Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

No Earth Day on BMG?

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What I did in the last year to benefit the environment:

–started using cf bulbs

–started recycling, big time

–when doing dishes, turn water off when not rinsing.

–turn off lights not in use

–turn off computer when leaving office

–when needed, chose an energy star clothes dryer

–bought real plate, silverware and started using and resusing at work, instead of using and throwing away plastic/paper

–started using insulated lunch box, rather than plastic shopping bags for daily lunch

–bought resuable grocery bags

What I plan to do in the coming year:

–buy rain barrels

–have masssave do an audit of my house

–insulate the crap out of my house

–try to find and buy more locally grown food

–consider having my power bought from wind farms, etc.

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Comments

  1. Great start and on behalf of the rest of the residents (of the planet) thank you.  There are approximately one gazillion other suggestions on various sites out there but a few things to consider:
    -Using a dishwasher reduces water consumption by approx. 30% over hand washing.
    -Insulating your home is important but just as (if not more) important is finding the gaps that cold air comes in through. We’re into the warmer days now but on a windy day light a stick of incense and slowly move it around your windows, doors, outside wall switches and sockets. See if the incense suddenly blows all over the place.
    -Thank you Jimmy Carter: Wear a sweater.
    -Thank you Mommy: Turn off the lights if you’re not in the room.
    Thank you EPA: Don’t just turn off electronics pull the plug. Many items such as my wireless router, cell phone charger, etc. still use juice even if they’re turned off or in the case of the cell phone, not being charged.

    • Not certain why that last item shows strikethrough but it was unintended. EPA started a campaign about this (energy hogs campaign) a year or so ago.

      • If you place a “-” dash before and after a word or sentence without a space, it automatically converts to strikethrough here. I was baffled by this phenomenon for a while myself.

        <

        p>- Thank you EPA: Don’t just turn off electronics – pull the plug. (spaces)
        Thank you EPA: Don’t just turn off electronics pull the plug. (no spaces)

    • Everything I don’t understand.

      <

      p>

      Will you look at all this stuff I have neither the intellect nor the maturity level to process? What a load of crap. It’s in my face every day, doing lots of things I don’t have an immediate desire to do and saying things I can’t identify with at this stage in my life. How lame is that? I mean, what kind of pathetic loser would actually enjoy something that’s so incredibly not among my personal preferences? Not me, that’s for sure.

  3. Earth day may have been upstaged at BMG by Pennsylvania, and understandably so.

    <

    p>But I really regret the absence of environmental issues from this campaign, from climate change to environmental justice.

    <

    p>In a close race every constituency is important. Apparently there is no constituency for the earth.

    <

    p>I don’t blame our candidates, though neither of them seems to get it on climate change. They are just doing what the electorate tells them.

    <

    p>In my view the mainstream environmental groups lost it a decade ago when they abandoned the grass roots and focused on being players in Washington. Giving up onthe former they lost any hope of the latter.

    <

    p>We have a long way to go and not a whole lot of time to do it.

    <

    p>Noternie, I hope I am not not crapping on the spirit of your post, which lifted my spirit. Good for you from the bottom of my heart. But the sad fact is that personal virtue alone is insufficient.

    • You absolutely crapped all over the spirit of my post. If your spirits were lifted, I shudder to read a post in response to something that bums you out.

      <

      p>Earth Day got upstaged by Pennsylvannia? We can only digest one story per day? I’m not saying this had to be #1, but it doesn’t even register? Maybe that’s why the environment hasn’t moved further up the priority list in this campaign.

      <

      p>This isn’t a business site, it’s supposed to be for progressives. And if progressive, online, activists don’t care about the environment enough to post on Earth Day, why should presidential candidates think it’s important?

      <

      p>I don’t think personal virtue is insufficient because it doesn’t have to be alone. I don’t know how you have a screen name of Trickle Up and then take such a top-down, follow the leader approach.

      <

      p>I would’ve preferred you save the cynical give up routine for another day or just kept it to yourself. Because your post really brought me down.

      • to have hurt your feelings. In token of which, I will drop the substantive argument, which I had thought was appropriate here. Perhaps another diary another time.

        <

        p>I most vigorously reject, however, your characterization as “the cynical give up routine.” I think that reflects your feelings and not my argument.

        • Glad to hear I got your mindset wrong. I didn’t get a lot of hope out of your post.

          <

          p>But, as a newly ordained environmentalist, I would appreciate any insight you have dealing with the environmental establishment.  

      • FWIW I didn’t see TrickleUp’s comment as denigrating your message. I believe it was stating the political problems facing environmental progress. We all, as you point out, need to take personal steps but we also need to push for greater environmental action. To do so we need to know what we’re up against.

