In the end, Suburbia Ends.

We live in a convenient world today. We have the ability to get to places within minutes when olden day people might take days, the ability to transport things from other countries and even the ability to mass-produce things. All of these technology made our life much more convenient then before. But have you ever woke up in the morning with a sudden realization that these could all end? I know I haven’t. And I know millions of other people are still stuck with the mind set that everything is going to be the same year and year after. Unfortunately, we are as Al Gore said, in the age of consequence.

3 years ago, I live in Australia. As we all know, Australia is the biggest island in the world. However, its vast boundless land and the nation’s population are completely out of ratio. In result, many people have to travel longer distance to get milk or household appliances. In a country like that, cars are essential. Without car, they are just like paralyzed people. So Australians reply a lot on cars. But lets NOT forget the fact that cars run on gasoline. And gasoline is a non-renewable resource. But what end up happening is, we are so addicted to gasoline, we can’t live without it. So instead of seeing fewer cars, we see more pumpjacks and oilrigs in the countryside and ocean.

3 years later, I came back to Taiwan. Now, Taiwan and Australia are two totally different countries. Both have similar population, but Australia is much much much bigger then Taiwan. In result, Taiwan becomes a very compacted place. Instead of having a huge 1 floor shopping plaza, we have a huge 5 floor shopping centre. Instead of having to drive 30 min to get milks, we only talk 5 min. This should be clear; a more compacted city is more convenient. And this will, in result save more gasoline.

Now, analysts and scientist found out that the gas production has reached its climax point. Similar to a parabola, it is now dropping. No matter how much more pumpjacks or oilrigs we build, gas wont be as much before.

Other then the gas problem, we also have food problems. Related to what I mentioned earlier, we depend on transportation too much. With these planes and ships, we started dreaming about food from abroad. Westerners started craving for Eastern food while the East is craving for the West as well. And both Australia and Taiwan are guilty for this. In Taiwan, many rich people get imported foods from pricier supermarkets. They would have cheese from France, Steak from Australia and fruits from Japan when all of these are produced locally. In Australia, there are not as many food imports. But there are still a lot of other imports (clothing, appliances…etc). In result, food started going across countries. Of course all these conveying rely on gasoline.

What do you think will happen next? In the end, we will lose to Mother Nature. We failed to play the game as Mother Nature asked us to. We didn’t think about sustainability, we definitely have no idea how to utilize our will power, and we exploited the world. Just remember, we are in an age of consequences. Our actions harm only us, and the next generation. So, use more local products, and drive less. This mission is hard, and dull. So be strong, and may the force be with you.

100% Organic with a little pest-inside

Throughout our human history, people manipulate words to trick others into believing ideas or buying products. This is not something new, and we are all completely aware of this. When we hear or read something, we always ask ourselves whether this is believable or not. So, lets look at one of the most recent trend, organic products. A lot of the foods in supermarket have a special label on it indicating that it is organic. Now, like I said earlier, these labels could be phony. If a label indicates that it is free range, it might mean one thing, but if I didn’t tell you that, what does it mean?

First, Organic products make people think of lovely country side farms with vase boundless lands with animals running free and vegetables planted next to colorful flowers. Well, there are farms like that, and the meats from there have label that says free range. These animals run around the farm freely and eat non-pesticide grass. But these farms are not highly productive, and there are not many of those farms. Most of these farms are industrialized. The farmers are forced to work along side with chain markets so they could survive. And since they have to work with them, these farms are forced to give more products. In result, the animals are locked back into small tin blocks with less then an hour of sunlight’s every week. The only thing that is organic about these animals is the food they consume and their drug-free body. These meats only have organic label on it, no free range, but do you know that when you buy it? No, they hid the truth from you.

If you connect that with Enron, you can clearly see the connection. The industrialization of the organic industry is like Mark to Market accounting system. They both made up unreal images for their consumers/stockholders. Enron lies about their real income, and these farms hid the real image of these terrible farms.

To be honest, I feel very sorry for those farmers who are forced to industrialize their farms. They are just another victim of this capitalized world. For example, Earthbound, started off with 2 hard workingmen, and what happened. It is industrialized due to our culture. However, this doesn’t have connection to Enron. Enron is a business that is just way to greedy. They started small, but it is not their environment that forced them to expand, it is they. They forced themselves to expand. In the documentary film, Skillings said to his employees that what they achieved today is not enough. He said we could never get enough…