October 31, 2015

"I knew this experiment wouldn’t make a profound difference for conservation, but I felt I should do it because I had no excuse not to...."

"I had to get creative. When a restaurant furnished a napkin-wrapped fork and knife, I asked the server to exchange them for cutlery without the napkin. I’d remember to say 'No straw!' after asking for water and to make sure the veggie burger I ordered didn’t come with a wooden pick holding it together. I tried to think ahead. I carried a fork, a spoon, a plate and a bowl everywhere I went, just in case a student event served food but provided only plastic to eat with. I did what I had to, and sometimes it was awkward. At a house party (where the red Solo cup is king), I’d saunter into the kitchen, use a glass from the cupboard, and then rinse it and put it back when I was done. Five months into the experiment, after some initial reservations, I gave up toilet paper. Now I do things the way hundreds of millions (including my extended family) in India do — with water and my left hand."

From "All my trash for a year fit into two plastic bags. Here’s how I did it./Giving up plastic forks, new clothes and even toilet paper for an exercise in conservation." By Darshan Karwat, "an AAAS science and technology policy fellow at the Department of Energy and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan." In The Washington Post.

I don't know what bothers me more, the idea of a man (it can't be a woman) out and about, using various bathrooms and somehow managing to wield water with his left hand or the idea of going into someone else's house, enjoying their hospitality, and when they're serving drinks in disposable cups, sneaking off into their kitchen, opening up their cupboards, choosing one of the glasses that were never offered to him, using it, and then cleaning it only by rinsing and putting it back in the cupboard (apparently) wet. Did he touch it only with his right hand?

55 comments:

clint said...

His clear moral superiority trumps all such petty considerations as etiquette and basic courtesy.

(Like all the extra work he made for his waiters -- I hope, but don't expect, that he tipped well.)

Tank said...

This is more info about Indians than I ever wanted to have.

I hate to think about how this guy blows his nose.

In event, he's better than you and me. Noted.

His whole life is: Dick Move.

Curious George said...

"it can't be a woman"

Because "an AAAS science and technology policy fellow at the Department of Energy and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan." right?

Rusty said...

This must be one of those,"How can I be the biggest asshole in the room experiment."

MaxedOutMama said...

The advent of innovations like bleach, detergent, clean water, paper towels and toilet paper are believed to have had a huge effect on the extension of human life span.

In part, it's just because we knocked out the standard intestinal parasites and acute pathogens. It's nice to know that this causist is trying to reverse that effect, and that he's wandering around spreading poop.

Wash your hands, people. It may result in more garbage, but those hand wipes they sell now are good to have when you get back to your car and don't want to spread "the joy".

The pure rudeness of behaving that way in someone else's home speaks for itself.

Lewis Wetzel said...

This is what mental illness looks like.
It would be an eccentricity if it weren't for its moral, universalist dimension.

Laslo Spatula said...

">>>hops where the shoes didn’t come in boxes and the tools weren’t wrapped in protective plastic casing..."

In other words, someone already threw away that stuff so he didn't have to.

I am Laslo.

Bob Boyd said...

"somehow managing to wield water with his left hand"

Well, he also has your drinking glass.....so that probably helps.

jr565 said...

Wow, so he spread out his wast across restaurants and friends houses. How did he conserve anything? When he went to the bathroom and used a restaurants toilet paper, The restaurant had his trash added to their trash. Just because he isn't dumping trash from his apartment doesn't mean that trash isn't being generated.

sane_voter said...

Why can't anyone see how this diverse immigrant is enriching all of our lives? More I say!

Laslo Spatula said...

Think of all the water he could conserve if he dedicated himself to never flushing the toilet.

I am Laslo.

jr565 said...

Also, I am not shaking that guys left hand.

Scott said...

The ecological impact of using disposable cups vs using washable durable cups is about the same; and in some cases the washable cup is worse.

As for washing your asscrack vs using toiled paper: Western restrooms aren't built for the way Asians manage their rectal hygiene. Ideally you need a squat style toilet, a tap with a rubber hose, and a small plastic bucket. And a stall that affords you some space and privacy. In theory it's a cleaner way to do your business, but in practice, it depends. I'm not going to tell you how I know this.

jr565 said...

Why didn't he have one set of forks and knives, a cup and a cloth napkin that he brought with him everywhere? Then he wouldn't need to go into his friends cupboards and use their glasses?

sane_voter said...

I bet his left hand smells delightful.

FWBuff said...

Now I understand why my college friend from India said that people there despised us left-handers. Blatant anti-sinistrism!

sane_voter said...

Does he hold his veggie burger with that shit hand?

Laslo Spatula said...

