So, it's Blog Action Day - I have been advertising it over there on the right somewhere for a while. So what does an exiled Brit in the US have to say about the environment on a day of blogging action?
Things are bad here. But not as bad as I might have feared. When it comes to the 3 R's of environmental action: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, two of the three are not far away from our UK experience. Recycling is curbside and fairly comprehensive and reuse is difficult, but I'm not sure the UK is far ahead. Reduction is the problem. This is not a culture of reduction. And why is that? - well just look at this picture (it's a month old and largely pre-fall by the way). This is a big place - and this is crowded New York, parts of the country are nothing but space. After finding out we sometimes use washable nappies/diapers, one of our friends said "We don't really have a problem with finding landfill space, we just use Idaho." He was joking (I think), but - hey why not? - there's plenty of space.
Closer to home, in fact in our home, almost all my good habits have disappeared. Leaving aside the cost of heating (and cooling) a much larger home than the one we lived in in the UK, I find it increasingly difficult to remember to switch off appliances as I walk the mile and a half from the kitchen to the bedroom at the end of the day and our lighting is all incandescent bulbs (I will save my non-environmentally-PC blog about this for some other time). On top of this we drive two cars a total of something like 1800 miles per month compared with pre-Exile when our one car sat largely unused on the drive during the week whilst I cycled and Exile #2 walked most places.
So, I have become part of the problem. Could try harder. Then again, couldn't we all?
As someone once said "Let him who is without energy wastage cast the first stone." And they all slipped away, starting with the frequent flyers until no-one was left. "So, US - has no-one condemned you?" "No-one." "Neither do I condemn you, go and do better." Or something like that anyway.
Everyone can make a difference! And it can be just as simple as changing a light bulb! If you are passionate about stopping global warming and the environment you should check out this website http://www.nvisioncfl.com . Changing to CFLs is a great way for individual people to really make a difference! You should also check out this site http://www.youtube.com/user/helpourworld for more ideas on how to help our world!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting Krissy. I absolutely support every energy-saving innovation and am a firm believer in everyone doing a little more to help. I do have a specific issue about fluorescent bulb hype as I hinted yesterday, but I didn't want to dilute the main flow of support for ecological innovation on blog action day. Maybe I'll post on the subject today.
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