lowimpacthome.org

For those of you that follow my blog you will remember that I was trying to go all summer without turing on my air conditioner in my car…well I did it!

It ment there were a few close calls when I had to run out into an inpending storm to roll up my windows, and there was the time that I knew it was going to rain but I was dumb and only rolled up the drivers side windows so everything on the passenger side was soaked.  It also ment on those 100 degree days that I broke a sweat just sitting in my car on my 8 minute drive home, but I made it and the benefits were great!

Before when I used the a/c I would only get an average of 25mpgs without the a/c I averaged 32mpgs, in fact my miles per gallon went up so much that one week I even got 34mpgs.  So out of every tank I was able to get an extra 70 miles.  With my daily round trip being 16 miles that meant I was able to get appromimately 4 more trips to work, so instead of filling up once a week I started filling up once everyother week.

Now I know that I changed a couple other driving habits that also helped in the consumption of fuel.  I stopped running yellow lights, well tried to at least.  When I light would turn yellow I wouldn’t floor it to make it through and gently pushed on the break and coasted to a stop.  I also tried not to travel over 40 unless I was on the highway and then I would only go 55.  To me this was the hardest thing to do because I have a lead foot.  Normally on the highway I would be pushing 80 and on the streets 55 weaving in and out of traffic.  But as I watched my gas meter plummet on those days that I was in a hurry and decided to exceed the speed limit, I realized that it wasn’t worth it.  Not only was I setting myself up to get a ticket, I was also wasting precious resources…my money and the nation’s petroleum reserves.

I recently went to get my oil change and after spending $45 for 4 quarts of oil and a filter (OMG!) with oil prices like that we need to change the way we are thinking about our driving habits.  Can you shorten your commute?  Can you share a ride with someone in your office?  Can you bring your lunch to work so you don’t have to go somewhere and eat?  Can you push the accelerator gently and ease up on your lead foot?  All these things make a difference in the amount of gas we use, take a minute to figure out what you can do to help ease the oil crisis.

I was reading through a maganize the other day while I was sitting in the waiting room of my Doctor’s office and I noticed something interesting.  As I flipped through I stopped to look at an Ad Council’s ad about Global Warming, it was simple and to the point, but on the adjacent page there was an ad for the new Lincoln MKS a car that gets 17mps in town.  Now I am not sure who approved that layout but it seems pretty ironic to me that one page says “What are you doing about Global Warming?” and the very next page has a car that has a much larger carbon footprint because of it’s lack of fuel efficiency.

I don’t use ads on my site, some of my blogging friends do and that’s ok, but it’s hard to keep ads that you don’t approve of off the site when you use some of the ad generators.  Hey it would be great if I could make a little money selling ad space, it would help pay for the upkeep of the site and the other fees associated with running a website but I don’t want any “ironic” ads appearing on my site and causing controversy.

I mean if I was the Ad Council I would be furious.  They are trying to get the good green word out and the magazine is pushing a car that goes against most everything environmentalists believe in.

For one thing I don’t think an environmentalist would buy a brand new car that costs over 35k.  Secondly if they were going to spend that kind of money they would at least buy a car that has better fuel efficiency like the Prius or another hybrid car.  Yeah it’s true that the MKS is a V-6 and it has a lot of getupandgo but I hope most environmentalists are hyper-milers and so speed doesn’t matter.

I’m glad that the Ad Council is trying to get the word out and I know that the other advertisers have so many ads that it’s hard to keep irresponsible ads away from the more environmentally savy ones but let’s push magazines to trade their usual “black” ads for the “green” ones and maybe we can get the word out to more people in less time.

I was feeling lazy the other day and since it was Friday and there were no kids around I didn’t want to cook.  So knowing what take out places use Styrofoam and which don’t, I dial my local plastic free Chinese restaurant and ordered dinner.  I pick it up and duh, I ordered soup so it came in a plastic container…no big deal I can use it again.  But then as I went through the bag and the little plastic packets of duck sauce, soy sauce, hot mustard and the sweet and sour sauce started to appear.  There must have been 20 of them, all for 2 people!

