tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6737941.post109280970693960124..comments2024-01-14T17:27:30.511-05:00Comments on Law, Legislation, and Lunacy: Distend, Discard, DisintegrateDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14364155797420903461noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6737941.post-1092844909931654252004-08-18T12:01:00.000-04:002004-08-18T12:01:00.000-04:00While I see in principle the logic of what you're ...While I see in principle the logic of what you're saying, I think you're ignoring a large part of the environmental argument.<br /><br />For most environmentalist, the point of not using gasoline is not to conserve resources, but to reduce emissions. The point of recycling aluminum is not to save aluminum from being mined, but to reduce the damage associated with mining.<br /><br />Your plan (while economically sound, I'm sure), neglects to take into account one of the the main ideas behind reducing, reusing, and recycling. Do not only slow the use of resources, slow the flow of waste that the production of these resources use.<br /><br />Also, many of these resources are the very same ones needed to produce alternative energy. Aluminum prices skyrocketing? So will the price of wind power, which relies on aluminum parts to construct the turbines. Gasoline prices skyrocketing? Then so will the price of wind power, using oil-based components. The same with second-generation solar cells made with oil-based polymers. You could use the old-fashioned ones, but those are backed with aluminum. And aluminum is now rahter expensive (remember?).<br /><br />I hear you on the paper thing, though. That's a plan that is counterintuitive, but it does make a lot of sense once you think about it. Plus, it'd be funny to go into Office Max and ask for a few thousand reams of paper, only to dump them in the trash behind the store.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com