“There is more than one way to skin a cat”
I would like my BLOGS to be an open, civil, logical, and most importantly kind discourse regarding common goals. Hopefully we can maintain this decorum.)
The Environmental Movement is Dead
I would like to use this series of Blogs to attract your attention to a different, perhaps better, idea for environmental sustainability than what national and international environmental groups are presently doing. I have submitted my ideas, these ideas and others, to several of the major environmental groups across several years’ time, but to no avail. I can’t seem to get beyond the “filtering secretary” of these groups.
At times I preface my submissions with words to the effect of: “…I’ve got the answer…your ideas can’t work…can only stagnate because …The Choir is finite…please listen to my ideas…I’d like to work with you to implement my ideas…”, much like I’m intending to do here, in this Blog. Perhaps I’ve been too pushy – insulting – by suggesting I know how to do what you have been trying to do, though unsuccessfully.…
That’s one of my envisioned functions for this website: to promote change in the way people think about things. Perhaps a better way to say it is that I want to ask people how they would suggest we change the juggernaut of environmental degradation. Indeed, is it changeable or are we beyond that dream?
I’m hoping sufficient people read my book, “P.E.T.S. The Best Kept Secret”, and hear my ideas, that something positive can result towards environmental stewardship. Again, my opinion, but I think we are doomed to failure unless we change our direction. The old Chinese Proverb keeps haunting me: “Unless we change our direction, we may end up where we are going.”
Allow me to start pessimistically, eventually building through several related Blogs to what I believe will be a very optimistic future. I hope you will contribute your thinking as well. I’m a firm believer that the greater the input, the larger, more encompassing, and comprehensive will be the output.
During my graduate studies, everyone from our department met weekly in what came to be known around campus as the “Monday Night Sessions”. Starting after dinner, one person per week was responsible for presenting his/her research project to the entire group for intense scrutiny, criticism, and suggestions, not to degrade or humiliate, but rather to discover any flaws in thinking, data, implications of data, subsequent research generated by the data, so that optimistically, the person’s research project would be “perfect”. Our meetings continued well into the night until the project was concise: logical, clearly defined, presented, and defended, with no loose ends, or it became obvious that sufficiently more work had to be done by the student to get to this point.
The point here is that with sufficient numbers of attentive minds, each with sufficiently different perspectives but working together to literally attack a specific problem, and with sufficient time, clearly enunciated goals, data, and expectations, can be made.
Although it truly saddens me to say this, let me start this way:
I believe the environmental movement is essentially dead.
It has not, and will not, make any new inroads into any other segment of the population until it changes its approach.
Any examples of it being significantly effective, I maintain, are probably only being seen among those who already believe in environmental sanity: “The Choir”. The general public, i.e. those whose actions will make the most significant dent in environmental degradation, the bulk of the 8.2 billion people on earth, have no idea what’s happening environmentally, and if they do, they just don’t care about it relative to all the other issues they must wrestle with in daily life. To them, because of its apparent lack of immediacy, environmental issues are too esoteric to pay attention to.
Keep in mind that in the 2020 Presidential Election (United States) nearly half the population (this proved to be a contentious concept among some people), and again in the 2024 election, where the vote decidedly went to Trump and his people, an administration that won the populace by running on a platform that evidence-based data (science) is not real…is ”FAKE NEWS”.
Even beyond them, however, the other “half” of the population mostly also believes similarly, or is unsure what to believe. Think of it: these are people who continue to smoke, drive while on cell phones and texting, never make it past February on their New Year’s Resolutions, didn’t wear masks or socially distance during the Covid pandemic, made mask-wearing a political, instead of a public health, issue, likely don’t practice safe sex, are dying in greater numbers from drugs…. There is no limit to their quest for over self -indulgence of all kinds at all costs. It just baffles my mind!
Let me give you a few examples (I could go on forever) of why I feel “the movement” is passé…unfortunately, then let me discuss how I think changes can and must take place.
Listen to this one: During the worst day of the California wildfires, when the air quality was poorest and most people were wearing face masks, a San Diego woman was seen leaving a supermarket wearing her mask. When she exited the building, she raised her mask to light up a cigarette, smoking it by alternately raising and lowering it between puffs.
