It's official, we MUST abandon Christmas...

[K Frame]

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Christmas is damaging the environment, says a new report by the Australian Conservation Foundation.
 
The report titled "The Hidden Cost of Christmas" calculated the environmental impact of spending on books, clothes, alcohol, electrical appliances and lollies during the festive season.

Every dollar Australians spend on new clothes as gifts consumes 20 liters (four gallons) of water and requires 3.4 square meters (37 sq. feet) of land in the manufacturing process, it said.

Last Christmas, Australians spent A$1.5 billion (US$1.1 billion) on clothes, which required more than half a million hectares (1.2 million acres) of land to produce, it said.

Water that would approximately fill 42,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools was used in the production of Christmas drinks last December -- most was used to grow barley for beer and grapes for wine.

"If your bank account is straining under the pressure of Christmas shopping, spare a thought for our environment," Don Henry, the foundation's executive director, said in a statement.

"It's paying for our Christmas presents with water, land, air and resources. These costs are hidden in the products we buy."

The report said that gifts like DVD players and coffee makers generated 780,000 tons of greenhouse pollution, even before they were unwrapped and used. A third was due to fuel consumption during production.

Even a box of A$30 chocolates or lollies this Christmas, will consume 20kg (44 pounds) of natural materials and 940 liters (207 gallons) of water.

"We can all tread more lightly on the earth this Christmas by eating, drinking and giving gifts in moderation, and by giving gifts with a low environmental cost, such as vouchers for services, tickets to entertainment, memberships to gyms, museums or sports clubs, and donations to charities," said Henry.

[charby]

Way to much faulty analysis in this argument. They used everyday consumer goods.

Charby

[garyk/nm]

Well, it's Australia. The moonbats don't have guns to complain about anymore, so they pick a new target.

I don't see how Christmas has anything to do with it. People buy stuff all year.

[mtnbkr]

Mike, you can break the news to Abby and all the family members that have spent way too much on her for Christmas.  Just let me stand out of the way...

Chris

[El Tejon]

If the Puritans banned Christmas so should we!

The Christmas of my ancestors always sounded like so much fun.  Drinking in the streets, wrestling matches, more drinking, eating, a little more drinking, singing, for 2 weeks on end.

Has anyone done a study on the environmental impact of studies?

[Lennyjoe]

Sometimes I think we forget the true meaning of Christmas.  If you do not have any religious beliefs then by all means center your thoughts on buying and giving.

To me Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  Yes, I do give gifts to my children and family but just being with the family and having faith in my savior is way more important than supporting the economy.

I have spent many a Christmas away in foreign lands and believe me, being with the family is far better than any gift I could ever recieve.

[El Tejon]

Wasn't Christmas about a Persian sun goddess, at least originally?

[Stand_watie]

Wasn't Christmas about a Persian sun goddess, at least originally?

Christmas ('Christ Mass') wasn't about Horus, unless by "Christmas" you mean "December 25".

The choice of December 25th to celebrate christmas was undoubtedly made to placate those who already celebrated Horus or Saturnalia or Yule or Solstice on or about that date. Julius I was a clever fellow.

[grampster]

From what I read from time to time regarding how our ancestors recorded stuff, was that PC has been alive and well since the dawn of the written record.  Many times the scribes and historians were provided with several stories regarding an event or myth.  So they wrote it all down so as to not offend some tribe or group's senability or myth.  Then these writings were further watered down until we now have what we have today.  A decent description of this possibility is discussed by Chaim Potock in his history of the Jews, Wanderings.  Probably around page 111 or so, and a few more pages along.  Very interesting thesis on his part.
So, I deduce that everything that is PC today has an equal chance of being  wrong and/or  offensive as a result.

[matis]

The ominous part of this report is twofold:


1) This is an attack on religion.  We are so far from our Judeo-Christian roots that this kind of report can be published.  They would never have dared until the last few years.


2) These "Public Interest" groups always push for government intervention/regulation.  If they can find a way, this WILL be used as grounds to outlaw religious celebrations.  Paid any attention to the ACLU and such groups lately?


Environmentalism has become a substitute religion.  Real religion no longer competes with science and embedded within it are the values that undergird western civilization.

Examine rationally the "liturgy" of environmentalism and especially the "facts" and projects based on it and you will see an agenda calculated to destroy capitalism,  and freedom and ultimately human well-being.  "Scratch off the green and you find that they are "reds".

One example of the tenets of this religion enacted into law, to the detriment of taxpayers and the very environment they say they protect is recycling.

