Does being 'green' matter to you? What efforts do you make to be green, if any?

Question

Years back when people first started talking about global warming issues I but thought it was a load of hot air (pun intended!) yet now realise how important it is.

Answer 1

Now and then i put on my green T-shirt...

Its Rad.

Answer 2

well i feel better knowing im doing my bit for the environment. its not hard to recycle stuff.

Answer 3

I like to recycle as much as I can.

but I'm wouldn't class myself as being green as I drive 40 miles to work and back a day, I go on holiday in an aeroplane sometimes twice a year, once deffinatley long haul. so I really don't think that I'm green at all.

Answer 4

I try and recycle as much as i can

Answer 5

yes it matters.. and always has..

suppose global warming isnt man made? we should still clean up the planet right???

this link tells you how and how to save money too!

http://www.gomestic.com/Personal-Finance...

Answer 6

Our council have made rubbish collection and recycling really hard. We have a compost heap in the garden.. we try but it isn't of huge importnace to us.

x

Answer 7

VERY VERY MUCH............Apart from all the recyling I do at home, including all unwanted items to charity shops......I have declined over 4O plastic shopping bags in a fortnight - by taking a nice big shopping bag out with me.   HOWZAT???

Answer 8

Yes, it should matter to everyone. It's not difficult, though the council could make it easier by offering to recycle more -What really annoys me is the packaging on food! If our council would provide for recycling cardboard without having to drives miles to the tip, our waste would be minimal.

We also have low energy bulbs, turn everything off that we don't use, make our own compost etc, and are on the waiting list for an allotment so we can grow our own. Hurrah!

Oh yeah and take bags shopping with us. You'd be amazed at the amount of looks you get from saying "I don't want a bag thank you,"!

Answer 9

Matter? Not matter? It makes little difference in the end. The planet has existed for about four and a half billion years. It has supported life from virtually the word "go", and an absolute profusion of life from the Cambrian explosion, about 500 million years ago, onwards.

If you represent this whole period with the span of your out-stretched arms, from the tips of your fingernails on one hand to those on the other, the period of human existence would be represented, on the same scale, by the number of cells lost to a couple of strokes of an emeryboard! A mere flash. Nothing!

During this whole time the Earth has experienced the effects of five major extinction events: the Ordovician, Devonian, Permian, Triassic and Cretaceous. The real whopper, the Permian, which ushered in the age of the dinosaurs, also removed about 95% of animals from the fossil record. It was the closest the planet has ever come to total obliteration. The last, the Cretaceous, wiped out 70 - 75% of species.

According to the British Museum - who are attempting to establish a DNA record of all the species now left on the planet, even any extinct ones for which DNA still exists I believe - the Human Race itself, in sheer numbers-of-species terms, has already exceeded this last, gruesome benchmark. Making global capitalism itself in that sense, the biggest mass extinction event since whatever occurred at the KT boundary 65 million years ago. And all in less than two shakes of the emeryboard!

What all this indicates to me, is that the planet will not really suffer any ill effects at all from that which incomprehensible and virtually unchecked levels of greed have 'achieved'. Which is the main thing. So it doesn't really "matter", at that level.

At a personal level (although it is insignificant) it matters to be 'green' because, outside of the forces of nature, mankind creates its own history - we live in a world of our own making. And if we act on what 'matters' to us, together with a sense of real social imagination: really act that is, not just join in with the latest 'green' consumption crazes, whatever they might be, then we could if we wanted to, live in a world not merely of our own making but of our own choosing. At least, that is, until the next major extinction event occurs. (Which in all likelihood will be an asteroid impact as our inner Solar System - where we live - is extremely active.)

I don't make any particular efforts, as such, to "be green" myself. I mean I avoid processed/packaged food anyway because I like the real thing - fresh fruit & veg etc, and I recycle the tiny amount of plastic, cardboard, glass etc. that I use. Rather, the whole way of life I lead minimises the consumption of things because I'm not 'taken in' by it all and thus also, by my actions, deprives others to consume as a result of my lifestyle. For example the State - the biggest consumer of all.

I virtually never buy anything new except food and household items, I live in rented accommodation, I drive a recycled car, with recycled tyres and spare parts etc. I have a recycled washing machine, cooker (over 25 years old), stereo etc. and because all of these kinds of items are, in a 'throw-away' world so abundant, you virtually don't need to pay anything for them and they are really good quality. (My washing machine, for example, is a sparkly new-looking 'Zanussi' which is in fact about 14 years old and cost me nothing - because the previous owner "needed" a new one!) It has never broken down.

I can therefore get by on a job that leaves me with loads of time to have a life and pays just the right amount to avoid incurring any income tax - so as to avoid funding obscene consumption by the State: all its millions of salaries, all their SUVs, foreign holidays, new houses, televisions, washing machines, etc. etc. which that all implies. And I have avoided having children - children account for about £200,000 of consumption from birth to university. Which represents £200,000 of income for other people to spend on even more consumption!! As with all the other points of spend that one makes. (And in any case, the State has failed to provide anything like a safe, secure society in which to raise them, or the necessary health and other care from cradle to grave; and the catastrophic failure of global capitalism in every other sphere has left a world far from fit for bringing anyone into).  

