My wife and I try to do our part with being environmentally conscious and installed a solar water heater several months back and carry "green bags" to the food store to pack our groceries in for the trek home.
Well in physics, Newton's third law of motion asserts that; For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. And in economics there are often unintended consequences.
So, with our solar water heater, which is great by the way, after two days of cloud cover, the unintended consequence is we have to take a cold shower.
And now with our "green bags" for groceries, we learn at PERC's blog, The PERCOLATOR, we might be inviting the growth of "coliform and even e.coli bacteria" because we're not taking proper care of our bags. Read the entire blog post here…
These are just two minor "green" initiatives that, no matter the intention, unintended consequences occur.
Is there a cautionary tale here?
Of course it's great feeling like you're doing your part to save the earth, but there's a little more to all this than cute slogan's and condeming all the conveniences of life.
Ah Rick, sometimes when you hug a tree too tight……well, you end up with splinters.
There are many unintended consequences related to ‘going green’ but this is not one to be taken seriously. Professor Adler is undoubtedly a well-respected academic but as ‘Diego’s’ comment rightly says, “it would be nice to see this “paper” actually peer reviewed prior to publication”:
http://perc.org/blog/are-plastic-grocery-bag-bans-bad-public-health
Besides, who would put ‘at risk’ foods into any bag without bagging it first? Can you imagine a whole chicken being placed in with baby food? No, in the same way that you wouldn’t put detergents next to the cereal?
P.S. Besides, you can get bags that you can wash; we use these eco-friendly jobs: http://stonemole.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/tesco_eco_shopping_bags.jpg
Good one Ken :o)
Yes, S3S if people are being infected with ecoli, I would say a peer reviewed study is not necessary. You?
If only we could all get as “Green” as al gore(100 million worth of green) !
Dennis.. Al Gore has been proven time and again to be an environmentalist fraud.. His movie, An Inconvenient Truth, is full of numerous errors in analysis and is only political propaganda promoting his biased position.. Lord Monckton has challenged Mr. Gore on many different occasions to debate in public his global warming position but with no response forthcoming from big Al.. But give credit where credit is due, Al Gore has made tens of millions of dollars on promoting the myth of global warming.. It may just be that big Al is the real inconvenient truth..
Tradewinds you are right on the money,I think he is i big fraud & an A– to boot.How in the world does he just keep getting a “Free Pass” from the press ?