A pair of loonies actually. Funny how they can change one's way.
Recently my landlord fixed the coin op's on the washer and dryer in my apartment. Now it costs two loonies to wash, and two loonies per drying cycle. It's not that I wouldn't pay the two loonies as much as it's I seldom have that many loonies lying about and there's no change machine.
It's all for the better though. I've taken to hanging my laundry to dry on the shower curtain rod and a small, folding dryer rack I purchased. Works just fine for most things. Definitely uses less energy.
Turns out two loonies can drive change ;)
About Many Small Steps
Monday, March 30, 2009
Earth Hour
http://www.earthhour.org/about/
It's a nice idea, however, I think it misses the mark. Maybe not so much as stopping short
Earth Hour
The hour parts the problem. Earth Hour. An event to increase awareness re power consumption, global warming, etc. However, in talking to people, most miss the point.
I can't really blame them. Earth Hour's own website claims that this year, you could vote earth by turning off your lights. For an hour.
Vote earth? For an hour? Then what? For what? All sorts of electricity stats. Buildings and companies post statements re what they are doing for that hour.
What crap. If you want to vote earth, you'll need to keep doing whatever it is for more than an hour. Change your ways. Do things differently. I wonder why the managers of most of those office towers who proudly canned their lights for an hour on a Saturday night do not seem to realize they could do the same, for the whole night, every night, all year long. Sure, some offices are 24/7, but most, no. Why light an empty space?
Fortunately many people do try to change how they do things on a more permanent basis. I wish the organizers of earth hour pushed the idea of long term change harder. After all, having everyone go home, happy they killed the lights for an hour and saved the planet isn't really what we should be looking for.
It's a nice idea, however, I think it misses the mark. Maybe not so much as stopping short
Earth Hour
The hour parts the problem. Earth Hour. An event to increase awareness re power consumption, global warming, etc. However, in talking to people, most miss the point.
I can't really blame them. Earth Hour's own website claims that this year, you could vote earth by turning off your lights. For an hour.
Vote earth? For an hour? Then what? For what? All sorts of electricity stats. Buildings and companies post statements re what they are doing for that hour.
What crap. If you want to vote earth, you'll need to keep doing whatever it is for more than an hour. Change your ways. Do things differently. I wonder why the managers of most of those office towers who proudly canned their lights for an hour on a Saturday night do not seem to realize they could do the same, for the whole night, every night, all year long. Sure, some offices are 24/7, but most, no. Why light an empty space?
Fortunately many people do try to change how they do things on a more permanent basis. I wish the organizers of earth hour pushed the idea of long term change harder. After all, having everyone go home, happy they killed the lights for an hour and saved the planet isn't really what we should be looking for.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
The Last Continent
I watched The Last Continent by Jean Lemire last night. It's a documentary of a crew of scientists and explorers who winter over in Antarctica to document the affects of climate change over the winter period.
Beautiful scenery, of course, of a quite and forgotten place, but a place that factors so heavily into our climate, our world. The lack of ice and the disappearance of great glaciers in just 50 years are of great concern
If you see it at the video store, definitely give it a watch.
Beautiful scenery, of course, of a quite and forgotten place, but a place that factors so heavily into our climate, our world. The lack of ice and the disappearance of great glaciers in just 50 years are of great concern
If you see it at the video store, definitely give it a watch.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Friday, December 26, 2008
Arctic Ice melting Faster than Predicted
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2008/12/24/climate-passage.html?ref=rss&loomia_si=t0:a16:g2:r3:c0.0761463:b20424631
The entire arctic ocean could be ice free in the summer months by as early as 2015? That's only 6 years away (using 2009 as the year, as we are only days away from it).
Of course, people then argue and disagree as to the why's of why this would be so, while the rest of us ignore it as the experts are fighting over if it's good or bad, or if it's natural or caused by too much CO2, or if it will be by 2015 or 2016, 2017, 2020....and on and on it goes.
Does it really matter?
We know we cause too much of an impact on the resources of the planet. At some level we can't help it. There are just so many of us. Regardless to cause, we all know it makes sense to treat this planet, the place we live, the only place, at the moment, we can live, with some care. Reduce our impact on it as best we can.
Try?
Seems the obvious path to me.
The entire arctic ocean could be ice free in the summer months by as early as 2015? That's only 6 years away (using 2009 as the year, as we are only days away from it).
Of course, people then argue and disagree as to the why's of why this would be so, while the rest of us ignore it as the experts are fighting over if it's good or bad, or if it's natural or caused by too much CO2, or if it will be by 2015 or 2016, 2017, 2020....and on and on it goes.
Does it really matter?
We know we cause too much of an impact on the resources of the planet. At some level we can't help it. There are just so many of us. Regardless to cause, we all know it makes sense to treat this planet, the place we live, the only place, at the moment, we can live, with some care. Reduce our impact on it as best we can.
Try?
Seems the obvious path to me.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Recycling
I caught a TV news article earlier this week in which the topic of the article was the issues recycling programs are starting to have with the downturn of the economy. Problems are the cost of the programs to cities and counties were offset by the resale of the collected recycling materials to manufacturers. The TV report wondered if the slowed economy was to be the end or put the brakes on the efforts of environmentalists.
My thoughts at the end of the article, and digging into it more afterward, I think it just might be the best thing for these programs.
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
The focus really, by cities and places trying to reduce waste, has been a lot of focus and effort in the last one - recycling. Diversion of materials from land fill sites, predominately as most are filling rapidly or full. People happily recycle while feeling they are doing the environment good. In reality, we are still throwing the stuff away. Yes, it's better to try to recycle it than to landfill it, but the emphasis should be on the first two. Reduce and Reuse.
Reduce our impact, our consumption. Maybe not as much packaging, for example. Perhaps making things of a less disposable nature. Making things to last.
Reuse. Resealable plastic containers instead of covering bowls with plastic wrap. Reusable shopping bags.
Perhaps we should rethink the recycling part too. It appears recycling at the moment means shipping stuff, like plastics, overseas to a place where we don't care what fumes or waste is created in recycling the materials. Or perhaps the affect of breathing those fumes on the workers. Or how the energy used to recycle the products is created.
Progress....or have we made any?
At least it appears we compost our organics here. Little steps.
My thoughts at the end of the article, and digging into it more afterward, I think it just might be the best thing for these programs.
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
The focus really, by cities and places trying to reduce waste, has been a lot of focus and effort in the last one - recycling. Diversion of materials from land fill sites, predominately as most are filling rapidly or full. People happily recycle while feeling they are doing the environment good. In reality, we are still throwing the stuff away. Yes, it's better to try to recycle it than to landfill it, but the emphasis should be on the first two. Reduce and Reuse.
Reduce our impact, our consumption. Maybe not as much packaging, for example. Perhaps making things of a less disposable nature. Making things to last.
Reuse. Resealable plastic containers instead of covering bowls with plastic wrap. Reusable shopping bags.
Perhaps we should rethink the recycling part too. It appears recycling at the moment means shipping stuff, like plastics, overseas to a place where we don't care what fumes or waste is created in recycling the materials. Or perhaps the affect of breathing those fumes on the workers. Or how the energy used to recycle the products is created.
Progress....or have we made any?
At least it appears we compost our organics here. Little steps.
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