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Science for liberals



"I'm an environmentalist"

Grocery store, Seattle, early 1990's —


I had a dream I figured out how to clean the Great Pacific Garbage Patch....

I was in queue behind a woman who was buying a huge box of corn flakes. The cashier, a young gentleman, did not approve. He didn't agree with buying goods in such large packages.

"I'm an environmentalist," he said....

I'd been reading a little bit of R. Buckminster Fuller in those days; and so the challenge was clear to me. I had to try to explain a principle.

A larger package is more environmentally-friendly.



If you make a box that is twice as tall, wide, and deep, you will have used four times as much cardpaper — but the resulting box will hold 8 times as many cornflakes.



The environmentalist/cashier didn't want to hear about it.

An environmentalist. Not a good one, clearly.

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