Do people actually use that much stuff on their Chinese food?  Do you know how much sodium is packed into one of those packets?  I don’t think they have an expiration date so they are full of preservatives, do you really know what you are putting into your body?  Think of all the little plastic packages that are being thrown out each day because of Chinese take out!

As I thought about all those questions I watched my husband tear into a couple of the hot mustard packets and gobble it down with his spring roll.  I mean if I got 20 packages and let’s just say for easy of math that 100 other people who ordered take out that night received the same amount that’s 2000 plastic packages that are going into the landfill just from one restaurant in one night!

I thought it about that number some more…if you do a google search for “Chinese restaurants, Germantown TN” you get 6 restaurants with Germantown addresses (there are countless more in a 5 mile radius but I’m gonna stick with ones in my neighborhood).  If we use the same math with the average amount of packets in a take out bag as 20 and the average amount of take out customers in one day as 100…heck let’s say 50 to make it more believable…and the number of restaurants in the local area as 6.  That would bring the amount of plastic packets given out to 6000 in just one day!  Now if your like me I put most of them in my refrigerator, so let’s say only half get used and thrown away that day.  That’s 3000 plastic pieces added to the landfill just from Chinese food take out and only from a 3 mile radius!

Think about how much Chinese take out is eaten everyday…OMG!  Think of all that plastic that is needlessly thrown away everyday because we are eating take out.  Not only are there the Chinese plastic packets but there are ketchup packets and dressing packets, mayonnaise and barbecue packages, honey mustard dipping sauce containers, plastic lids from the drinking cups.  Mc Donalds alone serves 47 million customers a day around the world, think of all the plastic lids that are thrown out each day.  That adds up to millions of pounds of plastic that is discarded from our eating out, no wonder our ocean is full of trash!

So remember this…don’t just go through life ignoring the stuff that surronds you, it all has to end up somewhere and plastic doesn’t just decompose overnight.  Do you really need a lid on your cup?  Or what about that plastic straw, can you drink straight from the cup instead?  When ordering take out can you say hold the condiments, I have my own?  Most Chinese food condiments come in glass jars it would be so much better if you bought it in a larger size and were able to recycle the jar later then needlessly throwing away plastic packet after plastic packet.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…Don’t just do, think first then do.

There is a new commercial out from Discover Card that makes me very angry.  I looked for it on You Tube and couldn’t find it but let me give you the jist.

It says that it’s not a big deal to spend, spend, spend.  I believe what they say is…We are a country of consumers and that’s not a problem.  The problem is that there is just so much stuff to buy.  But maybe if credit card companies were different it wouldn’t make a difference how much stuff we bought.

Of course they are pushing their new website and their “Bright Idea” campaign, but in my opinion they are pushing people to spend more money and not think about the consequences until after they “put it on the card”.  They are saying that since their company is going to “help” you pay down your balance smarter, that it shouldn’t matter what you spend since you will be able to pay it off how you want.

I don’t have any credit cards, anymore.  I am still paying off a small balance but at the rate I am paying it, it’s gonna take me more then a year and it’s gonna cost me $150 in interest charges.  I agree it’s easy to pay with plastic.  Even now with my debit card I sometimes forget to think about the amount of the purchase that I am making but now it comes out of my checking account immediately so there is no chance of me not being able to pay it off in a month.

I know it’s hard not to want the newest and greatest thing but just like all other purchases, it affects the world around you every time you buy something.  It had to come from some plant that is producing waste and possibly toxic waste.  It had to be shipped to the store where you bought it and that truck, plane or train was pumping out air pollution and burning foreign oil.  The item that you replaced or when the item has been used up, has to be thrown out and take up room in a landfill.  If it is recycable, it will probably be shipped halfway round the world to a developing country where there are not the same safeguards and they will more then likely be exposed to chemicals that will someday kill them or at least make them very ill.

We need to pay attention to all the purchases that we make.  It’s more then the money that it costs.  It’s about the after effects.  Always ask the question…what does this really cost?  And always remember…there is more to life then stuff.

