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Earth Day
04-22-2013, 01:20 PM
If you're one of the people that believes climate change is a hoax then there's no point in responding here. This thread is for those that believe man and his fuel usage is having a runaway impact on the atmosphere.
Given that we can't look to government at this point for any solution to this longterm problem, are you taking voluntary steps in your own lives to reduce your impact on the planet? Are there any ways that you try to be more energy efficient in your lifestyle?
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Earth Day
04-22-2013, 02:50 PM
Good topic,
Besides the obvious hippie answers like growing your own hemp, and eating sawdust, I feel the number one solution is biking to work.
In 2012 I biked to work roughly 175 days. With 6 miles (give or take) roundtrip of commute, I rode about 1050 miles to work. With a 20 MPG car (in the city) I saved roughly 53 gallons of gas which results in $180 saved ($3.40/gallon) for that year. This is not counting the countless other trips I used with my bike instead of my car.
While my contribution may not make a blip on the radar screen whatsoever, collectively getting communities on board can have a chained reaction impact that can start to lead to improvements. More bike commuters can lead to > a healthier public > leading to a more health conscious public > which leads to healthier food choices, lower health care costs, more sporadic doctor's visits, and of course a smaller carbon footprint.
Of course this scenario is filled with idealism, but it is closer to fruition than it was 10 years ago.
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Earth Day
04-22-2013, 03:26 PM
Things I do (or try to do):
- leave things unplugged that are not in use
- turn off lights when not in a room
- turn off heat when I go to work (in cold weather)
- don't use a/c (easy because I am in Europe and I don't have a/c)
This is an issue sans "climate change" whether you believe in it or not everyone wants clean air to breathe and water to drink, but that is not how the debate is framed.
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Earth Day
04-22-2013, 03:44 PM
Simple.
If Americans start living more like Europeans much of this issue goes away.
I care nothing for Earth day as it is a contrived puppy holiday to make SWPL feel good. I will start worrying about the earth when evreybody has a fair chance to fed themselves and prosper. Until then in cant jive with this hippie shit because Americans (and Canadian to a great extent) are the biggest culprits of GHGs and all we do is make puppy holidays like this instead of addressing the structral concerns.
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Earth Day
04-22-2013, 03:57 PM
My question is, why aren't we targetting the bigger emitters?
Take the Formula 1 industry for example. That industry must be responsible for an exorbinant amount of CO2 emissions - right from testing cars to practice laps to all the transport of the vehicles all around the globe. Yet no one is even remotely lobbying them to make them change their ways.
So what difference is it going to make if I switch off lights for an hour once a year?
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Earth Day
04-22-2013, 04:49 PM
We certainly can't expect the government to step in and do anything.
The way I see it, the people on this forum are ambitious people, the type that can make a difference. I feel like all of the activists who don't do anything but lecture people can convince others to live more sustainably (recycling, biking, saving water, etc.). I don't want to lecture to people who won't listen to me.
The way I want to make a difference is to get into business and change things. The reason CO2 emissions are so high is because it isn't economically beneficial for companies to lower them. There's your economic opportunity right there.
I'm an engineering student and my dream is to start a company that can provide an opportunity for buildings, automobiles, factories, etc. to lower emissions AND save money on energy production.
Not realistic, but a kid can dream, no?
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Earth Day
04-22-2013, 06:59 PM
10,000 sq ft house
thousands of gallons of water a month
1 grand a month electric bill
Drives sports cars SUVs
Go after them before 3rd world countries get screwed by carbon control
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Earth Day
04-22-2013, 07:08 PM
I think about how much fuel would be sparred if the oil lobbyists didn't push to have the suburbs built in a way that requires great amount of gas to get around.
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Earth Day
04-22-2013, 07:14 PM
GM and Firestone tire bought up about 40 or 50 public transit systems and junked them in the 40's or 50's. They got found guilty of a conspiracy. their fine: $1.
The business of America is business.
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Earth Day
04-22-2013, 07:16 PM
I try my hardest not to litter, and rarely do.
I turn off things when I'm not using them.
I don't drive at the moment.
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Earth Day
04-22-2013, 07:28 PM
I celebrated Earth Day like every other Earth Day, by chopping down a live tree and using its embers to cook my skirt steak.
I planted about 30 trees on Arbor day, which was the real holiday for conservationists before the Marxists and Hippies tried to rationalize away the fact that communism ends in famine and shortages.
-We use plastic because glass bottles cost way more in payload per gallon of gas.
-We use one use grocery bags because reusable ones are e. coli breeding grounds when you don't wash them.
-We buy fruit from Ecuador because it uses less fuel to transport a banana halfway across the world in a shipping container than it does to buy it from the small organic farm 50 miles away.
Are all of these things unmitigated goods? Of course not, but the policy proposals against them are almost always never based on rational thought.
The real culprit of American pollution is the female, who as a group:
- Nearly doubled the labor force to outsource the home economy to others, letting themselves be taxed for the work women did anyway at home.
- Nearly doubled the ubiquitousness of the automobile by requiring a second family car so they can go to their job of watching somebody else's kids.
- Drive most consumption to begin with.
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Earth Day
04-22-2013, 07:40 PM
If you like the environment, don't consume, it's that simple.
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Earth Day
04-22-2013, 08:14 PM
I dont have a car so I use my mountain bike to get around, my city is very small so this is very easy to do, at most it takes me 30 minutes to get anywhere. I buy very little in the way of personal possessions (all my belongings could fit into a large backpack) most of my money goes to rent, food, clothes and paying student loans. In the future I can see that the biggest contribution I will be making to rising CO2 levels is air travel.
Girls should be an ornament to the eye, not an ache in the ear.