Saving the Environment - A Missed Opportunity

I just received our local newsletter in my e-mail today. One of the topics is how to be more environmentally friendly with a huge emphasis on recycling and how to save energy.

Here are some of the points raised. This is copied directly from the e-mail:

Climate change - Five things you can do:

• Turn your thermostat down 1 oC
• Turn appliances off when not in use
• Replace your light bulbs with energy saving ones
• Do your washing at a lower temperature
• Get a home energy check

Cycling has been totally ignored:mad: Why?

It is the most environmentally friendly and efficient means of local transport with enormous health benefits yet this has been totally omitted:(

I shall be writing forthwith to our local Councillor and our Member of Parliament.

I will let you know what they say when I receive a reply.

From what I gather based on the items that were mentioned, it looks like they were reaching for a 'no excuse' approach.

I bet the criteria was something like:

something absolutely anyone can do
non-time consuming
little or no cost involved
do not take any extra effort to accomplish

..aka basic/lazy/broke things you can still do to change the climate for the better? :rolleyes:

Not really, Meridian. There is extra time and cost involved to everyone in this hare-brained, ill-thought out scheme. For a start our weekly rubbish (garbage) collections are going to be put back to every two weeks. Great. We'll be plagued by rats and mice not to mention flies and maggots and the stench. Even with weekly collections we had a hot summer last year and the stench of rotting trash was disgusting. We pay Council Tax to cover the cost of refuse collection (among other things). This year the tax was increased yet again but we're now only going to get half the service.

They're bringing in new recycling boxes for plastic bottles - but they are telling us we'll have to wash the bottles out. That means WE, the taxpayer have to fork out more cash to cover the cost of more water used and the cost of detergent plus the time taken to wash out said bottles. There's no mention of cans being recycled - yet. If they do, you have to wash them out and remove the labels too so yes, there is extra cost and extra time involved.

We've been recycling cardboard and paper for some time now. Fine, but very often the men who collect and empty the recycling boxes drop half of it on the pavement. Do they pick up what they've dropped? No, so our street ends up looking like a bomb has struck it:mad:

We have a recycling plant approximately 8 miles from where we live. Go there any evening or weekend and you will sit in a queue of cars. That's more fuel used to get there plus sitting in a slow moving queue with the engines running. Not exactly environmentally friendly!

The ones that should be targetted are the big businesses that insist on putting so much plastic wrapping on things. I bought a packet of biscuits (cookies) tonight. Trying to get into the packet was harder than trying to break into Fort Knox because there was so much plastic wrapping on them. I succeeded - eventually.

I am in favour of recycling, but the way they are going about it in this country is going to deter people, not encourage them.

And yes, I do agree that many people are just too lazy nowadays.

What really chaps my bum are businesses and their lit like Vegas block out the night sky parking lots, especially Wal-Mart. Open 24 hours and the entire interior is glowing.
Grrr

We've got that problem here too. It really annoys me when the government and the town councils are preaching (and forcing) ordinary people to save energy but have offices, buildings, car parks (parking lots) lit up like Christmas trees:mad:

It also annoys me that encouraging cycling seems to have been forgotten:(

Python - I was appalled at the amount of waste leaving our little two person apartment so in the last year we started looking for items with much less wasteful packaging, that has helped quite a bit. They also have a recycling drop off at the edge of our grocery store parking lot so I've taken to standing at the car removing excess packaging as I'm putting the groceries in, then I drop off the recyclables on the way out of the lot.

Starting this week we're going to hit the natural foods store (a smaller shopping trip than a big grocery one) on our bikes!!

Those light up buildings are messing up bird migrations, can you believe it? Instead of following the moon at night, they are distracted by mega cities.

Some of the old buildings like Cathedrals look stunning at night lit up, but the lights could be switched of at say, 11pm but they leave them on all night. If I remember correctly, when they first started lighting up churches and cathedrals they only used to do it on special occasions like Christmas and Easter. Now it's all the time. Apart from light pollution and knocking birds off course the financial cost must be astronomical and at the end of the day everyone who pays taxes is footing the bill. It is so hypocritical for governments to be forcing people to be energy conscious when they don't practice what they preach.

