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Reading with comprehension is beneficial to making statements.
Who said don't flush the toilet?
Who said don't buy a new smartphone?
Who said to be cold? 66 degrees is not cold. You do not need to be in tropical conditions.
On the other items:
There is no reason it is impractical to shop at salvation army, except snobbery. They sell new clothing, and even fancy name brand new clothing. Even if you have some odd problem with previously worn clothing (do you throw away your clothing instead of laundering it?), it is still practical to shop there. Most people have no problem with buying/wearing used clothing that is in good shape. A few do, but I find it strange. those same people will borrow a pair of pants from their sister, but buy a paid of used (or even brand new) jeans at Salvation Army? Ewwww. Have you ever been to a S.A. Boutique store? It is mostly name brands, only items in perfect or near perfect condition. Some people will need to overcome their fear of doing something different. Otherwise it is completely practical.
It is funny that someone would say not buying new houses is impractical. I do not know the statistics, but I will bet that more used houses than new houses are sold every year. Certainly it is practical for millions of people. If you want to be green - join those millions. That is the point of this thread. Not that no one should buy new houses or cars, but that people who want to call themselves "green" or "woke" or whatever should not be buying new houses. It is hypocritical.
It is also very practical to walk or ride a bike on trips of less than 5 miles if you are not carrying anything. Of Course you could drive to your destination and then drive to a health club and walk on a treadmill for a few miles, but that would not be very "green" Or you could just drive to your destination and then spend the rest of the day sitting on a couch getting fact and losing muscle and becoming unhealthy. that is also very un-green. If you are going to exercise anyway, it makes no sense to drive short distances. If you are not going to exercise,then yes, you are going to be doomed to a lot more pain and problems as you age and you will be an added burned on medical resources - which is also very un-green.
Gardening and hunting is also not impractical. Millions upon million of people do both. Absolutely anyone can garden. You do not even need an average IQ to be able to garden. You can also grow food anywhere. Yes, even in apartments. Not only does it reduce pollution and reduce waste, it will make you more healthy and reduce your use of medical resources (which generate a lot of trash and pollution and bio hazard materials. Being unhealthy is very un-green.
Why is showing with a friend impractical? Again millions of people shower with their spouse/domestic partner. Hopefully your spouse is your friend. this is only impractical for people who have no friends. (it was also included as a facetious comment, but that is high end stuff to understand - so I will give you that one. Showering with a friend is impractical, especially for people with no friends. You can still be green and shower alone - at least as long as you do military style showers.)
Actually stopping water or at least reducing water your lawn is not only a practical thing to do if you want to be "green" for most people it is necessary. Read the manual that came with your house. It tells you not to over-water. Why? Because you will eventually cause damage to your foundation. If you have a lush green lawn year round, you are over-watering. Another green option for lawns is to not water your lawn with potable water. for example, if you live on a lake, stream or river, you could draw water out for your lawn and as long as you do not use chemicals or fertilizers on your lawn it is fine. Naturally you do not use chemicals or fertilizer on your lawn if you claim to be "green" That goes without saying so it does not need to be included in the list.
no none of these things are impractical. they are actually very easy and practical things to do if you want to claim to be green. What is impractical is to joust at windmills, berate others online for saying things you consider to be anti-green, or to try to force other people to do what you are not even doing yourself. If all the people claiming to be green or even silently wanting to be green would do these simple little things that take very little effort and cause only a tiny bit of inconvenience, the green movement would accomplish more in a year than they have in 30 years of protesting, demanding, belittling, suing, etc.
If you did not want advice, then why did you click on this thread and read it?
My one addition is add a bird feeder to your garden. Also plant bird friendly plants that produce seeds (sunflowers, coneflowers, black eyed susans) or berries (hollies, dogwoods, pokeweed).
We have lost "Since the 1970s, North America has lost 3 billion birds, nearly 30% of the total, and even common birds such as sparrows and blackbirds are in decline. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019...0-surveys-show
The reason they are dying is a lost of nesting areas and food sources. Not mowing even a small section of lawn gives ground birds nesting areas and the grass seeds are good source of food. Besides, not mowing a small section is easy and a time saver. It saves money using less gasoline. It is a win-win.
The main thing that's becoming difficult today is all the packaging. You go to a store to buy something and they tell you to go home and order it online. And that's how we get stuck with all these boxes and plastic packaging. It's because the stores won't carry the merchandise anymore and they make us order it.
