Happy Earth Daze
posted by Susan Stark
This past week has been about the environment, coinciding with Earth Day on the 22nd. I was a little less than enthusiastic.
Unfortunately, like many holidays, this one has been compromised by those who oppose the very spirit the holiday is supposed to represent. Corporations used the event to trot out their “environmentally friendly” junk that people can whip out their credit cards for. And that includes the trotting out of ethanol and other supposedly friendly “biofuels” (never mind that biofuels cause increases in the price of food as arable land is used to grow gas). But the whole point of Earth Day is not to “buy” environmental products.
The whole point of environmentalism is to consume less. That is, to decrease your energy and material footprint on the planet, thus reducing global warming and the overconsumption of natural resources.
In the so-called developed world, especially in the US, this is not always easy to do. But it’s possible. You can start by doing this:
1) To decrease your energy footprint, make it a rule in your household that the last one leaving a room must turn off the lights and other appliances being used.
2) To decrease your energy footprint, install night-lights in the hallways so you can see without having to turn on the over-head lights. Night-lights use less energy.
3) To decrease your energy footprint, unplug ALL appliances in the household when they are not being directly used. All of them. Many appliances, such as a stereo or cable/satellite box, use energy even when not turned on.
4) To decrease your energy footprint, find out if there are any public transportation facilities where you live (train or bus), and use them as much as possible. Even out in the country, there may be a county bus system you can use.
5) To decrease your energy footprint, use a scooter, bicycle, moped, or your own two feet to get around instead of lazily using the car to go to the corner store or anywhere else nearby.
6) If you have a gas-guzzling automobile, go online or check around to see if you can have your vehicle modified so that it uses less gas per mile. Needless to say, this will decrease your energy footprint dramatically.
7) To decrease your energy footprint in the summertime, use a fan instead of air-conditioning. A fan uses less energy than the other. Also, take cool showers instead of hot showers. Not only do cool showers keep you cool, they also use less energy than hot showers. And, if it is REALLY HOT, take a t-shirt, run it under cold water, wring out the excess water, and put it on. This will keep you cool for hours. You can also wet your hair to keep you cool.
8) To decrease your energy footprint in winter, shut down the heat when there will be no one in the house or apartment. If you worry about pipes freezing, see what you can do to prevent this. If you want plants in the household that don’t die without heat, get plants like small cedars or spruce trees or any other type of evergreen plant. When there are people in the house or apartment, bundle up as much as possible and keep the heat on low. To keep cold air outside and warm air inside, put duct tape or weather stripping on the cracks of your windows and on the doors that you don’t use very often.
Reducing Waste:
1) If there is any item in your possession that you have no use for anymore, but can still be used by someone else, do not throw it away. Either give it or sell it to someone you know who wants or needs it, such as a friend, co-worker, family member, or neighbor.
2) There is website you can go to that can help you reduce waste:
http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites.html
At this site, you can post one or more items that you are either selling or giving away. You can also obtain items that others are selling or giving away. Here is another extemely useful website you can use:
At Freecycle, you can give or obtain items, but only for free. Hence the name “Freecycle”.
3) You can do the traditional method of decreasing waste, and that is to give items to your local charitable organizations (Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc.).
4) If you have electronic appliances that no longer work, you can recycle these:
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/recycle/ecycling/donate.htm
You can also do a google search on where you take e-waste to in your local area.
5) Finally, when you buy anything, try to buy it used. As much as possible.
6) And most finally, when considering buying an item (like a video game) or a service (like cable tv) of any kind, ask yourself, do I really need this crap?
14 Comments.
Drove the GMC down to Balboa Park here in San Diego for nice day in the park with my wife and 1 year old. I didn't realize it was enviromental whacko day until I saw all the energy consuming booths, a music stage with energy consuming speakers and amplifiers and lots of literature on paper. The parking lots were filled with cars. There did appear to be less consumption of was hygiene products and clothing post 1960's. One person claiming to be a chemmajor was trying to sell me capsules to put in my vehicle's gas tank and it would save me energy. But the brilliant scholar couldn't tell me what the capsules contained except that it was "patented".
I'll continue to consume and enjoy my happy life while you libs continue to live in your mire of gloom and doom and blame the world's problems on BushCo, corporation, Repukes and Ronny Raygun.
Have a great day!
Thanks for this post; I wholeheartedly agree that it's about consuming LESS, not buying unnecessary stuff, even if it is supposedly ecofriendly. Also, you will make a dramatic impact on your carbon footprint if you go vegetarian or even better, vegan. It really isn't difficult or expensive, and it's good for your health, too, as well as that of the planet and the animals you don't eat/milk. 😉
See http://www.quitmeat.org.nz/Harms-Earth/ for links about the issue.
#7: Unless you live where it gets both humid and hot in the summers. Then putting on wet clothes just makes you hotter.
Yes, edward. What is the point of "gloom and doom" environmentalism, if not to save Balboa Park from private developers seeking to turn it into apartment buildings so that carefree conservatives can remain in blissful oblivion?
You just keep voting laissez faire. You might be one of the lucky ones who gets to live in those mansions they want to build there!!!
Thanks for practicing ZPG. Keep it up.
Dear G.M. Palmer,
It gets both hot and humid here in NYC in the summertime, especially in August, but I find that wearing a damp t-shirt alleviates the heat significantly. However, I will concede that it may not work in other areas of the country. But I would urge people to try this method of keeping cool this summer and see if it works for them.
PS. A *white* t-shirt works BETTER than a dark one, because the color white reflects heat away from the body, white a darker shirt will attract heat. Just a thought.
Yep. Environmentalism is simply another commodity to be consumed. Until we have a sea-change in our understanding of ecology we're all screwed.
Until we have a sea-change in our understanding of ecology we're all screwed.
Again I blame Hamilton for making it too difficult for complicated issues to be dealt with. He also seems to have done a poor job incentivising congress to attack tyrants, thus negating the whole reason for the existence of our country.
The problem about wearing a wet t-shirt is that, when you have to leave your sweltering home with just that one ceiling fan and interact with the world — YOU'RE WEARING A WET T-SHIRT.
Also, in hot, muggy weather, staying wet causes you to reek. You can actually grow mildew.
I'm all for change and responsibility. But wearing wet clothing is about the most ridiculous solution to our problems I've read in quite some time.
As long as our government ignores the problem, it will worsen. Until people demand our government to pay attention, it will worsen.
Susan Stark in a wet t-shirt?
Schwing!
See, going green is a lot more pleasant than ed makes it out to be.
Folks, I said a DAMP t-shirt, NOT a wet one.
You run it under cold water, and then WRING it out, and put it on. The t-shirt will dry off in about two hours, long before it has a chance to mildew.
I am glad that one of you likes the thought of me in wet t-shirt, but we need to keep Ted's blog G-rated here.
😀
aggie,
What do you think about biofuels?
Uh, global warming is a big myth. The average global temperature for last year was actually lower than the average temperature for the last 40 years. What does that mean? Our average temperature has gone down one degree. All of you spazzing out about global warming can leave your a/c off if you want and put on wet t-shirts, but I'm keeping my a/c cranking nice and cold. Remember in the 70's, the big scare was global cooling. These are all scare tactics by a few whacko scientists who need to retain their grant funding. By the way, wait until we get "global warming" legislation and the price on everything goes even higher than it is now. Then you'll be really hurting. If you want to read a great article refuting global warming (so you can sleep better tonight) then follow this link: http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/01/resisting_global_warming_panic.html
I guess NASA are whacko scientists, too.
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/
Phooie on earthday celebrate CARBON BELCH DAY