Saturday, 12 July 2014

the men who made us spend

In the light of a recent post:
Jay Doubleyou: sustainable development
... this evening BBC 2 TV took us in a similar direction, looking at 'planned obsolescence':
▶ The Men Who Made Us Spend - Episode 1 - Video Dailymotion

Why do we buy what we buy? Jacques Peretti investigates consumerism and the people who try and shape the public's appetites

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In summer what we buy changes as quickly as our outfits do - and in surprising ways.

Watch a clip from BBC One's Supermarket Secrets

What tricks of the trade do shops use to make us spend our hard-earned cash?

Find out more about social identity and consumerism with The Open University (www.open.edu)

BBC Two - The Men Who Made Us Spend

For those of you who don't have access to UK TV programmes, here are some highlights:

There is the Phoebus 'conspiracy' when manufacturers of light bulbs got together to limit how long their product could be used:
Phoebus cartel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Phoebuskartell – Wikipedia
Planned Obsolescence: The Light Bulb Conspiracy | Economics Student Society of Australia (ESSA)
Planned Obsolescence or, why light bulbs die after 1000h? Even if not official or Government regulated, exists. Should it? | A conversation on TED.com

And there is the no-it-wasn't-a-conspiracy proposition:

Planned Obsolescence - Centennial Light Bulb - YouTube

During the Cold War, it was part of the 'democratic way of life' in the USA to spend:
1950s Lesson Plans & Worksheets | Lesson Planet
1950s: The Happy Days? | DocsTeach: Activities
The Rise of American Consumerism . Tupperware! . WGBH American Experience | PBS

Although people were questioning this trend:

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The Man in the White Suit (1951), directed by Alexander Mackendrick - YouTube
The Man in the White Suit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The man who 'invented' planned obsolescence was the head of General Motors - which was to become the largest automotive manufacturer in the world:
Alfred P. Sloan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Degradation of Work Revisited: More of the Same: The Rise of Sloanism and Flexible Mass Production
What Apple Can Learn from Legendary GM President Alfred P. Sloan - CBS News

Note the use of 'new' in this advert from the 1950s:

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Chevrolet 1955 Motoramic New Car Advertisement / General Motors Infomercials No. 7 of 10 - YouTube

As far as the UK was concerned, it was Anthony Fisher who set up a 'think tank' to influence the media about these things - especially the idea of making us free as consumers in the market place:
Antony Fisher - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Fisher Recipe For Successful Think Tanks

But, again, there were questions about this trend:

Dawn of the Dead (1978) - Trailer - YouTube
Dawn of the Dead - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Then came along Computer Aided Design:
AutoCAD - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Computer Aided Design - YouTube

Followed by Ikea:

Spike Jonze Ikea ad - YouTube

IKEA in Fight Club - YouTube

And of course, Apple:

Hundreds Queue in Sydney to be First With iPhone 5s and 5c - YouTube

Here are some really old phones:

Don't Be a Victim of Planned Obsolescence | Modern Species
Planned obsolescence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And here are some more really old phones:

The Story of E-Waste: What Happens to Tech Once It's Trash | Maximum PC
Jay Doubleyou: the story of stuff

During the 2011 riots in London, the topmost items which were looted were... mobile phones

Ping me baby*: Ping Me Baby!

The mobile phone shops were obviously targets, with many in the particular areas of London reportedly cleaned out. I’m not surprised. I’m sure I read that one Carphone Warehouse was completely ransacked of every single device.

Mobile phones are obviously a highly desirable, highly transportable, highly valuable commodity. It makes sense that looters selected those stores instead of, say, bookshops. There’s plenty of stories on the news of people whisking off flatscreen TVs and so on. They’re just not as easily transportable as, say, an iPhone or the very latest Samsung Galaxy.

London Riots: I hope the phone companies are disabling all their stock | Mobile Industry Review
LONDON RIOTS 2011: They stole EVERYTHING! Enfield to Clapham shops stripped bare | Mail Online

Have you heard of I-Pod's Dirty Secret?

iPod's Dirty Secret - YouTube
Neistat Brothers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Or you could always do it yourself:

iFixit is a private company in San Luis Obispo, California. Founded in 2003 while the founders were attending Cal Poly, the company sells repair parts and publishes free wiki-like online repair guides for consumer electronics and gadgets on its web site.^[4]

Founder Kyle Wiens aims to reduce electronic waste by teaching people to repair their own gear^[9] and offering tools, parts, and a forum to discuss repairs.^[10] ... stories of "fixers" met on the trip are posted on the company's activism-oriented blog, ifixit.org.^[12]^[13]

iFixit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Right to Repair

iFixit is a global community of people helping each other repair things. Let's fix the world, one device at a time.