What does this say about people? Among other things, I think it says that if they don’t care about their own bodies, given all the information that is out there – smoking, diet, exercise, speeding, seat belts, safe sex, you name it – then how in the world can we ever expect them to even think about things that won’t APPARENTLY affect them for another 20 years?
I knew a person, a millionaire (he liked to boast of this fact), who located his plumbing business in Windsor, Ontario, just across the Ambassador Bridge from Detroit, and who earned 25+% of his income selling full flush toilets to Americans wanting to get these toilets instead of low flush toilets mandated by current law . At the time, full flush toilets were prohibited from sale in the US, but not so in Canada. Yes of course, he is a crook, but what about all those people buying from him. Actually he was simply wise enough to know how to fill a niche.
Our highways are a disgrace with litter everywhere one looks. Our cities are even more of a disgrace.
Refuse from trucks, metal, blown tires, stones and other materials transported by them, spills of hazardous materials which, according to what I see on the nightly news, occur almost daily, are simply accepted as “normal”/ “expected”, as opposed to being a crime and therefore punishable by law. Why isn’t the trucking industry as a whole charged with the job of cleaning up its collective highway debris? Why don’t municipalities regularly and frequently “patrol” their roadways picking up this debris?
I find people flocking to our national and state parks to enjoy the great outdoors, which I applaud as having tremendous potential for the environmental movement, but at the same time, they come there in those monstrous RV’s, those solid walls of wind resistance, whose gas mileage is a consequence of this resistance, pulling their other car, increasingly changing from small, “compacts” to larger and larger SUV’s, some even have a second trailer hauling their, ATV’s or their jet skis. Every one of them, from the smallest to the largest, has air conditioning.
California has some very strict emission standards; trucks not complying with these standards cannot enter that state. Why hasn’t the industry as a whole been forced to adopt the same standards that California imposes on them? It worked there, no matter how the industry complained. Why not elsewhere, no matter how the industry complains? After all, the trucking industry can’t exist if the entire country refuses to accept them unless they make some significant changes. A strike by them would obviously affect them as well as the rest of the public, and therefore, can’t possibly go on very long, because truckers, people just like you and I, need the same products as every one else.
Enough, and yet, when I listen to the issues national and international environmental organizations advocate, I can begin to see their point. These issues are global in nature: population growth and its impact on natural resources, resource conservation, global warming, ozone, energy conservation and the Arctic Preserve, open land, clean water and air, agriculture and GM foods, urban reclamation, waste treatment and pollution, wetlands preservation, forest preservation, biodiversity, save the rhinos, whales, dolphins, manatees, tigers, wolves, great apes…..the list is endless.
It is not that these issues aren’t important; of course they are. They are vitally important and I certainly applaud, admire, and for years have financially supported, all these groups for everything they are doing, and have already done, towards resolving them.
Unfortunately, however, these issues are also so many “steps” removed from the everyday lives of everyday people that, as I said above, it is esoteric, too far in the future to worry about, hence: “….just talk to me about how I am going to be inconvenienced and what it’s going to cost me. That’s all I care about now. We’ll worry about that other stuff later…..”
Given the above, I’m convinced The Movement has not, and will not, make any inroads into any other segment of the population than “The Choir” until they change their approach.
In support of my position: I’ll bet membership in the collection of environmentally sustainable groups has stayed essentially the same over the years (correcting for population increases). I’ll bet the “same” number of petitions are being written today by the “same” people, as were written 5, 10…years ago, also correcting for population increases. Who contributes money to these groups? Who reads their journals? Who are their members? Who writes petitions to congress? Who do you think attends national and international environmental festivals and protests…..?
The CHOIR, that’s who.
So where do we go from here?
I will continue my thoughts on this subject in subsequent Blogs where, among other things, I will discuss at length a few of the “tons” of down-to-earth examples of how change must happen. Indeed, I sincerely believe that my thesis is the only way significant change is going to take place. Here, however, I will just list these same examples as simple topic headings, expecting you to seek the more complete answers in subsequent Blogs.
Watch for them, however, please take the “bait” by engaging us with your ideas. We all want to hear, then openly discuss them. Remember: the larger the thought-resource base, the larger, more encompassing, in depth, profound, useful the outcome.
