Blinks (blogs/links)

IKEA is introducing led lightening working on solar panels. My initial thought was: 'wow, solar energy is really conquering the world'. But then it hit me: everything you buy at IKEA will be litter within, let's say, 5 years!

I know, I've been there.
I can't help myself going into IKEA to buy a shower curtain
and coming out again with a rather useless key-cupboard, a laundry basket, an extra duvet cover and 55 colorful magnets. And a shower curtain.
It is my theory that one day soon we will find a gene, responsible for our 'collective collecting mania'. Thousands of years of deprivation have left their mark on the human genetic system. And much like we collectively cannot resist eating too much fat and sugar, we surround ourselves with too much stuff. In my case, stuff which less then 5 years later ends up in my pile of things to be sold on Queensday (the only day that the free market is truly a free market in the Netherlands...).

So just imagine all those solar panels ultimately ending up on refuse dumps!

The Story of Stuff is a brilliant presentation showing the story of the materials economy.
More than 4 million people have watched this 20 minutes video.

In the past three decades alone, one-third of the planet's natural resources base have been consumed. Gone...
We are cutting and mining and hauling and trashing the place so fast that we're undermining the planet's very ability to live here.
And guess what percentage of total material is still in product or use 6 months after their sale in North America? 1%!
So 99% of the stuff we harvest, mine, process, transport - 99 percent of the stuff we run through this system is trashed within 6 months.
Now how can we run a planet with that rate of materials throughput?

The answer is: we can't.
I believe that the bulk of humanity will not be able to kick the habit of over consumption if there is only a moral reason to do so. We need to have a financial reason too. So let's start by putting the right price on products; a price which reflects the costs of extracting the materials from the earth. Only then we can ‘tweak' the use of natural resources.

I am curious what happens to the price of the SOLIG if we were to rate the materials required for the solar lamp, or the cost of proper disposal at the end of its lifecycle. Solar panels per se are great but if we put them in disposables, then we might be on the wrong track.

Purchasing less? My 5-year old will hate me for reducing his time in the IKEA ballroom. But ultimately I think he will love me for leaving the planet a bit more intact.

Femke Groothuis

femke@extent.nl