Earth Day

[filkertom]

Should be every day, really. Not that we're likely to actually physically destroy the Earth, but you never know.

Anyway. What have you been doing to help the environment? I'm switching to reusable shopping bags, getting a tune-up for the van, and suing Halliburton and Kellogg-Brown for billions of dollars in war profiteering.

Comments

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

"Not that we're likely to actually physically destroy the Earth, but you never know."

"I like the world. Some of my best evilness took place here. I wouldn't mind ruling it, in fact. I'm certainly not about to destroy it unless I get really, REALLY bored."
--Xykon

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Might be fun to break it down for raw components for a Matrioshka brain into which Terran sentience can be uploaded to live as thinking machines, a la Accelerando. Then again, I'm not-so-quietly hoping for the Nerd Rapture in my lifetime, so maybe I'm biased on this one.

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

Nerd Rapture!

I am so adopting this term! It'll save me hours trying to explain the inflection point to mundanes...

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

I wish I could claim credit for it, but I can't. I've heard it from multiple sources; attribution might be difficult, if relatively unimportant.

[kayshapero]

Just remember, the Rapture of the Nerds was followed by the Reincarnation of the Bewildered... (ok, I also liked Accelerando) Personally I want to achieve weakly godlike status. To start with. :)

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

What have you been doing to help the environment?

Well, recycling, doing some of my shopping by bicycle, reducing electricity consumption with compact fluorescents, and by getting as much light as possible from the windows, hanging my laundry to dry, and recently I got a couple of reuseable shopping bags (or use my backpack).

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

Yeah; I'm starting to lay-in the compact fluorescents (and have started a coffeecan for dead batteries and other heavy-metal trash).

We try

[capplor.livejournal.com]

Did the cloth diapering from an allegedly environmentally-friendly service when it was appropriate. Home composting, CFCs, small cars, WAS using public transit, chose the house near to the workplace.

[pjhandley.livejournal.com]

Actually, it turns out that I've been "living green" for a while (and I thought it was because I was poor). We hang clothes out on a line to dry to save electricity, recycle everything we can (not just glass,metal & plastic, we donate clothes to the shelter and take furniture & such to recycle A2; which is where I bought the filing cabinet for my business), reuse those pesky plastic grocery bags for the business (would you like a bag for your shirts?), have a compost pile in the side yard, etc. And of course, thanks to UofM building their new credit union branch 3 blocks from my house, I can conserve gas by walking to the bank. Every time I read one of those "living green" articles, I have to laugh.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

Work prevents me from doing anything too special. Time permitting I will try and see the Earth Day fair at the Daley center in Chicago. I've already been recycling plastic bags. I keep a few in my car for shopping and reuse them until they're too stretched out and torn. I'm doing something sort of anti-Earth Day and looking for a new job. I take mass transit now (train and bus) but I want something closer to home which means I'll have to drive instead. At least I keep my car tuned and have good driving habits that don't waste gas.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

The fair was nice. Got some good swag. 4 lightbulbs and an all purpose cleaner. (I know it's wrong to go to these things for the free stuff but I did get some flyers and found out a local store is selling mead which is good too.)

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Let's see - we're gardening, using recyclable bags, recycling plastics and cans, and using compact fluorescent bulbs - and hopefully, we'll start composting soon....

On a separate note, any chance you're going to be at Marcon this spring? Good lord willing and the creek don't rise, I'm going to be there - it's been way too long since I've seen too many friends.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

You're gonna be at MarCon!? Excellent! Yes, I will be there. Looking forward to it, especially the hugs-from-pretty-ladies part. :-P

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

My supermarket sells reusable shopping bags (made from recycled soda pop bottles, I think) for 4 for $3. I bought 8 and usually use about 6 of them each week. It's the best $6 I've spent in a long time. I love the bags and so do the cashiers and baggers.

Hey, is there a class-action suit I can join re: KBR, Halliburton etc. :)

[veritropism.livejournal.com]

I've been driving a 30-mpg car for 7 years now. I've been vegetarian for 6 years (equivalent of driving 8,000 fewer miles a year (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080421161338.htm) according to Carnegie Mellon today.) I ride my bike to work 1-2 days a week.

I'm looking forward to some people I work with asking me why I'm not "wearing green for earth day."

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Huh! I've been a vegetarian for a little over 10 years; I had no idea it had such a great side effect. :)

[phecda.livejournal.com]

Someone once pointed out that the most fuel efficient car is the one that hasn't been built. It takes far more energy to build a car than it ever consumes during operation.

Of course, owning a fairly fuel efficient vehicle to begin with helps, too. ;-)

[celticmom1967.livejournal.com]

We use reusable shopping bags, tutoro13 takes the bus to work and I drive only when necessary. I compost, garden, recycle, and use those new fandangled high efficient light bulbs. We also buy "new" clothes from rummage sales or thrift stores and donate our used clothes to others or VOA. I wash our clothes on cold water and only when I have a full load. Those are a few of the things I can think of off the top of my head.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

[devospice.livejournal.com]

I've been driving a Prius since May and happily getting between 45 and 55 mpg depending on driving conditions and whether or not I have the heat/AC on.

