Blogiversity.org

Even with the best intentions, it's not always easy to be green. There's a lot of conflicting information out there, for instance:

• Buy hybrid! Actually, if your old car is still running, it's probably better to keep it, because the manufacturing of a new car creates a greater carbon footprint.
• The electric car is the answer: Actually, it's not if it's going to be plugged into a community electicity source that's burning coal.
• Ethanol, the solution to petroleum! Actually, it takes more energy to turn corn into fuel than we'd be saving.
• Bamboo is greener! Actually, because bamboo is now so popular (and profitable) old-growth forests are being cut down to start new bamboo groves. And then there's the damage of shipping bamboo all the way from China.
• Murphy's Oil Soap for green cleaning! Actually, MOS contains toxic potassium hyroxide.
• Replace your lightbulbs with CFs. Actually, it's wasteful to replace perfectly good lightbulbs, and when those CFs burn out five years from now, what are we going to do with all the mercury in them?
• Carbon offsets allow a net zero carbon footprint! Actually, some of the projects being supported are still in development and may never bear fruit.

I try to keep reminding myself that we're in a learning curve. It's only recently that the Bush adminsitration was even willing to admit that global warming is real! The great irony in all the hype and treehugging is that we're the generation of  SUVs, McMansions, flat panel TVs, cell phones, laptops and bottled water. It might be that the problems we created are too complex to be easily solved. It might be that even with the best intentions my generation doesn't get to assuage its guilt by going green.

 

 

 

Oh, Writer Lady! You need some cheering up! Let's think of some good that has already happened due to the efforts of people just like you! For instance:

Lead!
There used to be lead in paint and gasoline in the United States. Now there isn't, because people who were concerned about it polluting groundwater and people who were concerned about it damaging the brains of children acted out to fix the situation!

Or! CFC's!
When I was in middle school every can of hairspray in the locker room sent out its own explosion of CFCs. Then, people began educating their peers and their legislators about the effects of CFC on the ozone. Today there are fewer ozone thinners being emitted into the atmosphere, because people cared and acted.

Of course, it's always hard to get enough information in one place to make the "best" decisions, but sometimes trying to make better decisions is a bigger step than it feels like. So keep up the good fight! 

Yes guilt ridden writer lady;) You inspire me and I am going to find the best solar solution possible for my home and business! Thank you, and remember that we just need to get going in the right direction. It may be a long road but at least we will one day get to a point one day that our earth begins to heal.