Eco-guilt

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

However, we don't have a normal recycling program at my condo complex. People in apts/condos are not recycling, at least in CA. All of our stuff goes into the trash bin. Or rather, all of our stuff goes into the landfills.

It's bugging me. We have one of those coin dispensing recycling things at the local market but I know I'm not going to make an effort if it's just select items. It's not about refund value. I don't think there's anywhere to drop off mixed recyclables.

My impulse is to find out about what I can do to get recycling into complexes. It's ridiculous that so many homes don't have this service. I've called our HOA before and they said it would cost more money, so we don't have it. I suppose I could go make a case with the HOA.

My complex used to have it, but it wasn't self-supporting. Not, I think, because people weren't putting stuff in the bin, but rather, because other people were taking stuff out of the bin and recycling it themselves for profit, when those profits should've been used to pay for the pick-up of the recyclables.

We don't even know where our local recycling center is, so unfortunately, we stopped separating our trash. If Stater Bros had a recycle center in their parking lot, I could probably continue recycling, but they don't and anything further is too far out of the way for a few cans and bottles. I think more Americans would recycle voluntarily if recycling were simply made more convenient. If every grocery store had a recycle center, for example.

We have switched to CFLs. Now I have the problem of figuring out how to dispose of a dead cfl bulb. But overall we're very happy with CFL bulbs.

EH: did you try CFLs or LEDs? And if not both, try the other and see if that's better for you.

[lashbear]

Originally Posted by Nephythys

no- because I firmly believe that nothing is as bad as we are told and most fear mongering is designed to change our life styles out of a desire to control- not conserve.

Originally Posted by Nephythys

We can be good stewards of our environment without fear and worry and guilt.

The Lashpair thoroughly endorse these statements.

We have, in our own little way, been green by using low-wattage lightbulbs, and have now got a Soda-machine which has eliminated the mountain of plastic bottles that we formerly produced.

Stoat says: If we worry about all the world's causes we could go crazy. It's a bottomless list. We believe the key is to avoid negligence when it's in your power to do so. Addressing a bottomless list is not.

And we've read enough to realise that if the world is headed for disaster based on "Non-Green" practices, then it's going to take MILLIONS of years for that to happen, and by that time we'll have caused instant annihilation by discovering the Higgs Bosun using the Hadron Collider and causing another big bang, after which no-one will care much for being green anyway.

See "A short history of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson for more info.

[Nephythys]

Thanks-

Just as many oppose controlling the population through fear as in "threat level orange" (whatever that means)-I think controlling consumer behavior through fear and guilt is wrong- and most likely dishonest.

All these years of the sky is falling and the trash is not overflowing onto our streets. The planet continues to do it's "thing"-

Be responsible in your choices-that's pretty much it.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Originally Posted by mousepod

How have you been storing your DVDs? I've been interested in getting DiscSox, but they seem expensive (esp when buying over 1000 in one shot).

We ditched the boxes earlier this year, and it's been terrific. We really appreciate the extra space.

We have a couple of these babies.

[Alex]

I don't go all the way down to sleeves because they annoy me, but I do move all of them over to slim jewel CD cases and then keep the actual DVD cases in a box out in the storage closet on the patio in case I ever want to offload the DVD collection (I'm pretty sure if I took a couple hundred DVDs in CD cases to the Goodwill they'd toss them; let alone tried to sell them in some way).

[Disneyphile]

Oh, and Ken and I have decided against having a child unless through adoption, so I think we've already beat out a lot of people by eliminating the impact of adding to the population.

That's usually my last resort argument to friends (usually with children) who wag their fingers me for not keeping a recycling bin in our itty bitty kitchen.

I'd like to make a poster and place a hidden camera next to it to see people's reactions - "Want to really help the planet? Don't have kids. Less people=less impact."

As for DVDs/CDs/Video Games, we compacted ours to binders a little over a year ago and love it. It has saved SO much clutter. I'm also starting the process of digitally capturing our old VHS tapes to either burn to DVD or keep on a drive. Most of the old cases get saved and then reused for my non-contract projects, or for sample reels.

[Jazzman]

Personally, I can't decide whether to consider the Green Movement/Global Warming to be the eugenics of the 21st century, or religion for atheists. Both are so accurate.

I have not a lick of eco-guilt, as I believe that global warming is B.S. I used to subscribe to it all, worry about the ozone layer, all that crap. Then I read State of Fear and looked up most of the documents in the bibliography and realized that the whole environmental movement is so far off base that it's like George Bush calling for sensible economic policy. I get into arguments all the time with hippies (gotta love Portland) who get their info from Newsweek and Al Gore and can't grasp that Earth's climate is an extremely complex system that is far greater in scope than anything mankind could ever largely influence and that almost all Global Warming evidence is anecdotal at best and completely ignores any findings contrary to what the alarmists and doom sayers preach. Case in point, the arctic ice sheet. The big news over the summer was that the arctic ice was going to completely disappear, but then, guess what. Nothing. Less ice loss than 2007. Oops. But, of course, they're right about everything else! Right!?! Riiigghht!?!?!

Anyhow, I should stop before I get really started. As far as Earth-saving measures, we recycle everything; glass, plastic, paper, cardboard. I may not be concerned about Global Warming, but limiting the size of landfills is a cause I can get behind. We don't use CFLs (may as well use candles, as far as I'm concerned) but we do use the cool Trader Joe's reusable shopping bags most of the time. We drive pretty fuel efficient little cars (though I should admit that eventually I plan to buy the biggest, most obnoxious, non-Hummer [cause they're friggin ugly] SUV I can find and drive it back and forth as often as possible with a sticker that says "Suck it, Hippy!") But that's pretty much it. Once we buy a house, I'd like to install solar panels, but that's more out of a desire to give the PUD as little as possible. All in all, I feel about as much eco-guilt as a Haliburton exec.

[Jazzman]

Originally Posted by Disneyphile

"Want to really help the planet? Don't have kids. Less people=less impact."

Sheer brilliance! I want one!

[JWBear]

We've been replacing our incandescant bulbs with CFLs (at least, the ones we can). I can't understand the objection to CFLs, as you can now buy ones that are color adjusted to mimic incandescant.

Another thing you can do is eliminate redundant lighting and/or reduce the wattage. So many people think they need to light-up their homes like operating rooms. One of our bathrooms has a fixture that uses six 60 watt bulbs... that's 360 watts! We took four of them out, and it's plenty bright. Homes are so much more cozy and inviting when the lighting is moderate.

[Kevy Baby]

I have to confess that we are terrible on the lighting issue because of the reptiles. We have four large dragon enclosures which all have a 100 watt basking (heat) lamp AND a 25 watt UV lamp (UV for their health and the basking lamp because they like temperatures between 95-105 degrees). These run on average 12-14 hours a day every day (except when they brumate, which is coming up real soon).

This energy consumption is then compounded in the summer months in that all the heat generated by the basking lamps makes the house hot and forces more AC running.

We also have a 60 watt basking lamp and UV light on the chameleon and a 15 watt UV lamp for the gecko.

The cats don't require much electrical energy, but they are draining in other ways.