Humans are stupid

[gemfyre]

Had another Dingle lecture today. He gives the kind of lectures that make me think "EVERYONE needs to hear this stuff!" Today's lecture was on air pollution. The first half was outdoor - one of the main things that pissed me off from that was the fact that people are allowed to smoke around me and threaten my health, but we all know I feel that way, and the second half was indoor, that was the real eye opener. The amount of crap we put in our air because advertising tells us we need it. I've decided once the deoderant sprays I have now run out, I won't buy any more. I shower daily, I don't stink. I don't need to be dumping toxic hydrocarbons into the air to "smell nice". There are plenty of pump pack or roll on alternatives. As soon as I can afford to I will buy non sulfate shampoo, conditioner and shower gel, but I've wanted to do that for ages because because sulfates irritate my eczema. I already avoid anti-bacterial products and pesticides. Oh yeah, and I'll open my window when I go out to get some ventilation into this ever so poorly ventilated house and to get a bit of inside temperature change to kill dust mites. It will be a LONG time before I can afford a vacuum cleaner that actually gets rid of dust and mites instead of just redistributing it.

And living right next to the freeway is nasty too. What good is "location" when carbon monoxide fumes are slowly killing you?

Comments

[blue-cat.livejournal.com]

Biology type leactures can be heartbreaking.

My first one on Ecology & Conservation opened with:

"according to current calculations* 10 species had become extinct since we woke up. Name 1. So if we don't know, why does it matter?"

then "Everyone talks about man driving species extinct - name 10 that we KNOW have been made totally extinct by human activity WITHOUT mentioning the Dodo."

Um, class of about 20 - we scraped togeter 6 or 7 answers.

Passenger pigeon. Stellar Sea cow. um, I forget the rest.

*current in 1989ish (Graduated June 1990).

[just-laura.livejournal.com]

Are aerosol deodorants common down there? There semi-weird here--I don't know anybody who uses them.

Not that we don't put more than our share of shit into the air, mind. Just that aerosol deodorants aren't very common. . . pump-style hairspray is much more common than it was now, too.

[just-laura.livejournal.com]

Or I could use the right form of "They're."

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Yeah, still commonplace here.

Before yesterday I understood hydrocarbons to be safe, as opposed to the old CFCs they used to use but now I know it's still poisonous and polluting.

I don't use hairspray so I don't really know what that comes in most commonly.