Gyrogami Blog - Precious Metals, Jewelry, Artwork

Nope! That's Not Green

Blog Index

Categories: Everything dealing with life

Word count/read time: 855 words; 4 minutes

Uneducable climate change deniers are aplenty. What does that say about people and our political system since this mentality basically runs along party lines? Repukelicans toe the line to cater to their business cronies who destroy the earth to enrich themselves. Dummycrats had their chance to enact changes but failed. All are guilty of doing nothing since they take legal "bribes" from their donors and almost exclusively listen to them.

Instead, the responsibility is forced upon the people who often have NO choice. Again, lobbyists and special interest groups loaded with cash and gifts ensure their needs are met. It's not minimizing the average joe's role but let's assign causation properly. For instance, big oil has been deceiving and buying politicians and the narrative for half a century. Trying to blame anyone but themselves for the lucrative destruction they knowingly caused is asinine. They followed the tobacco industry's delusionally effective antics.

Though I enjoy a good bacon double cheeseburger as much as the next person, the beef industry is following a similarly destructive path. Also, the horrors of mining cobalt, nickel, lithium, etc. for the electric vehicle onslaught will be unheralded.

With some 2/3 of the USA economy relying on spending, we are pushed to buy vast quantities of everything. Free next-day shipping and free returns ensure continuous buying. Though we are just a fraction of earth's population, we consume some 30% of the natural resources! Our first-world lifestyle is killing the planet, plain and simple.

To placate our mega-guilty consciences, we try (essentially useless) things like recycling yet considerable amounts still burden landfills. Carbon credits only shift the burden elsewhere. We throw away 1/3 of our food. Fast fashion lives for a week whether cheap clothes or fancy acrylic nails. Over-packaged fad children's toys and new phones for adults every year create endless waste.

We butcher words like sustainable, green-friendly, eco-conscious, made with post-consumer recycled stuff, fair trade, no animals harmed, etc. The only problem that it's based on consuming more! Greening or greenwashing our purchases is a miserable failure. We need to STOP consuming.

Seldom does mainstream press encourage re-using old stuff, buying used, or investing in durable goods. Our disposable society demands newer and better. The feel-good attitude of buying more stuff, as long as it's green, has been accepted by society.

Responsible consuming is rarely truthful when it comes to luxury or non-essential items. IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO PURCHASE LUXURY GOODS RESPONSIBLY THEN YOU HAVE NO RIGHT OWNING THEM! And even if you can afford them, will life end without them?

If privileged first-worlders don't change then all hope is lost. So many feel-good measures: only using reusable bags for shopping, only driving electric cars, only limiting heavy electrical use to late night, only watering your lawn in the morning, eating meat "only" five times per week, only taking two 10-minute lukewarm showers per day, installing solar panels on your ten-bedroom home with six baths and a guest house, only taking four or five vacations a year, only biking or walking two blocks instead of driving, only using 30 or 40 pieces of recyclable plastic per week. We can't under-consume or buy our way out of it.

"Green" is basically a feel-good farce encouraging more consumption under the guise of a fancy buzzword. Our culture of convenience shields the true destructive costs which are offloaded to poorer countries. If a company making more than $1M per year says something positive about their manufacturing, like it is green in some way, they are basically lying. Dolphin-friendly tuna doesn't exist. Free-range chickens get to go outside, often with no more space than indoor chickens yet have all the same problems. And on and on.

A girls' best friend? Gold, silver, and the gemstone supply chain are loaded with conflict materials. Murdering indigenous tribes for the stuff on their land is commonplace, even (and especially) in the 21st century. Man is too greedy to deny such lucrative profits. Children, slaves, and prisoners toil so some warlord or executive can have numerous vacation homes while reaping untold profits. Consumers willingly participate without researching their product's lineage.

I realized this conundrum long before making jewelry.

You can, however, responsibly purchase affordable handmade silver and gold jewelry because I have done all the legwork and research to ensure the cleanest source of materials and the fairest manufacturing. I haven't found another entity, company, manufacturer, or person matching the pedigree, traceability, and sanctity.

Everything precious metals is 100% handmade by me save the antiques and collectibles. Further, 100% of my products have been made with existing metals which are refined and fully processed on site by me which avoids the need for new mining. No warlords or foreign entities with no interest in our (local) economy benefit. No wasted time, energy, and resources shipping components around the world.

In what may seem contrary to running a successful business, I am saying to NOT buy new jewelry. However, I make superior goods found nowhere else so their allure is understandable. With uncompromising standards that are safer to the planet, people, plants, and critters, this is the better option.

Posted by M: January 6, 2024

Please email any thoughts or comments regarding this post.

Previous Entry . . . . Next Entry

Comment Section

NOTE: Your comments will be included in this section as long as they aren't illegal. This section is censor-free so show me your intelligence or ignorance and everything in between!

2024