As a climate skeptic I couldn’t care less about recycling, carbon footprints, “lights on” Earth Hour, or any of the other claptrap associated with the green religion. But the breathtakingly wasteful lifestyle choices of the allegedly green “Millennials” put my efforts to enjoy the advantages of consumerist living to shame.
Cereal, a Taste of Nostalgia, Looks for Its Next Chapter
…
“The cereal category is certainly shifting,” said Melissa Abbott, director of culinary insights for the Hartman Group, a consumer food research organization. “Consumers over all are less interested in industrially processed grains as a meaningful start to their day.”
Some organic and other brands perceived as more healthful are selling well, so General Mills has added three organic cereals to its Annie’s line of children’s foods. By April, it hopes to introduce Frosted Oat Flakes, Berry Bunnies and Cocoa Bunnies in Whole Foods stores.
Kellogg’s, which Mr. Bryant told investors this month had not always been on top of consumer tastes, is banking on a better mix of healthful cereals. It has just introduced a Nourish line of Special K with quinoa, and is looking at ways to repackage cereal into single servings and more eco-friendly bags.
The dream of all these companies is to capture the all-powerful and elusive millennial eater, who just isn’t all that into cereal for breakfast. It’s just too much work, for one thing. Almost 40 percent of the millennials surveyed by Mintel for its 2015 report said cereal was an inconvenient breakfast choice because they had to clean up after eating it.
…
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/24/dining/breakfast-cereal.html
I mean, wow, I’m impressed. Millennials can’t be bothered eating cereal, because it is too much bother to sling the used bowl into the dishwasher – the cereal doesn’t come in a disposable container.
I’d love to see green ideas like reducing your carbon footprint get serious traction with that demographic.
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I had never even thought of washing up as belonging to the class of the ‘Inconvenient’
It’s not just that, it can also be dangerous trying to walk down stairs carrying a bowl of cereal to the basement of your parents home where most will be for about the next 30 years (because there is no demand for SJW’s with junk degrees @ur momisugly McDonalds).
You can’t text on your phone and carry a bowl of cereal to the basement at the same time. Also, you can’t use your smart phone while washing up, the soap and water might damage it. So yeah, inconvenient.
They mostly got fridges and hot plates (if not cook tops) in the basement so they don’t have to come up for air, er food.
Please – you forgot the warning to put down the coffee cup.
Carbon Bigfoot — It just doesn’t get better than that. Genius!!! — Eugene WR Gallun
I see that Gen X has been forgotten about… again.
Damn right SMC. When I was young, I was continually told how us Gen X’ers were this or that. All BS interpretation of us by the baby boomers. Now with Gen Y and the millennial, suddenly we (the Gen X’ers) look like gold.
Isn’t that why we have McDonalds? I think it was around before the millenials wasn’t it?
Afterall they’ve copied this behavour from somewhere.
Instant, intraveneous space age food. “Pour boiling water until it covers the mark, wait thee minues and eat. ” Do they know how to boil water?
For many of them, the answer, unfortunately, is no. For the rest, it is inconvenient.
The American millennial is truly a sight to behold. From a discreet distance, of course.
You people don’t understand. They eat where they work — McDonald’s. — Eugene WR Gallun
(Alright, I admit it, that remark is beneath my sense of humor.)
You don’t need to boil water. Just set the whole thing in the microwave…
Boil water… how last millenium…
I boil water then add the hot water to noodles. If you put water on noodles and put the whole thing in the microwave the noodles prevent uniform distribution of heat and so you get parts that are boiling, and will likely boil out making a mess inside your microwave oven, while other parts haven’t reached boiling temperature. Furthermore, the hot spots can be so hot as to melt the styrofoam and now you are eating some plastic.
I’m still trying to figure out where I left my “dishwasher”. I’m not sure what it is, but if it’s organic, it might appreciate that bowl of cereal for itself.
What does “healthful” mean? I have never come across this word.
I believe it’s American for ‘healthy’.
Actually, I believe it’s marketing for “we put in a bit less sugar.”
No, “healthful” is the correct word here.
A “healthy” cereal is a cereal that gets plenty of exercise and has no diseases.
A “healthful” cereal is one that helps you stay healthy.
Almost. Healthy is a state of health that one may or may not possess. Healthful is marketing lingo intended to imply that the product will contribute to one becoming or staying healthy.
‘Healthful’ isn’t normal usage in UK; ‘healthy’ is…
Just another one of those American perversions of English that hurts your ears.
The word is “healthy”. In any real dictionary, you will not find the word “healthful”.
British and Americans. Two peoples divided by a common language. I mean really, this is nothing new. Now I have to go open up the bonnet of my Lorry and give everything from the accumulator to the sump to the silencer pipes a good check.
Healthful, healthy
helpful, helpy???
The English language might be on to something here.
Eugene WR Gallun
@rah
Don’t you mean the hood on your truck. By the way, whiskey tango foxtrot do you mean by accumulator? Sump implies oil pan and silencer pipes are exhaust pipes but, accumulator?
Helpfulish?
“Healthful”? Well I’m an American (born & raised) and “healthful” just sounds like some millennial wanted to create a new word to connect to their peers. Just more blibber-blabber.
Unlike American kids on a warm day on the diamond (pitch) no self-respecting Brit would be caught shagging flies.
I’m an American, and a linguist by training, and during my entire lifetime (67 years now), we have been taught (yes, including in PSA’s) the difference between healthy and healthful. I just picked up my Concise Oxford English Dictionary (the British version–their American English product stinks!), and there was no obvious opprobrium visited on the entry for healthful; significantly, it is lacking their usual “chiefly American” tag, for what that is worth. On the other hand, many don’t bother making any such distinction, and so both words are used and received with both meanings, except by English Majors (Garrison Keillor has a lot to say on this demographic).