We do a lot of what they call "green" stuff, but honestly it's mostly to save money. We use cloth diapers on the kids and whenever possible Jen hangs the laundry out on the line.

And we are seriously considering getting solar panels this year. The state of New Jersey will apparently pay for 70% of the purchase and installation price. I've been shelling out damn near $3000 per year for propane since we moved in and the thought of doing it again this September just makes me ill. Especially since gas prices have gone up quite a bit since last year it'll probably cost me even more. What I want to do is heat the house with electricity and use solar panels to generate as much of that as I can. It'll be expensive initially to convert, but it'll probably save me thousands of dollars over the next 10 years or so.

Actually, that's the ultimate "doing well by doing good"

[capplor.livejournal.com]

Living green, if you do it right, is less expensive. Money spent is a pretty good first-cut measure of how much you are taking from the earth.

[jss]

I haven't driven to work since September. Of course, I haven't had a job since then....

More seriously, I recycle what I can (glass, plastic, aluminum, cardboard), donate used clothing to various places, and (when/before I move) will freecycle the furniture I no longer want to move with me (current list: 5 bookshelves, dining room table, and home office desktop).

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

Everyone is so obsessed with getting rid of the big cannonball. Really, practically, all you have to do is get rid of the crust -- or just liquefy it. That'll be enough End Of The World to suit our needs.

Has it ever occurred to you that the original inhabitants of this planet destroyed themselves with (to them) toxic emissions? We have a use for oxygen, but the guys who produced it, not so much.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I've been taking yet another a look at my food-buying habits, and doing my level best to buy food that originates within a couple hundred miles of where I live. Not just because it's fresher, and thus more tasty, but because the use of fossil fuel to transport food to places where it's perfectly possible to *grow* it seems like a collossal waste of resources. And I want to help keep those local growers in business, because when the oil runs out, we're going to *need* them.

Being an imperfect person, I haven't been able to come up with local substitutes for coffee and chocolate. So I try at least to buy fair trade brands of those staples. (-:

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

Hope you win the suit. No one deserves to be a billionaire more than you.*

*except me

:-)

[lothie.livejournal.com]

Switching to reusable bottles instead of single use for water, using more environmentally friendly personal and household cleaning products (in addition to recycling).

[catnip13.livejournal.com]

My latest addition to the list is carrying a spoon and fork with me. And a cup. If I don't have my cup, I do not get a drink. I also have only purchased bottled water twice in the past year (we went bottled at Disneyland, and 2 8oz sport tops in my first aid kit to use in case of sand-in-eyes at the park).

Reusable bags? check. (my 3 year-old always says "We don't need a bag!" at every checkout counter) Vegan? check. CF's? check. Cloth diapers and moon pads? check. Combine trips and/or bicycle? check. Clothsline? from Beltane to Samhain, check. Eat local? mostly check. I don't buy out of state produce, and we eat rice more often because it is local. Buy organic? pretty much always, check. Buy less? check. Shop used first? check.

[catnip13.livejournal.com]

Oh... grow some of my own food? Check. Plant a tree every year? check.

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

Only showering when I *really* need it. =P~~~ More seriously:

When it was time for my husband and I to buy our first vehicle in 1999, the only option we had that would comfortably fit him was a Ford F150. So I did the best I could with that by insisting on a V6 engine rather than the default V8. Also, we've kept the truck that long and kept it faithfully maintained. We are considering the Scion xB 'cause it fits him nicely (and me too!), but if possible I want one of the older models with the smaller engine - the new ones lost a lot of fuel economy!

Thanks to a joint effort with my workplace and the local public transit, I can now take a train and a shuttle that drop me off and pick me up fairly close to the building in which I work. I do that as often as possible, with occasional exceptions if I have an evening appointment (two cities over) or if the co-worker housemate isn't going in to work and thus my husband would be driving in alone - there is always a truck of ours going to campus 'cause of work stuff, so it might as well have two bodies in it rather than one. Also, we've talked the co-worker housemate's husband into taking "her" F150 to work rather than "his" F250 whenever possible.

I'm the one who does most of the grocery shopping for the house, and I've taken to keeping a stash of plastic grocery bags in the truck for re-use. Also, the house has taken to weekly menu planning that keeps such trips to a minimum.

We've been replacing with compact fluorescent bulbs as they burn out.

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

I've started taking the bus to work, turning a 40 mile round-trip commute into a 6 mile commute. That should cut out almost 9000 miles of solo driving over the course of a year.

There are some things I won't do though. I'll take public transit, I'll recycle what I can, use CF bulbs and these days if I'm home at night the house is usually completely dark except for a single bulb as I have excellent night vision. I go as long as I can stand it before turning on the AC or the heat. I do draw the line at the low-flow shower head. Those things are evil. I'd rather take a shorter shower with real water pressure.

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

I'm entirely carless. Granted, it's not for save-the-planet reasons, but that doesn't make it less green.