Q- Besides recycling, what are some everyday ideas I can do to help the environment towards sustainability?
A- Frankly: live simply, using common sense, but acting in a manner biased towards environmental stewardship is the best advice that can be offered. You can argue. You can deny reality. Science, real science, the ideas that we depend on to explain our world, tells us that the earth in its present day state is frail and will change. It has before. It is continuing presently. It will continue into the future.
Put another way: Earth was here before humans walked its surface, and will be here long after we have departed. Therefore, our question to ourselves (and our descendants) must be: what do we want our experience on earth to be like while we exist here. It’s that simple and it’s our choice to make.
Q- Is it better to turn lights off or leave them on when you leave the room?
A- Electricity uses energy and generates waste products that among other things, trap greenhouse gasses which contribute to global climate changes. When you need lights, by all means, use them. When you finish, however, by all means, turn them off. Little things, seemingly insignificant things, are additive and, therefore, help.
MORE: The vanity lights in bathrooms are usually multiple and very bright while the shower light is usually a single bulb. Why not use single bulb lighting instead of multiple bulbs when using lights just to see, rather than look at things for detail. If possible, use natural light. New construction should always take advantage of natural lighting and ventilation. Replace incandescent bulbs with CF or LED’s.
Q- Is seasonal clothing really beneficial to comfort (body temperature regulation)?
A- Cold weather clothing uses different kinds of fibers to weave into fabric. It is usually wools or products similar to wool’s heat retention abilities, heavier material, thicker tighter fitting, and darker in color all designed to absorb heat from the environment and keep it closer to the body.
MORE:Warm weather clothing is usually lighter materials such as cottons and silks, designed to be worn looser fitting and flowing so air circulates around the body. It usually covers a lesser percentage of the body, although that is not necessarily true since design intentions can alter this factor. It is usually lighter in coloration to reflect environmental heat rather than absorb it.
Q- Is it worthwhile spending the mental effort to plan trips to the refrigerator?
A- As with everything, it’s environmentally wiser to pre-think your “attack” on the environment, thus minimizing dire consequences. It is wiser to plan what you are putting into/removing from the refrigerator so that multiple things can be done at a single opening.
MORE:This is a difficult habit to break, or conversely, difficult to develop, but one well worth the effort at changing your behavior. Making and breaking an electrical circuit more than doubles the energy consumption than allowing it to flow for the shorter uses such as removing and replacing multiple items from the refrigerator. Besides that, every time the door is opened, heat enters/cold air leaves this unique, artificial environment. It sounds trivial, but consider how many times you likely do this each day, multiplied by the number of days you use the refrigerator during your lifetime, multiplied by the number of members in your household doing the same thing, and this “trivial” endeavor becomes significant. Then, as with everything else we have to consider in today’s world, multiply your individual impact on the environment by the number of people on earth having a refrigerator, and I think you have answered your question.
Q- How can I reduce my gasoline consumption during during my everyday activities?
A- If you are buying a new car, consider its annual fuel consumption. Modern cars with their efficient engines and aerodynamic designs significantly reduce fuel consumption. Electric and hybrid designs take this concept to an entirely new level. The future is wide open to new technology. Look for it and consider it seriously when in the market for a vehicle replacement. Resist counter arguments. The future is around the corner in this regard. In fact, invest in it.
MORE:Independently of the type of vehicle, plan your trips to the store to include multiple items, indeed multiple shopping sites within proximity to each other, especially if theses sites are considerable distance from each other. It is likely that several stores are located in a given shopping area. Lump trips to these together. Do same for stores at other areas of your town.
Apply similar thinking for carpooling to work and many social activities like kids sporting events, bridge-poker-reading clubs, etc. And by all means, TURN YOUR CARS OFF DURING WHILE SHOPPING no matter how hot or cold they will be when you re-enter them!
Q- How can I use my dishwasher more efficiently from an environmental perspective?
A- Admittedly a dishwasher saves time, and when you have an unusually large quantity of dishes to wash at one time, time becomes a significant factoring your choices of action, but seriously, it doesn’t take much time to hand wash smaller quantities of dishes instead of using a dishwasher. A single person or perhaps two in a household, perhaps for breakfast or lunch, generates reasonably small enough quantities of dishes that hand washing is not inordinately time consuming if you allow yourself the mindset. Most of us don’t have a sufficient supply of different dishes to fill the washer over longer periods of time.
