Forgot Password?
Home arrow GreeniacsArticles arrow Green Living arrow The Fourth R Rethink
Written by Marianne Peters, Greeniac11213   
Share |
Tuesday, 06 July 2010

The Fourth R: Rethink!

Someone has suggested a fourth R in the waste hierarchy: reduce, reuse, recycle, and RETHINK. A few days ago, thumbing through a magazine, I read a letter to the editor from a woman who complained: “Please stop putting ‘green’ articles in your magazine. They’re a dime a dozen.” I had to agree with her, even though I’m “guilty” of writing articles just like the ones she’s complaining about.

Everywhere I look, books, magazines, radio and TV programs, and Internet sites offer tips for tweaking our petroleum-laced lifestyles. With disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, though, “green tips” articles read like “Ten Easy Ways To Rearrange the Deck Chairs on the Titanic!” A few individuals tweaking their habits isn’t enough to dent our dependence.

As parents, my husband and I know when tweaking our kids’ behavior has to give way to big-picture discussions about character and consequences. No one enjoys those discussions. The resulting changes are uncomfortable and humbling, and they require 100% participation by all family members – including parents! – to be truly effective. It’s worth it, though: we want our kids to be happy, responsible adults who are governed by love and respect for others. Even if it kills them. (I knew letting them watch The Three Stooges was a bad idea!).

Similarly, we citizens have to look at the whys of our behavior, the what-will-happen if this behavior continues, and take steps. Here in the U. S., fossil fuels like oil, gas, and coal are cheap and available. But energy from fossil fuels doesn’t renew itself like solar or wind energy does. It took millions of years for the earth to make fossil fuels. It will take considerably less time for us to use them up, since we use four times as much as we currently discover. The world’s population is growing and so is its demand for energy. Already – as the Deepwater Horizon well demonstrates – we have to go farther and dig deeper to get the resources we require.

So, let’s rethink – let’s imagine what would happen if we took steps to transition away from our reliance on fossil fuels right here in our own communities. For instance, what would happen if:
  • Our communities replaced incandescent lighting in our public spaces with cost- and energy-saving CFLs and LEDs?
  • All of our utilities provided at least a portion of their energy from clean renewable sources such as wind and solar and allowed net metering for customers?
  • Our factory owners installed photovoltaic panels on the barren rooftops of their manufacturing facilities to collect solar energy?
  • Our local landfills collected methane gas for energy?
  • Our main thoroughfares had dedicated commuter bike lanes for those who commute to work or school along busy roads? A bike-friendly town means safer roads, cleaner air, and healthier people!
  • Our local economy flourished because we spent our money here, paid our workers here, built our businesses here? Farmer’s Markets are a great example of local commerce at work…
All of these “what-ifs” are possible – in fact, some of them are being implemented by some individuals, businesses, and communities already!

No one can say when fossil fuels will disappear. However, the future is clear – the luxury of cheap fuel that we have enjoyed here in the United States for so long may be coming to a close. Let’s take this opportunity to find better ways to meet our energy needs and improve our way of life at the same time. We have the know-how – let’s use it!
Browse all Greeniacs Articles Browse all Greeniacs Guides        Browse all Greeniacs Articles
_______________________________________________________________________________

© First North American Rights, 2010. Reprinted with permission of owner.




Add your comment
RSS comments

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Click here to Register.  Click here to login.
Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 February 2011 )

SEARCH GREENIACS.COM

Green Facts

  • Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.

  • If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.

  • Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.

  • American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.

  • In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

  • A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.

  • You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.

  • Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months

  • A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

  • Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.

  • Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.

  • Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.

  • Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.

  • Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.

  • You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.

  • It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.

  • Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.

  • Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.

  • In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.

  • A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.

  • Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

  • Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.

  • Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.

  • The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.

  • States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.

  • 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.

  • Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.

  • An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!

  • Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.

  • 77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.

  • Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.

  • Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

  • Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.

  • Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

  • A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

  • Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.

  • For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.

  • You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.

  • One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.