Ten steps to environmental nirvana...

Arsillus wrote: Those are some good ideas, but Madonna gave the best: "If you want to save the planet, I want to see you jump up and down." If only it was that simple.

darqdean wrote: debrewguy wrote: Yes, buy all the locally grown bananas, oranges, tomatoes, potatoes, grain, etc etc that you can find; especially when they're out of season ! Then when you find out that the region you live in is not propitious to the farming of certain foodstuffs, pressure the government for relocation grants. Oh, by the way, does your local farmer use horses to plow ? Are the goods transported via horse & buggy ? And if you're on a fixed income, does the fact that someone else's utopic vision make them feel all warm inside do anything to actually keep you from going hungry because you can't pay the extra money for certain foods.   Eating food out of season is a luxury that was unheard of 20 years ago and is now something that we take for granted. Tins and deep-freezes were invented because food production is seasonal - now we swap those for aircraft and juggernauts to ensure that you can eat strawberries and bananas all year round. So, no, my local farmer does not use a horse and buggy to transport his goods - he uses a Boeing 747 to send his produce 5,000 miles away. The irony is that food is proportionally more expensive now than it was 20 years ago because we are eating more 'luxury' items than we ever use to. If everyone reverted back to the diet that their parents and grandparents grew up on it would actually be cheaper (and more boring obviously, especially if you are a vegetarian).

My grandparents were farmers, but I have a different job, plus the farms have long been sold. My parents' diet is just about the same as mine. Of course, the stories of getting an orange for Xmas is still told, but that is more as to what was the norm back then, not the actual price or cost.
Oh, by the way, my mom keeps telling me that when she was young, lobster was used more often as fertilizer due to the fact that they practically washed up on shore. So for them, it wasn't a "luxury" as it became later on.
It's a good idea to buy what you can (at a reasonable price, of course) locally & regionally, but I'm not about to give up citrus fruit just because it comes from Florida.

darqdean wrote: debrewguy wrote: Yes, buy all the locally grown bananas, oranges, tomatoes, potatoes, grain, etc etc that you can find; especially when they're out of season ! Then when you find out that the region you live in is not propitious to the farming of certain foodstuffs, pressure the government for relocation grants. Oh, by the way, does your local farmer use horses to plow ? Are the goods transported via horse & buggy ? And if you're on a fixed income, does the fact that someone else's utopic vision make them feel all warm inside do anything to actually keep you from going hungry because you can't pay the extra money for certain foods.   Eating food out of season is a luxury that was unheard of 20 years ago and is now something that we take for granted. Tins and deep-freezes were invented because food production is seasonal - now we swap those for aircraft and juggernauts to ensure that you can eat strawberries and bananas all year round. So, no, my local farmer does not use a horse and buggy to transport his goods - he uses a Boeing 747 to send his produce 5,000 miles away. The irony is that food is proportionally more expensive now than it was 20 years ago because we are eating more 'luxury' items than we ever use to. If everyone reverted back to the diet that their parents and grandparents grew up on it would actually be cheaper (and more boring obviously, especially if you are a vegetarian).

  Good point.

andu wrote: mystic fred wrote: Step Three -   get rid of  the car - if you do really have to travel build a bike from "recycled" spares. I find nothing wrong with the idea of personal transportation vehicles (or public transportation and freight transportation for that matter), I only think that it could be re-done in a better way and only good ol' hypocrisy stops us - what's so wrong with vehicles on methane gas or electricity? Oh, the engine doesn't "roar" and the car doesn't start off like a racer... well f**k me, that's really important...

Edited by darqdean - July 10 2007 at 07:19

debrewguy wrote: Did you ever wonder that even if the were no humans on Earth, there would still be environmentally damaging occurrences - forest fires, causing pollution ; volcanoes, causing global warming or cooling with the spewed dust, animals farting , sending methane into the atmosphere; beavers building dams & thus changing their natural environment (is it OK when a beaver causes flooding ? ), carnivores , eating all the meat they can, with the possibility of some of their prey becoming extinct; omnivores & herbivores overgrazing...

Perfectly good point - Mount St Helens caused more damage to the environment in a week than mankind has done since the beginning of the industrial revolution; add that to the eruptions of Mt Pinatubo, Krakatoa & our meager contributions to the destruction of our habitat seem paltry by comparison.

Doesn't mean to say we shouldn't at least try to limit the damage we're doing, though, does it?

Thank heavens we have environmental expertise of the calibre of Bono available, eh? Now if he were to get together with another of our great thinkers, his majesty Prince Charles (never one to say anything unless he's really thought it through...), imagine the changes we could make! I have to say I'm so glad that the raising of environmental awareness is in the hands of those who would never use it for their own ends, or to sell albums on the back of a few naive statements from a stage so crammed with amplification & lighting equipment that it's carbon footprint dwarfs that of a small country.

Makes you sleep well at night, doesn't it?

Did you ever wonder that even if the were no humans on Earth, there would still be environmentally damaging occurrences - forest fires, causing pollution ; volcanoes, causing global warming or cooling with the spewed dust, animals farting , sending methane into the atmosphere; beavers building dams & thus changing their natural environment (is it OK when a beaver causes flooding ? ), carnivores , eating all the meat they can, with the possibility of some of their prey becoming extinct; omnivores & herbivores overgrazing ; the occasional one in a million year comet collision causing planet wide devastation; the sun imploding, either blowing away the planet or causing its' death by the dying of its' light.
We simply are accelerating things. And getting money in return, too ...

The Whistler wrote: Step 37 - Give the Whistler all your cash...since, uh, money is a paper good, and therefore evil. The Whistler shall use your despicable paper money to buy non-tree destroying plastic...most notably spare copies of the very environmentally friendly Heavy Horses. All left over money will go towards building my mansion...my GREEN mansion. It will be built of emeralds. Cool in the summer, no need for AC.

If it wasn't for the Tull reference, I thought for sure this was from The T ...

Very good, except 9 & 10.

limeyrob wrote: Step 10 - why do people have pets anyway? Personally I think its a domination thing

Edited by Ghandi 2 - July 08 2007 at 16:11

Philéas wrote: Another thing: Don't leave things (TVs for example) on stand-by, turn them off completely. Saves a lot of energy. If everyone in Sweden who has a TV turned it off properly instead of leaving it on stand-by, we would be able to shut down another nuclear reactor (we've already shut down two in recent years).

But why shut down the nuclear power reactors?
Nuclear power is THE most environmentally friendly source of power available to man today, I hope we can start building a few of them here in Norway soon.