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Why old people were always "Green".

  • 04-05-2021 8:26pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 42


    If there is any doubt about whether old people were "Green" in their day then people should read this:

    WOW! - HOW THE "GREY HAIRED" HAVE DESTROYED OUR PLANET
    Checking out at the supermarket, the young cashier suggested to the much older woman that reusable grocery bags were a good idea as plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
    The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this “green thing” back in my earlier days."
    The young cashier responded, "That's our problem today - your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”
    She was right — our generation didn't have the “green thing” in its day.
    Back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles and beer bottles to the shop.
    The shop sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So, they really were recycled.
    But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.
    Grocery shops bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we re-used for numerous things, most memorable besides household bags for rubbish, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks.
    This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school), was not defaced by our scribbling. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.
    We walked up stairs, because we didn't have a lift in every supermarket, shop and office building.
    We walked to the local shop and didn't climb into a 300 horse power machine every time we had to go half a mile.
    Back then, we washed the baby's Terry Toweling nappies because we didn't have the throw away kind.
    We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 3 kilowatts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids had hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
    Back then, we had one radio or TV in the house - not a TV in every room and the TV had a small screen the size of a big handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of Arran In the kitchen.
    We blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us.
    When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded-up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
    Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn.
    We pushed the mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
    But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.
    We drank from a tap or fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.
    We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
    Back then, people took the bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their Mums into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's £40,000 People Carrier which cost the same as a whole house did before the "green thing."
    We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances and we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pub!
    But isn't it sad that some of the current generation lament how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?
    Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart-arse young person...
    We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off...especially when the “advice” is being offered by a tattooed, multiple pierced smartarse who can't work out the change without the cash register telling them how much it is!

    Pierre3.


«13

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 23,179 ✭✭✭✭ted1


    They Burnt coal for heating , smog was a huge problem in cities.
    Dumped their rubbish in landfills, didn’t separate waste.
    Acid rain.
    Obtained most of the electricity from fossil fuels.


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,363 ✭✭✭✭Del.Monte


    ted1 wrote: »
    They Burnt coal for heating , smog was a huge problem in cities.
    Dumped their rubbish in landfills, didn’t separate waste.
    Acid rain.
    Obtained most of the electricity from fossil fuels.


    I should give up while you're ahead if that's the best riposte that you can make.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 47,982 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    It's like an unfunny version of the four yorkshiremen sketch.


  • Registered Users Posts: 42 parkman6551


    I still reckon that we were on the winning side. The Chinese and India still burn up millions of tons of coal for their power stations even though they know the result of that, and that idiot Bolsonnaro, in Brazil, still encourages the moneyed farmers to burn down thousands of acres of rain forest every day desite knowing the result of that.

    No, the current "yoof" think they know better but, in reality, it is only ideas and not practice, except in the West where we have already made decent changes.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 47,982 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    the chinese and indians, in terms of per capita consumption, consume far less than westerners.
    old people giving out about young people is just *dull*.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    the chinese and indians, in terms of per capita consumption, consume far less than westerners.
    old people giving out about young people is just *dull*.

    true; and vice versa. But I was challenged! Will now delete my post as instructed


  • Registered Users Posts: 624 ✭✭✭Mullaghteelin


    Growing up in Ireland, I was always disgusted at how adults would think nothing of dumping old appliances into streams and rivers. I even had a teacher in secondary who commented on this phenomenon. He would describe it as almost traditional in rural Ireland.
    Similarly, there is all sorts of crap such as old machinery or building material literally buried under gardens or farmyards. People will be cursing those generations for years to come.


  • Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Growing up in Ireland, I was always disgusted at how adults would think nothing of dumping old appliances into streams and rivers. I even had a teacher in secondary who commented on this phenomenon. He would describe it as almost traditional in rural Ireland.
    Similarly, there is all sorts of crap such as old machinery or building material literally buried under gardens or farmyards. People will be cursing those generations for years to come.

    One rental I moved into; we asked the landlord to sort the tangled garden while the digger was in clearing the drive.

    He " found" two old cars . a washing machine and a few other goodies. in the undergrowth.

    They proceeded to dig a huge " grave" in the landlord's adjoining field and bury them.. This was around ten years ago.


  • Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    the chinese and indians, in terms of per capita consumption, consume far less than westerners.
    old people giving out about young people is just *dull*.

    Actually I was about to explain to the poster about how wrong he was in his accusations; not giving out as such.

    But that old lady in the quote was brilliant and not at all dull. And she is so right.. I am nearly 80 and still live much as I did when I was young. Green as green as green


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,628 ✭✭✭The J Stands for Jay


    It's nice to see that OP is into recycling old copypasta.

