As Syria and Nicaragua both sign on the the Paris Climate Accord, the Unites States difiantly remains the lone nation out. While Nicaragua conceded that the deal was better than nothing, Syria found time to look into it amidst their Civil War and also as a chance to spite the US for their contributions to the terrorist rebels. But while the Trump administration has stated its willingness to renegotiate for more favorable terms, French President Macron is steadfast with his take it or leave it approach, and said so after Trump gave his Rocketman speech at the UN.
About a year ago, India committed to the Paris Climate Accord with promises of being 40% non-fossil fuel energy. Yet reports have surfaced about the toxicity of the air in India. India has long had the world’s most dangerous air in terms of health hazards, but a real crisis has emerged. While India boasts ambitious goals for clean energy, they are certainly lacking one year later in making real progress towards clean air, which after all should be a priority for environmentalists.
Perspectives
One year ago: India to ratify Paris climate change agreement at UN
India has committed that by 2030, at least 40% of its electricity will be generated from non-fossil sources. This includes 175GW renewable energy capacity by 2022.
Manish Bapna, executive vice-president and managing director of the World Resources Institute, said India “has one of the boldest renewable energy targets in the world, making it destined to be a major player in solar and wind markets”.
Money will be a big challenge for India, which says it will require over $2.5tn (£1.9tn) to meet all its targets. It says it will achieve the targets only if other countries give it money and discounts on new technology.
Associated Press: Anger Rises as Toxic Air Chokes India’s Capital
She said doctors in recent days have been dealing with a 20 percent spike in emergency hospital admissions from people suffering heart and lung problems. And that’s in a city, she said, where one in every three children already has compromised lungs.
Enter Keurig
The coffee giant sailed into political tides over Sean Hannity’s interview with Roy Moore. Their social media fiasco, some might call it, prompted protests by loyal Hannity supporters and praise from the left. So while Hannity fanatics may be boycotting Keuring, they are unknowingly doing a very good thing for the environment. The premise of Keurig is humanity at its dumbests. Keurig found a way to trick people into paying more for coffee by offering convenience and an expensive machine to deliver that convenience. This expensive machine Keurig 2.0 only takes official K-Cups because it’s more computer than coffee maker. Somehow the pods they made weren’t even a recyclable plastic which furthers how detrimental these things are for the environment. However recycling barely mitigates this problem because, humans suck at it and recycling plastic only creates an inferior plastic. That is why companies use “virgin” material as a value proposition for vinyl/plastic products.
K-Cups are basically the “water bottles of coffee” except less recyclable. But disposable water bottles are evidence of the limitations of recycling. Keurig is simply the same thing as Juicero except, it caught on.
Further Perspectives
Vice: Keurig Coffee Machines Are Hell Devices That Everyone Should Boycott
Keurig manufactures a hell machine that has been disavowed by its inventor. It encapsulates the very worst facets of late capitalism and should be boycotted by everyone for reasons that have nothing to do with Hannity. Besides making a product that is horrendous for the environment in its very premise, Keurig was also a pioneer in creating unrepairable, proprietary, single-use hardware and bringing Digital Rights Management and patent law loopholes to coffee machines.
If you’re not familiar, Keurig machines are designed to make single servings of coffee. “K-Cups” are single-serving plastic coffee pods that are disposable, not compostable, and, for the most part, not recyclable (Keurig introduced its first recyclable K-Cups last year and hopes to make all of its K-Cups recyclable by 2020)
Roughly 10 billion K-Cups are sold each year; a 2015 story by The Atlantic noted that if you laid out all the K-Cups sold in 2014 end-to-end, it would circle the globe roughly 10.5 times. Most of these are not recyclable because only a handful of K-Cups are recyclable as of this writing.
Inventor John Sylvan, who left Keurig several years ago, told The Atlantic that Keurigs are “kind of expensive to use” and noted that “no matter what they say about recycling, those things will never be recyclable.” This is because humans are shitty at recycling in general—how many plastic water bottles have you seen end up in trash cans—and most recycled things are actually down cycled, meaning they become something less useful as they go through its end-of-life.
Forbes: Why Juicero Needs To Be Squeezed Out Of Existence
To the uninitiated, Juicero is a $400 cold press juicing machine that uses $8 packs that, it turns out, you can squeeze by hand (although the CEO does not want you to do this). The tech blogs and Twitter have been having a field day with the machine — some love it while some are calling it out. Why, though? Google Ventures and other investors have poured over $120 million into a company that is effectively redundant.
A product that isn’t needed and should have had the sense to be better priced or had the marketing toned down significantly. The world needs more sense and value right now, and Juicero provides too little of both.
Final Thoughts
The Left constantly criticizes conservatives and Republicans for not caring about the environment. They cite evidence like opposition to the Paris Climate Accord, Kyoto Protocol, and unaccountable EPA regulations, ignoring the core principles of small government conservatism. However, India clearly shows that they don’t care about the environment despite supporting these things. As mention above they will only fulfill their energy ambitions if given discounts and money. Without these things, India will happily continue to pollute the earth with no remorse. India wants OPM to make their energy grid more self-sustainable. Gee, if someone gave me money to buy solar panels, I’d be a fool not to use OPM to buy something that will provide an economic benefit for years to come. This is what India is doing and they are championing the Paris Climate Accord in order to receive OPM. That’s not environmentalism, that’s phonyism.
Now, Keurig is the most socially irresponsible product to exist in this decade. If you truly care about the environment, you would boycott this product regardless of Hannity. If you truly care about the environment, you would avoid/limit your use of disposable water bottles. I hate my city water, but instead of routinely purchasing water bottles, we have a Brita filter pitcher. Problem solved and we go through a lot of water. You might be reading this and think I claim Americans don’t care about the environment, and you’re close.
Americans do care, but we aren’t taught how to care. Liberals preach that the government should solve pollution by regulating corporations and private citizens. But this removes the personal accountability for our consumer choices. We create a demand for irresponsible products, so companies supply it. Instead of relying on government regulation, we should take actions ourselves. We need to care for the environment with our consumption and at local levels, rather than rely on federal and global measures, which historically haven’t accomplished a thing.
It’s the same fallacy as equating welfare to charity. Many people support government entitlements to compensate for their lack of private charity. Likewise, many on the left support government action to compensate for their own lack of environmentalism.