Most of you already know that I don’t really own a tv.  A year ago my husband and I made the choice to not purchase cable and get rid of our large tv.  We have a small television for playing X-Box but that gets pulled out once in a blue moon.  We really rely on our computers for our entertainment, but we still maybe only watch 3 hours of tv in an entire week.  According to WikiAnswers the average American watches 8 or more hours of television a day.  That’s a lot of tv! The main reason we stopped watching television was we realized that we we didn’t actually watch tv we surfed through all the channels at a pace that screwed with our brains.  There are several studies that have proved that constant channel surfing changes the part of the brain that controls our attention span.  Tv messes with that area of the brain to begin with but the constant changing of the picture makes it worse.

The other reason we stopped was because of all the commercials.  Did you know that a child will watch over a million commercials in their life time?  For every 40 minutes of programing, you see an additional 20 minutes of commercials.  If you watch online you see between 4 to 6 commercials and unfortunitally they are the same commercial over and over.  In your face advertising that is tempting you to forget about common sense and spend your money on things that you don’t need.  Whew…stop me before I get to far on this.

Anyway this post is about radio and not tv, but one of the main reasons why I have switched to publicly funded radio is the commercialism.   In an informal study (I counted as I listened) for every 3 songs that were played 2 commercials were heard, so about 6 times an hour there was a commercial.  Almost as many as on tv and like tv the same songs can be heard over and over again.  In another informal study, I listened to the radio at the same time each day for about an hour at a time.  To my suprise the same songs were played during that hour each day, just at different times.  Are we as Americans that dumb that we are lulled into thinking that it’s ok for programming can just be regurgitated over and over again?

I’ve switched to our Public Radio station and College Jazz station, why don’t you?  Pledge your support to your local stations instead of the large conglomerates that keep making us listen to the same 100 songs each day.  We deserve better then that!

In one weekend Apple sold 1 million iPhone 3G’s.  The first iPhone, introduced only 1 year ago sold approximately 5 million.  Sources say they could sell upwards of 10 million of the newest 3G phones, since they opened up their overseas market.

So my question to you is…where are all the broken, discarded or replaced cell phones going?  Apple doesn’t offer a take back program or at least I can’t find mention of one.  Are the people that spent $500 a year ago to buy the original, just tossing that one in the trash or are they being responsible and taking the old one to a recycler?

All electronics have trace amounts of toxic chemicals like lead or phthalates, a chemical known to have hormone disrupting qualities, even the energy efficient CFL lightbulb contains trace amounts of mercury. The problem is not the chemicals…the issue is that most consumers don’t know that they are there and what to do with the electronics once they have lived their usefull life.

Now let me say this, I think that the buying of cell phones is out of hand.  In my opinion there is no reason to spend $500 on a cell phone and less then a year later need to buy another one.  Now I know there are more bells and whistles on the newer phone, but why can’t the old phone just be upgraded?  This is not the consumer’s fault, it’s the developer’s fault.  We as consumers are pulled in by the new shiny things.  The fact that you can pin point your location on your phone is a pretty nifty or serf the web with lightening fast speed while you are sitting on the train waiting for your stop.  I am not suggesting that electronics are not useful and needed, I am suggesting that we need to make sure consumers are better informed of what’s inside those electronics and what happens to them when you just throw them away.

I talk about being better informed consumers a lot in this blog, but if we are not informed producers will walk all over us and we will buy just for the sake of buying.

If we were to just throw away all of our electronics, we would slowly poison the surrounding ground and water.  We would eventually have so much heavy metals in the soil that we would be unable to plant and grow crops.  Our children would not be able to play outside because of the risk of lead poisoning.  Our children are already getting fat, if they were unable to go outside and get some exercise think of what would happen.

It’s not going to happen overnight, plastics take years to decompose but the pressure of the landfill will eventually put breaks in the plastic or glass and once the rain gets in the metals will leach out.  We need to stop the throwing away of electronics not for our children but their children and generations to come.

Write to your electronics producer, encourage them to start a take back program or better yet an upgrade program that takes those old electronics and makes them new again!

While you are waiting for that to happen, don’t forget to recycle.  Most municipalities have a electronic recycling program, if not go to E-Cycling Central search for your state and get the name of a local recycler. Just don’t throw things away, you never know what they might do to the earth.