    The current situation was out in place by older people. It wasn't the cashier in the shop, doing what they were told to keep getting work under their zero hours contract, who decided that there was more profit in not reusing bottles, etc.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 42 parkman6551


    I like the fact that people are at least having a sensible discussion [rather than just arguing] because it is how we get to an agreed conclusion.

    One thing that I would say is that beware of criticism of the dumping of old household rubbish, electrical goods and building waste. A lot of it is done by unscrupulous "traders" offering to help clear gardens etc. and then dumping the waste in country lanes, Dunsink Lane and its' visitors comes to mind !!


  • Registered Users Posts: 326 ✭✭hirondelle


    I know some old people who have a religious devotion to recycling every bottle and jar- even washing them by hand before dropping them off at the bottle banks....but literally throw everything else in the "refuge" bin because the recycling one is too confusing.

    I know some young people who have an abhorrence of takeaway food packaging in their car once they have consumed the contents, the bags of food, plastics and paper/cardboard go straight out the window.

    Analysis- some people good at trying to minimise their impact, others not so good and it isn't a function of age.


  • Registered Users Posts: 42 parkman6551


    As I dislike the way the flat-earth believers keep jabbering on about banning the use of petrol and diesel vehicles, and promoting the building and sales of extremely expensive and, in the long term, no greener electric vehicle, I am writing to the various political parties suggesting a good compromise for said flat-earthers.

    I think that Government should ban the use of all, and that should be absolutely all, petrol and diesel vehicles from a Friday evening, about 8pm, until a Monday morning about 7am [purely arbitrary times of course], allowing only the use of electric vehicles to be used.

    This would mean that electric powered public transport would be OK, such as the DART, but the trains that use so-called fossil fuels have to park up for the weekend, as do buses and coaches that are using fossil fuels. Private cars and taxis, except for electric ones would have to be parked, so that would give anyone who wants to travel the opportunity to get on a bicycle.

    This should be done for two weekends every month, so on those weekends, if you want to travel from Dublin to Cork, for instance, you would need to either get an electric car [very expensive but I'm sure that you want to be "green"] or be very fit and use a bicycle. The weekly shopping would have to be done during the week, and if there are kids sports activities to be done then you could all use bicycles to get to the parks or sports clubs. Simples.

    However, I have a suspicion that the flat-earthers would soon realise that they need vehicular transport to get from A to B to live their rather self-righteous lives, and that not having access to transport to more distant points is not at all welcome. I am at a stage in life where I don't care if I don't travel more than 5 miles from home and if I want to keep my petrol car, and use it, then I am happy to do so. I am not going to accept some Swedish child pontificating to me about how I should live my life.

    I hope that my legacy will be to have left three perfectly functional classic cars which I currently use, all extremely efficient 5 litre engines which pass NCT emissions tests every year despite being built back in the seventies. Happiness all round.

    Parkman.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,811 ✭✭✭Padre_Pio


    If there is any doubt about whether old people were "Green" in their day then people should read this:

    WOW! - HOW THE "GREY HAIRED" HAVE DESTROYED OUR PLANET

    I started to address each of these points, but really, it just comes down to poverty and ignorance.
    People were too poor to use resources. You can't claim they walked everywhere and reused items due to environmental consciousness when in reality, people were just poor.

    That said, my grandparents burnt all their rubbish (too poor for the dump)
    Waste oil from the car was burned.
    Dozens of landfill sites can't be used due to toxins in the ground.
    There was no EPA, farmers did whatever they liked.
    Places like Cobh have high cancer rates due to dumping from the steel mill.
    Loads of examples for Ireland's toxic past.

    And that's before we get on to the rest of the world.
    Huge swathes of France are off-limits due to buried war munitions.
    That's before we get into the nuclear test sites from the 1940s-1960s.

    Saying THE "GREY HAIRED" HAVE DESTROYED OUR PLANET is factually true.
    The odd milk bottle is not going to offset decades of polluting manufacturing and large-scale dumping.
    Climate change was established back in the early 1980's and was ignored. It's really only now we're seeing the effects that people and governmetns are making changes.

    The "Grey Haired" had their chance to make changes and didn't.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭El Tarangu


    Having one more child is the biggest driver of climate change on the level of the individual, so in that respect younger people are a lot greener than older people.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 374 ✭✭Swindled


    This ageism bullshyte is about divide an conquer by governments, politicians, mega corporations and the rich, and gets them all off the hook nicely while ordinary people are encouraged to divide and fight among themselves instead of questioning current policies / governance.
    Oldest trick in the book.
    The next generation will be told this one was useless as well, and the cause of all their problems.
    What are we going to do when we become the older generation and are being scapegoated for something else instead ?