WHY REPAIR?

iFixit: The free repair manual - iFixit

According to a consultant speaking about Apple's products on the programme:
"It is not the job of the consumer to have an opinion."

A debate on planned obsolescence from the continental channel Arte:
Die Wegwerfer | THEMA "Die Wegwerfer" | Welt | de - ARTE

And some very interesting ideas from the Open University:
OU on the BBC: The Men Who Made Us Spend - OpenLearn - Open University
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Wednesday, 9 July 2014

sustainable and unsustainable lifestyles in the past... and today

There are ideas that not only is agriculture 'unsustainable':
BBC - Devon - Farming - Report on the Future of Farming and Food is published
Is Sustainable Agriculture an Oxymoron?

Agriculture: Unsustainable Resource Depletion Began 10,000 Years Ago

This is a guest post by Peter Salonius, a Canadian soil microbiologist.
According to Peter, humanity has probably been in overshoot of the Earth's carrying capacity since it abandoned hunter gathering in favor of crop cultivation (~ 8,000 BCE). The problem is that soil needs tightly woven natural ecosystems to properly recycle nutrients and prevent soil erosion. Earth's inhabitants have devised a whole series of approaches to increase the amount of food that can produced, starting first with hand-cultivation and culminating in the last century with the widespread use of fossil fuels. These approaches strip the soil of its nutrients and cause soil erosion. Even Permaculture cannot be expected to overcome these problems. According to the paper, eventually, to reach sustainability, the world will need to reduce its population to that of the hunter-gathers, and go back to living on the resources the natural ecosystems can produce.

The Oil Drum | Agriculture: Unsustainable Resource Depletion Began 10,000 Years Ago

... but actually the whole notion of 'civilization' is unsustainable:
Is Civilization A Universally Bad Idea? : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture : NPR
Endgame (Derrick Jensen books) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Against Civilization: Readings and Reflections: Amazon.co.uk: John Zerzan: Books
Rewilding bulletin: Civilization and Madness: An Interview with Zerzan and Jensen on Mental Health

Dartmoor:

The prehistoric settlers began clearing the forest, and established the first farming communities. Fire was the main method of clearing land, creating pasture and swidden types of fire-fallow farmland. Areas less suited for farming tended to be burned for livestock grazing. Over the centuries these Neolithic practices greatly expanded the upland moors, and contributed to the acidification of the soil and the accumulation of peat and bogs.^[16]

Dartmoor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Why Britain's barren uplands have farming subsidies to blame | George Monbiot | Environment | theguardian.com

Easter Island:

End of Easter Island - YouTube
What Happened On Easter Island — A New (Even Scarier) Scenario : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR

An interesting, traditional alternative perhaps:
Transhumance today:

Beautiful Swiss Cows Ascend the Alps -- Alp Auffahrt - YouTube
Transhumance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heidi - YouTube
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sustainable development

How do we get from this situation:

Smokestack

Smoke rises out of factories in Thailand’s Chonburi province.
By the Way, Your Home Is On Fire | The Nation

... to this situation?

"Brewing in a remote rural location such as this demands the greatest of sensitivity in approach to environmental effect and long-term sustainability."
Futures Forum: Otter Brewery

What is 'sustainability'?
Sustainable development - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In simple English:
Sustainable development - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Is it not a contradiction?
Development Is A Sham' -- New Internationalist
Rio+20 draft text is 283 paragraphs of fluff | George Monbiot | Environment | theguardian.com
How “Sustainability” Became “Sustained Growth” | George Monbiot

Companies see sustainable growth as key:

Sustainable Growth

In simple terms and with reference to a business, sustainable growth is the realistically attainable growth that a company could maintain without running into problems. A business that grows too quickly may find it difficult to fund the growth. A business that grows too slowly or not at all may stagnate. Finding the optimum growth rate is the goal. A sustainable growth rate (SGR) is the maximum growth rate that a company can sustain without having to increase financial leverage. In essence, finding a company's sustainable growth rate answers the question: how much can this company grow before it must borrow money?