Yesterday, Al Gore spoke to a group in Washington in which he calls for the United States to be generating all electricity from carbon free sources within 10 years.

I applaud his thinking but is it something that we can really do?

He believes that if we put for the effort that put us on the Moon only 8 years after Kennedy set that goal, we can also have all our homes powered by carbon free fuel.

He also points out that we are having to borrow money from China to feed our oil habit, a dangerous thing to do especially when it comes to issues of the planet.

Is it really possible to change our collective thinking in that short of time?  Can we go from oil hungry to carbon neutral before my youngest child graduates from High School?  Are the citizens of the US ready for a change that abrupt?  I believe with the current status of our economy and the glooming oil crisis, the answer is Yes.

Now it’s not just because I’m a tree hugging, Earth Day celebrating, green power buying eco-geek.  It’s because I believe that if we were to pull together on this we could change the economic and environmental crisis of this country. I also believe in this Country’s ability to effect change on the worlds stage, what a precedent this would set!

It’s not ok that we are having to borrow money from other countries so that we can buy oil to keep up with the demand.  It’s really not ok that we depend so much on OPEC that they can yank us around, mess with our livelihoods and help in the downturn of our economy.

We must come together and have our collective voices heard.  Take the time to really consider what your Public Official’s policies on the Environment and research if they actually vote that way.  It will take a Congress and President that see eye to eye on this issue to enact this kind of change.  Are you helping or hindering the process by voting for people that don’t have the same values as you?  Let your voice be heard now…don’t wait until November.  Speak to your neighbors and co-workers about issues like these.  It’s only in coming together in one voice that change this big will happen.

We owe it to our children.  Let’s not make them clean up the mess that we created.

Over the past few weeks, I have been contemplating over what to say next.  I have been very concerned about the economy, the state of America and what it is doing to my family and others that I know.

But it all came to me yesterday morning…

My husband and a band that he belongs to ( The New Memphis Hepcats) were scheduled to perform on a local daily news program, so I had the tv at work tuned to something besides the Golf Channel.  Well the President preempted the program, but I left it on since I was curious as to what he had to say.  Now let me “preempt” this by saying I voted for George Bush…2 times.  I am ashamed by this. You know what they say…”Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.” I haven’t decided whom I am voting for in the next election but I assure you, my decision will be well researched and thought out. 

So, I believe that I have the right to complain, I put my trust in him and he let me down.

As I listened I was appalled as to what he had to say.  What I heard was a bunch of, “I told you so’s” and “its all congress’s fault”. 

I started a project where I would compare prices and the cost of gas between my local grocery store and the granola store.  Well I haven’t been able to finish the project because every drop of my gas is precious and I can’t (even for science sake) to use any more then what is needed.  Now I know that I could offset that travel by riding my bike to work, but when it’s 95 degrees with a 85% relative humidity, riding is a tad bit uncomfortable. 

But I say all this to get to my point…with the rising costs of gas and food, it’s not time to play the blame game, it’s time to fix the problem before middle-class families like mine can’t afford to by the simplest necessities. Not to say that the problems of the poor are not important, but 9 times out of 10 they can apply for some type of governmental assistance (that’s not the answer either), families like mine don’t qualify for programs like that and we are starting to suffer. 

I don’t mean to sound ugly, but now is the time to forget politics, forget about suffering in other countries and focus on America’s recovery and may I say that offshore oil drilling is not the answer.  I agree wholeheartedly that buying 70% of our oil from foreign companies is ridiculas and we need to do something about it, I don’t think that potentially ruining more of the ocean is the right thing to do.  The President doesn’t agree with me on this.  However, I agree with the principle of why he wants to do it.  The less we need, the lower the price.  But what about spending that same money on more eco-friendly or earth friendly fuel production.  I say that then say “No more corn ethanol” that is not what we need, save the corn for the growing food crisis.  Now other forms of ethanol are good to research but NO MORE CORN. 

Speaking of which, my favorite gas station that is connected to my grocery store, that consequently gives me a discount on my gas when I buy their groceries, has gone to putting corn ethanol in their gas.  That makes me sad, especially when they are not cheaper then any of the surrounding gas stations.