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,628 ✭✭✭The J Stands for Jay


    El Tarangu wrote: »
    Having one more child is the biggest driver of climate change on the level of the individual, so in that respect younger people are a lot greener than older people.

    I am not a fan of people having more than 2 kids. I secretly look down on them, but I keep it to myself.


  • Registered Users Posts: 15,630 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    El Tarangu wrote: »
    Having one more child is the biggest driver of climate change on the level of the individual, so in that respect younger people are a lot greener than older people.

    Working Generation Rent can't afford them and have nowhere to house a family.

    If you're on the welfare wagon you can squeeze out as many as you like, planet be damned.


  • Registered Users Posts: 710 ✭✭✭tjhook


    I know it's fashionable to point fingers at "other" generations these days, but it's worth remembering that older people were young once too. And they weren't any better or worse as people than the young of any other generation.

    What has changed is society's understanding of the world around us and communications technology to share it (both provided by the "older generations"). If you said to a man/woman on the street 50 years ago that they need to control or reduce their carbon output, they'd look at you like you've two heads. Not because they're selfish or stupid, but because it wasn't common knowledge.

    People now that have the knowledge.

    I suspect we won't see a huge decrease in young people flying to sunspots after their leaving certs (Covid aside!), or a huge upswing in the numbers of teenagers cycling to school/college. And again, it's not because today's young are any worse than the young of any previous generation. It's human nature. Change and sacrifices are easy to call on others to make.

    The "Baby Boomer" generation still largely controls society's disposable income. "Generation X" won't get much of a look in, but the "Millennial generation" will be in control from about 2029. That's not all that far away. It will be interesting to see then to what extent things change and what sacrifices will be made. Or if like every generation before, the radicalism will soften with age.


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,063 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Most of the plastic in the pacific ocean garbage patch is from the 1970s, produced for people in their 60s and up. Trying to delude yourself that its younger generations fault is futile.

    Entire copy/paste is basically a grumpy old git who doesn't like being told off for something they very much know they're now doing that isn't a good idea, as is obvious from the way its written.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,811 ✭✭✭Padre_Pio


    El Tarangu wrote: »
    Having one more child is the biggest driver of climate change on the level of the individual, so in that respect younger people are a lot greener than older people.

    Living in a first-world country is the biggest driver.
    Someone in sub-Saharan Africa will need 50 kids to match the consumption of one first-world child.
    We can point fingers and ban plastic straws all we want, blame the older generations, whatever.

    The simple fact is that by living in a first-world country, our day-to-day living has a far greater impact than maybe 70% of the world.
    Ireland generates 100 times more Co2 than Liberia, despite having the same population.

    Now, I want a higher standard of living than the average Liberian, but finger-pointing isn't going to get us there.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 374 ✭✭Swindled


    Padre_Pio wrote: »
    Living in a first-world country is the biggest driver.
    Someone in sub-Saharan Africa will need 50 kids to match the consumption of one first-world child.

    We can point fingers and ban plastic straws all we want, blame the older generations, whatever.

    The simple fact is that by living in a first-world country, our day-to-day living has a far greater impact than maybe 70% of the world.

    Ireland generates 100 times more Co2 than Liberia, despite having the same population.

    And China produces more emissions than the rest of all the developed world combined, and has opened hundreds of new coal fired power plants, but hey older Irish people, and certain races having any children, is the real problem. As long as we pay other people's carbon taxes for them, it's all good.
    Maybe we can bring more Liberians here to show us the way, and force more of the disgusting Irish young to emigrate / not have kids ?


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Graces7 wrote: »
    Actually I was about to explain to the poster about how wrong he was in his accusations; not giving out as such.

    But that old lady in the quote was brilliant and not at all dull. And she is so right.. I am nearly 80 and still live much as I did when I was young. Green as green as green


    Individual vs Society.

    It was the society between 1950 and 1990 which drove the consumer use/dispose economies.



    Yes she returned bottles and such but it was the 40 year olds, in 70s 80s, which removed this option.



    Just because the younger generation has to live with the decisions of 2+ generations past, does not mean tgat they caused it today


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,811 ✭✭✭Padre_Pio


    Swindled wrote: »
    And China produces more emissions than the rest of all the developed world combined, and has opened hundreds of new coal fired power plants, but hey older Irish people, and certain races having any children, is the real problem. As long as we pay other people's carbon taxes for them, it's all good.

    Well, that's not true. Speaking of Co2 pollution
    Europe and the US combined have greater Co2 emission than China.
    The population of Europe and the US combined are less than China.