Sustainable Growth - Encyclopedia - Business Terms | Inc.com

Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) Definition | Investopedia

Hochland AG buys “Grünländer” brand from Bechtel Group

17.11.2008

Hochland AG has taken over the hard cheese and sliced cheese brand “Grünländer” from the Bechtel Group.
Sustainable growth perspectives
This contract allows Hochland AG to broaden its brand portfolio with the addition of the brand “Grünländer”, which has shown dynamic growth in the German cheese market in recent years. This gives the Allgäu-based company access to a further brand in the hard cheese and sliced cheese sector, which has by far the highest sales in the cheese market... The company, based in Heimenkirch, sees considerable growth opportunities in the marketing of “Grünländer” in its core strategic sales regions of Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Russia and Romania. Hochland AG...

Hochland - News Index

Futures Forum: The semantics of sustainability: 'sustainable development'... or 'sustainable growth' ... or 'sustained economic growth'... or 'development for sustainability'...
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Tuesday, 8 July 2014

climate change

There has been a lot of media created around the issue of 'climate change':
Futures Forum: Climate Change: the film

With a lot of bitter argument in the English-speaking world:
Forum: "Climate science has been dragged into the American-style culture wars that are turning British intellectual life into a battlefield."

And yet it was Margaret Thatcher who both promoted research into climate change - and who voiced 'scepticism' later:
Futures Forum: The continuing politicisation of the climate change

The UK's meteorological office 'supports' the idea:
Futures Forum: The Met Office... and Climate Change
Futures Forum: Storms and flooding >> climate change >> cutting carbon ... ... from the UK Met Office to the EU summit

What about flooding in the UK?
Futures Forum: Flooding in the West Country... and climate change
Futures Forum: Environment Secretary Owen Paterson visits Sidmouth seafront and beaches

And what about cars?
Futures Forum: What to do about car emissions ... and what to do about plane emissions ...
Futures Forum: The End of Suburbia: ten years on

What are we going to do about energy?
Futures Forum: A wind farm for the Jurassic Coast?
Futures Forum: The aesthetics of development: power plants and windfarms
Futures Forum: Tidal reef in Swansea Bay
Futures Forum: District heating systems run on waste... from Scandanavia
Futures Forum: Retrofitting housing to cut down on energy use - the options

How about 'fracking'?
Futures Forum: Fracking vs European dependence on imported Russian gas
Futures Forum: Fracking: 'the party's over': Peak Oil now forecast for 2020
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Monday, 7 July 2014

the story of stuff

We have a few issues when it comes to using 'resources':

Learning English - Words in the News - Smoke chokes Singapore
Futures Forum: Singapore smog and palm oil

Satyajit Das: The West wrings its hands over Asian workers, but carries on robbing them - Business Comment - Business - The Independent

Video: Kenya Battery Recycling Factory Poisons Community | Human Rights Watch
The mother who defied threats to take on the factory spewing out toxin - Africa - World - The Independent

Conflict Minerals 101 - YouTube
Congo: Blood, gold and mobile phones - video | World news | theguardian.com
Children of the Congo who risk their lives to supply our mobile phones | Guardian Sustainable Business | Guardian Professional
Is your mobile phone helping fund war in Congo? - Telegraph
Coltan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Why does this happen?

Story of Stuff (2007, OFFICIAL Version) - YouTube
storyofstuffproject - YouTube
Story Of Stuff

The Story of Stuff - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What can we do about it?
Futures Forum: The techno-fix ... Can we engineer our way out of environmental catastrophe? Or ... Can we 'design for the real world'?

Futures Forum: Freecycle in Honiton
Futures Forum: Upcycling: 'Kevin's Supersized Salvage'
Futures Forum: The alternatives to plastic

Don't Be a Victim of Planned Obsolescence | Modern Species
Planned obsolescence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Story of E-Waste: What Happens to Tech Once It's Trash | Maximum PC
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Friday, 4 July 2014

flora and fauna: appearing and disappearing

The first wild beavers have been seen in England:
On the River Otter: First ever video of a wild beaver in England
On the River Otter: First ever video of a wild beaver in England... but two and a half years ago...