The present government in this country is on it's way out. We've had too much corruption and sleaze. Although there are many smaller political parties here the main two are Labour (which are or government at the moment) and Conservative. Although I wouldn't vote for either party (I support one of the smaller parties) the leader of the Conservatives is a very keen cyclist. He is destined to be Prime Minister in the not too distant future so perhaps we'll see pro-cycling policies coming in.

What I'd like to see (ambitious maybe):

All new roads with proper cycling lanes separated by crash barriers from vehicles.

Existing cycle lanes upgraded.

Dedicated cycle lanes put in every main route into town.

I would also like to see cyclists who do not use lights at night clamped down on hard along with those who refuse to obey they Highway Code. They are a menace to themselves and everyone else and give cyclists a bad name.

Here in California they make it very easy to recycle.

What makes me totally lunatic is the fact the my community, in the high DESERT does not have metered water. We pay a flat fee no matter how much water we use. So there is no incentive to save water. I have no idea why people insist on having lawns up in the desert. If you want a lawn go live somewhere that has a lot of water. I am so sick of subsidizing people's *&%$#^ lawns when I'm turning off the water while I brush my teeth!

Last year here in the UK there were certain areas where we had hosepipe bans - ours being one of them. Usually we get enough rain not to need to use a hose on plants but last year was the exception to the rule. I have a small lawn at the front of my house. OK. It turned brown but once it rained it recovered itself. Frankly, I can't be bothered standing like an idiot with a hose watering grass:rolleyes:

However, I grow a lot of my own veg and seeing all my hard work shrivel up really angered me because the hosepipe ban included watering veg as well.

The stupid thing was, you could use a watering can to water anything so you ended traipsing back and forth, sloshing water all over the place which ended up being a false economy. You could water your plants any way you wanted so long as you didn't use a hose to do it. You were allowed to use the hose to fill the watering cans...err...duh:rolleyes:

You could also use a hose or high-pressure water cleaner to clean the paths (came under health and safety incase of accidents on a slimy path) but if just ONE drop of water got on the plants, you could be prosecuted:mad:

The hosepipe ban was lifted earlier on this year but could be reinstated. As it happens we've had quite a lot of rain so the water tables are quite high just now. We decided that if we have a hosepipe ban this year we would divert the water from the bath and shower into water butts and use that.

At the moment I haven't bothered growing anything this year because all my veggie plants died last year and we're supposed to be in for a hot summer again this year. I wasted a lot of time, money and hard work. Usually I grow enough veg to last us through the winter. Brussells Sprouts, Broccoli, Cabbage - all shrivelled up and died:( The only thing that did well were my runner beans and the few carrots and parsnips I grew in large pots.

I could understand the authorities banning the use of hosepipes for lawns and flowers as they are not necessary, but banning the use for vegetables I couldn't understand as they are food items. I hate buying veg from the supermarkets because they are poor quality, full of pesticides and artificial fertilizers. I grow mine organically.

Maybe you could use a soaker -type hose under cover of darkness...:cool:

You could use one of these?

www.composters.com/docs/rainbarrels.html

We call them Water Butts here. Snag is, even the water butts were dry. Even when we had the odd thunderstorm, there wasn't that much rain with them.

It has certanly rained heavily off and on since Friday though - and it's been windy and cold for this time of the year. Went to work by car this morning and wished I'd cycled. Rain, wind and my husband had an industrial tribunal 40 miles away to attend - the last firm he worked for cheated him out of his holiday pay. He left me with the car at work and he took the train there and back, then met me in town. He won his case:D

The weather's brightened up now so I took the bike for a run to make sure she was running OK after my changing the tube in the rear wheel on Friday night. She's running sweet:D

Cycling to work tomorrow provided we don't have another wind and rain storm like the past few days.

We definitely have to encourage more people to take up cycling. Went into the local bike shop this afternoon to get a pump for my bike and was chatting to the owner. He says that sales of road/racer bikes have shot up in the past couple of months. He was saying that whole families are now buying bikes to commute with.

I saw a fantastic bike that I would love to buy for my grandson. It looks like a little motorbike. Unfortunately he'll have to grow a bit as he's only 18 months old:D This bike would be for a 6 - 8 year old. Still Grandma's going to buy him his first bike for his Christmas as he'll be 2 by then:D

Nothing like getting them started young:D :D :D

THis has bothered me, too (the original post).

