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How Green Are You?

You're so naive it's cute. Environmentalism is a luxury for the rich. Think about it.

That, and toilets.

Ever been on a long ride on a bus with a black cloud of diesel fumes through a third-world backwater province, with everyone piling out at the stops to pee on the wheels and poop in a ditch? Ladies on the right, gents on the left?
 
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I see this as a non-issue within 20 years. There are several reasons, but the main factors are technology advancing at an incredible pace, the price pressure that scarcity puts onto conservation, and the speed at which we will see developing economies advance. We've seen price pressure clean up Europe and North America plenty enough. Our populations have exploded yet we use less water and energy, have done an incredible job at saving species, preserving open spaces, and pushing the envelope. I see no reason to think that trend will reverse just because the rest of the world wants to live as good of lives as us. If anything, we should embrace them coming out of the dark ages and helping to preserve an enjoyable future.

If anything, I do worry about the loss of open land. State and local politics are incredibly destructive to open lands. Damn developers.

Capitalism is going to overcome this malgovernance issue. . . . .

Yesterday I had my eyes opened visiting a development in the LA area, in the middle of a bunch of tall buildings occupied by some of our high-end technology corporations, walking around in a walker-oriented apartment complex with some well-placed parks, with little street-level shops with nice sidewalk areas for customers to sit in the sun or shade, in the breeze, to visit neighbors and friends and passersby. Building "UP" while leaving more room for nature. . . .

Beats the idea of gated mansion spreads and three-hour commutes hands down.
 
Every scrap of wire from our jobs get recycled (more because of the $ it brings me than being environmentally right). I am conscientious about recycling as much as possible. I recently upgraded all of my light bulbs to either LED or CFL. The car we drive gets about 14 MPG.
So overall, not really green.

Siro liked this post, which got me to re-read it and think about it a little more. I'm actually greener than I gave myself credit for. I recycle as much as possible. I just upgraded my lights to LED at a pretty big expense (sure, I got some of it back from the power company, but it was still costly), I turn off my sprinklers for a good long while after it rains, keep my AC temp higher than average and my heat temp lower than average, all kinds of things, really. Sure, my vehicle MPG sucks, but I have a **** ton of kids and all their cap to haul around. I need something to get it everywhere.
 
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