Another thing is why do so many places use styrofoam? Even the eco-friendly place near me packages your sandwich in a styrofoam box. I had to ask them to stop but I think they still use the styrofoam for everyone else.
Why do people buy single plastic bottles of water. We used to take water with us in a container with a cover. And hasn't anyone ever heard of thermoses? Keep things hot or cold and you just wash them out and use them again?
The coffee shops are returning to paper cups for their coffee like they used to. Dunkin' Donuts is one.
As for plastic straws, what was wrong with paper straws and actually, why do we even need straws? There aren't that many drinks that are so thick that you need a straw.
Gardening, of course, but a lot of apartments won't allow it. Sometimes you can buy a grow-box and still plant a few vegetables if you have a balcony or a little space beside the doorway.
But turning the heat down to 66 in winter won't work for a lot of people. Not when it's sub freezing out and the place is draughty. I mean apartments that you are not allowed to winterize.
At least my state has banned plastic bags from the grocery stores. We bring cloth bags--just like we did back when we were hippies! But now they don't laugh at us for doing so--it's the law.
Yes, some of this stuff is like going back in time but we've gone so far "forward" that we've become wasteful and are continuing to damage the planet. Time to step back a little.
If you spend your time concentrating on the little things you feel good but accomplish very little.
But that's how change happens. Lots of people making small changes adds up.
Even here, there's a fast-lane at the grocery for those using their own bags. We reuse almost all our plastic bags or containers. I wash out ziplocks and reuse paper towels.
Using power strips makes it easy to turn off devices when not in use.
We do laundry just once a week, and watch our water consumption closely.
It's just awareness, not so hard to do.
I do garden on my condo balcony, but with only a handful of beans or peas, it didn't add up to much. Got lots of squash, though. It is fun, to me.
Not having a car is our main "green" contribution.
Last edited by Sand&Salt; 10-19-2019 at 12:55 PM..
If you spend your time concentrating on the little things you feel good but accomplish very little.
I gotta agree. One of these days I want to read a book (not yet written) called "The Myth of Do Just One Thing." The big problems are not plastic straws. They are fossil fuels. Unless everyone switches to electric cars (but then where does the electricity come from?) and industry stops using so much energy and polluting, there isn't much that is going to change.
I always wonder, instead of trying to reduce plastic waste, why don't the powers that be concentrate on keeping trash out of the oceans? Why does trash have to be dumped in the ocean?
I have this discussion with a "green" friend and he says, "We don't have the right to give up, because of the next generation" and I suppose he is right, but I am very pessimistic about the future. BTW, neither he nor I have kids.
I am not saying, don't bother to do the little things. Do them if you want, but don't expect that they are going to change the world.
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3. Get rid of that extra fridge or freezer. You really do not need to store that much in cold storage unless you have five or seven children. Why is all that stuff in there?
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To feed divers chocolate when they come out of the water chilled by giving them candy from the day after sales. To see that eggs don't go to waste two weeks after their expiration date by baking them into pan cookies and then freezing the cut squares. To buy fish and beef at the start of the month, to only go to the grocery store once or twice a month, to buy in bulk, and store.
And, I suppose if I ever start hunting, to store the venison.
I gotta agree. One of these days I want to read a book (not yet written) called "The Myth of Do Just One Thing." The big problems are not plastic straws. They are fossil fuels. Unless everyone switches to electric cars (but then where does the electricity come from?) and industry stops using so much energy and polluting, there isn't much that is going to change.
I always wonder, instead of trying to reduce plastic waste, why don't the powers that be concentrate on keeping trash out of the oceans? Why does trash have to be dumped in the ocean?
I have this discussion with a "green" friend and he says, "We don't have the right to give up, because of the next generation" and I suppose he is right, but I am very pessimistic about the future. BTW, neither he nor I have kids.
I am not saying, don't bother to do the little things. Do them if you want, but don't expect that they are going to change the world.
Sometimes all we can do are the little things. The big stuff is beyond our control. Probably gets into politics and Big Oil and other big corporations that are intent on promoting plastic and other polluting products. For them, it's all about the money.
Plastic, of course, comes from petroleum, and there isn't much we can do to fight Big Oil. Vote them out? Vote out the politicians who probably get paid off? We can try but it seems we don't get anywhere.
And I don't know if the trash gets dumped in the ocean or if it just ends up there, washed there or thrown there from cruise ships. It's overwhelming. So about all I can do is the small stuff.
