Blogprompt Number Five

Christmas is coming!

Is Christmas sustainable? How would it work in a changed world?


Christmas is not sustainable on an individual level in its current form. People spend money that they are don't actually have in order to satisfy consumer desire. If one considers the impact of Christmas on an economic and environment scale, then Christmas in its current form is not sustainable.


Christmas would be totally unrecognisable in a changed world from what it is today. The reason for this is that resources will become more expensive therefore, this may reduce demand and environmental concerns may also change the way consumers consume goods. If goods become unobtainable, because of exorbitant cost, this would reduce the amounts of goods bought for Christmas and this would also improve the environment; as most goods are heavily packaged when being assembled to entice the consumer to buy.


In the long term the consumer will have to face the choice of paying a much higher price for goods or choosing not to buy them because the value for money is poor. If this were to happen, then Christmas may then be looked upon more as a religious and cultural event rather than a consumer led one.

It may mean than people in general might look at the value and morality of consuming goods and this may lead people to be more responsible individuals.


Unfortunately some of the charitable organisations jump on the band wagon to sell Christmas as they have gift for the consumer to purchase. Although some consumers may look at the purchase as a more ethically and morally justifiable purchase. However, many of the goods and cards sold have a relatively high costs to the environment and individuals alike.

Christmas Facts

• Christmas will create 3 million extra tons of
  rubbish, but we’ll recycle just 12% of that.
  
• Over Christmas as much as 83 sq. km of
  wrapping paper will end up in UK bins, enough
  to cover an area larger than Guernsey.
  
• In 2001, 7.5 million Christmas trees were
  bought and only 1.2 million were recycled.
  
• Discarded Christmas trees create enough
  waste to fill the Albert Hall three times.
  
• The equivalent of 200,000 trees are used to
  produce the 1.7 billion cards sent each year in
  Britain.
  (Source www.defra.gov.uk , 2004)

Other useful websites: accessed on 25/12/09

http://www.globaleducationderby.org.uk/christmas.pdf

www.eartheasy.com/give_sustainchristmas.htm

www.stockhouse.com/Bullboards/MessageDetail.aspx

www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/christmas/.../SusChristmas.asp

www.suite101.com/reference/sustainable_christmas

http://9am.ten.com.au/sustainable-christmas-tips.htm

Blogprompt Number Four

To what extent do the best selling UK newspapers cover stories related to serious issues? To what extent would you think that it is their role to do so? In your opinion does the tabloid media and 'low budget entertainment' (reality shows, soaps) have too much power and influence in this country?

Most of the popular daily tabloid newspapers such as the Sun, the Mirror, the Star do not cover the most important stories on a daily basis. These papers seems to be more interested in trivia that is related to celebrity stardom. An example of this is the Tiger Woods story which exploded into the public consciousness and details of the events were written with lurid headlines.

Unfortunately real news is often hard to find in the major tabloid newspapers. Only the Daily Mail and the Express newspapers explore seriously newsworthy stories. For the most part, serious stories are only covered by the quality newspapers including the tabloid Times and broadsheets such as the Telegraph, Guardian and Independent.

When a popular tabloid attempts to tackle serious newsworthy issues they tend to dramatise aspects of the story by giving unbalanced views which are suits their readership. By comparison the respected quality newspapers and broadsheet tend to be more balanced in their editorial as they give opinion and comment from a wider spectrum. The reason for this is that their readership expects and demands more information and background to stories as they are more discerning readers.

In my opinion I think that newspapers have a duty to inform its readership on serious issues because they are responsible for gathering information and reporting it to its readers. It seems in my view that the tabloid newspapers have discharged responsibility from reporting serious news in favour of sensationalist celebrity gossip. One could argue that they have almost abandoned reporting serious news and left it to the quality broadsheet newspapers.

It seems that tabloids and low budget entertainment such as reality shows and soaps have enormous powers of persuasion as they can influence their large audiences with the less important news and gossip. I concede that they have a purpose in entertaining the mass market who would argue that the lighthearted nature and sometimes provides relief from the more serious news issues.