Green (Eco-Friendly) Technology

[lmitchell0012]

Okay, so you've all heard about global warming, right?? Right now, politicians don't seem too concerned about this (unfortunately), but the fact IT IS HAPPENING and every second we waste sitting on our asses is a second we could be spending trying to do something about this. Now, there are a lot of things we can do to reduce our impact on the earth, and there are also a lot of companies coming up with new ways of being more environmentally friendly. For instance, one of the biggest problems the US faces is oil. We simply can't get enough of it. But the fact is, oil isn't going to be around for much longer. I'm going to guess that there's enough oil to meet the needs of the US for about 25 more years, but after that, what are we gonna do? There are some people who want to extract ethanol from plants and power cars that way. Other people use recycled frier oil to power there cars. We're also researching solar powered cars, steam powered cars, hydrogen powered cars, and there are many many other methods being researched as well.

Anyways, enough about cars. What can WE do at home to help make the earth a better place to live. Yes, I know I sound like your 4th grade teacher giving a speech, but the fact is, we have BIG problems facing our planet and ALL of us need to do our part to make things better.

These are some ideas I have:
-Stop using plastic bags (you know, those things that will still be around after 1,000 years?). Use cardboard, or some other type of re-useable bag.
-Stop using aerosol cans
-Compost. If you don't know what composting is, it's basically humans controlling the decomposition process of organic matter. In simple terms, it means tossing organic waste into a pile and letting it break down. If you want to learn more about this, PM me. I can give you a lot of info on this.
-Stop using pesticides (I don't care about spots on my apples, leave me the birds and the bees, PLEASE!).

Anyways, these are just a couple ideas I have. I'm open to any others you can come up with.

 

[yiran]

I've done all of them, except for the second because I don't know what aerosol means. Sorry.

Anyways, I think we'll not have the need for oil when it runs out.

And I personally believe that we have just ended a small Ice Age and it's nothing to worry about.

But that's just me.

 

[gvmgvm40]

And I personally believe that we have just ended a small Ice Age and it's nothing to worry about.

While what you are saying is true, that IS something to worry about. Right now, the poles are melting even though they are supposed to be cooling down (Nortwest Passage was open, after 103 years, in 2009). If we do not cut down on greenhouse gases the next warming period will be much hotter.

 

[cantab]

Please don't derail this thread into YET ANOTHER global warming debate.

The single biggest thing you can do to cut your energy usage and CO2 emissions: cut down on driving. And do what driving you do more efficiently. (Whether actually buying a more fuel efficient car will have a net benefit is debated, due to the cost of making it.)

As for myself - well I don't drive at all, so no room to do anything there. Props I guess would be I use CFLs, and I turn off my PC at the wall so it's not on standby overnight. I guess downloading music is better than buying CDs - or is it, how much energy do those data centres use? I tend not to buy much in the way of non-essentials in general.

As for slops, well I have window draught excluder and radiator foil...in the packet. I ought to fit the darn stuff. We probably have the house warmer than we really need, given I can sit around comfortably in a t-shirt. I have a bad habit of putting the water heater on intending to do washing up or have a bath, and then not doing so, badly wasting the energy. We use the oven to cook stuff that can be microwaved, like ready meals (we don't own a microwave). I spend most of my waking hours in front of my computer, it's a desktop, I've not measure its power consumption.

 

[FlareBlitz]

Cantab mentioned cutting down on driving already, so I'm going to mention the other two major things you can do to cut down on your energy use: buy local produce and eat less meat! Local produce means that you don't have to have your onion shipped in and processed from south america (which takes an absurd amount of fossil fuels) and eating less meat is great because meat costs a lot more energy to produce than fruits/vegetables/grains do!

 

[Hipmonlee]

The local produce thing can be exaggerated.. I dunno the details when it comes to South American onions, but if you are in england and you want dairy products, beef or lamb the environmental cost is less if you buy NZ products that are shipped to England than if you bought English products, because of how much more efficient it is to produce them here.

Basically cows and sheep here are grass fed a much higher proportion of the time, and dont need to be kept indoors at all.

Have a nice day.

 

[Mike B]

I live in a town where I walk anywhere, use my gym bag for groceries, hoard plastics and glass til I can recycle it and that's about it

 

[Canelo351]

Funny how my teacher spoke about this the other day.
Bio-engineering is the way to go man, but with our oil based government(U.S.),
it is rather difficult to see any real changes in the near future tbh, and
This goes for the whole world. The US and it's addiction to oil may be our ultimate doom.
All we can do is hope for someone to invest intensely on alternate sources of energy.
Oh and Look up bio fuel made from algae.....if you'd like.

Oh and obey Obama. >:D

 

[cantab]

Never support wind energy. It never makes up for the resources used in the production of those massive pylons

I'd genuinely be interested if you can give a source for this, preferably one that details the calculations. The structures would seem to be no more than those in conventional power stations.

 

[Hipmonlee]

Yeah, I am not particularly interested in a global warming debate, there have been plenty of those in the past on this forum. I am interested in thoughts on what people ought or ought not be doing if they want to live in a more environmentally friendly way.

Have a nice day.