Previously on Elektronauts
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If the aim is just to improve your quality to of life, why bother greenwashing your choices?
Quality of life can also be enhanced by the self-reassurance that youâre not being too inconsiderate to everyone else.
We live in a fake world of our own making.
I honestly havenât researched the tech or behind-the-scenes enough to have stats or pass on info but do know that âeco vinylâ is becoming increasingly prominent and looks to involve recycling. Itâs being used for all the releases of my bandâs label, including our forthcoming record and it seems that, while there may be potential for a little loss in pristine quality (though donât think thatâs primarily why we reach for records), listeners enjoy the unique look of their record, all different colours and no two records the same.
On a personal note, Iâve only really gotten into buying records during lockdown and I see it as at least for myself, a luxury, and have soft rules in place for what I pick up and donât. Largely as I start a collection just old favourites and sounds I want to have in my little space/have that physical connection with.
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You think Vinyl is bad. Digital streaming maybe even worse.
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Itâs only in the last few years that Iâve been aware of how environmentally unsound vinyl production is. It has changed the amount I buy certainly. Itâs no coincidence that in the same time period my partner and I have gone vegetarian and reduced our car use to almost nothing.
I still love the aesthetic experience of playing and listening to vinyl but Iâm a lot more selective of what I choose to have in a physical format. Bandcamp has made that choice a whole lot easier - we can give more back to artists than the broken streaming model without resorting to physical formats.
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Point is, everything we do uses up natural resources. Itâs impossible to live without destroying the enviroment, or changing it. We should concentrate on the most destructive things instead of the fairly insignificant things, like single use plastics or the meat industry. If we want to lessen the enviromental impact of digital technologies, start with Bitcoin.
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Sure vinyl isnât eco friendly, obviously never has been, neither are books, neither are lots of other things that ordinary people collect. But there are obviously much better ways to âdo your bitâ than get side tracked into feeling guilty over having a record collection.
What makes me eye roll is when you go to a supermarket and see tons of records of mainstream throwaway pop and reissues of already existing legacy hits, merchandised with those horrible cheap âretroâ turntables, that idiots buy because âvinyl is back inâ.
Fucking landfill shite when they get bored of the novelty. Fuck that.
But a true record enthusiast, isnât like that, they will most often keep their treasured records a lifetime, store them correctly, own a proper deck, and be way more selective in what they buy on vinyl in the first place.
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And streaming, everyone buying a new phone each year, hollywood blockbuster movies, the airline industry, right to repair, forced obsolescence - the list goes on, sadly.
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Yeah, I could live without any of those. Well streaming is surely nice, but I have enough records to last me the rest of my life.
Like when all the supermarkets replaced single use plastic bags with slightly more than single use plastic bags (or even worse, paper) with a far higher carbon footprint?
If people are thinking about how their music consumption affects the environment, chances are theyâre thinking about it in all the other aspects of their consumption too.
Itâs difficult to fix the big things, as we need governments and corporations to do it for us and they canât be trusted so the best thing we can do as consumers in a consumer driven society is to try to consume as responsibly as possible and hope that it drives the bigger changes we mostly all agree need to happen.
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Thatâs a perfect example of a fake solution to a real problem. Ban all plastic bags, if you donât have a bag tough shit. Ban single use plastics for the fast food industry or at least tax the living hell out of companies who use them. Those would be real solutions, but alas itâs easier to live with the consequences than to fix them. For now.
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Why would you call it greenwashing if I make choices for my personal life? Only because the majority doesnât give a fuck and keeps wasting resources and my choices arenât measurable in the greater scheme of things?
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You are the majority. Weâre all the majority, thatâs the point. We buy ourselves a clean consience by doing these ritualistic acts of renounciation. Itâs not really important whether your choice is actually impactful or not, itâs the ritual of choosing a recycled plastic bottle instead of a non-recycled one that lifts our spirits. We shouldnât be using plastic in the quantitites we use it, and plastic recycling is a scam anyway. Most of it is not recycled.
Point is, youâre greenwashing your choices if you first claim to do those little things for the enviroment, but in the next post admit youâre only doing them due to guilt or social pressure but donât care about whether they actually help or not.
You might be mixing up posts from various users here or interpret things your way. Please quote me on that admiting to social pressure!
If you want to keep on with your lifestyle go ahead, Iâm not judging anyone but I donât see any usefulness in this â if everybody keeps doing it why should I botherâ attitude.
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Thats always been the problem. Ive seen environmentalists spout off for years about saving the planet only to be spotted in a Macdonalds eating a Big Mac.
Whilst it is easy to adopt the whole âwhat is the pointâ mentality, and to be led to believe that some of these things do not have alternative solutions, and to be led astray by well meaning but ill informed people/groups, the easiest things that people who care can do is too eat less, keep things for longer, pay fair prices for good quality and well made products, buy locally where possible, choose domestic appliances with good energy efficiency, and lots of other simple, small things that add up.
Some stuff is realistically outside of our control, some stuff is very much realistically within our control.
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I cant be a hypocrite and use the internet daily. As that is not helping the planet with CO2 emissions.
Iâm slightly confused with this point.
Why is a problem to make a change in your lifestyle because you feel guilty about the harm itâs doing?
Seems like a totally valid reason to me.