Yeah, but what can I do about it?
Last year I watched two documentaries that scared the bejeesus out of me: Who Killed the Electric Car? and An Inconvenient Truth.
After watching them, it was pretty clear that [edit] (regardless of arguments for or against the legitimacy of the minutae of facts involved) [/edit] we are facing some scary odds if we want to save our planet and ourselves. Despite these utterly depressing facts, I decided to try to make some changes in my life. I’m not a politician, and I don’t have a great deal of influence, but I must be able to do something. After watching these two documentaries, here are some of the things I changed in my life in order to help reduce my carbon-footprint:
1. I sold my jeep. I didn’t have very much expendable income at the time, and I couldn’t afford to change to an electric and/or hybrid vehicle. But I sold my gas-guzzling, exhaust-spewing jeep and traded up to a used bmw. It uses premium fuel and certainly doesn’t kick out as much exhaust as the old jeep. After that I also just stopped using my vehicle so much. I started walking just about everywhere whenever possible.
2. Less Bags. I stopped accepting plastic bags at the grocery store and instead I am one of those hippies that carries a bunch of cloth bags with him into the grocery store.
3. Lights Out. I started paying more attention to how much electricity I use in my home. I make a point of turning off appliances and lights when I’m not using them. I was shocked to discover how often I was leaving these things turned on before!
4. New Windows. I had all of the windows in my house replaced with dual-pane low-emission argon windows.
Since I made those changes, I’ve felt like I’m doing pretty well for myself. I was trying to think of what else I could do, but I really didn’t know.
Yesterday I watched another new documentary called The 11th Hour. This is another one about global warming, but it actually goes well beyond and attempts to explain (with the help of some of the world’s most renowned scientists) how we came into the predicament we are currently in, and what we need to do right now in order to save ourselves and our planet. This documentary was far more informative than the previous two mentioned above, and the facts it spills out are utterly terrifying. I am seriously scared, and I think it’s a good thing. I think we all need to be scared so we really start to make serious changes in our lives.
We can’t just keep blindly idling our way through our day-to-day lives without seeing the bigger picture.
Yeah, but what can I do about it?
Like I said above: I’m not in a political power position, and I’m not in a position of great influence. But I can NOT underestimate the power of the individual in society. One person can make a difference. And no matter how small, it will help.
Here are a couple of other ways I’m going to start changing my life:
1. Dollar Votes: Every time I spend a dollar, I am saying that I approve or I “vote” for the product I am buying. Your votes can have a drastic effect on the world around you. For example: If I buy my groceries at the local farmer’s market on Saturday morning, I am not only keeping my money in my local society, but I am making it less affordable for the big grocery chains to ship vegetables in from out of province. This could mean that the trucks delivering these goods are lighter. If enough of us do it, they might even ship to us less often – reducing the carbon footprint even more.
2. Make My Home Energy Efficient: The furnace in my house was installed in 1952 and is bigger than my car. I know for a fact that it is not even remotely energy efficient. When I first bought the house, I had it inspected and the technician told me that it was “a tank” and it would basically keep working forever. There is no need to replace it, but I’m going to.
I also found a company in my home city that can put solar panels on my house that will heat my water (instead of the natural gas heating I use now). Not only that, but the Canadian government (and Saskatchewan government) will give me grants to put the conversion in place – depending on your circumstances, they will pay as much as 70% of the cost!
3. Stop using plastic bottles: I drink a lot of water, and I typically buy one or two plastic water-bottles each week and then just refill until I get to the store to buy another one. I had no idea, but manufacturing bottled water uses over 1.5 million barrels of oil per year. In one year, thats enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars. Here are some other scary facts: (1) when plastic bottles end up in landfills they take 700 years before they start to decompose; (2) Nearly every piece of plastic EVER made still exists today. We need to stop promoting the manufacturing of plastics. You can start by buying a re-usable water bottle (I just bought one like this).
I realize that all of my changes are a drop in the bucket. But I can’t ignore the simple fact that we are in trouble. If the only thing I can do is lead by example, then that’s what I’m going to do. I truly hope that anyone reading this takes it to heart and tries to make a change in their life, no matter how small. You can start right now by taking a pledge (and following through) to stop using plastic bags.
Kenny Ausubel’s opening vignette of how future generations are screaming at him in his dreams made for a bad initial impression to The 11th Hour. And what followed was too melodramatic for my liking.
As for the water bottles thing, I don’t know what the water is like out of the tap up there, but I read a pretty comprehensive article on water filtration, which may be of interest: http://www.metaefficient.com/water-filters/how-to-filter-your-drinking-water-very-efficiently.html
They’re a bit expensive in the initial outlay department, but compared to $1.29/20 oz., something like that would pay for itself pretty quickly.
And in the same vein of eye opening documentaries, take a look at The Fake Trade, which aired on Channel 4 in the UK for something particularly disturbing.
Fear not Mark, for it is all a lie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzSzItt6h-s
That’s just the first 10mins of it but search for “The Great Global Warming Swindle”, another one of Channel 4′s controversial documentaries.
On the other hand, whether this all turns out to be true or false, it’ll mean that the human race will become more eco-friendly than we were before, which can only be a good thing right? Also, with oil running out, it means that research into renewable energies couldn’t come at a better time even though that by the time the oil does run out, it seems we’ll still be behind in terms of research needed, (something that’s addressed in the documentary) now THAT is a scary thought.
That company that supposedly killed the electric car (How can you kill what was never alive?) now has an actual prical electric car ready for production in two years.
Honda dn Toyota also killed their elctric cars. In case you’ve been on Mars, you can’t build an electric car without a battery better than the NiMH junk that was availabe during the 1990s. Don’t you know what functions a car is suposed to perform? How can you swallow the lying BS of that film. Tom Hanks is so dense he thinks his $70,000 converted electric Scion makes sense. Ed Begley is terrified that he might
use a plastic bag and be criticized for it. These actors aren’t heroes – they’re dolts.
Preposterously overpaid no-talent dolts.
Congratulations Mark! I think being aware and making some personal decisions are the vital first steps toward success.
Man, I watch documentaries. In fact since I started watching them its all that I really want to watch. My friends think I am a freak. I never cared about the environment or fuel consumption or much of anything beyond my own happiness really. Then a few documentaries later I wanted to change the world. Some how in all the media buzz I am beginning to think that I just can’t trust ANYONE. News, books, documentaries. Am I just a product of a capitalist society? I dunno. But I sure still want to change the world. Hey another really scary life changing documentary is “The End of Suburbia.” Dude, this one messed me up pretty bad.
Keep after it. There is a new world out there waiting to be had. (One that could last a really long time.)
I was reading about your use of fuel in your jeep and how you wanted to reduce it. someone put it to me that it really doesn’t matter how much less fuel you use, for every person in the western world that stops using fuel, 10 more people start using it in the eastern world that have just become more wealthier due to the booking economy. i think perhaps the real problem is on the other wide of the world. (imho)
Well that’s a great attitude to have. Just deflect the blame onto someone else. Why didn’t I think of that!
The very fact that we’ve been exploiting oil for decades now doesn’t mean we’re responsible for its depletion at all. It’s all Eastern Asia’s fault – god damn them!
Ahhhh – the blame game. I know her well