MORE: And do you really have to pre-wash dishes before placing them in a dishwasher? Modern dishwashers have both prewash cycles and pot-scrubbing cycles in addition to the normal wash cycle. Is it really necessary to spend the water, the hot water, the fuel to generate the hot water, the waste gasses resulting from the use of hot water…when the dishwasher is designed to do this for you?
Sterilization, you say? To really sterilize something, you need water heated to 212+degrees Fahrenheit under pressure…an autoclave. Do you have an autoclave in your house? Is your house water 212+ degrees? So what are you doing? You are certainly NOT killing bacteria.
Yes, your actions do lessen the number and kinds of bacteria on your dishes, but any kind of washing does the same. Even more, when you then put these “sterilized” dishes in your cupboards for how long…a week before the next use, what kinds of, how many, bacteria are dropping from the air in your kitchen onto the dishes being stored in your cupboards before you use them again? Come on. Be sensible! Do you want to help the environment or not?
I’m all for cleanliness, but seriously, how clean is it really necessary to be?
Q- Can I grow and maintain my lawn and still be environmentally sensible?
A- My first question must be: is it THAT important to maintain a PERFECT lawn? This is important for you to answer. If it seriously is THE MOST important thing to you, then I say go for it, although this really bothers me to say.
MORE: In this regard, I have to ask whether it is necessary to spread pesticides on your lawn. Since you and I both know where these pesticides end up, you have to answer this for yourself.
I’ll ask another question, however. How often does your lawn have to be cut? I know this depends on the amount of rainfall as well as humidity and temperature, but how much is excessive? And do you really need a gas-powered, riding mower to cut a city-sized piece of property? Do you really have to cut it three times: up down, left right, AND diagonally? These are questions you should be considering about this topic.
Q- How can I reduce my use of plastics in my daily life?
A- Oh baby! This is a very difficult subject to accomplish in today’s world. Perhaps even impossible, given how extensively corporations have a grasp on everyday living and the population’s thinking about convenience and pleasure. So the question ultimately comes down to whether I really have to give up convenience and pleasure for the environment, or perhaps, how much will I allow myself to be swayed by convenience and pleasure?
MORE: WOW! A very complex issue. Let me answer it this way; you are free to make your own decision.
My approach is to try to reduce my plastic consumption to whatever is absolutely necessary, and even then, many times I refuse to purchase items that use plastic, AND, I stretch that idea of “absolutely necessary” in a completely biased direction, namely, in favor of the environment. I reuse plastic from other situations rather than load the environment with new single use plastics.
Fruits and vegetables can be purchased individually with or without plastic. I choose “without”. I weigh individual apples, pears, oranges, grapes when available singly, placing them in my cloth shopping bag unwrapped.
I buy locally whenever possible, I like many things. I especially like berries. I’m old enough to remember when berries were sold for only a very short period of time during their specific growing season because in any one locale, berries actually grew for a only short period of time.
In a way, much like the beauty of a flower, their ephemeral nature amplifies their beauty and desirability.
Yes, I like berries, however, they are only one of several kinds of fruit available in a given area. I suppose you could look at this negatively: no more berries until next year. You could also say: look at all the other kinds of fruit available I can now enjoy. I also like variety.
Modern day refrigerated land transport, together with the development of a variety of fruit growing areas worldwide, genetics, and the associated air/ship transport needed to bring fruit from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world, has virtually eliminated the concept of seasonal availability. A boon for the consumer. A boon for the owners and farmers. A boon for the packing and transport industry… but at what cost. Materials, packing materials, land, fuel, air -water- land pollution…I mean I could go on forever describing what has happened to the the entire world, not just the environment, relative to only this form of consumer gratification.
Again, I have to ask: at what cost?
As I said, this is a very large and complex problem involving much more than just the fruit itself. Think about it for a moment. We are discussing entire economies, not just of one business in a particular area, but of states, the country, other countries, and globally. Where does it stop? Why can’t we just be satisfied with “berries in season”?