From "Mallrats":

Brodie: After all he's done to you, you should still kinda stick it to him.

T.S. Quint: How do you propose I do that?

Brodie: You stinkpalm him.

T.S. Quint: Stinkpalm?

Brodie: You take your hand and stick it in your ass like this. You been walkin' all day and you're nervous, so no doubt you'll be sweaty as hell.

T.S. Quint: You should see yourself right now, a grown man with his hand down his pants.

Brodie: Yeah i probably look like my old man. So you shake hands with the guy, "Hello Mr. Svenning how have you been?"

T.S. Quint: Whats the point?

Brodie: You know how long it takes for that smell to come off? Scrub all you want, it'll stick around for at least two days. How does he explain it to his colleagues and family? They'll think he doesn't know how to wipe his ass properly.

T.S. Quint: Meanwhile you yourself are left with a hand that smells like shit.

Brodie: Small price to pay for the smiting of one's enemies.


I am Laslo.

khesanh0802 said...

You knew this would be nasty just reading the headline!

Lewis Wetzel said...

At some point a person like this has to ask himself why he bothers living? He can't reduce the permanent damage he does to the environment to zero, and he, his 'self', is a nothing more than a kaleidoscope of shifting mental states. The self he values is literally nothing compared to the eternal Earth. Die, already.

MadisonMan said...

There are worse things to be OCD about, I guess.

I use a reuseable cup when I get coffee. But that's 'cause it's cheaper.

SGT Ted said...

The hippies rejected basic hygiene principles and caused a boom in 3rd world diseases in SF back in the 60s. This is the latest version of that stupidity.

pm317 said...

Well, we all do what we can. On our street we are the only ones who do not put out the trash can every week because we usually don't have any. We don't have children -- so think of all the diaper waste we saved this earth from.

Sebastian said...

"I don't know what bothers me more"

Faux indignation, right? Who are you to question Prog posturing?

Pretty soon you will decide that equal protection for left-handed-excrement-washers is required by the Fourteenth Amendment.



Michael K said...

"Well, he also has your drinking glass."

Which he "rinsed" not washed. My tapeworm thanks him.

Simon Kenton said...

Down in Grand Canyon, the heat and the dryness mean that a bout of norovirus is dangerous, eg, the vomiting and diarrhea mean you can die of dehydration in a little more than 24 hours. This morning you are marvelling at the call of the canyon wren in the cool of pre-dawn. Tomorrow morning you are 7/8 dead, and it depends on a sat signal escaping near-vertical walls whether we can get a helicopter launched, and they can get in to pull you out. Most of what we do for sanitation, for life-safety, is preventing people from shitting in one another's mouths. I'd typhoid-Mary this guy - it goes beyond "Other people's rights" to "Other people's lives" and what he's doing could kill. Your child's life is worth far less than my therapeutic process.

Larvell said...

But imagine how much trash is being generated by all of his friends now throwing away all of their glasses.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

SGT Ted said...

The hippies rejected basic hygiene principles and caused a boom in 3rd world diseases in SF back in the 60s. This is the latest version of that stupidity.

Which, IIRC, Tom Wolfe dubbed "The Great Re-Learning".

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

So ... There are no left handed people in India?

(trigger warning for ethnic joke)
How many Indians does it take to kneed a loaf of bread bread?

wildswan said...

This guy has been spreading to other people whatever diseases and parasites he has been in contact with. In the Indian system one group picks up all the dirt of every kind and they are considered "untouchable" and not invited anywhere. Another way, our way, is: everyone washes in clean water.

pm317 said...

I guess this post has turned into hygiene related stuff. Left hand thing is not unique to India. All of Middle East and may be South Asian countries have similar notions.

Laslo Spatula said...

I bet this has the Conservation Crowd eating out of the palm of his hand.

I am Laslo.

Titus said...

does everyone wipe with their left hand?

William said...

I think he lost a lot of people, including those who would otherwise support him, with that left hand thing. He hasn't yet caught on to what Americans are like. Bathroom hygiene is one of our sacred cows.

MaxedOutMama said...

I came back to note that this is clearly a case of religious IMpurity. Why it should be foisted on others without their consent is not clear to me, and that's what he was doing when he was digging through other people's cabinets and using their glasses. After a glass has been used, most people prefer it be washed with soap and hot water, then dried well, before it is put back in storage.

I suspect this story is going to reduce his social capital, and inspire a number of dedicated household cleaning operations.

jr565 said...

I'm left handed. If he sought to shake my left hand with his left hand I'd sue him for discrimination. He's trying to use my hand to clean the fecal matter off of his hand.

jr565 said...

