CONSUMER

i am a voracious consumer
a carnivorous t rex
along with my family
i have an insatiable appetite for all kinds of stuff
food
coffee
alcohol
clothes
books
music equipment
CDs
toys
domestic appliances
the list is endless...
but it's not just the stuff itself that i consume
the recycling bags fill up faster each week
trees are pulped
habitats are destroyed
wild men of borneo die out
to make the paper and cardboard packaging
that we tear up and throw away in this house
oilfields are emptied
refineries and factories belch out their emissions
to make the multicoloured plastic packaging
that we chuck
more pollution and emissions spew into the air, rivers, sea
to create the bottles and cans
that we leave outside on a sunday evening
a walk around our neighbourhood tonight
is not a pretty sight
piles of stinking overfilled rubbish bags
everywhere you care to look
recyclable stuff that should go in special bags that you pay for
just dumped
a mile or two down the road
there's an incinerator
where a lot of this stuff is destined for
sk is a small country
there's not a lot of space to bury all this stuff
so the air that we breathe is polluted a second time
when the unwanted products or by-products of our consumption
are burnt to a crisp in one of these giant infernos
in sk we burn natural gas from aceh
that impoverished part of indonesia worst hit by the tsunami
our homes are powered by nuclear power stations
which issue forth toxic waste
that nobody knows what to do with...
but when i start to think about what i actually produce
apart from waste
although i wrack my brains
i can think of very little at all
a blog every day or two
if i can be bothered
a song recorded and ready to be burnt onto a cd
once every couple of months
if i'm lucky
(oops! more plastic, more burning!)
food?
no
clothes?
squat diddly
building or craftwork?
zilch
(ok mrs f did make a few furniture items
when she did her furniture-making course a while back)
and suddenly i realise something
which i guess i've known subconsciously for some time
that i'm totally dependent on others
to produce stuff for me to consume
take me out of my cosy air-conditioned office
and chuck me on a desert island
and i'd be lost
i'd starve to death
i wouldn't survive for five minutes
no shops
no supermarkets
no technicians
no amazon.co.uk
what on earth would i do?!