All things in moderation. The oil and gas industry has boomed like crazy in this provence. Easily accessible oil and gas reserves will only last another 50 years or so. I sure hope we're into solar and wind power by then. Along with the gas wells comes poisoned agricultural land, livestock and people.
Like I said, I have no stock in oil and gas and I have a fair amount of stock and am searching high and low for ethical and environmental funds and trying to sell stock so I can take the cash to build or provide something useful to my local community in which I live.
Somewhere around 90% of Alberta's energy comes from burning coal. We built an energy efficient home with an R-28 value. It's made with structurally insulated panels with OSB board and rigid insulation in between. The OSB is made mostly from aspen. Most light is natural since we have big windows facing south that are argon-filled and prevent heat from passing through. In summer when the sun is high, the eve shelters the windows from the hot sun. We also have a heat exchange on the furnace intake. We use fluorescent lights where possible and shut lights off when nobody will be in the room. I even designed the garage roof so that when I buy my first electric car, we can put solar panels on the roof to charge the car.
We also have a bunch of water-saving devices and gray-water diversions to save water, but that's another story.
Plastic - I remember telling someone someday that plastic will end up killing the planet and wondered if it causes cancer. I'm suspicious of any man-made molecule that nature does not know how to dispose of quickly. Plastic is killing our oceans as it breaks apart and the marine life eats it and starves or chokes or whatever. The more plastic produced, bought and thrown away, the quicker the landfills fill. When the wind blows here, plastic grocery bags hang on trees from miles downwind of the landfill. I take reusable cloth bags to the grocery store. I recycle all my #2 plastic and buy things in clear glass containers which are more recyclable.
Paper - I recycle paper and buy recycled paper to complete the circle. Paper can be made out of any plant that produces cellulose. Hemp fibres are longer than tree fibres and so make better paper and straw of any kind would, actually. Houses on the prairie in grain-growing areas should be made of straw bales.
Our lifestyle in this 21st century is too affluent. The more affluent we get it seems, the more "poor" in spirit we become. And if the lesser developed countries want our lifestyle, we would need 3 more planets to supply them. Read "Our Ecological Footprint" by Mathis Wagernagel and William Rees published by The New Society Publishers, ISBN: 1-55092-251-3.
Consumers buy so much stuff because they don't realize that human relationships are what keep our gregarious civilization happy. Community and friendships are what make the world go around, not money (or it shouldn't be money). Buying garbage we don't need is encouraged by advertisers who are like the drug pushers that try to convince us, the consumer-addicted, that we need what we don't need. They tell us we must buy a big new SUV if we want to increase our status. They tell us we are better parents if we take our children to McDonalds as often as possible.
We need to slow down, shop locally and keep the money circulating in our communities, pay farmers more directly for the food they grow and relax once in awhile in nature.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Like I said, I have no stock in oil and gas and I have a fair amount of stock and am searching high and low for ethical and environmental funds and trying to sell stock so I can take the cash to build or provide something useful to my local community in which I live.
Somewhere around 90% of Alberta's energy comes from burning coal. We built an energy efficient home with an R-28 value. It's made with structurally insulated panels with OSB board and rigid insulation in between. The OSB is made mostly from aspen. Most light is natural since we have big windows facing south that are argon-filled and prevent heat from passing through. In summer when the sun is high, the eve shelters the windows from the hot sun. We also have a heat exchange on the furnace intake. We use fluorescent lights where possible and shut lights off when nobody will be in the room. I even designed the garage roof so that when I buy my first electric car, we can put solar panels on the roof to charge the car.
We also have a bunch of water-saving devices and gray-water diversions to save water, but that's another story.
Plastic - I remember telling someone someday that plastic will end up killing the planet and wondered if it causes cancer. I'm suspicious of any man-made molecule that nature does not know how to dispose of quickly. Plastic is killing our oceans as it breaks apart and the marine life eats it and starves or chokes or whatever. The more plastic produced, bought and thrown away, the quicker the landfills fill. When the wind blows here, plastic grocery bags hang on trees from miles downwind of the landfill. I take reusable cloth bags to the grocery store. I recycle all my #2 plastic and buy things in clear glass containers which are more recyclable.
Paper - I recycle paper and buy recycled paper to complete the circle. Paper can be made out of any plant that produces cellulose. Hemp fibres are longer than tree fibres and so make better paper and straw of any kind would, actually. Houses on the prairie in grain-growing areas should be made of straw bales.
Our lifestyle in this 21st century is too affluent. The more affluent we get it seems, the more "poor" in spirit we become. And if the lesser developed countries want our lifestyle, we would need 3 more planets to supply them. Read "Our Ecological Footprint" by Mathis Wagernagel and William Rees published by The New Society Publishers, ISBN: 1-55092-251-3.
Consumers buy so much stuff because they don't realize that human relationships are what keep our gregarious civilization happy. Community and friendships are what make the world go around, not money (or it shouldn't be money). Buying garbage we don't need is encouraged by advertisers who are like the drug pushers that try to convince us, the consumer-addicted, that we need what we don't need. They tell us we must buy a big new SUV if we want to increase our status. They tell us we are better parents if we take our children to McDonalds as often as possible.
We need to slow down, shop locally and keep the money circulating in our communities, pay farmers more directly for the food they grow and relax once in awhile in nature.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
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