Be American. Pollute the Environment.
The GOP had ditched the biodegradable food packaging that they’d used for four years in the House cafeteria — and were bringing back old school, trashy Styrofoam. This struck a nerve with folks, who recognized the move for what it is: a huge step backwards. And one of the people it ticked off the most just so happens to be someone who has to eat lunch in the Styrofoam-laden cafeteria every day now. Yes, an anonymous staffer who works in Congress snapped some photos and sent them over to TreeHugger. Here’s a look at how our forward-thinking leadership has chosen to eat:
Behold, our leaders’ vision for the future of eating! Along with the biodegradable packaging, the GOP canceled the composting program, too. So all of this stuff is heading straight to the landfill (which is really the only thing you can do with Styrofoam anyways, as few materials are more impossible to reuse ).
It was actually kind of funny. As soon as a trash can started to go over the rim, one of these guys would come push it down and take it out. I had to move my lunch over to that trash can there in order to snap a decent picture in time! The guys on the job didn’t seem too happy about working twice as fast either … They had these guys emptying them every ten minutes, it was tough!
So, the Congressional cafeteria has transformed from a pretty sustainable operation that minimized and reused packaging and food waste into a Styrofoam-stuffed dump where accumulating, non-biodegradable trash needs to be cleared out every ten minutes. Nice.
Related articles
- House GOP brings Styrofoam back (climateprogress.org)
- Pelosi needles GOP over return of styrofoam cups (thehill.com)
- Styrofoam Never Beats Reusable Cups (treehugger.com)
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Imagined snippet from a pseudo-impassioned speech on the floor of the House O’ Ear-tagged:
“I call upon every Patriot to Big Size their Freedom Fries for the sake of our Pollutocrat Masters!”
“The grabbing hands grab all they can. Everything counts in large amounts.” Depeche Mode
Gritz Jess Zimmerman tells us: “The GOP’s decision to literally trash the country doesn’t just harm the environment. It also puts money in the pockets of the ultra-rich.”
The cups they’ll be using? WinCup makes ‘em. WinCup is a company belonging to George Wurtz, a former Koch Industries executive.
This morning’s pillow talk included:
He: “You know that mattress I showed you?”
She: “Yes…”
He: “We can’t buy it.”
She: (patient sigh) “Why not?”
He: “Because of the fabric”
She: “Is the fabric dangerous?”
He: “In a sense… Do you know who makes CoolMax?”
She: “No.”
He: “Take a look.” [Hands her the netbook.] “Read the bottom section, particularly the 2nd paragraph.”
She: [Reads
INVISTA transforms daily life through its innovations in the nylon, spandex, polyester and specialty materials industries. INVISTA's products are inside your clothing, carpets, cars, and computers—just to name a few.
A subsidiary of privately owned Koch Industries, Inc., INVISTA operates in more than 20 countries across North America, South America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. ] “No way.”
He: “Yeah, in the past few days I read something on the Internet about starting to boycott their products. I had no idea what they made. Did you know they make Lycra?”
She: “But, Lycra is in EVERYTHING.”
He: (his turn to sigh) “Well, not everything, but I always thought of it as a mark of a good name in polyester.”
And, speaking of transforming life (on the Planet as we know it), “Today,” reports Andy “Falling Forward” Revkin, “the House Energy and Commerce Committee should be holding a hearing on advancing America’s, and the world’s, energy future by initiating a sustained quest to break the economic shackles imposed by enduring dependence on oil (that doesn’t involve using 40 percent of our corn crop to produce ethanol in a world facing food price spikes).”
And, speaking of trashing life on the Planet as we know it, GOP science witness Donald Roberts falsified data in testimony to Congress in 2004.
While on the topic of ethically representing the interests of the electorate, the “science-free approach” of the Republican Party says Henry Waxman (D-CA), “serves only the interests of oil and coal producers and other big polluters who don’t want Congress — or the American people — to know what decades of scientific research have revealed about current climate trends and the growing future risks we face.”
A commentator on Shell slut SciAm says to another commentator: “It is not ethical to try and sell or promote your products when we are talking” about horrors of the Japanese earthquake. I would have said “unconscionable” and obviously, the first commentator doesn’t appreciate what has become of a leading American scientific journal.
Wait! That tweet implies that there still is a government concerned for the safety and well-being of its constituents.
tragic events of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami, as sad as it is, is a dream for scammers and fraudsters around the world. Tragic events are always something scammers use to their advantage, helping them prey on and exploit innocent victims. Scams are already spreading across Facebook, which started in a matter of minutes after the news broke of the earthquake in Japan. As I write this, scammers are hard at work, registering new domains and cranking out templates for their fake donation sites. This will be followed with massive volumes of email spam, Tweets through Twitter, and Facebook posts, as scammers gear up to solicit donations from around the world.”
You have to wonder about the Repugnants if they are so insensitive to the timing of their announcements. News sources are reporting meltdown of 2 reactors at Fukusima. Meanwhile, the NY Times reports that “Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) amplified the GOP gambit as he laid out a new project, dubbed the American Energy Initiative, calling for more domestic fossil-fuel production, new nuclear power plants and an end to EPA’s authority over greenhouse gases.” Hello, Earth to Ear Tagged
The Oil Drum has a Special Drumbeat Fukushima Edition with links to news that questions whether public support for nuclear power will dwindle. Well (as in oil well that ends well), I can understand that TOD wants to get back to good old fashion SAFE (pay no attention to that CO2 indicator in the far right column of this blog, that coal plants release more radiation than nuclear plants, or the radiation risks associated with fracking) fossil fuels, howsoever there does seem to be a slight problem… What does public opinion matter?
The energy policy makers are going to do what their investments and corporate masters dictate. This blog has noticed a mainstream media aversion to comparing Fukushima with Three Mile Island. even though, GEe, there is a similarity in reactor design.