Around here, the "remedies" are the "painless, something you can do and say you're doing something so you feel better" things... *nothing* that involves an actual change of *habit.*

I sometimes wonder if the folks whose livelihoods are invested in our voracious consumption of resources are protecting their own interests; then I reflect that generally, stupidity is morelikely to be a cause than conspiracy, and people think "well, *I* would never ride my bike, so we can't expect anybody else to."

Autos have, gradually, gotten more and more expensive and inconvenient - but it's been gradual. Makes me think of the sci-fi-ish story I read about where some kind of bacteria had infected gasoline and suddenly made cars periodically explode, and *that* had cured us of that little habit... and if there were some other gentler way to nudge people into having to cut back on car use and find out how relatively easy it is, once you've got the drill down. We've certainly "adjusted" to a whole lot of other less pleasant "drills."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Python

I just received our local newsletter in my e-mail today. One of the topics is how to be more environmentally friendly with a huge emphasis on recycling and how to save energy.

Here are some of the points raised. This is copied directly from the e-mail:

Climate change - Five things you can do:

• Turn your thermostat down 1 oC
• Turn appliances off when not in use
• Replace your light bulbs with energy saving ones
• Do your washing at a lower temperature
• Get a home energy check

---

I remember lists of energy saving suggestions EXACTLY like this being passed out 20 years ago! Didn't work much then, won't work much now.
The majority of people will not do things that inconvenience them unless not doing it hits them RADICALLY in the wallet.
Remember the old "Save water...shower with a friend" bumper stickers? :rolleyes:

People will start saving electricity when it becomes rationed or is 3x what it costs now. Likewise with water. They will start riding bicycles more when gas is 3x the price it is now. They will stop smoking when their cigarettes cost half their weekly paycheck to buy or if they can't qualify for health insurance or health care if they smoke.
Too bad junk food is so cheap. They should put a giant tax on junk food that would be put towards the opening of local gardens and organic local produce production. Then fewer people would have clogged fatty arteries and heart disease and wind up costing society a fortune in hospital care because they ate unhealthy fried processed "food" for decades.
Ooops...rant over. :eek: :cool:

I am guilty on some account like 50mile commute one way. Unfortunately, this is fairly typical of southern california. I would dearly love to work near my house but it just isn't possible at the moment.

As for being green, I do quite a number of things:

Switched many of the lighting in my house to CFL (compact flourscent light uses less than quarter of electricity as regular light bulb. down side is it does have mercury. Next generation eco friendly light bulb will most likely be thing called white LEDs)

We also have a victory garden. There we use drip lines which goes to each plant and to each pot.

We also have a compost pile for making our own "fertilizer" I also agree wholeheartedly with Python regarding chemical fertilizers and pesticides. A good book to read is by Jane Goodall (the chimp lady from UK) and its called Harvest for Hope: A guide to Mindful Eating.

We are still planning of installing solar water heater. The new generation of evacuated glass tube heaters can boil water. So its plenty capable.

For portable electric items with batteries, we do not use the disposable use once battery. Some have mercuery in them. Instead we use either Li-ion or Ni-metal hydride battery. Initial cost is about 5x but when you recharge 40-50 times (actually lot more than that). The foot print it leaves on our environment is that much smaller. And we always take the wornout rechargeable batteries to a recycling center. Not to mention the effective cost of that battery is less than 1/10 of regular throwaway battery.

A thought about battery disposal: A single D-size battery will contaminate enough dirt to fill a normal size house. Contaminate it to a point its considered dangerous.

I believe in Toronto, there is an ordinace to turn off the light in the office building. This was brought about by environmental group for several reasons. one was wasteful use of electricity and the second reason was too many birds were crashing into the high rises in the evening and killing them.

Anyway, I can go on and on... Its not just you Python, many of us are angry with lack of understanding and total disregard to mother nature. I am also a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists like I don't have enough things to do... If you want to know the dirty things the multi-nationals are doing check out http://www.ucsusa.org/ there might be a UK version as well. We are not driven by politics. We are driven solely from science.

Smilingcat

yeah I do lots of things so I have zero time for TV. Only time my TV is on is when I rented a DVD maybe twice a year. And I'm here often but this is my down time or during a break. Have no clue about TV shows like bones, American Idol, Dancing with Stars... Those are the only ones I've heard...