SMC
You have it all correct. The accumulator = the battery. And my truck doesn’t have a boot = trunk) but it does have a cubby box = glove box or glove compartment. And in British terms I drive an “Arctic” for a living which is any articulated lorry. I’m almost ready for new dampers = shocks on my PU truck.
Here is a link to British English language automotive terms compared to American English languish terms:
http://www.team.net/sol/solterms.html
From, http://grammarist.com/usage/healthful-healthy/
“Healthful vs. healthy
Healthful is a centuries-old adjective that traditionally means promoting good health. Over the years it has been pushed out by healthy, which traditionally applied to anything that was in good health (usually a person). For example, a healthy person would be one who eats lots of healthful foods. But today, most writers would use healthy for both the person and the good food. This is a long-established convention and is certainly not wrong.
Healthful is making a comeback, however, particularly in American and Canadian health writing (British and Australian writers have yet to go along). The change is not especially useful, however, because no one interprets a phrase like healthy snack to mean a snack in good health, so healthful‘s return is not preventing any confusion or ambiguity. Still, in good health and promoting good health are very different concepts, and having separate words for them is probably a good thing.”
A bit like “truthiness”
Something along them lines. 🙂
I think “healthful” means it contains only non-GMO grains, contaminated weed seeds so the 3 people in North America who are actually allergic to gluten die of anaphylactic shock, of course it could mean it has no preservatives, so it full of mycotoxins because it get moldy in 6 hours; hard to tell out of context.
It is a word like “sustainable”, “organic”, or “diversity”.
it is a word spoken by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
The mind simply boggles. “Director of culinary insights for […] a consumer food research organization”? From somebody with a job title like that, who could ask for more?
So, if cleaning up is too inconvenient, does that mean millennials either eat out (someone else cleans up) or consume foods where you tear open the wrapper, eat the food out of the wrapper, and then throw the
wrapper away? Like a candy bar? Pillsbury should bring back their old Space Food Sticks.
Dear Lord, they can’t rinse out a bowl?
Actually, considering the multitudes of “cereal bars” I see in the stores, I think the candy bar suggestion may be on the mark.
they can’t rinse a water glass.
that’s why water comes in bottles.
even though i mock them, ‘Give me convenience or give me death!’
if you sell a product, you don’t make it a chore.
I’ve been considering the myriad of products I have purchased or were given to me, all of which require me to perform some activity other than enjoying them. I have no servants so I must perform or schedule for the performance of indicated chores, as I prefer to continue living.
Imagine what the toilet looks like then!
I concur, I have a millenial as room-mate and he can’t rinse out a bowl or cup of coffee. He already can’t manage to put things in the dishwasher more than 30% or the time. He’s a COMPLETE WASTE.
[ snip] MILLENIALS!
A millenial.
I keep asking to no avail.. what the shazbut is a “dishwasher”? If I was given one at some stage in my life, please let it know I mean it no harm and will rescue it once I have a full description.
From what I have observed, it is also too inconvenient for them to walk to the nearest waste receptacle to dispose of the empty wrapper. Yesterday at the beach near the old Kona airport I picked up several abandoned food and drink containers and took them to the trash container no more than 20 feet away. Apparently these slobs have no respect, even for a paradise like Hawaii.
That reminds me of a few years ago in Melbourne, in an Eastern suburb fairly close to the city. I was walking up the High Street just behind a pair of young men, one of whom threw a large food wrapper down on the pavement close to a rubbish bin. I picked it up and gave it to him saying that you seem to have dropped this. He promptly dropped it again whereupon I repeated my effort. He threw it down again whereupon I picked it up and pushed it down his neck! and asked him not to spoil the area where we lived, thank you.
@Annie – In the US you could have been arrested for assault. That would be followed by demonstrations against your insensitivity toward this young man because you hurt his feelings.
@Annie:
Well done. I would have done the same.
Some years ago in a North Melbourne Macca’s car park, there were 2 kids (driving age) in their car pushing all their rubbish out the door onto the ground, with a bin not 10 feet away.
Unfortunately, to report anyone of littering to any official body purposed for this task is fraught with far too much difficulty these days and taking the matter into one’s own hands can result in severe legal ramifications. Thanks Millennials, for [snipping] in your (and our) own bed.
They eat where they work, at McDonald’s — Eugene WR Gallun
Throwing the food wrapper away may constitute work. Like washing the bowl.
I, personally, love cereal and eat it just about every day. It takes me about five seconds to clean the bowl and spoon.
Ah, anybody remember “danish-go-rounds”? They were delish… i heard they phased them out back in the 70s because apparently they had a tendency to crumble. Poor millenials don’t know what they’re missin’ in danish-go-rounds.
Mostly I either have a granola bar or a make biscuit sandwich. It’s not cleaning up that’s the problem, it’s sitting still for 10 minutes to eat it before my hour-long drive to work. It’s just more convenient to eat it in the car.
Why rinse it out, it’s just going to get dirty again. That is as silly as making the bed, it’s just gonna get messed up again tonight.
Agreed!
Meanwhile the Elitist Green crowd uses their private jets to move around the globe while spewing their Green messages for the unwashed
massesChurch congregants to follow.“The unwashed congregants…”
The greensheep.
US Millenials are the dumbest, least critically thinking generation in US history.
The illusion of knowledge is worse than the knowledge of ignorance. They can think Al Gore and his 350.org ilk.
thank, not think.