But there are concerns that there might be a 'cull':
Futures Forum: On the River Otter: DEFRA considers a beaver cull?

Or that the beavers might be taken out of their wild habitat:
Futures Forum: On the River Otter: DEFRA considers 'rehoming' beavers
Stop the control freaks who want to capture England's wild beavers | Environment | theguardian.com

Beavers have been in Scotland now for some time:

Wild British Beavers - The Animal's Guide To Britain, Episode 1 Preview - BBC Two - YouTube

A hundred years ago, the last passenger pigeon died:
Martha (Passenger Pigeon) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2014: the year of the passenger pigeon | Science | theguardian.com

A stuffed passenger pigeon on display in a Museum of Nature exhibit on Thursday on the 100th anniversary of the day the last passenger pigeon died.

A stuffed passenger pigeon on display in a Museum of Nature exhibit on Thursday on the 100th anniversary of the day the last passenger pigeon died.

Museums mark 100 years without passenger pigeons | Ottawa Citizen

THE BIRDS

Why the passenger pigeon became extinct.

BY JONATHAN ROSENJANUARY 6, 2014

In his new book about the passenger pigeon, the naturalist Joel Greenberg sets out to answer a puzzling question: How could the bird go from a population of billions to zero in less than fifty years? Painting by Walton Ford.

KEYWORDS: PASSENGER PIGEONS;; “A FEATHERED RIVER ACROSS THE SKY: THE PASSENGER PIGEON’S FLIGHT TO EXTINCTION”;; JOEL GREENBERG;; BIRDS;; ENVIRONMENT;; PROJECT PASSENGER PIGEON;; DE-EXTINCTION

Imagine that tomorrow morning you woke up and discovered that the familiar rock pigeon—scientifically known asColumba livia, popularly known as the rat with wings—had disappeared. It was gone not simply from your window ledge but from Piazza San Marco, Trafalgar Square, the Gateway of India arch, and every park, sidewalk, telephone wire, and rooftop in between. Would you grieve for the loss of a familiar creature, or rip out the spikes on your air-conditioner and celebrate? Perhaps your reaction would depend on the cause of the extinction. If the birds had been carried off in a mass avian rapture, or a pigeon-specific flu, you might let them pass without guilt, but if they had been hunted to death by humans you might feel honor-bound to genetically engineer them back to life.

This thought experiment occurred to me while reading “A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction” (Bloomsbury), Joel Greenberg’s study of a bird that really did vanish after near-ubiquity, and that really is the subject of Frankenpigeon dreams of resurrection. Even before the age of bioengineering, Ectopistes migratorius could seem as much science-fiction fable as fact, which is why it is good to have Greenberg’s book, the first major work in sixty years about the most famous extinct species since the dodo.

The passenger pigeon—sometimes called “the blue pigeon,” for its color, though the blue was blended with gray, red, copper, and brown—should not be confused with its distant cousin, the message-bearing carrier pigeon, which is really just a domesticated rock pigeon in military dress. Unlike the rock pigeon—domesticated six thousand years ago, now feral, and brought to these shores by Europeans in the early seventeenth century—the passenger pigeon was native to North America, where it roved over a billion acres of the continent searching for bumper crops of tree nuts. It was here, like the American bison, when Europeans arrived, and it was here when the peoples we consider indigenous migrated across their land bridge thousands of years before that. It evolved on the unspoiled continent and was allied with the big trees that once covered much of the Northeast and the Midwest.

The passenger pigeon was also the most numerous bird species in North America, and possibly the world, dominating the eastern half of the continent in numbers that stagger the imagination. In 1813, John James Audubon saw a flock—if that is what you call an agglomeration of birds moving at sixty miles an hour and obliterating the noonday sun—that was merely the advance guard of a multitude that took three days to pass. Alexander Wilson, the other great bird observer of the time, reckoned that a flock he saw contained 2,230,272,000 individuals. To get your head around just how many passenger pigeons that would mean, consider that there are only about two hundred and sixty million rock pigeons in the world today. You would have to imagine more than eight times the total world population of rock pigeons, all flying at the same time in a connected mass.

Jonathan Rosen: Why the Passenger Pigeon Became Extinct : The New Yorker

From Billions to None: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction from David Mrazek on Vimeo.
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Jay Doubleyou