The Challenge of Our Era: Consuming Less
Although there have been many challenges mankind has faced in the past, such as disease and world war, we have managed to get them under control for the most part. I think it’s very clear that the era we are now entering [presents] a truly immense challenge: to stop the over-expoitation of the planet’s resources and ecosystems so that there is something left for future generations to work with [“Mass Extinction in the Seas?“, July 7, 2011].
We can, in the next few decades, choose to damage the atmosphere, use most of the oil, cut down the last ancient forests, deplete the fish stocks of the oceans, overdraw the major water acquifers—or we can realize that every one of us is part of these problems by what we consume, and that we absolutely have to use less, consume less and demand that each and every company cease to profit from using key resources.
The alternative is something like the risk of nuclear world war in the past, but much more pervasive.
Kevin Nelson
via Web
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The Future of Print
Just to note: The Huffington Post is one of those online outlets whose content is largely written by unpaid bloggers. In that respect, they are every bit as guilty as, say, MassLive, for relying so much on free blog content and “user-generated” content, which for the most part is fluff or amateurish in nature, and has helped cost the jobs of thousands of writers and journalists [“Will the Printed Word Survive?“, June 30, 2011].
I disagree that information going digital is dumbing us down. I think it all depends on what one chooses to read rather than how one goes about accessing it.
I would say about 90 percent of what I read and research is accessed online or via digital media in some way. Much of that information was just not available 20 or 30 years ago—at least not to the average citizen.
It’s true, too, that certain information, such as court documents, property records and other public information, was available 30 years ago. But it was much more difficult to access.
Here’s another thought. Think of a person who, 30 years ago, read romance novels and Vogue or People Magazine as her primary sources of reading material. Would the fact that she nowadays frequents Facebook and E!-Online instead somehow make her less informed or less well read than she was before?
Point being, people who read frivolous print material years ago are probably reading frivilous digital material today. Same with academically minded people: they’re accessing their preferred information online these days.
With respect to the idea of subsidizing booksellers, that’s just another socialist-minded attempt at force-feeding institutions that are simply not wanted. (The feds bailied out banks because people need banks. People don’t need Borders.)
Bookstores are failing in the U.S. (and Europe, apparently, where you say they are already being subsidized) because people are not interested in going to them—at least not in the numbers they used to, and not in their present form.
Throwing tax dollars at booksellers is not going to make people want to go to them. Booksellers need to adapt their strategies and change the way they do business. Only the booksellers themselves can do this. The government can’t make it happen simply because a bunch of nostalgic people want things to go back to the way they used to be.
Bill Dusty
Springfield Intruder
MassLive and the Huffington Post are two very different operations. We value our community contributors, including Bill Dusty, and we are constantly looking for more qualified and passionate contributors, but our reader-generated content is there to supplement the content written by MassLive.com staffers and Springfield Republican staffers, not replace it.
I agree wholeheartedly with your assertion that the digital age is not “dumbing down” America. Quite the contrary: our world is more connected, and our communities more engaged, than ever before.
Ed Kubosiak
MassLive.com
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Yes to Feminist Porn
Hi, Yana! Thank you so much for writing this wonderful article [V-Spot, “Feminist Porn,” May 5, 2011].
I am an educated heterosexual feminist woman in my mid-20s and am so sick of subjecting myself to the porn I find on the Internet, which constantly forces me to ignore the degrading and violently sexist footage I see to get off. At this point I feel somewhat scarred and would like to move in a more positive direction.
I decided to research “feminist porn” today and came across this article. How refreshing! I feel better already. Although I am a supporter of any BLGTQ representation in pornography and am psyched to see gender bending and queerness happening, I am straight and white, and what I am looking for are women who look like me who are not gender-benders but are just having fun, hot sex and for once are not being exploited for the pleasure of men.
Help! Where do I look?
Johanna Breed
via Web
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Hold the Burger, Take the Salad
Who would have thunk? Meat and potatoes, basic staples of the American diet, are now held responsible for our growing obesity epidemic.
A federally funded Harvard University analysis of data collected over 20 years from more than 120,000 Americans found that meat and potatoes were the main culprits in weight gain, while fruits, vegetables, and nuts prevented weight gain. The analysis was published in this week’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
So much for the meat industry’s claim of high-nutrient density for their product. It’s more like high weight density.
So the next time the fast food clerk asks if “you want fries with that,” tell him to hold the greasy hamburger and give you a nice salad instead.
Eli Ingleson
Easthampton
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“Welcoming Changing What I Do”
I think this article [“Waste Not: Are Valley communities ready to take the zero-waste pledge?“, June 30, 2011] is very clearly presented. I did not know I could hang in for many paragraphs on waste management, but curiosity got the better of me on this one.
And I’m glad I did, because by the end of it, I felt like I was welcoming changing what I do, and that includes wasting my personal energy on non-productive things that are mere habits… I may even get involved in this program locally!
Anne Mercy
via Web