Think, thank, thunk
They don’t need knowledge, they have the internet for that! The internet: the greatest feel-good confidence-boosting electrified fooling machine ever invented. The internet makes 50% of the people who use it much smarter and competent; the other 50% become dumber, but more certain of their abilities and knowledge.
Empowered and righteous morons able to communicate, coordinate efficiently and reinforce each others’ convictions/delusions is a worrisome thing.
http://oi66.tinypic.com/x38qrl.jpg
Why bother using the energy to engage in critical thinking/actually researching when you can take 30sec to look up the Wiki entry and it tells you what you should think?
Unfortunately I have to agree with you that they are the least critically thinking generation in history. There are many reasons for this, and Al Gore plays his part, but there is much, much more. I think it starts with educators who have been reduced to trying to put some facts into those little brains rather than teach them how to think and how to learn. High stakes tests work against teaching kids how to learn rather that just give them a laundry list of facts. The left-wing educrats are causing this and then they blame teacher for the results.
Then there are parents that don’t have a clue how to raise kids to be strong and independent. Hell, just give them a safe place and guard against any “triggers”.
The future looks dim. By the way, I have been in the belly of the beast for over four decades and watched the decline. I figure I’ll go to hell for my part in this abortion.
And tests to determine how much adults know about “science” are (almost (*)) a list of (often meaningless) factoids, some of which are now disputed (ex. aspirin vs. heart disease).
(*) precautionary almost, it’s probably around 100,0 %
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/02/12/study-global-warming-skeptics-know-more-about-climate-science.html
I would bet that somebody, somewhere, has made such link (demonstrated with a model of the skin, the ozone or something). 😉
In general, scoring 10/10 on these tests doesn’t demonstrate familiarity with the scientific method, only with the “science” gospel.
http://professorconfess.blogspot.com/
One of the very best online blogs by a university professor that explains exactly what is going on in our schools. How students are encouraged to take many junk courses to run up the bill on them and then dumping them all into the streets to fend for themselves after being coddled endlessly.
I must disagree. The attributes you apply to Millennials belong to their parents. As the twig is bent so grows the branch.
Flyover Bob writes “I must disagree.”
Well then get on with it! But I wonder why you *must* rather than merely choose to disagree?
“The attributes you apply to Millennials belong to their parents. As the twig is bent so grows the branch.”
How I wish there was a shred of truth to your remark. But there isn’t. I get my daughter’s attention at best a few minutes a week; she is on Facebook nearly 24 hours a day. That is where she meets other bent branches and likely where you met yours.
Laws are meant to be broken. Social customs exist to be violated. When all the dishes are dirty eat something that does not require a dish. She drinks straight from the orange juice or milk jugs without the slightest concern for anyone else that might wish to pour some into a glass, mug or cup for more sanitary drinking.
I believe this is true and the statement applies across the Western world. In fact, this lack of curiosity and natural, analytical functionality is the main problem we are facing in climate politics. This is in spite of the powerful declarations by the public education overlords that “critical” thinking is their big focus. I can’t be surprised that whatever the education system focuses on is precisely what it fails at abjectly. I don’t know any better example of this than the banning of AGW skeptic books where a “critical” approach would require a careful and unbiased examination of the arguments. What university would pretend to be relevant with such a policy in place? Would Einstein have been banned for being anti-Newtonian?
More to the point, what can be done to improve this aspect of education? I grew up in a family wherein very little was not open for discussion. Extensive arguments (not quarrels) took place around the underlying specifics of issues, with room all around to concede ground on some without abandoning one’s position wholesale. This was learning!
What process in the schools emulates or approaches this? Sorry this is so long!
“US Millenials are the dumbest, least critically thinking generation in US history.”
At least that’s the stereotype. I know it is humorous sometimes to gang up on the younger generation, but we should, as much as possible, treat everyone as an individual.
As a Babyboomer, I have a lot of experience with being stereotyped improperly. According to the stereotype, Babyboomers were as worthless as the Millenials. All of them were hippies and self-centered dope addicts, and draft dodgers.
Of course, that was not true. Boomers fit in all sorts of categories, some good, some bad, just like every other generation. But you wouldn’t know that if you listen to the stereotype.
And I’m not saying don’t rag on the Millenials. It’s good for them! It will make them tough, and make them stand up for themselves. And some of them do provide a lot of comic material to work with.
Stereotypes do not arise in a vacuum. Berkely hippies do not define “boomers” but are a tiny subset of the generation that produced the American space program, computers and a great many other things.
Millenials are not just the newest incarnation of the same old lazy youth syndrome.
The nearest historical comparison is Rome in its twilight; but even that fails to capture the impact of the internet; the ability to almost satisfy your natural desires instantly so that you don’t have to work for anything; your “drives” have been short circuited. Maybe not *yours* but hopefully you get the idea.
When I was young, if I wanted to see a grand vista, I had to hike and climb. Now you can just look at photos or fly a drone. It’s not quite the same thing; but close enough to satisfy your DNA, the urges wired into humans to generally keep them alive and keep the species seeking new realms. Now your realm is “virtual”, World of Warcraft; Skyrim, and the real world must be blotted out with drugs including tobacco and liquor.
I have to walk 30-35ft to take my bowl to the dishwasher and then get back to my chair….. It so tires me out there must be something easier that involves less work please help me.
Of course these people will then hop into their cars and drive miles to the Gym to be in an air conditioned room and run miles on a machine whilst listening the music and getting nowhere!
James Bull
I noticed that years ago – they built a rec center here. Even when there’s nothing wrong with the weather outside. Crazy.
And a parking lot for 200 cars!
Have you noticed that many will drive around the fitness center or rec center several times to get the closest parking spot?
