Styrofoam or Ceramic

Question: Which is more environmentally friendly: styrofoam or ceramic?
Answer: Ceramic
Big surprise. However, the difference between the two is not as considerable as I expected it would be. Actually, although ceramic is generally considered better, it is only if you use your ceramic cup a lot. It actually takes more energy with all the soap, water, and electricity you use to wash your ceramic cup than it does to make a styrofoam cup so you have to use the ceramic a lot to make it balance out. However, there really isn't any good way to recycle styrofoam so most of it just gets thrown out and it isn't biodegradable. The ceramic is the lesser of two evils.
Personally I found this information rather depressing, if not surprising. Human beings are, after all, consumers by nature. God created the earth for human beings use, but also for us to tend it and take care of it. The more we develop the worse we use the environment. Maybe that's why God started us out in a garden. Growing a garden is considerably better for the environment than building a city. I suppose the fact that our development causes the earth's ruin is another way of putting the brake on us. I think we should do all that we can to help the environment, but at the same time I'm rather pessimistic about how much good it will do. I rather think that the way we are makes the destruction inevitable and our increase in technology and waste in recent years has only accelerated it. I read someone recently who had the interesting point of view that humans are like parasites and the reason why we're having so many natural disasters and diseases lately is because the earth is trying to shake us off. I think the Second Coming will occur before we completely trash the earth (and then God can show us how to fix the mess we've made) but I do think we should make some effort to care for our environment in the mean time. I'm just not sure that the little things we're doing will be enough to solve the greater problem.