Sheryl Crow's infamous remark that limitations should be placed on the amount of toilet paper we can use has generated a circus of well deserved criticism, sarcasm, and ...well, this:
"Global Warming Wipeout..." -- USA Today
"Crow's toilet paper fix to be butt of jokes!" -- Gristmill
"Toilet Paper Law - A Wipe Out?" -- The Spoof
"Crow flies one sheet to the wind" -- The Chicago Sun-Times
Another Celebrity Oops? Well, maybe something worse. Sheryl Crow now claims the ridiculous statement was a joke designed to raise awareness. Ok, fine. But here's where I still think this is another really stupid celebrity blunder:
Celebrities (and politicians) are among the worst polluters on planet earth. These rich and famous people often travel by personal or charted private jet. One crossing of the U.S. can burn the fuel a normal person uses to travel for 10 years... and that's just going one way. When celebrities and politicians take U.S. and world tours they can burn more than a lifetime of fuel for you and I. So where do they get off telling us what environmentalism is?
The big oops here is in the very notion of what she is trying to project. Conserving toilet paper is silly. You might as well conserve tomato juice. Both are products of renewable resources, usually grown on farms. Ok, so minor celebrity oops right? ..not so fast.
We had other misguided do-gooders screw up our way of life. Recycling anyone? Ok, so most of you think recycling is a good idea right? Well it's not. AND if you are setting your plastic bottles and paper products out at the curb, you are HARMING the environment (and wasting tax dollars).
Recycling paper and plastic products costs more than making them from scratch. Costing more should be our first clue -- the cost is a reflection of the resources needed to complete a product. First, someone has to come to your house to collect this extra garbage. If you had thrown it out, then only one trip was needed. Then, this garbage ends up at a recycling plant. These plants are subsidized with your tax dollars. There's another clue: these guys can't economically recycle your stuff and earn a profit. They need more resources (and your money) than the guys that make plastic and paper from scratch! Ok... so I am not gonna continue ranting about stupid celebrity and politician created messes right now. The point is, this is another celebrity oops even if she was joking.
If you REALLY want to save the environment, then invent or invest. Invent a new process of doing something more efficiently, invent a new renewable fuel source, or invest in companies already doing these things. And for god's sake, keep government and celebrities away from regulating us into the stone ages. The environment is a problem, but if we get these jackasses involved with it, it will make the failed drug war, the failed war on poverty, the failing war for education, and gun-free zones like VT seem like government's best conceptions.
