The confederacy of dunces  It was the news from the government
body Wrap (Waste and Resources Action Programme) that Britons
throw away 6.7 million tons of food a year - almost a third of
every-thing we buy - that finally caused a question that has for
some time been circling around my brain in an amorphous fashion
to pull itself into focus: namely, just how much of the green
movement could be boiled down to telling people not to be such
frigging idiots all the frigging time?  Take the main reasons
behind consumers' habit of donating 30% of their food purchases
to the swing bin, as outlined by Wrap. These are: a) repeatedly
buying more food than they need; b) allowing food to go out of
date; and c) keeping food in fridges that are too warm, so that
by the time they open the fridge again, half the items therein
are either necrotic or have developed the kind of mould that is
one stray electrical spark away from developing independent
thought.  I submit that these are three variations on the theme
of being an id