The Problem with Coca-Cola Co

submitted by a member

Things Coke can’t do

Scientific explanations of what caused the demise of dinosaurs aside, the giant animals probably perished due to one or more of the following circumstances:

• Their food / beverages supplier was an unintelligent company
• They were over-exploited because the supplier thought they were really dumb
• They formed addictive habits to the sort of stuff that ultimately dissolved all of their teeth and bones
• They were too dependent on packaged / bottled goods [until their supplier went out of business—there comes a time when all business dinosaurs perish]

What the heck is a “plantbottle?”

Coke is reportedly testing  “plantbottle” in North America later in the year. What the heck is a “plantbottle,” I hear some of you asking!

Coke says it’s a new plastic bottle with a twist. It claims that up to 30 pct of materials used to manufacture the bottle comes from sugar cane and molasses, each a  by-product of sugar production.

This leaves four questions still unanswered:

1. Will Coca-Cola improve also the brown content of the bottle?
2. What about the other 70 percent plastic used to manufacture the bottle?
3. Do they use green energy to fill their bottles?
4. Will they use the other by-product of sugar, ethanol, to drive their “green trucks,” thereby helping another illegitimate industry to grow into a Seismosaurus.

[It would be interesting to find out how many chemicals the pump into the bottle!]

Why are food and drink manufacturers so keen on making their packages “environmentally friendly?”

That’s because Wal-Mart Stores Inc is now rating its suppliers ability to reduce waste [sic] and conserve resources [sic] by introducing a “packaging scorecard.”

Does that mean a product with zero packaging scores highest?

Theoretically, yes!

Could Wal-Mart merchandise products with zero packaging?

Probably not!

So is this another “green slash” in the customers’ throat?

What do you think?

Let’s ask the other two Brontosauruses, PepsiCo Inc and Nestle, Coke’s arch rivals.

They are reportedly introducing lighter-weight plastic bottles that use less materials.

OK Einstein, how do you keep the three Titanosaurses alive?

Thanks for asking. How about selling virtual Coke on Internet! 😉

Here’s a brief checklist to see if what you’re selling is BAD for the environment:

a. Needs packaging, or packaging made from inorganic materials
b. Relies on paid-for advertising
c. Has to travel more than 14 km (~ 9 miles)
d. Serves the manufacturer’s (seller’s) monetary interest rather than serving the community
e. Mass produced

Note: Don’t try to fool anyone with the cliche “win-win” stuff! There’s no such reality. The only formula that works is: NO Profit + NO Impact = NO Harm

Related Links:

• Wal-Mart, the Panther Chameleon and Josef Fritzl
• Avoid Coke, Die Naturally
• Volcanoes Killed Off Dinosaurs

• Coca-Cola Plant Shut Down in India
• The Suckers List of ‘Ethical Companies’

The Stolen Forests

Inside the covert war on illegal logging

by Raffi Khatchadourian

Timber in the train station at Suifenhe, China. The country is now the world’s largest importer of logs and exporter of finished wood products. Photograph by Lu Guang. Source: The New Yorker. Image may b e subject to copyright.

The town of Suifenhe, a former Russian imperial outpost on the Trans-Siberian Railway, has belonged to China since the nineteen-forties, and occupies a broad valley in northern Manchuria. From a distance, its homes and factories appear to cling to a rail yard, with tracks fanning out into a vast latticework of iron as they emerge from the Russian border. Suifenhe is a place of singular purpose. Nearly every train from Russia brings in just one commodity: wood—oak, ash, linden, and other high-value species. There is also poplar, aspen, and larch, and occasionally great trunks of Korean pine, a species that was logged by the Soviets until there was almost none left to cut down. In a year, more than five billion pounds of wood cross over from Primorski Krai, the neighboring province in the Russian Far East. Hundreds of railcars enter Suifenhe every day, many loaded beyond capacity with logs. The wood is shuttled between mills by hand, often six men to a log. Other workers, many of whom are migrants from elsewhere in China, operate cranes to empty the rail carriages, and at sundown they bring the machinery to rest, with beams pointing upward, like arms outstretched, waiting for the rush of timber that will arrive the following day. More…

Wal-Mart, the Panther Chameleon and Josef Fritzl

Could Wal-Mart Ever Be Called “Green?”

What are the necessary conditions for pigs to fly?