  4. My own carbon footprint –

    <

    p>I do not have a washer, dryer, dishwasher or sprinkler system.  Over 30 +/- years, the water and electricity I’ve saved is ENORMOUS!

    • Build cape wind! Our liberal senators are not really environmentalists until they support cape wind and real alternative solutions!

      <

      p>Also while I am not carbon neutral (is anyone really?) my family has never had a dishwasher, until last summer we had one AC, and in college with the exception of my laptop I dont use tvs or most appliances and have not been in a car for three months right now. Public transport all the way!

      <

      p>And I think its really lame that we have an Earth day or Live Earth concert which in reality don’t accomplish anything (and waste tons of paper on advertisements, etc. and probably produces more waste than not celebrating at all).  

      • First of all, neglecting to own a dishwasher is actually bad in many ways for the environment. It uses electricity but according to numerous studies hand-washing uses 30% or more water than a dishwasher.

        <

        p>Good on you for using public transportation and minimal electricity. However, while you may think it “lame” to have Earth Day celebrations the reality is that just like any marketing campaign we need to draw attention to environmental issues. If you cannot understand the value of having a day that people and media across the planet focus, for once, on a multitude of environmental issues then you simply do not understand marketing, PR or advocacy.

        • It uses electricity but according to numerous studies hand-washing uses 30% or more water than a dishwasher.

          That is based on the assumption (often correct ) that hand-washers leave the water running.  A dishwasher actually uses water to “scrub” the dishes.

          <

          p>I put soap in a coffee mug, scrub all the dishes and don’t turn the water on until I have to rinse at the very end.  There’s no way I’m using more water than a dishwasher.

          • You may be correct. However, as I’m sure you know, that is most definitely not the way most people wash dishes.

            <

            p>I say “may be correct” because the revered Consumer Reports (italicizing mine) says

            <

            p>

            Don’t wash dishes by hand. An efficient dishwasher can use less water than washing dishes by hand, no matter how frugal you are at the faucet.

            <

            p>But as per the Consumer Energy Center

            <

            p>

            According to research, a load of dishes cleaned in a dishwasher requires 37 percent less water than washing dishes by hand. If you fill the wash and rinse basins of your sink instead of just letting the water run, however, you will use half as much water as the normal dishwasher load

            .  

    • Do we take our clothes out to the creek out back and beat them with a rock?

      • And HE has filters, a greywater holding tank, etc., and handles waste water in such a way as my poor septic system could never do.  Likewise – no runing a load JUST to have that favorite shirt – do laundry once every 2 weeks or so, and plan what you wear.

        <

        p>That’s my gripe with dishwashers, too – how many people actually run them FULL, instead of a few plates and forks?

        • Does your friend advertise his laundromat in a way that tells customers he’s doing the right thing? Just curious.

        • It fills up quickly, and therefore gets run frequently.  It’s rare I have to reach in and wash something by hand because there isn’t a clean alternative in my cabinet.

          <

          p>It is true that every once in a while if we’re entertaining many guests, I’ve got to run the d/w, then run it again because there’s so many dirty plates.  But, that’s rare, and for the rest of the time it allows me to fill the dishwasher quickly and run it overnight every few days.

        • Never heard of that. Good for them. How common is that?

          <

          p>And yes, I do cram the dishwasher full with as much as possible before running. Wife is actually more adept than I at making more fit.

          <

          p>I also don’t run water while washing pots and pans in the sink. And don’t fill the sink. Turn on only to prerinse and then rinse all the stuff at once at the end.

          <

          p>I was also worried, Peter, that you were living as your alter ego and that your neighbors and others might not appreciate the personal perfume of days gone bay.

    • Given the discussion of dryers, I thought this might be of interest to people. Like others, I do not own a clothes dryer for environmental reasons.  A few years ago, when my son was a young teenager, I was working on writing the Democratic Dispatch (my weekly e-mail newsltter). He decided to write a newsletter of his own on a topic of great interest to him.

      <

      p>WHAT KIND OF PSYCHO DOESN’T OWN A DRYER?

      <

      p>Hello. Welcome to the very first edition of “what kind of psycho doesn’t have a dryer?”, the news letter that asks, and fails to answer, the question of what kind of psycho doesnt have a dryer. The topic of our first edition is the advantages and disadvantages of using a dryer regularly.