We have a gym in town (Perth) which is in the basement level of a building with both stairs and an escalator providing access. It always bemuses me to see the lycra-clad lovlies, mamils etc using the escalator to gain access. To go do down one level. Where gravity assists in converting potential to kinetic energy.
At least I walk to my gym and back. Yes, in lycra shorts. Not my problem… I don’t have to look at it 😛
I am relaxing on my patio in Tucson AZ in a hoodie sweatshirt. Scorpio is hanging above my right arm when I look up. John Denver ballads are wafting from my Amazon Echo. It is a cool night herehere in the Old Peublo. Sitting in front of a TV in an AC controlled living room has no appeal to me.
this has been one of the coolest May-June’s in my 30 memory of Tucson weather.
During the previous Cold Cycle from 1960-1980, I lived in Tucson and it was very, very wet especially in winter and very cold. I had no central heating in my little pre-WW1 home and so I bought a bunch of old fur coats from Value Village and turned these into blankets. It even snowed! Welcome back the cold cycle, it turns the desert quite green.
Hail and well met, neighbor.
What was the year that the Santa Cruz ice broke sometime in May and it didn’t refreeze until late September? This year is nothing like that (although the usual suspects are screaming about last weekend…). The back lawn loved the unusual heavy rain the other day, too.
(For those who don’t live here – the Santa Cruz is a normally bone-dry riverbed down here. One of the local TV stations started a contest for “guess when the ice will break on the Santa Cruz” – i.e., the first day with a triple digit high.)
OK.
“30-35ft to take my bowl to the dishwasher and then get back to my chair”
So one way is ~15-17 ft. Table—-Sink.
Ever play basketball? No Problem.
Glad I could help.
What amazes me: those who purchase gym memberships and work out while paying a landscaping company to mow their third of an acre lot. Just one more reason why so many are just a paycheck or so from being homeless.
Go to the gym?
&f=1
Why?
They should try “Soilent Green” 🙂
Its Gramma!!
The ultimate Green recycling!!
Monty Python: “Bring out your dead!!”
Soon it will be be “Deja vu, its 1374 all over again.”
“…it’s 1374 all over again.”
With wind power on the rise, we’re getting there faster than you might realize. Liberals, harnessing the energy of yesteryear. 12th century technology for tomorrow’s energy needs.
There are styrofoam and paper bowls. (I hate eating out of them myself, but have had to resort to them at times due to arthritis)
Thinkin’ back now… I always figured Special K and Corn Flakes and all that was to avoid the ‘cleaning up’ and general preparation annoyance of PORRIDGE which I was fed almost daily and in 3 flavours namely… Sunny Boy, Cream of Wheat and Red River Cereal. Milk and brown sugar was the topping.
For some reason my Irish mother never proffered oatmeal which I only had at my cousin’s place.
Point is… sometimes you just have to laugh rather than write an article.
The problem of cleaning up after making porridge has now been solved. (see link)
Here in the UK many people now buy the oats handily packed in a disposable bowl.
The reality is that nobody really needed to cook porridge during the last hundred and fifty years because rolled oats are already cooked in a kiln at the factory.
It is perfectly possible to eat oats which have been mixed into cold milk or water.
So no mess or inconvenience was ever really necessary.
But at least now it is possible for people to pay 10x the regular price for oats and to create some plastic waste every time that they eat this tiny quantity of food.
https://www.quaker.co.uk/oat-and-porridge-product-range/breakfast-on-the-go/quaker-oat-so-simple-pots
Too many choses, that’s a hassle.
I know what you mean. My head hurts.
I want to go back to hunting mammoth and reindeer. Things were so simple back then…
“cereal was an inconvenient breakfast choice because they had to clean up after eating it.”
Not really – you just use paper a paper bowl and plastic utensils. When done, jut toss in the garbage. End of problem.
Which is the same argument the electric car people make. Just plug it in. No pollution.
Now you have to take the garbage out to the can.
You have just traded one problem for another.
At risk of “angrifying” the mod gods, an Off topic,
To my UK friends here at WUWT.
Brexit is a hot topic.
The US President Obama has told you of costs to your economy if you go yes on Brexit.
The EU elites have warned of economic downsides of Brexit.
They are Socialists. They embrace Big Government.
They want Britons to be their servants. To accept their Climate Change. To accept their emigration-defining Demographic change to islamic immigration domination.
But what of your self freedom? Of self destiny? A British 2016 Declaration of Independence may be in order, a declaration from Brussels bureaucrats who would dictate how many 100k’s of African immigrants you must take on the detriment of your children.
Your 1940 RAF grandfathers fought and died for Britain. They paid a price with their lives for your freedom.
Your 1940 Royal Navy HMS Hood crew fought and died for Britain. They paid a price with their lives for your freedom.
Your 1940 Londoners died and endured though the Darkest Hours to ensure your freedom. They paid a price with their lives to show a
dictator would not take their freedom without a fight.
Will you now give away the sacrifices of your grandparents, because Cameron, Obama and their elitist and Socialist ilk tells you it will cost you???
Brexit is freedom. Freedom has always had a price.
`Joel
After the usual ” British football crowds ” performance in France I am 100% sure that all Europeans will agree with you.
What a Sh.. people.
Takes two to tango as the pictures and news reveal.
But he never means anything serious till he talks about justice and right.
When he stands like an ox in the furrow – with his sullen set eyes on your own,
And grumbles, ‘This isn’t fair dealing,’
Odd that it’s Russia that’s likely to get fined…
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2016-06-12/russian-football-union-likely-to-be-fined-for-fans-behaviour/
My 1942 RAF father did indeed fight and die for Britain. He did not fight and die so that arrogant self-opinionated oafs like Johnson and Farage could have their own way.