One headline read: Green tech innovations save cash and planet. The text followed: “Businesses from Wal-Mart Stores Inc to Nike Inc are finding that green investments in their operations are more than just Earth-friendly – they’re boosting the bottom line, an environmental group said on Tuesday.

“The new wave of environmental investments goes beyond energy-saving lighting, buying recycled office supplies and double-side printing, the group, Environmental Defense Fund, said in a new report.” Wow!

Could Wal-Mart Ever Be Called “Green?”

Despite the obvious fallacies and the glaring oxymoron, FEWW moderators decided to put this to the test. The first reactions from an informal sounding were all too similar. The responses varied citing anything from “deception” by one kind of animal, to “rape” by another kind. Two examples follow:

Deception

• Well, it all depends on your notion of “green,” “blue” [the new advertising gimmick meaning “deep green,”] or khaki camouflage. What color is a Chamaeleo pardalis?

Panther Chameleon. Coloration varies with location, [and business objectives] the different color patterns of Panther Chameleons are commonly referred to as ‘locales’, which are named after the geographical location in which they are found. (Photo Credit: David Parks, via howstuffworks.)

And …

Rape

• If you can call Josef Fritzl a “caring” father, then you could probably call Wal-Mart “green,” or “blue” [meaning “deep green,”] because W-M’s passion for the environment is similar to Fritzl’s love for his daughter. They both got raped for quarter of a century!

An Austrian police handout picture released April 28, 2008 shows Josef Fritzl.

[Note: A “caring” father, Josef F. locked up his daughter in a windowless cell for 25 years for “her own protection” preventing her from “breaking all the rules” that might have harmed her. He repeatedly raped her to presumably express his “fatherly love,” and even kept three of the seven children which he fathered (grand-fathered?) with her, locked up in the basement to keep the “family unit” intact.]

Contorted logic?

A Wal-Mart Supercenter in Miles City, Montana. Note the obscene size of the parking lot! This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_mcmt/282000649/)

The 7 Rs for Wal-Mart

FEWW team had designed a survey covering a number of “serious” issues and at the last moment they decided to also include the question of Wal-Mart “color” on a poll of the members, colleagues, associates and supporters. The question concerning the mega corporation asked:

What are the circumstances, ever so remotely, under which Wal-Mart could conceivably claim to be “green,” or “blue,” [meaning “deep green?”]

Mushrooming in the Heart of Nature: A Wal-Mart Supercenter in Madison Heights, Virginia.
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License. (Photo: Ben Schumin, via Wikimedia Commons.)

The replies, with all the “polite profanities” and snide remarks removed, were formulated as follows:

To be called “green” without a guffaw [not even a snicker] Wal-Mart should:

1. Renounce profit-making as a business model.
2. Re-establish as a customer co-operative.
3. Re-house all of their employees within a 0.6-mile (1km) radius of the stores.
4. Refuse to serve customers who
(i) Live farther than 5 miles (8km) from their stores, or
(ii) Drive to the stores.

5. Return the parking lots to nature.

6. Refrain from selling merchandise that are NOT locally produced, i.e., stop importing from China.

Or

7. Rot in the Ruins!

Related Links:

• Green tech innovations save cash and planet
• Criticism of Wal-Mart

–

Food Fetishism + Cheap Oil = Mounting Pollution

Excerpts from

The Death of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Part 1)

Cheap oil has distorted the notion of creating ‘economic gains’ to such great extents that governments subsidize the industry to export and import the same product, often in similar quantities, within the same fiscal period. Country A exports Q tons of product P to country B, while it imports Q tons of the same product P from country B at the same time, with a net zero gain in commodity exchange for either country. However, the exchange produces about 9Q tons of CO2e pollution, nine times the weight of the commodity that was flown in either direction, for every 1,000 miles that the consignment is airborne.

Our weekly shopping basket includes items that would have flown more air miles than the average family fly in their lifetime! A 1kg (2.2lb) bag of New Zealand kiwifruit (in any of its cadmium, arsenic, lead, mercury… or organochlorine varieties) produces about 142kg (313lb) of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent gases) pollution flying to the US, or 188.7kg (416lb) of CO2e to Europe.

Related Links:

• The Death of Homo Sapiens Sapiens

1. Killed by Homo Economicus
2. Domination by Disinformation
   
3. Is a Future Possible?
   
4. Exponential Growth Economy and Oil
   
5. Where Is All the Money?
6. Exporting Democracy to the Middle East

• The Food Chain:Environmental Cost of Shipping Groceries Around the World