What's All This Talk About The Environment?

It seems that Global Warming has finally seeped into the public consciousness. I don't know how much of that is due to Davis Guggenheim and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, although I suspect it's quite a bit. Environmental concerns have been around a lot longer, but this one fear seems to have finally crystalized the threat in many peoples' minds. I see a change in Tammy's attitude toward it, a person who, despite growing up in a household that was fairly environmentally-conscious, until recently never really seemed to give it much thought. I see it in Bush calling for tougher fuel efficiency laws, and the auto makers coming out with hybrid and alternative fuel cars, and in Dell introducing a program to try to 'green' their products. I see it in John Q Public talking about it as part of everyday life.

Where I don't see it, though, is in everyday people actually doing much to change their lifestyle. I don't see a wave of people switching over to riding bicycles, carpooling or taking public transit to work, which are some of the easiest ways to reduce carbon emissions. I don't see lots of people out walking, but I do see more and more cars on the road, often with just a single occupant, often yammering on their recharge-requiring cellphones. I see people driving half a kilometre to their fitness club, rather than walking there and getting a bit of free exercise as well as doing the planet a favour. I see moms and dads still dropping their kids off at school every morning, many of whom live as close as a few blocks away. I see people at work still leaving their desk lights and TVs on, 24 hours a day, as if electricity grew on trees.

So I guess I'd characterize right now as, at best, a period of potential awareness. Maybe people are starting to recognize the need for a more replenishable energy model, but if they are, they're not doing much of anything about it. And maybe that's the normal process. Perhaps it'll be another few years before we see any actual change, as opposed to what we're witnessing right now: a belief that a change is needed - but hopefully it's those other guys who'll do the changing!

I mentioned that Vicki and I've tried to maintain a somewhat 'green' home for nearly two decades now. While far from being model environmental citizens, here are some of the things we've done to try to do our part:

1) I've biked to work on pretty much any day I could over the past four years (approximately 120 trips / year) and carpooled together the vast majority of the rest of the time.

2) We walk to any destination that's a kilometre or less away, including going for groceries (as we did yesterday) and visiting nearby friends - including one couple who always drive to our place. While the weather can impede this (we don't walk in pouring rain or if it's inhumanly cold), we try to never use "we're in a hurry" as an excuse to drive, since that's just way too easy, and also an indication of screwed up priorities.

3) We always hang out our laundry, rather than using the dryer, between about April and October each year. Considering how much of an electricity-hog those machines are, this is one that has probably saved us all kinds of money over the years, as well as being good for the environment. And in the other half of the year, we still hang up (inside) two thirds of our laundry - shirts and pants - because they'll dry quite nicely on hangers if you give them 24 hours. So I'd say our dryer gets used about 1/6 as often as it would if we just conveniently threw everything that came out of the washing machine into it.

4) One of our earliest adoptions was the introduction of a compost in the backyard. All of the food waste, as well as grass clippings and gardening refuse, go into the compost and eventually become mulch (or whatever it's called) for Vicki's gardens around the house. This has helped reduce what we put out at the curb every week, as well as giving Vicki richer soil to work her magic in.

5) We try to keep lights off in rooms we're not in, within reason. In other words, we'll typically pick a couple lights to keep on until bedtime, so that you're not having to wander into the dark, but we don't just leave lights on as we move from room to room. Our kitchen has a variety of lights in it, and the triple set that provides the most light is only on when we're in it. We've also begun replacing our lights with energy-efficient versions, of late - Vicki's good idea!

6) As I expect most people do, we've got a programmable thermostat and make sure that the temperature gets set down (in winter) or up (in summer) while we're at work, and overnight.

7) For awhile we were taking our own cloth bags, with nice strong carrying straps, when we'd walk to get groceries, so that we wouldn't need to use plastic bags. We've fallen out of that habit in recent years, but should really get back into it. After all, we've got more plastic bags right now than we'll probably ever have need of for garbage!

8) A minor thing, but we always use our solar blanket on the pool to try to warm it as much as we can without the heater.

And for all that, we still do lots of bad things, like having tons of electronic equipment that's never really off, and probably keep our house warmer (in the winter) and cooler (in the summer) than we should. But at least we've been trying, for nearly twenty years now, to do our part. As I've always tended to say, on this topic: "When it all comes crashing down around our ears, and our grandchildren ask us how we could ever have screwed up the planet so badly for them, I just want to be able to say that my conscience is mostly clear."