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Read the rest of this articleGreen yet? Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday: Be the Dan Kanter or get the Charlie Sheen out!
Dan Kanter is the lead guitarist in Justin Bieber’s band. He’s supportive, in the background even though he could be famous, but most importantly wanted by his colleagues. Charlie Sheen supposedly just the opposite. Which role will you pick on this Fat Tuesday or any holiday, the supportive one? Who will you support? Family and friends by overcooking and overloading on food and drinks or your body and planet by eating a healthy meal and not overdoing it? How green is your behavior?
When it comes to choosing between our own comfortable pleasures which are very easy to imagine and anything unimaginable, no matter how good it is, we always tend to pick the most comfortable thing. Does that mean we’re only as green as it suits us? Most of the time and in most countries.
Several years ago Germany proposed a law which would raise taxes for overweight people because they tend to have more medical problems than people who are slim, thus biting of a superior slice of the health insurance pie compared to “slim” Germans. Very drastic indeed, probably not fair either, but there is a point there: consummation of the world’s resources varies from person to person, not just between political systems. If you consume more electricity you pay more for it, you eat more food you pay more. Do you pay more if you pollute more? What about if you’re less energy efficient?
This unequal consumption thing transcends material stuff, think about it: Charlie Sheen over-consumed on his fans and co-workers patience. That’s not a very measurable thing and it’s probably easier to exceed than we, the non-fame burdened observers might imagine. Maybe, in his mind, when faced with the decision to choose between a cold glass of good beer right there in front of him and a foggy definition of what some people might think about him, it was a no-brainer.
I mean, an extra beer and a pound of meat won’t hurt anybody right? Sheentastic, enjoy it, but you could be very wrong.
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Comments
Interesting comparison! I'll consider it.
Yeah it is a different point of view:) Thx for the comment Zoran
So basically what you're saying is, Justin bieber is greener than Charlie Sheen. Or am I missing the point? ;)
Yep, in a sustainable kind of way, yes. Good one, thx 4 the comment.
Very interesting my friend !
cool point of view :)
An interesting article that touches upon the highly pervasive problem of limited world resources, and unsustainable life patters of the West. I would've liked to expand on that point, as it's very interesting and relevant for today's Western world driven by consumerism. However, I find the German taxation law proposal controversial: it can quickly give rise to impartial assessments, personal agendas etc. How would you measure over-weightness? By using the BMI, thus exposing people whose body fat is within the limits of the normal, but their bone weight is unproportionately high? Would the high government investment, necessary to record the whole population's weight, compensate for the subsequent long-term benefits of the law? While we may view it in this way, many economists wouldn't.
So while I think this law has a very efficient backbone idea (i.e. taxing the population according to the proportion of resources they use), the mode of its implementation should be carefully chosen. But think about it - if the new Slovene "underground trash bins" automatically weighted the amount of trash you put in (and record it on your card), every household would be taxed according to the amount of waste they produce, i.e. the amount of resources they used. Wouldn't that be the same concept as in the case of Germany, just implemented in a slightly different manner?
I'd love to hear your opinion about it.
Wow, what a great comment man! Thx! And I love the idea of waste bins weighing the amount of trash produced per household and adapting taxes or bills accordingly, that's a truly cool idea.
I agree the German proposal is a bit to invasive and too hard to implement to be fair.
Beer and chips, greasy pork, pommes with mayo and ketchup...... enjoy while you can! I rather die overweight than become a nervous wreck counting callories!! Sheen rules
I agree, Sheen is great, as you can see from the article it's not judgmental about him, none of us understand what he has to go through and most of us have watched and enjoyed some of his work.
As far as the food goes: cool, your body your responsibility, but the environmental effect? Would you, if you really had evidence it was really bad for the human species, be willing to eat meat only once a week?
WHY WOULD ANYONE GIVE UP SOUL FOOD FOR SOME QUASI FUTURE? I agree with you no one will choose something abstract over their comfort. The germany example is very Nazi :(
@latest comment (by Anonymous):
Haha, someone else to confirm again the veracity of Godwin's law!