BEYOND BERRIES
I bring my own “doggie bag” into the restaurant to place the left-over food when I get too full with the meal provided me. I wash and reuse plastic containers from other purchases, e.g. Chinese food. More often than not, my wife and I choose to share a meal, most often much too much food for a single person, so that leftovers are not generated. Even then, should it happen, we wrap the small leftovers in a paper napkin for our dog…yes, real dog.
I buy laundry detergent in disposable cardboard containers, not plastic jugs. I also use detergent- infused paper for my laundry. It is sold in an envelop- sized container thus saving the environmental cost of larger containers.
I use a bamboo toothbrush with recyclable nylon bristles instead of plastic brushes. My dentist provides FREE toothbrushes after my appointment, however, they are plastic brushes. I refuse them in favor of my bamboo brushes. I asked them to change. They haven’t. I take things into my own hands after a certain point.
I use bar soap instead of liquid soap. Liquid soap requires not only a container, plastic…again, but also a factory and all of the raw materials and wastes associated with construction, to produce the plastic bottle. Come on! Bar soaps are equally luxurious, aromatic, cleansing…everything liquid soap is, but without the non-decomposing, littering, filling the earth with waste, plastic. Where is your sense of priorities?
I can think beyond the “Bottom Line”. Can you? Is “Bottom Line” all that matters in human existence? Are there no other values to judge human beings by?
AND STILL MORE- BEYOND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:
1. I don’t buy from Exxon-Mobile. They STILL have not settled their reparation debt from 1989 with locals, including Native Americans, in the Prince William Sound of Alaska. They have held up settlement of their court demanded debt payments through appeals. Why should they care about time? They have the money to withstand time. Natives don’t and have gone through several generations suffering the effects of this corporate fiasco.
By not buying from them, I have obviously not made a dent in their profits. I just sleep better knowing I am doing what I KNOW is right.
2. I don’t buy from CVS. I don’t think pharmacists should have the right to over-ride a physician’s Rx based on the pharmacist’s religious views.
3. I don’t shop at a particular hardware store in town because the owner plays religious music throughout the store. Nothing against religion. I just don’t think it belongs in a place where many different people, with many different ideas, shop, especially if you want these varied people in your shop. It’s just not respectful of other peoples’ beliefs. Indeed, It’s blatantly disrespectful.
So are you asking me: “At what end of the environmental continuum do you live?”
I suppose you might say I live at the “Save the earth. Kill yourself” end of the continuum. I disagree. My lifestyle is simply a consequence of a lifetime of doing and thinking about what I do, how I can change what I already do, and what else can I do, to prevent further degradation of the earth. I just think that not to change towards the simple, logical direction I’m suggesting is selfish, negligent, and irresponsible. I can’t allow myself to exist that way.
As I said earlier, doing one thing and feel good about doing it, will likely lead to trying something else. My above list is simply that, as you can see.
I could go on forever, however, perhaps a better question for you is: Do you want to help the environment? Where is your imagination? Turn it on…NOW!
There must be “thousands” of ways to help the environment, even if they are seem small and insignificant. Remember: you are only one person of 8.2 BILLION people. Almost everything you do likely attracts the attention of some one. Some will follow your example. Some will note what you are doing, perhaps mentioning it to a friend in a conversation, who would follow your example. Some might note what you do, think about it, then decide to do something different, but still helping the environment. Some will laugh at you. Some ignore you. OK. Does that really matter to you? Sleep better tonight yourself.
My advice to you about this and other seemingly impossible subjects: try to be both a good citizen and a sensible human being living on a fragile planet. Do whatever you can to find that comfort zone between the extremes of, “I want what I want when I want it” and “Save the world. Kill yourself.” If you seriously can’t do THIS, for whatever reason, or society won’t allow you to do THAT, e.g. plastics, then compensate somewhere else. Indeed, OVER-COMPENSATE wherever you can so you feel comfortable that you are doing the best that you can, given the circumstances.
Leonard Cohen said it this way: “Ring the bell that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. Everything, everything has a crack in it. That’s how the light shines in.” (Admittedly I think his reference was something other than environmental sanity, but to me, it also applies there.)
“P.E.T.S. The Best Kept Secret” speaks about personal morality as it applies to living in society. In a free society you are, by definition, free to do whatever you choose to do AS LONG AS it doesn’t interfere with the freedoms of anyone else.
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