The other planets in the frat are laughing their asses off watching Earth light it’s farts; it definitely serves a purpose in a cosmic sense.
Cosmic.
Maintaining suburban lawns–especially lawn mowing and fertilizing.
I am sure many will disagree with this.
I have always found such rituals to be highly entertaining and sometimes wonderfully rewarding. Time spent on these activities was essential rather than wasteful. Please, observe the niceties.
arresting and imprisoning people for certain victimless crimes
Do you know all the safety improvements in the automobiles we drive today that are a direct result of auto racing? Also, all the fuel burned by the racecars in NASCAR’s top 3 series is equivelent to what the American public burns in about .15 seconds.
I’m tempted to say religion, but that’s a hackneyed response that would precipitate many more.
That’s what I came in to say. Seconded.
Seeking happiness.
Happiness comes from within, after all.
Gas distribution systems need not be built to avoid wasting flare gas. Microturbine technology efficiently turns flare gas into electricity, which can be used to power oil production facilities, or fed into the existing grid. In remote locations, electricity transmission lines are much cheaper to build and maintain than a gas pipeline.
I’d heard (no cite) that this comes to mind because they burn fuel during the actual event but other sports that have more frequent events (baseball) use more fuel moving the spectators into and out of the venue multiple times per week. Anyone have any insight?
Sitting in traffic has gotta be right up there in terms of wasted energy, both gasoline and human.
While I do believe this is true to an extent, it’s not 100% acurate.
From my military experience – and granted I got out in 95 – units had to use up their ammo on ranges in order to get issued the same ammount the next year. In my case, I would rather have the opportunity to fire my weapon a few more times than lose that opportunity to train an equal ammount next year.
Part of the promotion system for pilots is hours clocked in the air, so anything they can do in the air is good for them for training and carreer advancement. I don’t think there’s a fleet of aircraft constantly doing racetracks around the airfields, but if they have the fuel to fly for 20 or 30 more minutes, why not do it?
It’s similar to the arguement that the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels use if someone says going to airshows is a waste of taxpayer money. That fuel’s going to get used anyway, might as well use it as a reruitment tool and turn a few heads while you do burn it.
Reproducing.
abortion
Assuming that’s not a snarky reply to all the “reproducing/procreation” posts, how? What’s being wasted other than a undeveloped fetus? (and no I really don’t want to get into an abortion debate)
Tobacco smoking and chewing.
I agree that’s really wasteful, but that doesn’t even take in the waste of the productive farm land and farm labor that could be growing food or energy crops. We could do a lot of this vs. that over the industry of making those products and the tax money they generate. If nobody smoked or chewed, though, none of that would matter.
Pretty much any sort of beauty contest, be it be dog, cat, horse, or human.
I thought of another one:
Health care costs of smoking, drugs, obesity
Watching t.v.