So don't consume! That's the greenest lifestyle of all. In other words keep it to an absolute minimum. Don't buy much stuff! Buy 'recycled' (or get free) and only what you really need, then keep it going, using recycled parts (which you will rarely need to get anyway) 'till it drops. Don't pay any tax - that is really green, and don't have kids. (Apart from the £200,000, they end up doing loads more consumption as adults and paying taxes to encourage even more obscene State spending - or consuming it themselves if they end up working for them.)

The whole system encourages you to earn loads, to spend loads, to consume loads and to pay loads of tax so others can too! So don't consume much, so you don't need to earn much, so you won't pay any tax, or provide others with the income to do so. If we all did that, then the State would have to reduce its size and operations dramatically and would eventually be forced to introduce a taxation stucture which favoured lateral, not vertical redistribution of wealth across, not through, the generations. The corner would have been turned. (And it might then start to look a safer bet for the children!)

Just reject it! … A world not merely of our own making, but of our own choosing.

Oh yes, and don't get a television. Get a life!

Good luck.

Answer 10

I became an environmental scientist

Answer 11

It definetly matters now that more people nowadays are aware of the fact that we humans should be taking care of earth and stop being so sloppy. I actually stopped using plastic bags. I recycle more often now and use evironment friendly beauty products.

Answer 12

Green is only imporatnat as long as I can afford it. I can't drive hybrid becasue I can' afford the car. I can't buy better windows or increase home isulation becasue its not my house (its my parents', and they do not believe they should spend the money).

1. But I am looking for a car that gets better mileage (upper 50s at the least).

2. I recycle (its mainly for money- without it, I have no money ot go green).

3. I go eco-friendly more often. 600 cans paid for several cloth bags and a dozen of those CFLs.

4. I resuse instead of buying new. I still extract mercury from the CFLs and FLs I have that died. Its a nice (but extremely toxic) paperweight. Better than the ones made of lead from spent bullets, anyway. The litte electronic componets may be used instead of buying new ones.

5. I started adding PVs to use less energy. That way my parents' can't complain if it doesn't cost them anything. Its a nice system, uses 48 volts instead of the standard 12 or 24. The panels are so expensive for me that I cheaped out on the wiring.

6. I use my laptop (68w) more than my power hungry desktop (300w).

7. I started to learn more about alternative energies, (mainly nuclear power) and alterative fuels for cars.

8. I planted some more plants.

9. I let my car warm up some before driving. Not only is it better for the car, it als ouses less gas and outputs less pollution.

10. I rewired all the little night lights in the house. They all have three neons now, lasting about 12 years and consume 80% less energy. I use Tritium vials in my room, also lasts 12 years but require no electrcicty. They're impossible to obtain, but nice.

11. I "eco"-ed my spud gun to shoot spent AA batteries instead of perfectly fine fruit and vegetables. It also uses cleaner fuels.

Answer 13

Very important. I want human life to have a future. I recycle as much as I can, I don't own a car or fly, and I eat as much organic food as possible, not only because I don't want to ingest pesticides but because organic farms are much healthier places for birds and other wildlife.

Answer 14

Take your own grocery bags - don't use paper or plastic, both are energy intesnsive and add to landfill waste.  

Change over to low flow shower heads so that you use less water

Change to CFL lightbulbs

Recycle

choose organic foods and locally produced foods and produce

Choose green cleaning products rather than chlorox and tilex

Switch over to organic lotions and shampoos rather than those that contain petroleum distallates and parabens

Choose organic cotton products - regular cotton contributes huge amounts of herbasides, pesticides and fertilizers to the soil and ground water.  

Go to earth911.com and keep on top of any changes you can.

Subscribe to www.idealbite.com email list and they will send you weekly tips to be more green

Answer 15

It's strange. It matters to me if I'm in a good mood but if I go off on one of my depressive binges, I tend to forget about others and about the environment. Being bi-polar is kinda weird when it comes to issues about caring about things.

Answer 16

Yes it matters to me...

i recycle using council collection and local recycling site

i compost at home

i turn things off (ie not leave on standby)

i use energy efficient light bulbs and appliances

i use my own bags (not supermarket carriers)

I mend things when broken

i use charity shops/freecycle and ebay

Answer 17

Yes it does matter I have a small medium and large flush on my loo. long life bulbs   I grow my own veggies and have a garden full of fruit trees  strawberries  and raspberries. I make my own compost and recycle as much as I possibly can I do not have solar panels or a windturbine they are too expensive.

Answer 18

I like Recycling, but my neighborhood does not have a Recycling Bin. If you want a Recycling Bin, someone (i don't know what name) needs meeting with the government.

Answer 19

I recycle. More through being made to than choice but I am quite conscious of it now.