In an attempt to continually be greener, I have made a few changes. Some of these changes are smaller and some are bigger.
The first change was a very simple, easy and functional change. We have two indoor cats, JD and Elly, and because of said indoor cats we have a lot of cat poop. Plus, as JD is a moody bastard, we have two cat litters so they can each have their own. Now, admittedly, I was a bit lazy and not environmentally friendly when considering the litter. I was using plastic litter liners. Basically, they existed so you just picked up the corners, tie it and throw it out. However, Elly—who is slightly O.D.D.—liked to rip holes in the liners. So we would be using two liners and then another garbage bag—totaling three plastic bags. I have now down away with the liners and am doing the extra work. Plus, we are using scoopable litter and using a lot less litter overall.
As I previously mentioned, I am riding the Red Communist to work or taking transit everyday. It’s healthy for me and the planet. I plan to continue riding until it’s too cold in the fall or the wall falls and I need a new capitalist bike, in which case I will continue riding. Leah is also riding her bike to work daily.
A point against me, in my desire to have dual monitors at home, I am currently running one LCD and one CRT monitor (which uses a lot more energy, but I only turn it on when I need the dual monitors). A point in my favour is that my command centre is even more impressive.
Curtis once mentioned to me that it is better to re-use than buy new, for many reasons, but one I never considered is to realize the amount of power it takes to make something new. For that reason, I am proud to announce that my 18 year old Honda Civic (wagovan) has reached 400,000 KM and it seems to be doing alright.
Finally, I am moving rockstarpoet (and all my domains/sites (which is why my mom’s blog is broken)) off the current server company it’s hosted with and I am moving to another, which I will tell you about in time, that is entirely green and pays carbon credits for all it’s energy uses.
These are the ways I am trying to shrink my carbon footprint and be a contributing member of society.
You can read part one here.
Be careful with Carbon Credits, I used to think ra-ra-ra carbon credits until I went to a presentation and learned not all carbon credits are created equal.
Many times land is stolen from the native peoples that are living there often on a rain forest with little to no carbon footprint, totally sustainably and then chopped or more likely burned down and turned into a monoculture ethanol producing crop to feed our appetite for oil… likely producing more carbon then offset in the process…
Also some places claim credits for making changes they would make any way, like for switching from coal to natural gas and then claiming a credit because they now emit less…
I think there are a lot of bad credits out there, be aware, there are also a lot of good ones!!
Not sure how I feel on the philosophy of credits, allowing the rich world to continue business as usual and feel better about it…??? thoughts?
Its great that you are thinking and talking about it Rhett!!!!
Oh the times they are a changing…
I didn’t know that about credits, but from the little I do know it is, at the very least, a step in the right direction. I had heard some conversation about how we should change our tax structure and be taxed on our carbon use instead of being taxed on our income.
In any case, the good thing about this hosting company is that it is the only reliable host that is actually doing anything and server farms use an incredible amount of energy, so it is just nice to see. Plus, they not only include their power usage, but the carbon emissions (estimate obviously) of their employees travel, the paper they use, or basically everything they use.
cool, sounds like a great step in the right direction.
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illinois