased so much that it now means we’re completely unaware of the levels of destruction and suffering embodied in the ‘stuff’ we buy."
- And then this pops up on my newsfeed:
"Congo is sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country and one of its richest on paper, with an embarrassment of diamonds, gold, cobalt, copper, tin, tantalum, you name it—trillions’ worth of natural resources. But because of never ending war, it is one of the poorest and most traumatized nations in the world. It doesn’t make any sense, until you understand that militia-controlled mines in eastern Congo have been feeding raw materials into the world’s biggest electronics and jewelry companies and at the same time feeding chaos. Turns out your laptop—or camera or gaming system or gold necklace—may have a smidgen of Congo’s pain somewhere in it."
- This is only the extraction of raw materials. Then what happens when the consumer gets bored/wants a new toy?
It goes to countries like Ghana, India or China where they're just left to rot in a bath of toxins:
"Some of the samples contained toxic metals including lead in quantities as much as one hundred times above background levels. Other chemicals such as phthalates, some of which are known to interfere with sexual reproduction, were found in most of the samples tested. One sample also contained a high level of chlorinated dioxins, known to promote cancer." Read more here.
- Mining is such a disgusting business. Most of it is illegal, with children being employed, health and safety measures not respected, not environmental management... etc. It's also one of the most dangerous "professions" with an annual average of 50 deaths. For a job!? That's not right. Your job should not be a death threat, your job should not be unsafe at all, on the contrary, it should be pleasant yet demanding.
- So even if you're vegan, there is most likely going to be blood on your hands. Every item we own seems to involve slavery, in one form or another. You can stop it, you just need to stop buying and start making! and I mean making using locally (preferably personally) sourced raw materials like clay, sand, maybe glass, bamboo, cotton, etc.
Here's a cool (but sad) survey that tells you what your 'slavery footprint' is:
I can't support our industries anymore... only organic farms, and I mean it.
I am ashamed to own so many things that were produced exploiting people and the planet so much, but I'm scared of throwing them (well there are e-waste recyclers, but I want to do art with waste) and I just never want to buy anything again unless it's made of plant cells, and only plant cells!
- On the bright side, check this out:
We need more people like him :)
Inhabitat article here.
And here are some amazing examples of art made of waste:
Nick Gentry made this stunning portrait using disks; I saw it in person at Opera gallery in London
Susan Stockwell's World map using motherboards:
And to conclude, one of Brenda Gruyton's sculptures, but there are so many great artworks out there:
So please recycle your e-waste, there's always a company that specialises in this somewhere because they DO make money out of it! There is valuable gold and platinum and copper in circuit boards, lots of copper in wires and these ca be recycled and resold! There are even environmentally safe ways of retrieving them.. using bacteria!
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