woodenhead

I work in procurement for injection moulded (plus other medium) items, from raw materials to doorsteps, so I have an idea.  At an individual item level the footprint is very small, a full production run, of a decent sized range (say Bachmann for instance) is pretty huge.  You may already have seen, but if not, have a look online at the landscape destruction in the Australian Ore Mines, which is where the majority of ore comes from to produce the steel used to make the moulds for injection moulded items.  Add to that the transportation by rail and huge ships over thousands of miles, then the steel works footprint themselves and all the fuels/electricity/gas.  Its quite jaw dropping,  significantly more than the recent a space trip.  Whether or not your models are 2nd hand and bought locally doesn't mean anything, they were still made from raw materials and transported to where you bought them from.

The fundamental point of my post is that people are very quick to tell successful rich people what to do with their money.  If someone suggested to me what to do with my money, they wouldn't like the response.  If I had the money to follow my dreams and go to space, damn right I would do it and wouldn't feel in the slightest bit guilty.

I understand where you're coming from, but of course the individual item (not the entire industry) is what should be compared to the individual trip to space. Also, by purchasing second hand models I am not adding any carbon emmisions to those already created. The products were manufactured to satisfy the demands of somebody else, often before I was born. I had nothing to do with that process and no action that I am able to take could prevent them from occuring. I am simply reusing what is now somebody else's waste. If there wasn't a second hand market, these items would go to landfill once their first owners had finished with them. That would be considerably worse for the environment.

Regarding the second point, I had realised that you were unhappy with the criticism of the spending of these two individuals. As I explained above, I would be happy to face such criticism myself. Clearly you would not be and that is the source of our difference of opinion on the morality of it. As this is personal to each of us, I find it unlikely that either of us will be persuaded to change our minds. It is perhaps best that we agree to disagree on this point, as further discussion will only become tediously repetetive, which is sure to lead to unneccessary frustration.

I agree with you, thank you for taking the time to join in the discussion, I've enjoyed it