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[GreenYes] Re: Good Morning America on recycling


I started reading the Rockridge Institute (George Lakoff) Thinking Points last night and something in Stephen's response struck a chord.
I think in the Rockridge analysis, cost-benefit analysis would be seen as one of those surface frames that leads progressives astray (like "freedom" - nothing wrong with it in some contexts, but context is everything.

Stephen's statement below misses an important deep frame that I hold in my thinking, and I think a lot of progressives do: costs and benefits are not uniform because they are superficial, not rooted in a deeper value: conservation.

If you calculations tell you it's OK to consume paper and throw it away somewhere, that's a sign to me that things are more deeply screwed up in that somewhere and you should figure out why.

If your scientific analysis causes you to disregard your deep values, it's going to make you inauthentic.

H.

At 11:01 AM 7/20/2007, Stephan Pollard wrote:
I am not.  However, depending on the location and other factors the individual who made those statements might be correct.  You don't know the answer until a well-undertaken cost-benefit analysis / life-cycle analysis has been put together for the region or situation in question.  Cost and benefits (environmental, social, production, or otherwise) are not uniform across the country.

Best,

Stephan



Matthew Cotton wrote:
Are people on the list-serve familiar with this story:



This video interview of Stephen Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics, actually contends that it is economically and environmentally infeasible to recycle paper (paraphrased). It made my blood boil, especially since I am chairing a Mass. Recycles Paper! campaign (www.massrecyclespaper.org) through MassRecycle based on the economic and environmental benefits of increasing paper recovery.
Many of us in Mass. are sending letters of protest. You too may send comments tohttp://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3052660.
-Claire Sullivan, Executive Director
South Shore Recycling Cooperative
508-785-8318
fax 508-785-2296
ssrcclaire@no.address
www.ssrc.info
cell 508-934-6147
ssrc.info
----- Original Message -----
From: Carol Rubenstein
To: MassRecycle@no.address
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 5:14 PM
Subject: [MassRecycle] Good Morning America on recycling

There was an alarming piece on Good Morning America on Wednesday July 18: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3389378 , in which an interviewee who is discussing which recycling activities are worthwhile and which are not, states that paper recycling is probably not worth it, and we should probably just go for paper products made of virgin pulp. Shall we all respond individually to ABC with our own versions of why we think paper recycling is valuable? Or do we want to respond as an organization?

Carol S. Rubenstein, Chair

Sherborn Recycling Committee

508-653-8794

Carol.Rubenstein@no.address

Matthew Cotton
Integrated Waste Management Consulting, LLC
19375 Lake City Road
Nevada City, CA 95959
(530) 265-4560
Fax (530) 265-4547
mattcotton@no.address

Join us at the US Composting Council's 16th Annual Conference & Trade Show, February 9 - 12th, 2008 at the Oakland Marriott City Center, Oakland, California. Check it out at
www.compostingcouncil.org







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