The EU is not perfect — what government is — but in this 21st century, 24/7, Internet and smartphone world of instant communication, the concept of frontiers and the sort of 19th century sovereignty that Brexiteers hanker after is not “freedom” in any way that makes any sense.
I am voting Remain and I am pretty sure my father would be as well.
Shut up!
No, I for one don’t plan to shut up.
EU, tarrif barriers, customs unions all old thinking that went out with the Corn Laws. Not sure that young people in Greece, Spain, Portugal or soon Italy and France would agree with your assessment of the benefits of EU government.
A government that cannot be dismissed is no use to the people it seeks to govern. It’s the EU that’s seeking to get its own way by threats and coercion.
Please watch this, for the sake of your grandchildren.
https://www.brexitthemovie.com/
Newminster June 12, 2016 at 2:42 am said “Shut up!”
That’s what your father fought against.
“Shut Up” and pay for your carbon taxes and wood pellets.
Oh, and don’t consume anything until after dark.
My 1942 RAF father did indeed fight and not die for Britain. He did not fight and not die (till later) so that arrogant self-opinionated oafs like Junkers and Schulze could have their own way.
“The EU is not perfect — what government is”
Don’t live there so only know what I read in the news, but do know that bigger/more complex is not a solution. Now just imagine what a one world gov would be like..would have to be close to a dictatorship to even be functional.
Newminster
So you think being governed by an invisible, non-accountable elite is what your 1942 RAF father fought and died for? Silly old fool. (I admit to being an American who realizes he is butting in.)
Eugene WR Gallun
My dad signed up one week after war was declared (sent home the day of – too many for intake). Fought in France, came off at Dunkirk and went to North Africa. He was probably in for the adventure but he was also very loyal. He was an optimist, who always believed he could make a positive difference and that it was his responsibility to be involved in the issues of his community and country and to “fight the good fight”.
I believe in this case he would agree with the frustrations of the Brexit side but not want to see Europe fall apart if that really is a risk. Russia hopes it does. Eastern Europe fears it might. Europe is infested with anti- Anglo Socialists. That’s the problem.
Oh dear, Mrs. Newminster. “Shut up !”, you exclaim.
Well, you can exclaim all you like but as you said yourself, you need to
understand what sovereignty actually is of course.
Do please have a read of the Magna Carta: it’s quite a bit to digest of course and requires translation for the most part but it seems to have stood the test of time (generally). The folks in the Northern America adopted it too. It was written fairly recently about eight hundred years ago so it’s not the sort of thing available at your local shop: I think Her Majesty has a spare copy and I know she’s at home today.
We’re not easily frightened and we know how hard it is to cross the channel: the last little corporal that tried it ‘came a cropper, so don’t dictate to us until you’re marching up Whitehall: and even then we won’t listen.
Courteous Regards,
WL
To return this to at least a topic relevant to the climate/renewables theme of the blog in general.
Here is a perfect example of the application of punitive E.U. import tariffs.
Applied in this instance to protect internal E.U. solar manufacturers from external competition.
But – no consideration is given by the crony-socialist bureaucratic elite – for the consumer.
As a potential consumer of solar panels living in the E.U., why am I not allowed to choose from a range of suppliers. Why am I not allowed to locate the supplier who offers me the best value for my money and then purchase my panels from that supplier.
Why is the E.U. interested in punishing suppliers in China for offering a product that is preferable in terms of value for money. Why are they interested in obstructing me in my desire to obtains and install cheap solar on my house.
I don’t live on the grid – and yet if I wanted to install 5kw of solar electric and then hoover my house using the power from those panels with a brand new 2.2kw vacuum cleaner.
Then – in this example the panels would be 70% more expensive and the new vacuum cleaner would be have been banned altogether in the E.U. internal market.
So I cannot privately vacuum clean my own house using renewable energy, without the E.U. attempting to shut down my illicit solar powered vacuum cleaning operation!!!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/06/07/the-lunatics-have-taken-over-the-continent-europes-import-tariffs-on-chinese-solar-cells/#7166e2ad4949
Apologies for forgetting to furnish all of those rhetorical questions with question marks!!!
You forgot the EU subsidies paid to your local solar mfg. company. However, you could try to connect your vacuum to EU HQ., which sucks pretty bad!
P.S.-tie down your euros!
And whilst they concern themselves with reducing the efficiency of my very efficient (and powerful) vacuum cleaner – let’s see how judicious they are with their own use of energy.
Well, it wasn’t hard to find a blindingly stupid example of their penchant for wasting power:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/12144060/EU-Force-One-Juncker-commutes-to-Strasbourg-by-private-jet.html
Many my ancestors died or were injured fighting to give and preserve the freedoms I enjoy today. Chief among those freedoms is the right to self-government. I feel I owe future generations the same sacrifice, if required.
It is profoundly saddening to see how many Brits feel that saving a few quid is worth ceding those freedoms.
I’m surprised by your comment that recycling is claptrap. Is there really nothing you’d prefer didn’t go into landfill e.g batteries?
Whilst I do struggle with the apparent (f)utility of recycling newspaper and cardboard, recycling metal seems wholly appropriate, given its energy cost for extraction and purifying, and the limited number of places, and heence reserves, that it can be hauled out of the ground from.
The benefit of glass recycling sits somewhere between paper and metal in my view, and plastic recycling is surely better than leaving it in non degradeable heaps underground?
I’m just curious why’d you said this. Am I perhaps just fooling myself when I take my tins to the collection point?
Ta.
Now, we would not be throwing out the old “All Or Nothing” fallacy, would we. Tsk, Tsk.
