Do you really belive that people are REALLy trying to be greener with respect to the environment?

I don't. They continue being consuming "hounds", still looking for the latest gadgets and innovations to buy, wear, and play with. What I do see is a bunch of people that talk and type well and have enough time on their hands to complain, but are really doing nothing or very little. You know who you are and you know whether you are really DOING something or not.

Me- I have started growing ALL my own vegetables, xeriscaped my yard landscaping, collect rainwater(as much as possible for watering), reduced my fuel usage from over $700 month down to about $85 monthly even with rising fuel costs, I recycle or reuse everything, have replaced all of my lighting with energy efficient bulbs. I recycled my dishwasher and now do dishes by hand. I use all of my grass clippings and garden stuff for my compost pit. I am doing as much as I can and would like to see others make a similar effort. This is the only way we can get a grasp on our declining environment.

Do you really belive that people are REALLy trying to be greener with respect to the environment?
The way I see it is if people like you make it cool others will follow. Who cares if they dont care if they change a few of their habits to be in with the cool crowd. If some wannabe changes a few of his light bulbs to more effcient ones that a net gain. If every household in the country switched one light bulb that would eliminate one massive powerplant. Keep on doing what your doing because pioneers like yourself make it socially acceptable, and cool to be enviro friendly. You also drive the price of these items down by creating a demand for more companies to produce enviro friendly products.



The average person is never going to do their own composting its just not going to happen. Some people dont care, others, well I live in the City. Allot of us have a porch and maybe a patch of grass if were lucky, composting just aint gonna happen. The average person may one day put in solar panels because it will drive their electricty costs down. They may buy a hybrid because of gas costs ect. What people dont relaize is that being friendly to the earth is oftentimes being friendly to your own pocketbook.



Im starting a new job and visited the office the other day just to find out we dont recycle paper. Of all things paper!!!! We may just be 4 people, but we produce TONS of paper that becomes obsolete very quickly, sometimes within days of printing. So yeah thats gonna be my first non work related work project once I get a firm footing in the office lol.
Reply:I do things that are better for the environment - I think first, and change some of my earlier habits and stuff. Also, allot of my friends are doing this. I guess there must be millions like us, though many pretending or who couldn't care less. Nick.
Reply:Yes, I do really believe that people are really trying to be greener with respect to the environment. How do I know? You and others are writing here about it.



In recent years I have taken to studying leadership and observing leadership behavior in all its aspects. I am beginning to see how leadership is about being socially responsible. I don't mean in the PR sense of corporate social responsibility, although that's progress; I mean that people will follow those who have a vision of something better. At last we are learning that better but with anti-social side-effects is not good enough.



Now is everyone as environmentally conscious as you? Probably not. You and others here are leaders in this and more will follow.
Reply:For us, we do alot! We have jobs close enough to home to ride our bicycles to work, we raise our own produce, which I can and we live on during the off season, I cook outside on wood as much as possible, I recycle everything possible, I have a compost pile, which gets fresh chicken manure (I have chickens, so I get fresh organic eggs), we use NO chemicals in our house, I hang my laundry out as often as possibe, we to ohave rain barrells ( but we also have our own well), but water the gardens with the rain water as oftten as possible. I plant 2 new trees on our farm every year! We have 15 acres. Oh, and we go sailing, but our sailboat has no motor. Clean, quiet and wonderful.



There is so much more. But I do see you point.. all these soccor momma's with their SUVs and cell phones. I do the best i can to organize all of my errands to do the least amount of driving as possible. I buy from local companies, not large corporations..Thank goodness I work only part-time, because all of this work keeps me busy, but very content!
Reply:Yes, I believe that SOME are but we have a long way to go. I still see the senseless burden that people put on the earth each day. I just wish we were a little better to her!
Reply:I commend you! Many people talk the talk, but walk only a little bit of the walk. And that's OK! Changes often start small and lead to big. What have I done?

1. My husband and I moved into our city 2 years ago. The city had NEVER had a recycling center. Now it does. We staff it with volunteers and spend most Saturdays running it ourselves.

2. I used to live 12 miles from my workplace. Now I live 1 mile from my workplace.

3. I use rainwater. I have several large barrels to collect it in. When I run out of rainwater, I have a well.

4. I compost. I also have what I call my "dogbot", a 40-pound bluetick heeler who cleans the kitchen floor after I cook. Food scraps, no matter how small, do NOT go into the garbage at my house.

5. I have a hand-operated push mower. No gas, no electricity.

6. I am slowly replacing the grass on my 2/3 acre property with paths, hardy native plants, and paths (using recycled brick from my mother's farm).

7. CFL bulbs? We got 'em. I know, they contain mercury. As soon as LED bulb prices come down from the stratosphere, we'll have 'em too.

8. New energy-efficient air conditioner/heat pump. Costly? Yes. Lower electric bills? Yes.

9. Fireplace? I got one. Wooded area behind my house to get firewood from? I got one.

10. Recycling! I keep recycling bins at work (a school) for aluminum cans, plastic water bottles (one of the BIGGEST current wastes!), and paper. I keep brochures describing my recycling center on the counter.
Reply:Good for you on the fuel usage and rain barrels!



Hand washing dishes usually uses more water than dishwashers.



Home gardeners on average use much more pesticide and herbicide than commercial growers.



Compost piles produce large amounts of methane - a greenhouse gas many times worse than CO2.



Compact fluorescent bulbs contain mercury - very bad for the environment. Also, they take much more energy to manufacture then incondecent bulbs or LEDs.



Be careful pointing fingers, four of them are pointing back at you!
Reply:I carpool when i can, I also Am buying an electric lawnmower because they only take around $5 to run a year of elctricity vs over $70 in gas and not incuding the oil for the mixing, I have already gotten rid of my gas weed eater and am now using a cordless electric for that as well. We are trading in our Suv for a sports sedan that gets 10 more miles per galon. As for growing vegtables im to busy working and i live in a trailer court so i buy all my food, have never had a dishwasher although i do hear not for sure on this that it takes less water to run a modern dishwasher vs doing it by hand.
Reply:the rain washed all of our neighbors pesticides and herbicides into our canal in key west and KILLED EVERYTHING! irresponsable jerks!