My recent windfall from the water company reminded me that I could not possibly have known how much water I was using. I am not so tied in to our heating bill. I am very aware of my electricity bill. I am aware of my vehicle usage. They are all important—why the difference?
When it’s in your face, it’s harder to ignore
I have some proposed solutions that should help get our consumption in our faces. (more…)
Are you like many Americans who spend more than they earn? Well, if you’re talking money, that ain’t the half of it.
Americans “spend” more resources than we make by about 5 times (more…)
Conservation is not the same as deprivation. I saw a show on TV this summer called “30 Days”, which was created by Morgan Spurlock, the guy in “Supersize Me”. In one episode, two egregious consumers of the earth’s limited resources are put into an experimental eco-commune for 30 days. We watch as these SUV-drivin’, meat-eatin’, blowdryer-usin’ two people are thrust into a place with people living a “zero footprint” life. They eat only what they grow, they recycle their waste, they retrieve vegetable oil from restaurants to power their car. So we see people whose lifestyle is perhaps admirable, but utterly different from most Americans. It was good TV, and presented a lot of facts about how badly we are abusing the earth. But it did not present options that our consumption-addicted country can really act on.
Indeed, radical viewpoints can be counter-productive. (more…)