Where recycling makes sense, people do it and it does not require laws, regulations, and mandates. Copper, aluminum and steel all have functional scrap markets. For high value items like printer cartridges, there are consumer buy-back programs. No one would think of crushing a printer cartridge just to recycle the plastic.
Recycling paper is a deadweight loss. It makes a mess and costs more energy than it saves. Glass is no better, there is just no viable market for the mountains of crushed glass that have accumulated over the years, at least here in the US. Transportation costs are a killer too.
Paper fibres get smaller with each recycle. You can add a lot of fine paper from a first recycle to the new mass, but only a small amount of rough cardboard made from many recycles.first recycle has some value, several times through material is just for the image of virtue.
Paper recycling can also have unintended consequences. The more paper that uses recycled material, the less need for “virgin” material from trees. If there is less demand, it becomes less lucrative to have a woodlot with continuous replanting. If the value of having a tree farm for paper drops below the value of other uses, an owner is likely to use the land in another way, which usually means clearing the land. In short, more recycled paper = less trees/forested land. Recycling kills trees!!!
I am not advocating that people stop recycling, and I am certainly not encouraging wastefulness. My point is that even seemingly virtuous actions may have a downside or hidden cost. Life is always complex, no matter what anyone claims.
Most recycling isn’t cost-effective, metals yes, the rest, probably not.
The big problem seems to be the mixture of materials used in each packaging item, different types of plastic for the bottle, the cap & the label. They’ll all need separating before recycling, something machines can’t do & the western world’s rates of pay are too high for it to be done manually.
Many towns & cities in the UK have separate containers for householders to put different types of recyclables in, paper & cardboard in one, plastics another etc.
It seems to be the case, that it all gets chucked into the back of the same bin lorry!
Another bit of EU lunacy, where the materials “recycled” are measured at the kerbside.
Steel is currently so inexpensive, that “tin” cans aren’t worth recycling, if you want to scrap your car, it’s worth maybe £50.
The EU simply wants you to get used to following orders, no matter how stupid they are. The orders they can push on you in the future simply get more horrendous very slowly. The frog in the boiling water routine at work. The progressives in the U.S. have managed to push Americans so far from our constitution using this technique that we are now over an abyss and it is inevitable that the whole nation will come crashing down sooner or later.
Try this Dermot http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/10/are-we-recycling-too-much-of-ourtrash/
quote: “Last year, I coauthored a research study to estimate society’s optimal recycling rate. Results surprised us – society’s best recycling rate is only 10%. And only specific recyclable materials should be included in that 10%. What drives these results?”
basically it came down to aluminium and paper recycling being good, everything else actually requires more energy input than is saved above manufacturing from raw materials. Of course this assumes ‘recycling’ in an industrial process rather than what we older folk knew – I think they call it ‘repurposing’ these days. You know, where you use an old cupboard for firewood or wash an old jar and fill it with nails or pickled herring or whatever, rather than crushing everything and extracting the bits
etc..
10% is a good number. Greenies can use their fingers to count. The rest of this however, is sufficiently complex that it must be deemed politically incorrect and therefore banned! A thinking tax may apply.
I endorse “recycling” not because it is cost effective but because it is litter effective. It is useful to brainwash all the unthinking urchins in school that “recycling” is “good”. That reduces the amount of waste that I pick up in the ditches along the roads and on the bush trails where I ride my horses. I have seen many horses and people lamed by broken glass tossed by unthinking litterers. If getting a dime back for a bottle, can or juice box gets people to stop tossing them out, I am all for it.
There is a place around the “Four Corners” in the US where years ago you couldn’t see the ditch bottom for all the glass.
A small fine for littering doesn’t help. But if children get trained to return their bottles and cans to the recycle depot instead of throwing them out in the bush, I am all for it. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be economic narrow view. But add in the cost of all the volunteers who clean ditches of debris every spring and maybe the cost benefit changes.
(Excluding the forest fires caused by tossing cigarettes out the car window.)
Wayne, sounds a lot like you are endorsing indoctrination. But only so long as you agree with the objective.
Dermot O’Logical wrote, ” … recycling metal seems wholly appropriate … ”
Apparently not at the curb.
Do not include scrap metal, car parts, wire and cord, or other metal objects in your curbside recycling. These metal objects are dangerous for the workers and the sorting machinery at the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF or recycling plant). Take the items to a local scrap yard.
http://cuyahogarecycles.org/RecyclableInfo.aspx?ID=31
Beer cans yes. Other metal such as copper wire and aluminum siding (that is valuable enough that thieves strip it from empty houses) no.
As per TinyL, either something is worth recycling, in which case it’s self financing, or its dangerous for landfill, in which case you make a law,. or its ok for landfill, so fill the land.
Dermot, thats why they have recycling plants. You chuck out the rubbish, a resource, they capture it and recycle it. Simple but clearly not understood.
Washing up issues at the end of the ‘The greatest decade in the history of mankind’.
Withnail: [looking at the kitchen sink overflowing with dirty dishes] Oh, Christ almighty. Sinew in nicotine base. Keep back, keep back! The entire sink’s gone rotten. I don’t know what’s in here.
[he picks up the kettle on the stove. It’s too hot so he drops it]
Withnail: Aargh! Aargh!
Marwood: I told you, you’ve been bitten!
Withnail: Burnt! Burnt! The fucking kettle’s on fire!
Marwood: There’s something floating up.
Withnail: [lunges towards the sink] FORK IT!
Did I miss something – where did it say “Green” millennials and even if it did I don’t really see the point of the article except extremely trivial mud-slinging at the “other” side……why is this getting on WUWT as a feature article?
