I was accused the other day of being green.
Now, I've never considered myself to be a crusty crusader. I see myself as being sensible, as opposed to deliberately being green. I probably should do more, but to be honest I can't be bothered.
The only green thing about me is that I'm Irish. And the best recycling I do is with jokes, which everyone seems to try and disencourage me from doing.
Yes, I'm a commited pedestrian. Mainly, because I live in London and the public transport system is perfectly adequate for what I need to do. It is also far less stressful to sit on a bus rather than driving with the loonies in London.
Yes, all of my blubs are energy efficient. They did come with ten year guarantees, and as I replace them about once a year or so it was cheaper for me to do it that way in the long term.
Yes, I never use plastic cups at work. Well if there were any there for more than about five minutes, I might use them. I use my own cup, out of habit as opposed to anything else.
Yes, I take a backpack with me when I go grocery shopping. Well, I do buy for one, and I like things fresh, so I don't buy too much. Also, putting the weight on my back seems better for me than amputating my fingers because of the cheap plastic bags most shops now use.
Yes, I recycle. There are about four recycle bins outside my flat (about a 20 meter walk) for different types of rubbish. If it wasn't so convenient, or if it involved any effort then I wouldn't do it.
Maybe that is the solution. If you make it effortless then people are more likely to do it. Most people now recycle at home (and to be honest if they don't they wouldn't be encouraged to do so with the business end of a cattle prod), but what happens when you're out and about.
Well, when I was in Poole recently, I noticed that they had replaced all of their public bins with twin bins with one of those being for recyclable materials. Great idea, and something you would hope other councils would start thinking about doing it.
Useless piece of information for today. At Disney World, they have manually gone through the rubbish for years sifting out recyclable materials (that is one job I would never want to do). Now, they have started putting recycle bins out in the parks. The bad news is, that the bins aren't obvious so few people are using them.
On the other hand, I hire a car when I need one, and probably go overboard with my driving when I do. I'm a firm disciple of the throw away society. So I'm not that saintly.
One thing is for certain, our natural resources are finite. We will run out eventually, and when we do we are in big trouble. I laugh when the Americans talk about ethanol. The bad news, it's nothing more than diluted oil, so no oil, no ethanol.
We ultimately need to use technology, to create alternatives. Imagine, if we could run cars on water. All we're doing is trying to give ourselves more time. And that simply isn't enough.
Bye for now