Monday, August 18, 2008

Love one another right now



Eco-terrorists are to the green movement what fundamentalists are to religion--radical morons who pervert some pretty wonderful causes and make other people suffer for it.

But if Ayan Hirsi Ali is correct about Islam (at least, the more fundamental versions of it), at the very least the green movement is open to debate as to what's reasonable for most people to do in order to do their part to slow down the pace of global warming*.

How far would you go to be green? Comment below with the numbers on the list below. List first the ones you actually do, and then the ones you would do if you had the means. .

1) Cut back your driving mileage by 25%
2) Cut back your driving by 50%
3) Give up driving
4) Limit flight travel to once a year
5) Eliminate flights entirely
6) Use "green" laundry detergent
7) Use green personal hygiene products (toothpaste, shampoo)
8) Use "green" makeup
9) Give up makeup
10) Go vegetarian
11) Go vegan
12) Go freegan
13) Eat organically-produced meat
14) Eat organic produce
15) Eat local organic produce
16) Eat local organic meat/eggs/dairy products
17) Give up fast food
18) Carry a piece of trash an extra block until you find a trash can
19) Pick up litter
20) Switch to fluorescent lights
21) Better insulate your house
22) Use all-natural products to do the insulation
23) Live in an all-natural house (mud walls, thatched roof, power by windmills)
24) Give up electric lighting for candles/torches
25) Buy organic-cotton clothing
26) Buy secondhand clothing
27) Take up dumpster diving
28) Milk your own cow
29) Give up coffee
30) Give up tea
31) Give up vanilla, pepper, spices
32) Farm your own food
33) Make your own clothes
34) Butcher your own meat
35) Take shorter showers
36) Use a bidet instead of toilet paper
37) Give up chocolate
38) Reuse old jars and plastic bottles
39) Compost
40) Reuse plastic bags
41) Rinse and reuse sandwich bags
42) Rinse and reuse aluminum foil
43) Walk away from a relationship if the person bought a Hummer


*Global warming--at the very least, odd climate--is real. Whether it's manmade, and whether anything we do will make a whit of difference is debatable.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

rofl. you know our family does almost everything on that list? I mean, besides live out of a mud hut and milk our own cow? xDD
it's mostly out of cheapness and my allergic-ness to everything and Dad's inability to digest, but still. I couldn't give up coffee or tea, though.

and wth is freeganism? from what I read on wiki, it sounds really stupid.

Anonymous said...

No recycling on the list? My fiance and I only go through 1 garbage bag for the whole house every third week. Nearly everything in our house is recycled, re-used or put in the garden.

Even if Global Warming is proved wrong tomorrow, the fact that we are running out of raw materials is even scarier in my book!

Studd Beefpile said...

Recycling is more complicated than you think. Glass makes for a good example. Recycling glass prevents bottles from going into landfills, which is good. Unfortunately it takes more energy to recycle glass than it does to make new glass, which means generating more carbon. So which do you care about more, your carbon footprint or landfills? More importantly, which is worse at the margin for the environment? The truth is unknowable in the absense of prices.

Anonymous said...

@ andy:

I didn't put down recycling because this was supposed to be limited to activities that cut greenhouse gas production. Recycling, no matter how it's done, actually increases CO2 production, so it wasn't on the list.