@ur momisugly Michael Spurrier:
You aren’t the only one…I’m wondering what all the brew ha ha is about too. The article was interesting in that breakfast choices have switched back to what they were before the heavy sugared cereals hit the market and catered their commercials to kids.
From the article:
“And when they do eat breakfast, a bowl of cold cereal is often replaced by hot grains, smoothies, yogurt or breakfast sandwiches.”
In other words, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes and General Mill’s Sugar Pops are not the first choice for breakfast anymore. Nothing wrong with that and it shows that something interesting might be happening in the cereal market. Where sugared cereal has gone from a staple for breakfast to a snack or even a dessert.
Of the cereals chosen they were the least sugared variety on the market.
So how does this article relate to Green Millennials are more wasteful? I don’t get it at all. What I read was there is a change in the sugared cereal market…that’s all. As for the 1 statistic that was pulled for the reason why cold cereal wasn’t chosen–too much of a bother to clean up–if anyone has ever looked at one of those surveys, there are a lot of questions that are MULTIPLE selections. So what were the other selections?
This article is not worthy of WUWT because it has absolutely NOTHING to do with Climate and everything to do with a market that has been dominated by sugar coated kid friendly characters for far too long in my opinion.
My wife explained it to me from her experience working with snowflakes, she pointed out individual serve packets in the shop and told me of the youngsters she sees on the train in the mornings eating their heavily sugared yogurt and chocolate cereal bars (cake) each morning whilst chugging at the water bottles. Quite different from the way I was raised when cereal was bought in the largest most economical sizes.
I’ve not heard of Frosted Flakes or Sugar Pops, our cereals were always plain wheat or oat based things, the only sugars included came from dried fruits .. and breakfast was eaten at home from a bowl – not on the street, masticated in public.
Puffed wheat in a 5 gallon bag. Powdered milk sometimes. Yuck! We weren’t righteous, we were poor! Lol
The Snowflake Generation has got to be one of the laziest (both mentally and physically) in human history.
To avoid even a modicum of critical thinking, it establishes “safe-spaces” and/or screams down anyone that expresses an idea not EXACTLY in accordance to their brainwashed irrationality, lest they be offffeeeeended…
Generation Snowflake thinks the right NOT to be offended is enshrined in the Constitution, when the opposite is true. If you’re not offended at least 10 times a day, you’re likely living in a country where freedom of speech, ideas, debate and assembly are not protected.
Hate speech is actually protected under the Constitution (Brandenburg v. Ohio, 1963), and rightfully so.
Now comes this survey showing 40% of the Snowflake Generation thinks putting a bowl in the dishwasher is too much work…. What, do these lazy Snowflakes expect the State to provide home helpers to cook, feed and cleanup after them?
Given how entitled and lazy this generation is, they probably do…
“To avoid even a modicum of critical thinking, it establishes “safe-spaces” and/or screams down anyone that expresses an idea not EXACTLY in accordance to their brainwashed irrationality, lest they be offffeeeeended…”
http://oi67.tinypic.com/2rm85s6.jpg
This is the generation whose parents were well-to-do. So they pampered their babies, gave them everything except discipline, and constantly told them that were special. Because we can’t hurt their precious feelings. The result is now we cannot have awards for good work, otherwise someone’s feelings might be hurt. So no more valedictorians, now everyone gets a trophy. Clearly, someone always cleaned up for them, so they never learned how to do something so simple as to wash a dish.
Because they have been told all their life that they are special, this generation really does think they are their ideas are the best ideas. Schools never taught critical thinking, only how to take tests. This is the generation that goes to the street to protest the government’s warrantless wiretaps, but then turns around and tells Facebook that exact same information, and more. They protest the evils of capitalism while blogging about it on their iPhones, a device with a very high markup. They complain when the police using fake cell towers to track suspects, but when I tell them how much tracking is in Windows 10, their answer is “so what?” (P.S. Why would a multi-billion dollar corporation demand you take an expensive piece of software from them for free?)
They were never taught the essential skills in life. Like hard work and the value of money. So they go off to college, take a useless but easy major whose only career choice is to be a teacher of that subject, and then wonder why they cannot get a well paying job like their parents who took useful majors in college or learned a useful trade skill. Have you noticed that Bernie Sanders biggest supporters are young people? He is promising them free everything, just like their parents did. And since they have no jobs and thus plenty of free time, they are ready to be loud with their untenable opinions.
Generation snowflake is right. It reminds me of how happy I am that my parents didn’t pay for my college even though they could afford it, how they spanked and slapped me when I needed it, and taught me to the essential skills in life. They made me a better person, not just a two year in an adults body.
I love ya, ya big lug! C’mere so I can slap ya!
“cereal was an inconvenient breakfast choice because they had to clean up after eating it.”
So go to the http://www.cerealkillercafe.co.uk/
Where you can pay from £3 to £4.40 for a bowl of cereal
http://www.cerealkillercafe.co.uk/menus/
Check out the menu, it gets even more expensive.
You see, it is the rinsing of the bowl that is too much work. In fact (serious here) putting the dish, still dirty, into the dishwasher is the best use of your water. Pre-rinsing uses a fair amount of water and takes time. There are exceptions, of course; particularly sticky or baked-on food may not come off in the dishwasher. However, a little bit of milk, sweetened (of course) by the sugar covering or content of the cereal, will wash easily off the bowl. To save water, make sure the dishwasher is full before you run it. To save electricity, turn the machine off (being sure also to disconnect it at the plug) just after the wash cycle is complete, use a dish towel to swab off any water on the tops of glasses or other dishes, and leave the machine open so the dishes can air dry. The contents are plenty hot (if you used hot water) and will dry easily.
