What are you doing against Global Warming

What did global warming have to do with the wildfires currently going on in California, anyway. Global warming is the earth heating up by a few degrees, not having fires set by jackasses spread by the unlucky combination of a late-season heat wave mixed with really strong winds.

Anyway, I try my best to recycle (the energy it takes to create one new aluminum is the same as the energy required to recycle ten old aluminum cans!) and conserve energy since most of our power comes from non-renewable sources, and I think conservation for the sake of conservation should be a good enough reason not to waste.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

I switched out all my old, conventional light bulbs with the more expensive but more green fluorescence thingies. Although the package says they contain mercury. I think I was counter-productive.

Recycling is actually a very expensive and inefficient process, I hear. I try to do that when I can, but our town doesn't really offer the option, sadly. =/

EDIT: I don't want to upset Gech or anything with my half-assed green actions. Please don't hate me, Gech!

The amount of mercury in a light bulb is trace amounts at best.

If you do really worry about it that much, though, the EPA does mandate safe disposal methods for large users of fluorescent bulbs. I'm sure you could find some company nearby that will take in as part of a recycling program.

And, of course, recycling can be expensive and inefficient, but it really depends on the kind of material you're dealing with. Recycling mixed metals, such as steel, is still worthwhile, though it gets to be a hassle since you're mixing all these different kinds of steel, so it can only be sold as a very low grade type of steel. Paper's the same way where it can only be used so many times before it just degrades into junk and has to be scrapped. Aluminum, on the other hand, can easily be purified back to elementally pure and be reused infinitely (and for much less energy consumption than starting from scratch getting aluminum out of bauxite).

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by whinehurst

personally, i do nothing to stop this global warming, cause it's a force that can't be stopped , nor is it a force we humans created. I find it humorous and saddening that people actually are conceded enough to believe this race of creatures have any impact on the planet whatsoever. do you know how impossibly hard it would be to actually destroy all life on the planet? it would take a collected, willful effort of everyone. EVERYONE. devoting everyday of their lives to creating a wasteland.

I don't think most people are concerned about saving the dodo, they're more concerned about keeping up the current quality of life for humanity than anything else.

Originally Posted by Bradylama

In short the answer is: not very. In a lot of ways it's better to just let it sit in a landfill and either be eaten away by bacteria (no joke), or wait until recycling the materials becomes cost-effective. That will only really work well, though, if your landfill sorts its material. In the future, I mean.

I actually read a pretty neat article about this guy that did a sort of archeology dig in an old landfill. They were able to find fully intact newspapers over 50 years old, as well as recognizable food scraps. Apparently if a landfill gets filled fast enough, there's not enough time for the bacteria and whatnot to start breaking the food down since pretty soon their oxygen supply gets cut off.

Originally Posted by Sass

But for us lowly citizens who use plastic bottles and canned goods, how efficient is the process?

Well, if you tried to recycle it in your back yard, it probably won't be very efficient. If you live in an area with a fairly dense population and you've got large trucks picking it up (or if you can bring it to a recycling center without a whole lot of trouble) then it's really not that bad.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by whinehurst

Thought i don't have much say in what power companies use to make power.

Actually, I believe in many states you can choose your electricity company and there's usually choices between different kinds generators. I know my school here made us switch to some green power company and we have to pay on average an extra $10 a month to cover the difference for our utilities. =\

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Watts

In the grand scheme of things the individual does not matter. Are you seriously telling me that individuals can save more oil if they're more efficient, as opposed to say if efficiency on a industrialization level was stressed? Where do you think more waste occurs?

Do you think it matters if you water your lawn during the middle of the day during a drought?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Well, if it doesn't make a difference what the individual does to conserve then why should the city fine them?

Not to mention instances where you're not on city/township water.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Bradylama

Well if you're not on city/township water I suppose it's just your problem now, isn't it?

Not really, because you're still draining from the general level of underground water. Where I'm from most homes have private wells, and any summer there's severe shortages of rain peoples' wells will dry up partially due to the overuse of other people in the area.

Of course, you could just say something like "WELL THEY SHOULD JUST GET A DEEPER WELL DUG DUR HRR HRR" but I'm running under the assumption that people aren't trying to be complete douchebags in every aspect of their life.

Originally Posted by Watts

I don't think anybody would particularly care if I urinated on my lawn during a drought. I'd just be expending resources that I could've hoarded for use if the situation became life-threatening desperate.

Not sure if this is trying to be funny because you couldn't make a good point or if there's supposed to be some point about how you can make an absurd hypothetical situation that would some way discredit a situation that can, and does, happen.

FELIPE NO

Watts, the thing is, we're already starting to see companies adopting more green practices since they do see economic incentives. Texas Instruments gave their engineers a challenge. Design a plant that would be cheaper to operate in the US than in China, or else it will be built in China. They found that the best way to reduce costs was to use practices which reduced chemical waste, reduced energy consumption, and increased efficiencies.

I'm not saying individuals conserving resources will stop the earth from being depleted, but hopefully it will help spur on alternative methods of producing what's currently done with wasteful methods. If they're developed in the first world, then hopefully they can trickle down to third world and developing nations so they don't need to repeat all of the same stages of consumption that we had to.

All people would have to do is weigh current satisfaction versus what could happen in the future and realize a bit of sacrifice now might lead to a big payoff later. Of course, people are notoriously short-sighted, so I suppose it's a bit too much to ask.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?