Take the Nature Challenge!

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I recently signed up to take the Nature Challange on David Suzuki's website, at http://www.davidsuzuki.org

I urge everyone to join the tens of thousands of others who have taken
the Nature Challange. It's simple: visit
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/WOL/Challenge/ . Sign up and choose at least three of the following:

1. Reduce home energy use by 10%
2. Choose an energy-efficient home & appliances
3. Don't use pesticides
4. Eat meat-free meals one day a week
5. Buy locally grown and produced food
6. Choose a fuel-efficient vehicle
7. Walk, bike, carpool or take transit
8. Choose a home close to work or school
9. Support alternative transportation
10.Learn more and share with others

Look how easy these things are. Being environmentally friendly is not difficult, it merely requires a little knowledge of how. Even if you already do half the things on that list, I urge you to sign up anyways. There's always a need to be more environmentally friendly.

Always remember that it is the individual that consumes the energy and eats the meat and uses the pesticides. It is the individual that can cut back on these things. It is the individual that has the power to slow climate change, to reduce the damage humanity is causing. The individual has the power; the individual is you. Take action.

[ November 13, 2004, 19:02: Message edited by: Blackthorne TA ]

 

Hey, I already do 4 of those, but I could always add more. As of now, here's the 4 that I'm already doing:

4. I eat meat-free meals 1-2 days a week or so.
7. I walk to school and take the train whenever I need to go somewhere distant.
8. School is a mile away; a good walking distance.
9. I support the train system in our fine city.

[ November 13, 2004, 02:59: Message edited by: Rednik ]

 

Awesome! I'm glad to hear that you already do some of those, and am even more glad that you are willing to do more!
Number 1 and Number 10 are great suggestions for those who are already environmentally friendly. 1.) Reducing energy consumption is always of paramount importance. 10.) Spreading the word and getting others to become more environmentally friendly is the biggest way for an individual to make a difference.
I hope to see more people take the challange and help to protect our fragile environment!

 

How does one go about reducing energy consumption if one lives in an apartment? As for number 10, I'll probably link some of my friends to this tonight.

 

1. Reduce home energy use by 10%
I am decreasing my use every month, this can't be too hard to do.
2. Choose an energy-efficient home & appliances
Done and Done.
3. Don't use pesticides
Pesti what?
4. Eat meat-free meals one day a week
Vegetarian. NEXT!
5. Buy locally grown and produced food
Done.
6. Choose a fuel-efficient vehicle
I don't use cars, only bikes.
7. Walk, bike, carpool or take transit
See above.
8. Choose a home close to work or school
See above.
9. Support alternative transportation
Of course. As I said, I don't use cars.
10.Learn more and share with others
Spreading my propaganda is what I do, every day.

 

Question: Is fish a meat?

 

Awesome Caleb!!

@Rednik: Reducing energy consumption in an apartment would be a little harder because you can't improve on the insulation. Can you control the heating / AC in your own apartment? or is it an apartment wide setting? If you can control it, turning heating / AC down will help to reduce energy consumption. If not, then there's even more you can do! Go to the board of the apartment, or whatever they head-honchos are called, and ask them to turn it down to save energy.

@Jaguar: Personally, I consider it a meat in every respect. However, there is a clear answer here, given the context. Yes: look at the decimation of fish populations globally. Canada especially.

 

Managed to talk my father into lowering the temperature in the apartment, so point 1 is now completed.

That's for you right-wing nutcases who believe us leftist living in a world which can't work, well, IT DOES!!

 

Well done Caleb. If only more people did as much as you... *sigh*

 

Um, am doing a lot of that stuff.... for example, I don't even hacve a car

would work on lowering the temp, but the landlord has yet to fix the stupid thermothingy on the heater, making that impossible

 

1. Reduce home energy use by 10%
In the process of upping the insulation, will replace the inefficient back-boiler (approx 45% efficient with a compression bolier (95% efficient) when I can afford it
2. Choose an energy-efficient home & appliances
Appliances yes, the house is 1930's so doesn't even have cavity walls.
3. Don't use pesticides
We use organic pestacides
4. Eat meat-free meals one day a week
2-3 times a week
5. Buy locally grown and produced food
We grow some of our own.
6. Choose a fuel-efficient vehicle
Don't own a car.
7. Walk, bike, carpool or take transit
Walk & Rail
8. Choose a home close to work or school
If only I could afford to live in central london.

 

1. Living in the cold Northeast we have already done everything reasonable to keep the heat in the house.

2. I'm not going out and buying new appliances to keep some greenie happy. When the ones we have break, we buy the best there is at the time.

3. We don't grow anything so we don't have any pesticides.

4. I love meat. I eat it at least once every day. Last night we ate in a Kosher Chinese restaurant. The pepper flavored chicken was delicious.

5. We do buy from the local growers. I'm not sure how this helps the planet as opposed to buying from the other side of the planet. I just like supporting my neighbors.

6. See my response to number 2. We don't own SUVs, but I love my car and I'm not getting rid of it until I have to.

7. This list was obviously written by some urban dweller. There are only about three places I could walk/ride a bike to. For people who live in suburban or rural areas this is completely foolish.

8. I don't think I'm going to move for the hell of it. I've lived in this house for 31 years.

9. I would love to support teleportation.

10. Sharing information only works if people are willing to listen.

 

@ TGS

For number 5, transportation, especialy aerial, is a large contributer to global warming. There was some interesting data (somewhere, can't find it now though) about the effect on (local) night & day temperatures when America had the flying bans imposed after the 11th of September. Something along the lines of a 2 degree average temp rise during the day, and a average 1 degree drop over night.