I don’t have an easy solution for the problem of putting the dishes away. You just have to do it. If you hum Rossini’s ‘William Tell’ Overture lustily enough, the time will pass quickly. Just don’t throw the dishes.
I apologize for writing what is already known or self-evident to the vast majority of you.
Two dishwashers deals with the problem of putting stuff away and cuts down on cupboards.
“If you hum Rossini’s ‘William Tell’ Overture lustily enough”
Hi Ho Silver!
Hi ho silverware!
Oatmeal with Milk turns into a very tenacious mess if it dries in the bowl, I suspect it would make a very serviceable paper glue for the kids. Milk is the binder in both milk paint and whitewash, letting it dry in bowl or glass is a sure way to raise the ire of the family dishwasher, and in most families, it would be considered volunteering for an extra turn or two on dish duty.
as a total sceptic I STILL recycle and reuse everything I can
I did it way before the co2 scam and will keep doing so
plastic wrap and packing gets save for firelighters:-)
cloth and stuff lines flowerpots ,gets used for animal bedding or gets rotted down in the yard somewhere
no metal leaves the place unless is so rusty or knackered i cant find another use for it somewhere and then thats in the scrap dealer pile for when he eventually calls by.
all my wire fencing and star droppers are ex tip salvages:-)
I get brilliant nuts bolts fence support pins etc from the tip
painted my house with salvaged paint took a while but eventually you can get enough part tins to make enough.
glass jars n bottles saved for sauces and jams and cordial etc the agee twist lids seal down just fine.
foodwaste goes to chooks dogs or the sheep and then becomes wonderful poop to add back to the garden that produced the food.
paper is firestarters or in a good yr I make logs from it.
its not hard
a damn sight easier than the crazy recycle bins routine.
ozspeaksup. For those not in the know, ‘tip’ means garbage dump.
pzspeaksup — Ok, so that is your hobby. My hobby is playing WOW. Maybe we both need to get a life. — Eugene WR Gallun
ozspeaksup — Should have added — we are slaying imaginary monsters. — Eugene WR Gallun
My wife and I just bailed on WoW after many, many years and we’re back in our unruly garden beating it back into shape. I used to hear the elderly in my family decry the game as a waste of time, while they spent hours playing scrabble or bridge. Gardens, WoW, games, writing books, playing music, religion.. life’s purpose is still a mystery but I’ve learned people find their pleasures where they can. On the wow side, I racked up the largest pool of gold and the most achieves in the guild .. I doubt I’ll be playing again as psychs Bliz employs have emphasized the grind over enjoyment. Negative reinforcement got me down. Given it’s a monthly sub, they don’t NEED to have people on 8 hours a day seven days a week – but that’s the way they’ve geared it all for raiding. Still, you have fun 🙂 I’m back at rebuilding my old 1970 Fury and tinkering with stirling engines and loving it
You guys need to play a real game, like EVE. 🙂
We do not have a dishwasher, everything piles up by the sink until someone’s pig-sty-level is exceeded.
“pig-sty-level” Now that’s diversity!
When I’m done cooking, you can’t tell the kitchen has been in use and the dishes are done as they are brought in; crank up the hot water faucet, rinse
Hmm.. hit something and my reply posted… anyhow
…rinse quickly, a few drops of dish soap, quick scrub with abrasive pad, hot water rinse, 5-7 seconds to drain/evaporate that hot water, fast dry with a towel and put away.
My point to Robin is that my wife is from the Robin Hewitt School of Dish-washing and she thinks I’m nuts and I think she’s nuts. However the diversity in our household seems to work as the state of our kitchen has varied between those extremes for what will be 40 years in October.
Don’t clean your keyboard while you type! Can you spell OCD? Just kidding, I clean as I go also. It’s most efficient.
I had a dishwasher, but she moved to Virginia.
I will state that this article is somewhat misguided: “Millennial” is an age-group, and that study does not reference whether the subjects espouse “green” ideology, thus the article title is misleading.
Secondly, you overlook the other aspects of ‘clean up’: namely that cereal can be much messier to eat ‘on the go’ or in work environments, apart from simply “washing the bowl”. Many young people have busier lives in modern times, or simply don’t wish to risk spills on a laptop or related.
It is somewhat ironic to recommend dishwashers when of course at the time of their invention, much was said about the ‘laziness’ of the people who chose to use them.
The potential for spills together with making washing work and the sugariness of the common cereal products thus leads to busy young people often choosing to just have something like a banana for breakfast, which is both convenient and healthy.
Articles like this, mocking an entire age group while missing the other side of the story (a busy med student for example), detract from the purpose of this site. The same as one can be supportive of developing solar cell efficiency for ground and space application, while still being more dubious of ‘global warming doomsday’ claims.
I tried to teach my kids that you can just sit there and shove fistfuls of flakes into your pie hole. No cleanup, and the box, depleted or empty, slides conveniently under the divan.
You are so practical!!
Poor dumb millennials. Kellogg’s made cereal singles since the 50’s. and if you look at the box it has lines to cut it open and make it the bowl. Completely disposable.
Bob M
I was just about to post the same thing. My favorite breakfast food when I was a young lad camping with my parents was a single serving cereal box. There was always a scramble with my siblings to see who got the Fruit Loops or Frosted Flakes box from the variety pack.
Of course, cutting or tearing open a thin-walled paper box and an inner wax paper liner takes some effort, which still might be a show stopper 🙂
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uXs5KxBpcA&w=560&h=315%5D
Dangerous, using that knife.
They are the laziest cohort. KDE has come out with a microwave version of their orange slime. The original version took all of 5 minutes to make!