IIRC only aluminum recycling is profitable and saves the environment.  The rest is a boondogle that drains the taxpayers and pollutes.

The money losses translate into the resource required to build the trucks, the tires and fuel they consume, the recycling plants and so on.  So the environment would actually be ahead if this were not done.

There are other such examples.

I prefer Judaism and Christianity to Gaia (sp) and earth worship and self-hatred (hatred of the numan race), any day.


(By the way, I'm still waiting for the world to end after Saddam torched those hundreds of oil-wells.  I mean... all that toxic black smoke for a year and more...."  Where'd all that BS go?)


matis

[Justin]

The report titled "The Hidden Cost of Christmas" calculated the environmental impact of spending on books, clothes, alcohol, electrical appliances and lollies during the festive season.

People who write such insipidly stupid things should be set ablaze.

Festive and environmentally friendly.

[zahc]

The wasteful purchase and giving of cheap worthless gifts does disress me. Not necessarily because of environmental impact, it just does. All the cheap plastic junk that everyone buys. Pointless.

[mtnbkr]

All the cheap plastic junk that everyone buys

Hey!  Not counting the toys that my daughter's getting, the only cheap plastic junk I bought this Christmas Season was the plastic gift card for a local spa I'm giving to my wife (the card, not the entire spa) and the 6 position stock I'm giving to my dad for his AR-15.

Chris

[K Frame]

"Mike, you can break the news to Abby and all the family members that have spent way too much on her for Christmas.  Just let me stand out of the way..."

I may be stupid and reckless, but I do NOT have that much of a self destructive streak in me.

[trapperready]

Drinking in the streets, wrestling matches, more drinking, eating, a little more drinking, singing, for 2 weeks on end.

Sounds like the last time I went to the Indy 500.

[Stand_watie]

...
I prefer Judaism and Christianity to Gaia (sp) and earth worship and self-hatred (hatred of the numan race), any day.


matis

I personally prefer the courtesy of a person inviting me to join into whatever their individual celebration is. Whether it be Chanukka, Solstice, Yule, or whatever, when a person says to me "Happy ______", particularly if it is out of the mainstream, I appreciate the inclusion. In all fairness to Gai and earth worship, I doubt the original practioners hated the human race, although I agree that the modern equivalents do indeed include that philosophy.

[Standing Wolf]

Environmentalism has become a substitute religion.

Yep. I think of it as a sect within the larger religion of socialism or statism, although many self-styled "environmentalists" would deny it.

Instead of worshipping some unseeable god, they worship the all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing state. Their social vision is essentially feudal.

Any religion, no matter how ludicrous, can gain and hold a few adherents. For a religion to succeed today, it needs to masquerade as something new, scientific, rebellious, and able to answer any and all questions, any and all doubts.

Socialism was responsible for the slaughter of over 100,000,000 people in the twentieth century.

[garrettwc]

Sounds like the last time I went to the Indy 500.

So that was you with the beer in one hand and the bottle rockets in the other!

Oh those Saturday nights on 16th Street when I was in my 20s.

[Ben]

I need to go out and buy some more presents, then double-wrap them when I get home.

How much of the "environment" went into the production of the computer the bonehead used to write the article (and all the computers used to read it)? To be environmentally friendly, shouldn't the writer have used a stone tablet?

[matis]

"To be environmentally friendly, shouldn't the writer have used a stone tablet?"

So what's this, BenW, you have no concern lest we deplete our supply of stone?



My parting shot to environmental-whackos harrangueing (sp?) me about the importance of not disturbing the habibat of some d@mn rodent or insect is: "Next time you get sick, be sure NOT to take any anti-biotics."


If only they were logically consistent, the problem of their existence would be self-correcting, right?  


matis

[Justin]

I personally prefer the courtesy of a person inviting me to join into whatever their individual celebration is. Whether it be Chanukka, Solstice, Yule, or whatever, when a person says to me "Happy ______", particularly if it is out of the mainstream, I appreciate the inclusion.

Sure.  But Ba'hai is right out.

[Ben]

So what's this, BenW, you have no concern lest we deplete our supply of stone?

How insensitive of me... what was I thinking??

Everyone chant after me:

Jobless protestors won't stop our whining
Until America stops its mining

Mindless protesting, that's my story
Dirty Capitalists, close your quarries

[Strings]

>I may be stupid and reckless, but I do NOT have that much of a self destructive streak in me.<

Coward, Mike! Afraid of a lil' girl!




 And PLEASE don't lump the environazis in with us "Earth Worshippers". Most of us (just like the majority of ANY group) actually have brains and use them...


Y'all have a Cool Yule!