The Environment

Well, I’m willing to accept the challenge of my friendly “anonymous” poster and revive (at least on some levels) the social and environmental focus of the blog. In some ways I don’t know that I’ve ever really gotten away from it, just shifted focus as I see fit. Clearly in the lead up to the Presidential election in November I voiced my opinion on the candidates (and issues) in a public manner. In my mind, Fu&& the theory that you don’t discuss politics or religion in public. If you can’t voice your thoughts then why bother. I supported (now President) Obama in large part because of his environmental policies. Prior to Obama I supported a guy now known as Vice-President Biden. I liked his cap and trade ideas on carbon output; I liked his thinking in general. Truth be told, I may have been the only person in America actually happy and excited by the original announcement of Biden as the VP choice.
Do I always agree with these guys? No way. I think the recent economic stimulus package should have mandated that all vehicles that are purchased through the program be hybrid (or natural gas at a minimum). I think less focus should have been on roads and infrastructure and more focus on renewable energy, but I’ll take what I can get. The legislation has key components to help the US focus on renewable and sustainable energy use. You can see more at http://environment.about.com/od/environmentallawpolicy/a/econ_stimulus.htm.
But is governmental legislation enough to reduce our (collective) dependence on non-renewable energy? Hell no. Each of us must take time to lessen our impact. Each of us must make focused choices to change our lifestyles to reduce our carbon footprint. Each of us has to determine where we can start, make a change, have the change become second nature and then make another change. You can’t change a habit overnight. It takes weeks, even months to change habits so collectively as a country it will take years to change our driving habits, our heating habits, our habits with how we carry groceries, how we pack our lunch, but change those habits we must.
I listed a few minor and easy changes I’ve made recently in a post last week. I challenge each of you to find a change you can make that minimally impacts your life, but has significant environmental impact. A few ideas: adjust the temperature in your house, 2 degrees cooler in the winter/warmer in the summer; use renewable cloth bags for grocery shopping, ride your bike or take public transportation to work, buy organic, eat less red meat (the veggie lifestyle is far more sustainable due to the methane from cow waste), change light bulbs to energy efficient. Take a few moments to consider some choices and commit to one change for a month. Make that change become second nature. Make that change benefit the environment, then make another change and repeat the steps.