A polluting cafe illustrates our how our culture values and promotes polluting and depleting

February 3, 2025 by Joshua
in Doof, Visualization

The picture below shows a new cafe down the block from me that shows how polluting our culture has become. Let me count the ways.

First, it has no seating. You buy your coffee and walk away. They save rent for not providing space for customers.

They give you disposable everything. They save the salary of someone washing, the rent for space for a dishwasher and cups.

It’s glowing red because it’s using heat lamps despite there being nobody there. Like many local places, they’re heating the outdoors.

On the other side of all these savings for them: everyone pays the costs in health from plastic in our bloodstreams, pollution in the air, sickened wildlife, people displaced from their land to access minerals and fuel beneath, and more.

More and more places offer no place to sit and only serve takeaway in disposable packaging. I think some people consider it quaint, cute, or convenient. The streets are covered with litter. The skies are filled with smog. People walking or biking while drinking coffee can’t appreciate any nuance. They just pour substance down their maws. So many places put in more sugar and fat to amp up the sensation.

Communities lack spaces where people spend time. No cafe owner is obliged to provide space, but I’m talking about our culture. We lack reflection, in-person time, calm.

Yet this way of operating is more profitable. It doesn’t have to be.


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