      <

      p>Advantages:
      – much less time to do
      – much less time to dry
      – much easier to do
      – clothes aren’t all stiff
      – clothes don’t smell weird
      – you don’t get dissed by other people
      – you have room to hacky sack on the porch because there aren’t clothes all hanging around in your face
      – you don’t have to waste your time writing newsletters about why you need a dryer
      – you can wash a shirt Tuesday night and be able to wear it Wednesday morning (applies for all other days of the week)

      <

      p>Disadvantages:
      – uses an easily renewable resource
      – you just might be out of the running for “loser of the year” contest  

  6. BUY LESS

    <

    p>Nobody wants to cop up to it, but the only way the Earth is healthier 100 years from now than it is today is if “First world nations” simply consume less than they do now.

    <

    p>Technology won’t be enough.  Energy policy won’t be enough, nor will better pollution regulations.  We’ve got to build smaller homes and smaller cars.  We’ve got to quit handing out (and quit taking) the free T shirts and stress balls and individually wrapped free samples of deodorant.  We’ve got to fly less often, drive less often, and make choices that make our trips fewer miles and using more mass transit.

    <

    p>Reduce, reuse, recycle.  In that order.  The best thing you can do is to just not use, and only when you must use, reuse.  If you can’t reuse, only then recycle.

    <

    p>Nobody said it would be easy, or fun for that matter.  Sorry if this post is a downer.

    • You sound like me talking to my girlfriends:

      <

      p>”Aw, sweetie – every day is [Valentine’s Day / our anniversary / like the day we first met] when I’m with you! I don’t need a heart-shaped box of candy chocolates to prove how much I care about you.” Apparently, I did need those chocolates. 🙁

  8. Just curious- has anyone had this done?  Do they send a technician out to go through your home or is it more general than that?  Is there a cost?

    <

    p>I was on the Mass Save website and it wasn’t real clear.  Just a number to call.

    • I’ve done a tremendous amount of energy/water saving work in my home. After I’d done a bunch I called them up and they did a review. The summary discussion at the end was “Yup, keep doing what you’re doing.”  

      <

      p>If, however, someone is not as familiar with what to do or how to do it I think it would have been very useful. Even if you know the basics of what to do the audit can be useful because they may point out the faucet that is higher flow than necessary (one may not know by looking at it or how to determine this), whether one’s toilets are low-flow, answer specific questions about how much insulation should be used where, etc.

      <

      p>Unfortunately I wasn’t able to schedule the ‘blower door test.’ This is where they set a fan up in an exterior door, create negative air flow (blow all the air in the house outward) to find leaks. That is very useful and important. My understanding is that the scheduling of that service is very limited as they’ve got a single unit that gets shared among several auditors.

  9. I agree with the comments above regarding buying less in the first place. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

    <

    p>If you are going to purchase though – purchase items with as much recycled content as possible.  If there is no market for recycled products, there’s no incentive for large scale recycling – even if we do put it in the blue bins.  Also, products made using recycled materials use less energy and other non-renewable resources.

    <

    p>If you buy paper for your printer, buy the paper with the highest post-consumer recycled content you can find. And if you can’t find it at your favorite office supply store – tell the manager that’s what you want and ask them to carry more.  

    <

    p>Ditto for envelopes, spiral notebooks, notebook paper, etc.

    <

    p>When you purchase TP, get the 100% recycled paper variety.  (Why use virgin trees to wipe your nether parts?)

    <

    p>Avoid buying paper towels, paper napkins and tissues – but if you do purchase them, get the sort made from recycled paper.

    <

    p>(Great substitutes for paper towels are rags from old textiles, cloth napkins can be purchased new or at yard sales,  and handkerchiefs work really well to blow your nose.)

    <

    p>There are many products out there made from recycled materials – not just paper products.  An example are toothbrushes whose handles are made from yogurt cups – a Massachusetts company called Recycline makes these and other products.  And they take them back for recycling.  (I don’t work for the company, but I like their toothbrushes!)

    <

    p>So reduce, reuse, recycle and make as many of your purchases be of items made from recycled materials as you can.

    • If you are going to purchase though – purchase items with as much recycled content as possible.

      <

      p>Nah.  Purchase items with as much reused content as possible.  Reused content?  Sure.  Buy used items.  Check out craigslist to pick stuff up, ranging from electronics to outdoor equipment.  I buy all of my music used, either from amazon.com’s used choices or at a local joint like CD Spins.  Play it Again Sports does the same thing for athletic equipment.  Heck, don’t be ashamed of wandering into a GoodWill store to pick a few things up; after all, by buying from GoodWill you’re doing good by the Earth and supporting a charity which provides job training for those on society’s margins.

      <

      p>Not everything can (or should!) be purchased used, and then look to buy with high recycled content.

      <

      p>

      <

      p>But, when making purchases, don’t forget to try and buy reused before buying recycled!

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