3 Rs - Repair, Reuse and Restraint

They design lifespans of products such as smartphones and laptop computers other electrical appliances to be artificially short, so that consumers are forced to ditch functional products and acquire new ones.

Some devices are also designed to be difficult to repair, or with replacement parts that are tightly controlled by the company, thereby making it challenging to extend their lifespan through replacing faulty parts.

Device repair services have also become few and far between such that consumers find it easier to buy a whole new device.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/wasteful-practices-of-affluence-repair-cutlery-plastic-bags-11880308

The above report is about wasteful habits of affluent Singaporeans. It is also about saving mother earth, about climate change and disappearing animals from this planet.  It is also about the existence of humankind while we, the supreme species on earth, charted our own course of death and destruction.

Today everyone is crazy and in heat about saving a few pieces of plastic bag when each piece of plastic bag when rolled into one is not bigger than the size of a 50c coin. Yes, it is wasteful consumption of plastic and the impact is severe when they are not properly disposed off and ended up everywhere, in the ocean, in the stomach of fish and mammals and killing them. What is the solution?

Saw a documentary by some kids in CNA proposing that instead of using one plastic bag for each item of purchase, they should put all in one big plastic bag. Just throw the fish, meat, vegetable, fruits, buns and cakes, all into on bag and save 10 bags. Brilliant ideas from the kids. But the kids at the end also knew that it was a foolish idea. But it was not worse than stupid people proposing to ban giving plastic bags to hold their purchases in supermarkets and make people buy more plastic bags to store their waste and swills for disposal.  The cheap plastic bag is the most efficient piece of invention of humankind. It is how it is being used and how it is being recycled or disposed that is the problem.

But the real problem is not the use of plastic bags but consumption. The article quoted above exposed the real problem behind the survival of the human species and mother earth. It is reckless and mindless consumption for the sake of economic growth. Use and throw, buy newer ones, pulling down houses and buildings to build more houses and buildings, scrapping good working vehicles after 10 years or less to buy new ones. These are very serious and expensive wasteful behaviour of human species. But no, no one is looking at them as they make economic sense. How much energy and material are wasted compare to the use of plastic bags? Such mindless behaviours are destroying mother earth! No, just turn a blind eye and go for the good thing, economic growth. Economic growth is everything. We need economic growth to get rich and appear to be richer. Nevermind about irresponsible and meaningless increase in population. Is that all there is to living?

The most serious human indiscretion and irresponsible act to destroy mother earth is increasing human population for the sake of economic growth. How much more is being consumed by one human bean alive for 80 or 90 years? How much more destruction would be due to his existence? If human beans start to think about controlling population growth, for human beans to live better quality of life, not to produce human beans for the sake of economic growth, there would be much less destruction and threats to the existence of human civilisation and the end of the world.  The main threat to the destruction of mother earth is CONSUMPTION by an ever increasing growing population. By maintaining and controlling population growth, the problems of a dying mother earth, the wide spread use and disuse of plastic bags would be more manageable without have to do crazy things and stupid things to try to solve a problem that humankind has created for itself ie economic growth through increasing population and mindless consumption.

Do we need more crazy and stupid ideas to control use of plastic bags and to control climate change? Do we need 10m population? Why do we need 10m population? How many more plastic bags would be used with 10m population when the amount used by 5.6m is already unacceptable?

Another example of saying one thing and doing another is the F1 races here, extended to 2021. Speed kills and the govt is promoting Speed thrills by spending billions of dollars on the wasteful F1 races. What does it say?