"I knew this effort wouldn't make a profound difference for conservation"
Exactly!
SO why did you do it? Other than to appear like a crazy a hole?
"But I felt I should do it because I felt I had no excuse not to...."
But, you just said there was no reason to actually do it. So, isnt' that a valid reason not to do it?
Doing meaningless gestures you know will do nothing and will make people think you are an extremist is a pretty good reason not to do something. So you had an excuse.

jr565 said...

"So, as I wrote about the experiment on my blog, what began as a discussion of trash and consumption quickly became a discussion of governance, economy, peace and pillage of the Earth, poverty, the limits of human knowledge, complexity and simplicity."


I figured the least he would do was stop using electricity.So one of the things he'd forgo was posting on his blog. Unless he was able to jerry rig a windmill to power his server.

retired said...

How dare you mock this true believer! You are violating his constitutional rights of free speech and freedom of religion!

Rosalyn C. said...

He explained that all the trash he generated in the lab in order to get his Phd didn't count. LOL His research surely must have been significant for him to justify all that waste, but he didn't bother to mention what great knowledge he has contributed to the welfare of humanity. Only that getting his Phd justified the trash. This guy is going to make future technology policy? Oh well.

Freeman Hunt said...

I wonder how often he is invited back.

Annie said...

As everyone else has noted, he hasn't learned basic hygiene.

What is an added fright, is this -

"an AAAS science and technology policy fellow at the Department of Energy"

Translation: This policy fellow at the DoE, will one day have a job there, influencing policy that all of us will have to suffer under. OR, perhaps he will switch over to HHS as an advisor.

the gold digger said...

I guess he missed the part about modern plumbing saving more lives than modern medicine.

Mike said...

So I'm wondering how massively he increased his energy consumption in this self-righteous experiment. Water doesn't just pump itself, you know. This seems to be the latest lefty fad: trying to cut down trash production no matter what the cost. To my mind, this exchanges a problem we don't have (lack of landfill space) for one we do (global warming).

CWJ said...

Ann Arbor and Madison share the same general mindset. At least that's the general perception. Perhaps Althouse wonders where in Madison this guy's hygienic twin is operating.

CWJ said...

jr565,

Yeah, that statement of his is pretty self refuting.

walter said...

"the idea of a man (it can't be a woman) out and about, using various bathrooms and somehow managing to wield water with his left hand"

Hmm..all the err..adherents..to this sort of mentality I meet in Madison are women.
Single women..with cats. Think globally, act idiotically.
Most recently, one that would not ride in a motorized vehicle of any sort...but happy to drink imported beer.

eric said...

I realize everyone treats medical records like they are the holiest of holy's and no one should ever have access to them.

But in a case like a guy like this, we should see his medical records. How often is he sick with stuff that rarely effect people here in the United States?

Somehow I doubt he'd tell us.

pst314 said...

"This is what mental illness looks like."

I think moral illness would be more accurate: Our society is far too ready to characterize everything as an disease.

walter said...

No shit. ;)

furious_a said...

...choosing one of the glasses that were never offered to him, using it, and then cleaning it only by rinsing and putting it back in the cupboard (apparently) wet. Did he touch it only with his right hand?

This is why in Araby the thieves are forced to eat communal meals with other thieves.

If one is careful about packaging when one is grocery shopping, one can easily recycle 4x-5x (volume) what is in the trash bin on Garbage Day. That does not include the plastic grocery bags (incl. dry-cleaning bags) that can be bundled and returned to the store.

furious_a said...

Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry refused to eat the pizza that Poppy made special for him.

cubanbob said...

You can take a man out of the Turd World but you can't take the Turd World out the man.
The scary and depressing part is this fool will no doubt be part of the Progressive Project to devolve America into the Turd World.

Ken Mitchell said...

He wastes more water and causes more pollution washing his butt than he would just wiping it.

Anonymous said...

I am an engineer and have met many people from India. One told me about the shock of American abundance and how we threw away things that would be reused or not provided in the first place back home. His example was the styrofoam pods that McDonald's sandwiches used to come in. He kept one of those pods for a while thinking that there must be a way to put it to use since it was still fully finctional after he ate the sandwich. Eventually he saw that there was no further value in it. He adapted to American trash-generating ways.

Another Indian friend commented on the way Americans can't wait to buy the latest twchnology. He was in the US when VCR's became widely available. He was shocked how quickly we went from no VCRs to having one in every home. He said that Indians change their ways very slowly becsuse their culture places value on preserving the old ways. Americans place value on leading the change to new ways.

I see this man trying to apply his old culture in his new country. I was glad to see he had not given up toothpaste or soap.