sometimes we do things because we think it helps. and, in some way, a very small way, maybe it does. and this doesn't mean that we should stop doing them, but at least maybe we should stop thinking they're making such a big difference. for instance, i know several people that are no longer using plastic bags from the grocery store. the main reason behind this is that the bags are plastic. plastic comes from oil. all our oil use, bad for the environment. now, these are all true. but, really inconsequential. we import 20 million barrrels of oil a day. if we were to totally ban plastic bags, that would eliminate all of .16% of that oil consumption. less than 1% isn't really huge. let's see, 20 million x 365 days * .16% = 11,680,000 barrels of oil. if you add in the amount of oil that goes into making evil water bottles, that gets us up to .18%, or 13,140,000 barrels.*
these are two seemingly small things that we all would have to do to make this happen. but, we would be better served if we just didn't import oil for one day. i know that's not very realistic. so what are some other solutions?
i guess before we talk solutions, we should discuss the problem. what is the problem? is it just importing oil and foreign dependence? some would say yes. i'm not in that boat. to me, the problem is the environmental impact we're having through our oil usage. cars, factories, everything burning oil has an impact on the air we breathe and the climate we live in. i know, some doubt global warming, but even without buying into that you've got to see the poor air quality we now face.
are the solutions as easy as the old motto, "reduce, reuse, recycle?" i've heard that if we focus on the first two, we would be very well served. thoughts?
btw, i just saw that british protesters are camping outside of heathrow airport to protest against a proposed expansion because they feel it would add to global warming.
*i got my oil import numbers and such from here.
2 comments:
Not using plastic bags also helps to keep them out of landfills.
true. i was thinking that there were other benefits to not using plastic bags, but forgot to throw that in. thanks.
and, i guess this points out that our efforts generally aren't singularly focused. we use drive less, or drive better cars, or carpool to not only save gas, and $, but also to help te environment, air quality, and so on.
i saw someone talking about how ineffective recycling newspaper is because most paper out there isn't being printed on a large amount of postconsumer recycled paper. and, paper yields relatively low cash for recycling. but, that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. it still helps use less paper. and, it would save landfill space. and, in california, cities are now required to be recycling about half of their trash. so, paper, greenwaste, cans, bottles, they all play in.
so, maybe we stop using plastic bags. but i'm not sure if that means we need to ban them.
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