the list of 9 for may 15, 2008:
NINE UNPOPULAR THINGS YOU CAN DO TO SAVE THE PLANET
True, Earth Day was last month - but every day is Earth Day, right? Since green is the new black,I present to you my suggestions for what you can do to save our suffering planet from totalenvironmental destruction. Why is this list different from the others? Because whereas mostmainstream tips are all about sounding hip (organic gardening, hybrid cars) or easy to deal with(energy-saving lightbulbs, recycling), mine actually make a big difference - and are thesort of tips that most Americans don't want to hear.
- DON'T HAVE KIDS. The best thing anyone can do to save theworld is to not bring another person into it, another resource-consumer and waste-producer. Andgents, step up to the plate and get vasectomies. Condom production uses up resources and pollutesthe air. And used condoms pollute landfills and clog sewage lines. Birth control pills are evenworse; they often have negative impacts on female bodies (and require more drugs to counteractmood swings or discomfort), and they release hormones into the oceans and mutate sea life. Butthere is nothing environmentally unfriendly about getting yourself snipped.
- STOP EATING MEAT, OR AT LEAST BEEF AND FISH. It's a truthtoo inconvenient for even Al Gore to share. But as you must know by now, huge amounts of water,land and food resources are used to feed cattle, and the methane cows produce doesn't exactly helpmatters. Plus, too much red meat will kill you. As for fish? Poor things, they're the healthiestof all meats, but overfishing has screwed up the ecosystem and nearly every single fish on theplanet now carries dangerous amounts of mercury in it, thanks to industrial pollutants. Of course,vegetarians would have you refrain from eating all meat, but beef and fish are the bigno-nos. If you must eat meat, cut back on the amount, and try to stick to (hormone-free) poultry.
- LIVE IN A SMALL HOUSE OR APARTMENT. Just like driving asmaller car, this one's obvious. You need less energy to power a smaller place, and limited squarefootage also keeps you from acquiring too much big stuff, thus you use up fewer resources. Also,chances are if your house or apartment is small, it's old (because people in bygone days didn'tfeel a need to buy as much junk as we do today), which is good. New construction, no matter how"green" the building's design may be, is generally bad for the planet because of the energy andresources used in the process.
- WORK NEAR YOUR HOME. Well, this one isn't so bad. Whowould choose to drive an hour each day to the office if they could work the same job just a mileaway? Living in LA, it shocks me how far people are willing to drive even for jobs they hate. Andwith gas prices rising exponentially, the money they save by living in cheaper homes in outlyingareas is getting eaten up by the extra amount they spend on fuel. Plus, traffic is demoralizingand drastically impacts one's quality of life. I practice what I preach, here; I had a 12-mile,30-minute commute back in 1992, and every job I've had since then has been far closer to home andfar shorter. And now I work from home and drive my car maybe just 3-4 times a week.
- STOP EATING OUT SO MUCH. I love going out to restaurants.I've loved it a little less ever since I married a gourmet cook (home-cooked meals made fromscratch, with love and care, are always better). But yeah; eating at home, using fresh ingredients(and not pre-fabricated everything), is better for your body and the world. You eat less, so youuse fewer resources. You don't burn gas going to the restaurant. You eat healthier and reduceemissions and waste from industrial kitchens. Don't have the time to cook? You might if you workedcloser to home.
- DON'T USE AIR CONDITIONING. Although this is a small-scaletip, in a way it's the most controversial, mainly because I can't prove much of what I believeabout A/C. We can all agree that it uses up a lot of energy. But I also believe it increases ourrisk of viruses and other physical ailments, which of course increases people's need formedications (which use up resources, pollute oceans, etc.), and inhaling freon all day can'tpossibly be better for you than inhaling normal air.
- NEVER BUY NEW STUFF UNTIL THE OLD STUFF BREAKS.Corporations don't want you to think this way! Yet this is why planned obsolescence is gettingshorter and shorter. (Ever notice how newer appliances and such seem to break a lot faster thanthey did in the old days?) Still, advertising drives us to buy new things even when the old thingsstill work perfectly. New cars, new cell phones, new clothes, new computers. Stop feeling pressured to obey industry-dictated trends and keep using your old stuff until it stops working. If you fear looking unfashionable, then it's time you developed your own personal style anyway.
- WHEN YOU DO BUY NEW STUFF, BUY USED STUFF. Anotherno-brainer. Whatever you can buy new, you can also buy second hand. You reduce the amount of wastein the world by buying somebody's cast-offs, you don't use up any resources required to create or transport new stuff, and you save money (which means you can deal with a job closer tohome that may pay less than the one you have to drive an hour to). You may, in fact, notice thatone by-product of all of these tips is financial savings. That's not a coincidence. (As for me, most of my wardrobe is second-hand. And I don't buy much else really, besides food and movie tickets.)
- DON'T GO ON VACATION. This is the big bummer for me, andone that I don't particularly choose unless out of financial necessity. But travelinganywhere, unless you walk or take a bicycle, uses up fuel. Especially cruises, which shouldbe outright banned. Airplanes are bad too. I suppose you could get away with it if you took a trip to acity that had great public transportation, such as New York, so you could say, "Yes, I did ridethis polluting jet across the country, but then I'm taking the subway for two weeks, and that'stwo weeks that I'm not driving my car 50 miles a day!"
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