Useless Things

Been reading around climate change recently, trying to figure out what abstract notions such as "temperatures will rise" may mean for every day life in the near future. Maybe that made me a little bit intolerant yesterday when my children got chocolate eggs with plastic figures inside for a present. Too much sugar, plastic thingies that don't deserve to be called toys, that are destined to fall apart and be eaten by the vacuum cleaner next Saturday. What a waste of energy! I was reminded of the top 10 list of things everybody could start with to reduce global warming. For short, here just the headlines:

• Project Switch: Change your light bulbs!
• Drive your car differently – or drive a different car altogether!
• Your house – not too hot, not too cold!
• Tame the refrigerator monster!
• Twist the knobs on your other household appliances!
• Don't over-dry your clothes.
• Green plants with less water, more trees to provide shade.
• Buy Green Energy, and invest in green energy stocks.
• Go organic.
• Buy recycled.
• Be a minimalist.

I know its covered somehow already, but I think a special mention is well-deserved

• Let the surprise chocolate eggs rot in the shop.

There are a lot of other useless things for sale, of course. But compared to the hype around seemingly cool innovative products, the useless crap does not get adequate media attention! That's why I like the Bad Product Awards which Consumers International this month bestowed upon:

• Mattel for selling toys with poisonous levels of lead paint
• CocaCola for marketing simple tap water as a premium brand
• Kellog's for marketing junk food to kids
• Takeda for marketing sleeping drugs for kids

More useless products? Add them to the list at brainR !