Wasting Energy All the Way Around
Why are people spending so much time trying to prove climate change wrong? I don’t even bother with this argument anymore. To me, it comes down to one thing…doing what is right. And the right thing to do is take care of the Earth. Period.
What kind of person would sit around and justify polluting the earth? There are over what…6 billion people in this world? And people really believe that we don’t affect what happens to it?
Really? Really? People believe that? People really think that we can just do whatever we want and it will never matter? Really?!?!!
I can’t relate to these people.
Don’t believe in climate change already but to not see your own impact is ridiculous. These same people whine about taxes ALL the time yet, do nothing to reduce their overall impact on the systems that make our country work.
Let's make it local. Take the Spartanburg landfill, for instance. It’s filling up. The powers that be say, if we continue at the present pace of waste collection, it will be full in 20 years. Where do people think that waste is going to go? Where? What do people think…some magical fairyland for waste is going to pop up and consume it all?
Well it won't. Where it will go is poor, rural Upstate communities that don’t have the power to stand up for themselves. That’s probably where it will go…that’s where it is now. It will just spread and then all those urban sprawl communities will be upset because there is no zoning to protect their precious property from a landfill going in next door. Maybe then…they’ll wish they had spoke up a little louder at County land use planning meeting.
Oh, the cycle. The tangled web we weave…
OR we, as individuals could take a little personal responsiblity and be proactive and start thinking about trash in a different way. We could actually think BEFORE we create the waste in an effort to reduce it. What a concept being proactive is.
I know it’s hard to change but aren’t future generations worth a little sacrifice on our end? My children and their children are worth my effort.
You think it doesn’t matter if you use 10 plastic bags every time you go to the grocery store? Well, multiply that by everyone that thinks like you and then remind yourself that those plastic bags end up in a landfill or as litter and go nowhere. Ever. And then think about all the waste we’ll create during the upcoming holiday season and multiply that by a gazillion.
Your personal choices DO matter. Every little bit counts. How can YOU lessen your impact?
Whoever said we get to do whatever we want with the earth? Whoever said Americans shouldn’t have to sacrifice but India and China does? No one. And India and China will most likely not budge a bit on their forward momentum…and that is BAD news for all of us. America needs to set an example.
We all need to sacrifice a little to conserve for future generations. And we needed to do that yesterday because if you think we can keep living the way we’ve been living you are kidding yourselves. And if you think things are going to be the same as the middle classes of India and China grow and they start consuming as much as we do you are REALLY kidding yourselves.
If nothing happens in Copenhagen this week we all lose. We need the Globe to realize this is going to take all of us working together because we share this place.
We need to stop taking our home for granted. Deny climate change all day long…but don’t be dumb. You’re going to have to change the way you live. You can do it on your own…or you can wait for the government to make it so you will. And they will because you don’t have the right to hurt it for the rest of us.
Despite our differences, it’s up to each of us to do our part and do the best we can, where we can. Please think about your choices before you make them. Reuse a sandwich bag, ride a bike or walk when you can, change your lightbulbs, invest in solar panels. Small…big.
Do what you can.
It matters.
Regardless of what you believe, we're all choking on the same air and something must change. I, for one, won't give up until it does.
t
SeedingSpartanburg.com
on 08 Dec 2009 at 11:57 am # William Hamilton
We use reusable bags at home for the store, which are made out of recycled pop bottles. We try to recycle a lot of things. Printer cartridges, egg cartons. My son works to expand plastics recycling at Wando High School.
Its a big effort.
There is a huge area for improvement.
on 08 Dec 2009 at 11:18 pm # sylvie
Wow I just blogged about this very topic and did a major rant on a forum I frequent. However I have to take the conference participants to task on putting their money where their mouth is. The energy footprint they are leaving just attending this supposed climate change conference is simply staggering. When a city runs out of limos to ferry people to and from the conference and buses set aside for that conference are left largely ignored, I have to just shake my head in sad wonder.
You are right, we as individuals need to be the ones to step up to the plate. there is much we can do, simple steps, long proven things that work. These things, such as using less lighting at night can save a great deal of energy, especially in unused rooms or to light up outdoors. Do we really need all those porch, landscaping and street lights on at night, all night? for example. Then you get to commercial buildings and you really see lights needlessly left on…why?
on 10 Dec 2009 at 3:01 pm # cw
I live in SPartanburg City which offers curbside recycling. However, so many people don’t do it. It is free and kinda fun to see how much you truly can eliminate from the landfill. Some states require recycling, and if you don’t then you pay a fine. San Francisco just passed a law for mandatory compost bins for scrap food.
Maybe we should get tough in SC. Impose a fine for city residents who don’t recycle. I know the city doesn’t hardly make a profit on the recycling but that is due to only 10% participation.
If it were mandatory, perhaps we could make money on it and divert that tax money savings to more exciting expenditures (like parks).
When I forget my cloth shopping bag, I save those plastic bags for trash. Since, I recycle most things I only contribute one small grocery bag a week to the landfill. I only roll my cart to the curb once a month(and it isn’t even full). Every week I put out my recycle bin.
I encourage city residents to recycle… It is not difficult.
on 10 Dec 2009 at 4:13 pm # Ned Barrett
I’ll just say that I’ve pushed the pay-to-throw concept in the City. We charge for water by usage; we should pay for landfill space in the same way. I shouldn’t be charged the same landfill fee when I recycle and compost and cut down on how much packaging I use that my neighbor who throws everything away pays. It would be a fairly easy program to implement–mount scales on the arms that pick up our trash bins, recording how much each household throws away–again, think of water meters. The new recycling bins does very little (does it do anything?) to encourage recycling.
on 10 Dec 2009 at 5:00 pm # tammy
did y’all see this about Milliken on the news the other day?
http://www2.wspa.com/spa/lifestyles/go_green_save_green/article/upstate_business_turns_green_zero_landfill_waste/18006/
From the piece:
“Recycling projects are really everyone’s job in the company so everyone is looking out for those opportunities,” explains Cassidy Carlile. He is the director of environmental services for Milliken.
Most people know the Milliken building as the place to hang by the lake and feed the ducks. But the employees inside are feeling kind of green.
“Everything we do we first try to eliminate waste, that’s the best objective, especially for a manufacturing environment…we try to eliminate the waste we create or generate.”
Carlile says Roger Milliken started being environmentally conscious many years ago. “He did start a very long time ago before it was the vogue thing to go green or do things that were right for the environment. He established that very early on.”
The company recycles 100% of its paper and uses re-circulating cooling ponds for the air conditioner. “Total company water reduction has been about 50 percent over the last 18 years through hundreds of thousands of different projects,” says Carlile.
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Rock on Roger Milliken. Can you imagine how cool it would be to get the City and County governments to adopt similar sustainability projects? It would be a start.
And NED I loveeeeeeee the pay-to-throw concept. THAT is a great incentive. Think there might ever be a chance??? Maybe that’s something we can advocate for…
on 16 Dec 2009 at 7:36 am # Shelley Robbins
Tammy – I just saw this one. Thank you!!! In addition to recycling, we have got to start paying attention to consumption in the first place (and packaging choices). It warms my landfill-policy heart to see attention being paid here. We had no problem fighting a landfill that would have imported trash. But what will happen when it is our own?