How 'green' are you?

I support Sporting Lisbon. That's as green as I'm gonna get.

To quote the Can song, I'm So Green. :P

I don't have a car or a driver's license, and don't plan on getting one until I actually need it (public transportation isn't very good in the US).  I go out of the way to recycle things, and instead of being capitalist and spending $1 on a water bottle every day and throwing it out, I spend $1 on a water bottle all year and just refill it at water fountains and save money, as well as the planet.  I try to conserve energy by turning things off when I'm not using them.  For the last few months, I haven't eaten any red meat and seldom white meat, but I could never cut out fish/sushi (it's better for the environment to eat lower on the food chain).  I tend to buy used CDs, vinyls, and books instead of new.

 

positively viridian

sleeper wrote: I'm still highly sceptical towards global warming and whether its got much to do with mankind or not

Have to say I'm with you on that one - I seem to remember reading the eruption of Mt St Helens in the 1980s did more damage to the atmosphere in 5 days than mankind has done since the beginning of the industrial revolution...

Still - if we do our best to be as 'green' as possible, at least we're not making things worse

Good responses all, many thanks - keep 'em coming!

Would you believe we have to pay extra to participate in the county recycling program?  Screw that!  There's stuff that our local farmer's market takes ("Your Dekalb Farmers Market" hey if it's mine, why do I have to pay for the dang food?!?) and the Publix grocery chain takes stuff they don't take, so we go that route. 

Public transportation in Atlanta is fairly sucky.  If I used it, it would quadruple my time in transit to work each way.  Fortunately I have I a reasonably short commute, but biking would also quadruple my time in transit.  I don't drive a guzzler, though I still feel the pain at the pump.  Really tempted to hold my hands up the next time I fill up.

We live on a nice green lot between two creeks, love to grow our own vegetables.  Lots of trees, keeps the cooling cost down nicely during the hot season.  I don't mow the lawn excessively.  Use reusable shopping bags rather than paper or plastic.  Yellow/mellow brown/down.  Compost...

Had a small carbon footprint before the term was coined.

Did I mention green was my favorite color as a kid?


Edited by Slartibartfast - May 23 2008 at 18:27

By the way if you don't think we're causing global warming, there is no doubt we're causing this

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Plastic Turning Vast Area of Ocean into Ecological Nightmare

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Pacific-Garbage-Patch27oct02.htm

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-garbage-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html



"The second angel poured his bowl into the sea. It became like the blood of a dead body, and every living thing in the sea died."

Edited by Slartibartfast - May 23 2008 at 18:54

I recycle, never litter, try not to make a lot of garbage.
I drive, I rode public transport all during high school and it SUCKED!!
Dirty, smelly buses, never on time, rude bus drivers.
It's way better having a car, but again I live in Los Angeles.

By the way, I hate the marketing term "going green".
Even Fox is going green.
Although I do like green as in Kawasaki green.



Edited by king of Siam - May 23 2008 at 19:59

I am a bit skeptical of the global warming causes too, but I do believe in making this a great place to live so I do my best to lower my impact on the Earth.  Turn off stuff I don't use (lights, water, computer, TV, etc).  I do drive a car, but it gets a decent amount of gas use (Mazda 3).  I love riding my bike, so I take that out quite a bit to run errands and stuff.  RECYcle always, and reuse paper that isn't filled up for whatever I could possibly use it for, before (or if) it gets ditched. 

I don't buy meat anymore.  Well I do, but only at restaurants for a meal.  I haven't been getting it for home cooking use.  Which I guess doesn't do much, but whatever.

I don't turn on my heat or a/c.  I have sweaters and shorts.

Apparently, there was some study done on the Prius and Hummer which showed that the Hummer was actually better on the environment because it lasts longer, and doesn't need go to the shop as much. While the Prius tends to go into the shop more, and also the lithium battery inside it is pretty bad for whatever reason.  Although, the Hummer is certainly big, useless and unnecessary, and guzzles gas.  I'll have to check what group conducted the research and the results to be more clear. 

Also I've been quite opposed to the whole Ethanol craze which is now being opposed in as quick a time as the same people were praising for its use.  There were studies well before people started going all out for ethanol that said it was not good on the environment which is why its use was banned in some states. Not to mention the food cost hikes which are becoming apparent.  Of course, all the who's who's of whateverland had to make Ethanol the "it" fuel to cut down on gas usage without think or I guess bothering to look at the available information out there.

Slartibartfast wrote: Seriously though, I love seafood and this scares the crap out of me.  Just because other natural causes can cause global changes more drastically doesn't mean that we haven't risen to the level of being able to have that impact ourselves.

My thoughts exactly. I can't believe that over 6 billion people and the volume of pollution they produce have no impact whatsoever on climate changes. Those who doubt the reality of global warming seem to forget one very simple fact, which many of us have witnessed firsthand: mountain glaciers everywhere are shrinking (not to mention polar icecaps, which are considerably bigger), and in some cases disappearing altogether. It's been happening here in the Alps, and I suppose in other mountain areas as well.