    Again, it makes no sense to point fingers. Per capita, Ireland pollutes almost as much as China.
    Except pollution in China doesn't come from the people, as you say it's mostly power plants and manufacturing.

    So there should be more onus on the general public in Ireland to reduce consumption, than the general public in China.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 374 ✭✭Swindled


    Padre_Pio wrote: »
    Well, that's not true. Speaking of Co2 pollution
    Europe and the US combined have greater Co2 emission than China.
    The population of Europe and the US combined are less than China.

    Again, it makes no sense to point fingers. Per capita, Ireland pollutes almost as much as China.
    Except pollution in China doesn't come from the people, as you say it's mostly power plants and manufacturing.

    So there should be more onus on the general public in Ireland to reduce consumption, than the general public in China.

    Well it is, and yet it's ok to point fingers at older Irish people and tell young Irish people not to have children, and that Liberians and Libera are the future ambition, lol.

    I can't post links but here it is, and anyone can read it with a google :

    BBC - 7th May 2021
    Report: China emissions exceed ALL developed nations combined
    China emits more greenhouse gas than the entire developed world combined, a new report has claimed. The research by Rhodium Group says China emitted 27% of the world's greenhouse gases in 2019.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,811 ✭✭✭Padre_Pio


    Swindled wrote: »
    Well it is, and yet it's ok to point fingers at older Irish people and tell young Irish people not to have children, and that Liberians and Libera are the future ambition, lol.

    I can't post links but here it is, and anyone can read it with a google :

    BBC - 7th May 2021
    Report: China emissions exceed ALL developed nations combined
    China emits more greenhouse gas than the entire developed world combined, a new report has claimed. The research by Rhodium Group says China emitted 27% of the world's greenhouse gases in 2019.

    Here's the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-57018837
    The image is from the same link, but the countries listed below (which excludes many developed countries) add up to more than China.
    The headline is actually incorrect. It should say "China emissions exceed the average of ALL OECD developed nations combined. Less dramatic I suppose, but it paints a completely different picture.

    Your point is disingenous. Also from the same study:
    The Rhodium Group also calculated per capita emissions and found that China now registers just below average levels across the bloc of countries that make up the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. China’s per capita emissions still remain well below those of the United States, which has the world’s highest rate, at 17.6 tons per person.

    Pointing to China and saying "oh sure why should be bother when the Chinese are polluting far more than us" is nonsense. Sure the Chinese could just as easily say "oh sure why bother when American's consume far more than the average Chinese person?"

    You're just passing the blame on.

    EDIT: Also, China's cumulative emissions are far lower than many western countries which had a 100 year head start on large scale manufacturing.
    816


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 374 ✭✭Swindled


    Cleary any young Irish people who are not forced to emigrate and have any children, and their Granny, is the real problem though, and we need aspire to be . . . Liberia and Liberians . . . lol. As long as the richest in Ireland pay no taxes as usual, and the ordinary joes pay it for them, it'll al be grand.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,368 ✭✭✭JimmyVik


    Swindled wrote: »
    This ageism bullshyte is about divide an conquer by governments, politicians, mega corporations and the rich, and gets them all off the hook nicely while ordinary people are encouraged to divide and fight among themselves instead of questioning current policies / governance.
    Oldest trick in the book.
    The next generation will be told this one was useless as well, and the cause of all their problems.
    What are we going to do when we become the older generation and are being scapegoated for something else instead ?


    Never a truer word said.
    Its never the fault of the now generation. Its always someone elses fault. And because there is no generation before them its the older generations fault.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,647 ✭✭✭growleaves


    Large corporate polluters in the West, and coal-fired power stations in India and China are where most of the harmful damage to the planet comes from.

    Trying to micro-regulate every aspect of people' lives, talking people out of having children, banishing cars from cities, rationing (if it comes to that) are a con and a distraction.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,811 ✭✭✭Padre_Pio


    Swindled wrote: »
    Cleary any young Irish people who are not forced to emigrate and have any children, and their Granny, is the real problem though, and we need aspire to be . . . Liberia and Liberians . . . lol. As long as the richest in Ireland pay no taxes as usual, and the ordinary joes pay it for them, it'll al be grand.

    What's more important? Sustained economic growth based on production and consumption, or reducing our climate impact.

    Unless the world economy fundamentally changes, we can't have both.
    growleaves wrote: »
    Large corporate polluters in the West, and coal-fired power stations in India and China are where most of the harmful damage to the planet comes from.

    Trying to micro-regulate every aspect of people' lives, talking people out of having children, banishing cars from cities, rationing (if it comes to that) are a con and a distraction.

    Who consumes the products, who consumes the power?


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