Target 350
Hello family/friend/acquaintance,
Please take a moment to read this:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-mckibben11-2008may11,0,4443965.story
I hope you have the fortitude and human compassion both to understand the gravity of this problem, and to assume ownership of it. It is my view that doing all you can to conserve energy and to reduce your carbon footprint (the amount of carbon dioxide generated by your actions and purchases) alleviates the problem directly as well as indirectly, by supporting goods, services, companies, politicians, and other social forces that have small carbon footprints. Furthermore, doing all you can also makes this problem part of your daily life, and keeps it on your mind so that you are always looking for new ways to conserve carbon (you know what I mean) and new people to share your concerns with. And lastly, it feels good to contribute to arguably the greatest cause in human history. I ask that you accept the fact that reversing global warming is your responsibility (and every individuals) and that the preservation of the environment will cost your time, energy, money, convenience, and strength.
Consider the following ways you can be more environmentally responsible:
- Setting more conservative temperatures on your air conditioners thermostat timer.
- Voting against any politician (e.g. Clinton, McCain) that thinks tax holidays are even part of a solution to the energy and environment crises.
- Choosing groceries and products that were manufactured closer to you, rather than those that had be transported long distances.
- Calling LADWP at (800) 342-5397 (or your local electricity provider) and enrolling in the Green Power program at the 100% participation level.
- Going to IKEA (or your local grocer if you don’t care about price) and buying enough compact fluorescent bulbs to replace every incandescent bulb in your place of residence.
- Recycling your plastics, glass, metal, and paper, if you don’t already.
- Cleaning the filter on your air conditioner regularly.
- Using http://metro.net to plan a travel itinerary that utilizes public transportation for your work commute. And then buying monthly passes. Trust me, this is nearly not as bad as it sounds, except maybe for females that don’t feel physically or socially secure (sitting at the front of the bus helps). No excuses for males, unless you transport goods for a living. In which case you need to consider getting a hybrid.
- Other changes specific to your particular lifestyle.
Lemme know if you have any good methods of your own for reducing your carbon footprint. Machines/laws/technology/faith cannot solve this problem without human desire.
-Mike
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1 Comment
Commenting options at bottom.It’s scary and exciting isn’t it? I’m glad to hear you come out and advocate.
I’ve been on the DWP green program at 100% for about a year now. I hope it’s having some positive effect (and that the extra money I’m paying isn’t allocated to some research program that’s primarily administrative expenses).
Other things like low energy bulbs and public transportation seem like economic no-brainers, and my mind boggles at how few people use them.
And that brings up the only hope I think we have. The free market price system is helping already with higher fuel and energy prices. Nothing is going to have a positive impact on the environment more than $5-$12/gallon gas. I hope that we can also get rid of things like ethanol subsidies, stop trying to hide and shield the public from the reality of the situation, and start taking responsibility.
It seems inevitable that at the current pace we’ll see a boom in electric/hybrid cars, solar power, etc. All of this may be too little too late, but I remain hopeful.