Stop talking about it and take action. You can do meaningful things today. They may seem like little things but doing these things will accomplish far more than protesting (especially if you drive to the protest) or posting memes. The solution is for everyone to move in tiny increments that are easy to do and not really all that inconvenient. If you start a trend, it will have a significant impact.
1. Take the stairs whenever you are travelling ten floors or less (I have be knees is not an excuse. I have bad knees too, go slow at first it will get better with practice). It takes too long is also not a valid excuse. You are talking about a minute or less difference from riding in an electric elevator. The exercise will also make you healthier and result in less demand on medical resources.
2. Unplug everything in your house except clocks and refrigerators when not in use.
3. Get rid of that extra fridge or freezer. You really do not need to store that much in cold storage unless you have five or seven children. Why is all that stuff in there?
4. Do not buy new houses. There are more than enough used homes right now. They work just fine. No need to waste resources and labor building unneeded new homes just to have new. Also don’t buy new cars unless there is a specific valid reason for doing so. Buying a new Prius is actually less "green' than buying a used impala. Yes some new cars need to be made and someone will buy them. It does not need to be you.
5. Walk or ride a bicycle for any trip that is less than five miles unless you need to haul things. Yes you can walk or ride in cold or rainy weather - bundle up. The exercise will also make you healthier and result in less demand on medical resources.
6. Don’t recycle – it is pointless (the recycled stuff goes into landfills or incinerators anyway). Instead, reduce the amount of trash you produce. Buy things with less or no packaging. Buy in bulk. Re-use/re-purpose whatever you can. Buy things at stores rather than ordering boxes from Amazon.
7. Turn your thermostat down or up. 66 is warm enough. 71 is cool enough. People survived without central heat and air for decades. You can do it too. Put on some socks.
8. Conserve water, even if you live in really wet places, it still has to be processed. Take military style showers, flush toilets once. When the time comes to replace your toilet innards, install a dual flush system (costs about $30 rather than about $14).
9. Plant a tree in your yard. Make sure it is s decent type of tree that will nto create problems and need to be cut down.
10. Carpool. Whatever happened to carpooling? My father (89 years old) still had friends from his work carpool.
11. Reload your ammo. Collect the cartridges and reload them Copper is a limited resource and requires all sorts of mining and processing. There is no need to throw them away. You can do this while or instead of watching TV.
12. Garden and hunt. The less food processing and packaging and shipping is needed the better.
13. Stop watering your lawn. If it was meant to live, it will live.
14. Keep your clothing longer and/or shop at Salvation Army. Tons of perfectly serviceable clothing is tossed into landfills daily. You really do not need a new pair of fancy sneakers every fall.
15. Exercise. Even if oyu make a tiny effort. Walk ten blocks twice a day, you improved health will conserve all sort of different resources and reduce pollution.
16. Exercise outside. Health clubs use power, eat up resources for equipment, etc. Join a hiking club, or a walking club, or a dance class, or. . .
17. Donate your body when you die. You do not need it but someone else does. Even if they do not use it for spare parts, they need corpses for study, experiments and teaching. Burial or cremation is a waste of resources. Those left behind do not really need a box of ashes that might or might not be what remains of you body. It is not you.
18. Stop buying every new smart phone that comes out. If your phone still works – it is fine. Even if the screen is cracked – you new phone will have a cracked screen in a few months and you will be back where you started. You do not need a new state of the art phone. They all do the same things.
19. Shower with a friend. Conserve water and have fun.
Your ideas?
No excuses. No talking about it. Pick ten things from the list and do it. Or add some more things and do those. Forget the "big' stuff and blaming companies etc. Do something you can actually influence.
As far as the housing thing goes, I'd add a few things:
--Live in a smaller place. Less to heat, cool, clean, and maintain. Americans have the most living space per capita of any other country. And 69% of us live payday to payday. Housing is the biggest part of our collective budget. It's contributing to us being broke. And it's not making us happier. We spend 80% of our time in 20% of our living space.
--Do the boring things like caulking for energy efficiency.
Taking the stairs instead of the elevator? Really? Did you account for the extra calories burned by taking the stairs? And then account for the extra food I will have to consume to take the stairs?
Oh, yeah, Americans, the fattest people on the planet, really need to eat more to get those extra calories so they can walk up stairs! Just LOL.
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