Now especially is the time to write to your Congress person and voice your concern.  Don’t sit idly by as things get worse.  Take a stand and let them know that what is going on is not ok and you won’t stand for it.  Give them reasons to support eco-friendly research like wind, and solar power.  you voted for them, make them hear you.

I have an issue with Walmart.  I have always had an issue with Walmart.  Even after they announced plans to only stock CFL lightbulbs, I still had an issue with Walmart.  It’s not just that they help to rid the world of small businesses or that customer service is not something that they encourage.  No it’s mostly because I think that the Walmarts of the world encourage over consumption and wastefullness.  Now I say that and more then likely this weekend I will saunter into a Super Target to buy shoes for my son.  But that doesn’t mean I will like it, it just means that there is no other option. 

But now I have another issue with Walmart, they are puting ethanol in their gasoline. 

I happen to be traveling down one of the busiest streets here in my home town and since my husband forgot to tell me that he needed gas, I had to stop at the local Walmart to fill up.  Getting gas at Walmart is not a normal thing for me, so while all this talk about ethanol in gas maybe old news to some, it’s new to me and I don’t like it.  ***UPDATE*** BP is also selling gasoline with ethanol added.  I don’t know about you but I plan not to purchase gas from either Manufacturer.

I personally think that ethanol from corn is a very bad thing.  According to this article, we would never be able to plant enough corn to keep up with the demands for ethanol and other corn products.  Plus folks in the Amazon are cutting down precious rain forests to plant corn to be used in ethanol production.  That’s really bad!

This post from Eco Geek give you the long story in short:

Long story short? Corn ethanol isn’t working. It’s inefficient, reduces supplies of actual food which actual people need to actually eat, and increased demand is only leading to the destruction of the last untouched American prairie lands. But solutions might be on the way in the form of cellulosic ethanol, which is much more energy efficient (though more expensive) to produce, as well as alternate forms of biofuels that are more energy dense and gasoline-like than ethanol…

Why don’t we spend our money on electric cars or other types of fuel cells, wouldn’t that make more sense?

Today is such a cold and dreary day, I really need some inspiration and extra added energy. I didn’t even want to get out of bed this morning and go into work. Now I know that probably isn’t a stretch for some of you, but I really enjoy my job and love the company that I work for, so for me that was a big deal. Even my beautiful view isn’t helping. Momma said there’d be days like this!

So as I was searching for inspiration, I read a post in another blog that was done by the bloggers husband. It was about his take on what she was doing to save the world. I have extended my rules to my entire family, since I believe that I need to pass on these values to my children, so I wondered what my children and husband thought about what we were doing.

I haven’t asked my youngest children about their opinion since I am pretty sure they haven’t noticed. I am waiting for the “where’s the milk” question, but so far no one has missed it. My oldest son even asked if we could go completely vegeterian! Wow, I wasn’t expecting that kind of remark from a kid that loves processed food. We have always been big salad eaters, but since I used to be a lazy consumer the salad came in a bag. I guess now that I am adding other fresh veggies to the lettuce, he is really starting to like eating things that are better for him. I even caught him eating an orange for breakfast this morning.

When I started all of this I didn’t really talk much about it to my husband (sorry Love!) since I really wasn’t sure what he might say. I just hit the road running and took off on this endeavor draging my family behind. I am really bad about doing that! I guess I didn’t think it would be very difficult or that anyone would notice the changes, HAH I was wrong. The major change has been that we don’t eat any processed or canned food. To me that wasn’t a big deal, it just ment it took me 5 minutes longer to prepare dinner. To my family that has ment trying out new veggies that don’t normally come in a can. The only thing that we have lost out on is dairy products. Now it hasn’t been to bad yet, since I had a stash of grated cheese in the fridge, but once it is gone we will have to do without. But maybe I will get lucky and some neighborhood farm will bring some to the Farmer’s Market one weekend.

Tonight I will ask my oldest and my husband to take a moment and think about the past few weeks and give me their thoughts. I can’t wait to hear what they have to say!