Sometimes thing happen just like you planned.

In a past post, I mentioned that you might be able to ask your landlord to consider making some changes that would affect our impact on the planet. Well, by golly, my landlord did just that.
Recently our complex installed hot water-on-demand in all of the buildings. Not only does the water operate on this system, so does the heat (which is hot water). I'm not going to pretend that their motives were environmental and altruistic, in fact, I'm sure they are just enjoying the HUGE energy savings, but I'll take what I can get.
In fact, that is exactly how it works. Once businesses realize that they can actually save money by doing the right thing, hey, look at that, they start doing the right thing.
Baby Steps...

The least I can do.

Most people, if you ask them to recycle their cans will say, "Of course. It's the least I can do."
This is so true. But it's also a start. I've known of people who, because of their home policy of recycling cans, they have passed that practice on to their family and friends. And then it gets passed on and on...
Do the least you can, and then some . We all teach by example. Be that example. It's the little things that make a difference in life. And in the life of the planet.
It starts with cans. Then bottles. Then paper and cardboard. Then Batteries. Then plastic. Then computers and other electronics.....
Do it.
Baby Steps...

Have we started a fire?

Jan 26th, 2012 by Vince Curran
Well, for Christmas this year, Amazon posted some pretty impressive sales numbers, especially on their very popular Kindle.  In the month of December alone, they sold 4 million Kindles.  Now this is a pretty impressive record and I feel it bodes well for the life of trees.  Especially since the sale of electronic books or e-books has gone up 175% in the last year.  Now if everyone used a Kindle for all of their reading, including books, magazines, catalogs, TV schedules, e-mail and school textbooks, that would represent a significant reduction in paper used to produce books.
Now this is a pretty obvious benefit, but there are some benefits that are not quite so obvious, for example, all of those millions upon millions of books don't have to be shipped from the printer to the distributor to the bookstores.  That may not seem like much, but I think anybody who has ever had to move knows.  What's the heaviest thing that you move when you move.  At least in my case, it's always the boxes and boxes and boxes filled with bookses and bookses and bookses.  And those bad boys are heavy.
For those of you who don't know, standard paper weighs approximately 75 pounds per cubic foot.  That means each box of books you carry when you're moving weighs approximately 75 pounds.  Now, when there's a bestseller, the publisher prints up a whole bunch of hardback editions, each one of these weighing between three and 7 pounds and they ship them all over the country, generally by truck.  That's a lot of weight in a lot of trucks requiring a lot of fuel, and a lot of wear and tear on our streets and highways.  Now, if these books aren't actually printed and can be sent zooming through the cloud, that saves a lot of transportation resources and their related costs.  Not to mention all the trees that don't get cut down to produce these books since most printers use virgin pulp.  In addition to the paper being used, paper mills, create an awful lot of waste products, which won't be produced if we're using e-books.
So, this is a pretty impressive technology and it does just what technology should do, save time, resources and money.  It will be interesting to see how the use of e-books evolves over the next several years.  It will be interesting to see if we can actually change the method in which we consume media.  It will also be interesting to see how much paper is actually saved over the next several years.  And how much fuel for trucks, and all that other good stuff.
Here's a great example of what technology can do.  Train us to do the right thing, which we could have been doing all along by just going to the library.  However, I salute Amazon and Kindle and anyone who uses the Internet and technology to consume the media that we have all become addicted to.  Now, if we could only invent some technology to make us stop wearing fur or wasting water.  Or maybe an app to make us stop eating junk food.  Or a gizmo to make us exercise.  Or a program to make us start acting logically and with common sense.  Or a whizbang to keep us from hating others and starting wars.  They may not be big sellers, but at least we can say we tried something.
Baby Steps...

Sack up!

There are so many simple little things that you can do which will make a difference in the world on a daily basis.  We have all been made aware of the evils of plastic shopping bags.  They are ubiquitous, which means something really bad, I think. 