 

/me high-fives TGS

Trust me, Geoff, I try to live my life in as environmentally-aware a fashion as possible (recycle everything possible, minimize consumption of non-recycleables, etc.) but sometimes something has to give. Interesting, tho' how often the approach that's friendliest to the environment is also IN THE LONG RUN friendliest to the economy and the individual's health...


1. Reduce home energy use by 10%

I'm with TGS. We're already doing what we can to improve our heating/cooling efficiency, and we're looking for as many places as possible to use compact fluorescent bulbs.

2. Choose an energy-efficient home & appliances

When the time comes to change what currently works, that'll be a consideration.

3. Don't use pesticides

We're not farmers, but we try to deal with household pests in way that is also FAMILY friendly. Unfortunately, sometimes nothing but a squirt of Raid or Brush-be-gone will do.

4. Eat meat-free meals one day a week

Already done for other reasons. Frequently more than once.

5. Buy locally grown and produced food

Done whenever possible, which isn't as often as I'd like. Please find a way to put a few extra hours into my day to accomodate this.

6. Choose a fuel-efficient vehicle

Ditto #2. We've done our best with what we have, and keep our vehicles in good mecahnical condition to maximize mileage.

7. Walk, bike, carpool or take transit

Already done.

8. Choose a home close to work or school

Ditto #2.

9. Support alternative transportation

Already done.

10.Learn more and share with others

The Rallykids are already being thoroughly indoctrinated - just ask Velcro!

 

I agree wholeheartedly with TGS and Rallymama. Whoever came up with Challenges 3 and 5 doesn't have a clue about farming. I have little patience for green, tree-loving, chemical-free elitists who complain about the sorry state of our world while typing away on their computer, eating a super-sized big mac and listening to the lastest cd from whoever is their favorite artist.

By the way, nothing is chemical free (even water is a chemical), computers are the largest growing cause of hazardous waste, farmers selling to EVERY fast food company use pesticides and cd's take ions to biodegrade.

If you're really green you don't have a computer (it pollutes and uses too much valuable electricity).

 

T2Bruno: Um, I'm pretty sure points 3 and 5 refer to industrial farming versus holistic growing. There are many scientific articles on many prestigious journals (such as Nature, and no, it's not a hippie thing -- it's one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world) that point to the positive effects of non-industrial methods.

edit: And being "green" does not mean "taking us back into the stone age where we only have fire and sticks." There are always moderate positions of what "green" truly is. Yes, electricity is polluting, but energy providers and corporations, especially in Europe, have been encouraging cleaner and efficient ways of generating power, such as wind or solar energy. I believe one of my profs from the UK said that Ireland (or some other place) had giant 4 MW (maybe it was even 6 MW!) wind energy farms!

 

Ditto TGS, Rally and T2Bruno. We do what we can, but we're not fanatical about it.

That said, a thread like this serves as a good reminder that we should always be on the lookout for reasonable ways to be environmentally friendly. For example, currently there is a bit of a push in our city to have people turn their cars off if they would otherwise just let it idle for more than a couple of minutes (temperature permitting). So now, if I get stuck waiting for a train (happens quite frequently on my route to work), I'll shut the engine off.

 

Here's mine!

1. Reduce home energy use by 10%

Did that. My family replaced almost all the lightbulbs with energy saving ones. We also make sure we turn off the lights because they actually consume a lot of power when turned on!

2. Choose an energy-efficient home & appliances

We're replacing a bunch of old appliances with ones that have current technology, and therefore more efficient.

3. Don't use pesticides

My mom never uses pesticides on her flowers!

4. Eat meat-free meals one day a week

Rice and veggies tastes very good!

5. Buy locally grown and produced food

Not too good on this point. But, my province has a lot of farmers and cattle ranchers, so I'm betting a good part of that lands on my dinner plate.

6. Choose a fuel-efficient vehicle

Hey, I actually found some interesting data on this the other day. Supposedly, some SUVs (especially the smaller ones) do consume less fuel than some minivans! Go figure!

But yeah, my dad bought a new car (Mitsubishi Outlander) a month ago because our old van kept on breaking down, and the SUV actually consumes less.

7. Walk, bike, carpool or take transit

I pretty much take transit everywhere I go, because I can't be bothered to drive. Sleeping on the bus is great!

8. Choose a home close to work or school

I would, but I live with my parents.

9. Support alternative transportation

YES. But, my city and province is dumb and won't support a U-Pass for transit.

10.Learn more and share with others

I'm planning to be a professor!

 

My father-in-law is not an industrial farmer. He has ~800 acres that he could not possibly make enough money to survive without pesticides and fertilizer. "Organic" farms get lousy yields and the average farmer could not survive the cut-throat farming business with such poor yields. Basically, the majority of consumers do not care -- they just want the weekly grocery bill low.

You can spout Nature all you want, but I've not seen an article showing holistic agriculture being able to keep up with the population in either Nature or Science (yes, I read the top two scientific journals on occasion -- along with several others). BT, please list the reference for the article you're citing -- I should be able to read it within the next few days....

 

Which is better for the environment, making good use what what you already have or replacing something that still works well with something new just because it's "greener"? Similarly, which has the greater impact - buying products in one location or doing a whole bunch of extra driving to reach the out-of-the-way markets where local and organic products can be found?

Two sides to every coin...