What am I doing?

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Well, I use public transportation for most of my commute (the buses don't run regularly enough for me to take them to the train station and thank you, getting to work 2.5 hours early is not on my dance card!). I recycle my plastic shopping bags (they get recycled through market).

You're suing Cheney-burton and who's Kellogg-Brown?

Re: What am I doing?

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Forgot to add - have switched nearly all my light bulbs to the fluorescent types.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

First and foremost -- I didn't have kids.

Overpopulation -- especially the "2.5 First-World Happy-Meal-consuming kids" type of overpopulation, and not the "25 bowl-of-rice-a-day li'l farmhands in Calcutta" type -- is the single most damaging thing done to the environment. And the huge giant elephant in the room that no one will touch. Mustn't talk about birth control, mustn't talk about sex ed, mustn't talk about women's autonomy or right to real information.

...Oh, and I bike to the store with cloth bags.

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

Oh heck, I didn't even think about that as a green activity. I just absolutely dread the thought of raising them. Though it's probably based out of my pathological need for *receiving* attention - makes me less good at *giving* it.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

I'm putting my collection of canvas totes to use as shopping bags also.

It's only peripherally enviro-friendly, but I'm keeping an eye out to avoid foodstuffs from China. That's more a health thing, though.

What I really need to do is start getting up early on Saturdays and taking advantage of the local farmers' market for fresh local veggies.

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

Recycling, reducing electricity consumption with compact fluorescents, hanging my laundry to dry, and reuseable shopping bags (Which I tend to only use going to World Market or Trader Joes, the "PC" shopping destinations,)and today, I had my students at school go on a walk and pick up trash for Earth Day.

I'm hoping to garden a bit this year, but my thumb is black.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

Well...

When we moved in I immediately replaced almost every bulb with new CF bulbs.

We started using reusable shopping bags last year.

While it might be worse emission wise I'm riding a motorcycle which is using considerably less gasoline than my V6 pickup truck. (45 mpg vs. 14 mpg)

While I do have a gas space heater in the garage I put programmable thermostats on both of that and the house furnace. Currently the garage one doesn't kick in unless it's below 45 degrees and the house one below 65.

I'm going to try and see what kind of home wind power I can generate in an urban environment later this year: http://nimitzbrood.livejournal.com/125318.html (I'd love to do solar but it's so damn expensive and we have just bought the house recently.)

I'm growing my own food this year. (Nature willing.) I already have germination on all my bell pepper seeds in the house. As soon as the danger of frost is past I'm going to plant watermelons and beans and surround the entire garden with marigolds. (An old garden trick against certain pests.)

And lastly our recycling is almost always more than our trash. :-)

There's more I want to do but as always time and funding are the issues...

[baphnedia.livejournal.com]

I just don't drive (much). Where I used to do 3,000 to 5,000 miles per month, I might do that much in a year.

Civilization

[sciffy-circo.livejournal.com]

I don't need to worry about destroying the Earth with pollution! I'll have terraforming and bio-domes, underwater and space colonies in MY cities while the enemies are still trying to attack me with pikemen and chariots! I'll squash them out with my giant mechs!

Er, anyone else ever played Civ: Call to Power on EASY level? :P

On the other hand, playing at GOD level, I've been wiped out by Lawyers and Corporate Franchises before I've even had a chance to settle!

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

We recycle everything we can -- glass, plastic, steel, and cardboard go curbside. Mixed paper can go curbside but it's often more efficient to recycle it at the post office. Aluminum and newspapers get recycled via the Boy Scouts. Plastic bags get recycled at local grocery stores... and we're moving towards reusable bags.

My project car, a 1981 Toyota, should get about 35 mpg when it's roadworthy. That's about twice what the minivan gets. I'm recycling old beat-up steel automobile wheels by using them as weights for the carport. Anyone have any good leads on places to recycle dead tires around DC?

I am still annoyed that in the FedroSplat, it is usually cheaper for *two* people to carpool than to take transit, even if one of the legs of the trip isn't at rush hour. (Case in point: driving to the closest subway stop in VA and going over to MD, then back, costs $6.85 per person train fare, plus $4.50 parking at the station. and about $3.00 worth of gas at today's prices: total $21.20. The same trip uses five gallons of gas if we drive: $17.50 total.) But if I'm going somewhere *by myself* where transit is feasible, that's how I go.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

We carpool to work most days. It's *so* nice that Tony doesn't have to commute across the lake anymore!

Plus, his driving me to work (I'm on his way) means my options for my daily post office run (part of my work duties) are either bus or walking. Lately I nearly always walk it, for the exercise (about 3/4 mile each way). No temptation to just drive to the PO if I don't have my car with me. :)

[bigbumble.livejournal.com]

Well, I cheat, my day job is that of air pollution inspector. And how did I get to work? -Check out my user pic.

[ms-anthropy.livejournal.com]

Earth Day To-Do List:

1) Make Dick Cheney voodoo doll from recycled plastic grocery bags. Stab repeatedly with recycled beer-can shiv.