To be honest, these stupid things are everywhere.  In some cities, they seem to be ornaments for the trees.  I'm sure you've seen these, wind-inflated balloons caught in trees all over the place.  Most people are aware that we shouldn’t use these plastic bags, and they usually have some reusable bags that they can take with them on shopping trips.  Good for them.  The real challenge comes when you make shopping trips that you hadn't planned for in advance.  That's why I keep nylon shopping bags with me at all times.  I use is a Chico bag.  You've seen them (I’ve gotten most of mine as gifts at conferences), in the little tiny stuff sack with the little tiny carabiner.  I suppose for women this is actually pretty convenient, keep one or two in your purse or hooked onto the outside of your purse.  But for men, not so much.  What I do is remove the carabiner, turn the bag inside out and fold it up into a small, flat rectangle that will fit easily into your back pocket with your wallet.  I actually have two of these in my back pocket.  This way, I am never without a shopping bag, even during impromptu shopping trips.  Simple yet elegant. 

By the way, that's the name of my new CD, which drops next week.

Now, Papa’s got a brand new bag.

E P, Eh?

It seems that ALL of the Republican candidates think that the EVIL EPA is one of the main things bringing down our country. This is the agency that tries to assure you don't have mercury, motor oil or detergent in your drinking water. These are things that I, with my limited scientific knowledge, support. Plus, I like the taste of non-motor oil water.

As I understand it, this is also the agency that stops corporations from dumping all of their bi-products into rivers and streams and the ocean and your driveway. Another thing that I support. I don't want animal carcasses or pig-sh*t or mining slag or asbestos in my local swimmin' hole. It tends to then get into your and your loved-one's local holes. Not a good thing, in my mind.
This is also the agency tasked with making sure that these same, or perhaps different, corporations don't release all kinds of toxic smokes and gases into the air.
By all accounts, these enforcement activities by the EPA have saved millions of lives over the last 30 years. I suppose an argument can be made that, because of this Life-Saving effort has forced the GOP to create even more jobs. Plus, there's no way of telling if the people that were saved were gay, or poor or Mexican.

Corporations can police themselves, they say. Sure they can! (I'm looking at you BP!!)
If they want to eliminate the EPA (who I don't think go far enough, can you say fracking fluid?), I say that any politician who opposes environmental regulation, volunteers their children into a program where groups of GOP offspring must drink the water and breathe the air and eat the food around these facilities. As they say, they're safe, so there shouldn't be any objection. All these kids can be home-schooled while on their jobs as "Canaries" and they can learn how Jesus invented the Hummer.
What's the worst that could happen? Stopping the GOP gene-pool?
Baby Steps...

Water you gonna do?

Whether you've practiced it or not, most Westerners are aware that we are running low on water and really should be conserving it.  There are a lot of ways to conserve water, for example, my wife and I actually shower together every single day.  There are lots of products, which will restrict  the flow of water in your home.  I recommend using some of them. One of the biggest offenders in residential home is the toilet.  Standards for the amount of water per flush toilets have gone up recently, but how many of us have a new toilets?  Every time you flush, you are using anywhere from 1 to 5 gallons of water.  This is fresh water.  Water that we drink.  Just to get rid of your waste.  Doesn't seem right, does it?  I've always thought that one of the smartest things you could put into a home, would be a urinal, because the number one cause of flushing is number one.  I finally feel vindicated.  Now when I go in the shower, I'm an environmentalist, not a pig. 

Not only are we flushing away valuable water, were also flushing away nutrients which are present in male urine.  I'll address this more in a different post, but male urine is now being added to so many compost heaps, because of its nutritional value primarily in nitrogen.

The most wasteful residential use is watering lawns.  Americans have become very enamored of their Kentucky bluegrass lawns.  Acres and acres of the green grass.  And this grass is thirsty.  This is also a huge drain on our water supply in the commercial world, keeping golf courses green.  Recently, a grade school child saved a city that he lived in millions of dollars, just by suggesting they turn down the pressure on water fountains and bathroom sinks in public parks.

Water will be the next scarce resource that human beings are going to fight over.  How are you going to help?