It's Earth Day! Who cares?!?!

The BBQ Pit
21

Well, I didn’t want to come off as hostile. The last box of light bulbs I bought were CFLs (they last forever), I recycle my pop cans. I used a mug in the coffee room before the took the paper cups away. My last bottle of spray cleaner is the new Clorox Green stuff - works great and costs about the same.

I’m all for saving gas because it saves me money. I rode the bus for years since it went my way and it was cheaper than driving and parking. Now my job and new home makes it impractical to ride the bus.

I heard of somebody who built a “green” house. They told their builder to use recycled & earth friendly products when possible but, they said, it couldn’t cost more or perform less well than if it were made with regular products. The report said the builder did a pretty good job being green where possible.

Eating organically grown food may be better for me and my digestive tract but it’s murder on my wallet. Doubling my food bill is easy to do if I shopped at Whole Foods rather than my local Kroger affiliate.

I want my environmentalism to be practical and not cost extra money, taste bad or perform poorly.

I don’t want to sound hostile but the whole “being green” thing smacks more of elitism and political correctness than practicality at times. Earth day seems to be the day for the I’m-better-than-you types to show-off just how they’re being better.

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[QUOTE=Belrix]

Eating organically grown food may be better for me and my digestive tract but it’s murder on my wallet. Doubling my food bill is easy to do if I shopped at Whole Foods rather than my local Kroger affiliate.
[/QUOTE]

Interestingly, I was shopping at a local supermarket that attempts to get organic produce whenever possible. They had organic broccoli on sale for cheaper than the regular stuff. I pointed this out to a lady, and she looked down her nose at me, and sniffed “I never buy THAT.” Takes all kinds.

Oh, and Belrix… I’m afraid you’re a hippie.

I know what you mean about the better-than-you show off types though.

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[QUOTE=Euphonious Polemic]
Oh, and Belrix… I’m afraid you’re a hippie.
[/QUOTE]
Nah. My hair is way too short and I bathe daily.

24

[QUOTE=Amok]
I don’t like Earth so that’s my reason why I don’t do anything for Earth day.
[/QUOTE]

If you don’t like it, then get the fuck out!

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[QUOTE=Redwing]
I dislike earth day. It always seem to put taking care of the planet ahead of taking care of the people. And it gives the green twits a nice loud stage to whine from.

I am all for being enviromentally friendly, and I always try lower the negative impact I have on the world around me. It is the scantamonious father-knows-best attitude I have an issue with. The feeling that nothing can be done because it will impact the enviroment, and none of the motherfucking greenies are working to solve the underlying issue, they’re just trying to keep the enviroment the way it is. Earth day seems to celebrate something that comes across as worse than NIMBYism, not only not in my backyard, but not in yours, either.

I love the idea of public transportation, wind power, and other such green initiatives. I get pissed off when the rail line doesn’t get built because it needs to budget yet another impact study, or the turbines can’t go there, the birds will hit them. It’s the same assholes who bitch about the cost of meat one day, and all the waste from animal farms the next. If you want to regulate cattle waste, fine, I can see your point; just don’t bitch to me about how expensive a pound of hamburger is.

Quit fucking bitching about it. Build something, perferably, something built well, and using sustainable methods and meterials. But stop blocking the infrastructure to do things you keep harping on me to do.

(these are the same motherfuckers who I hear whining about the disappearance of small town America, and then are trying to keep those small towns from attracting new companies, who might, ya know, provide some jobs.)

(and comb your hair, shithead. A shower wouldn’t hurt either)
[/QUOTE]

There are a few like you said, but not the majority. Most greens I know are fairly realistic (except about nuclear power). The ones that don’t want to build wind farms as they kill bird are rarely greens. They are usually nimbies. The ones complaining about the high price of hamburger meat are never greens in my experience. Hell, far too many of the greens I know are vegetarians or at least meat light. :wink:

I also have rarely heard greens bitching about the disappearance of small town America, that is usually a different type of conservative.

Actually, I am confused about most of your rant.

Jim

26

I don’t have a problem with Earth Day, per say, but I’d prefer if people “walked the walk” instead of “talking the talk”. Like a lot of other places, there’s a drive on here to reduce the use of plastic bags. Now that’s a good thing, but don’t try to force me to do it. 90% of the time, I won’t use a bag at all. Other times if given a choice, I prefer paper over plastic - one can pack over 150.00 worth of groceries into 2 doubled paper bags - less for me to carry, same weight, we all win. Tell me to do it though, and I’ll do plastic out of spite. The worst, though is an email I got today from Aeroplan - Air Canada’s frequent flyer program:

So you want me to use my miles to reduce your footprint? Bite me!

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[QUOTE=Aeroplan]
If only 2,000 members each redeemed 7,500 miles to purchase our carbon offsets reward, along with Aeroplan’s match of 25%, our impact would be equivalent to taking more than 1,300 cars off the road for one year.
[/QUOTE]

Wow! 1300 cars?

That’s 0.00052% of cars registered in the US (according to a 2005 DOT study cited by Wikipedia).

I kinow every little bit helps but that’s a very little little bit.

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I work for an electric company that owns a wind farm. Every Earth Day, we give tours to elementary students. IMHO, the kids don’t seem to get a lot out of it other than a day out of school.

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[QUOTE=C3]
No! Because it’s a leftist conspiracy to, ummm, take care of the Earth! Damn communists!
[/QUOTE]

No, it’s a leftist conspiracy to destroy capitalism. You know that because some conservative blog quoted one person whose beliefs may or may not be the norm among EVERYONE whom Earth Day represents.

That’s good enough for me!

30

A colleague and I decided that we would begin carpooling today. Being Earth Day probably had something to do with our decision. $4.00 a gallon gas also played a part.

31

My mistress has no need of your earth day. It is amusing but irrelevant. Humans are but a pimple on her butt. Do as you wish, she will survive, you may not. :cool:

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[QUOTE=Amok]
I don’t like Earth so that’s my reason why I don’t do anything for Earth day.
[/QUOTE]
In the spirit of being helpful : How To Destroy The Earth.

33

Today was garbage day, so I guess I cared a little.

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[QUOTE=KRM]
I work for an electric company that owns a wind farm. Every Earth Day, we give tours to elementary students. IMHO, the kids don’t seem to get a lot out of it other than a day out of school.
[/QUOTE]

FWIW when I used to take high school students on tours of coal power plants, they didn’t get anything out of it either. Except when I convinced a rotary dumper operator to let the students each have a turn dumping a 120-ton coal car. Boom.

35

Now that Earth has its own day, what about Wind and Fire? Where does it ever end? Answer me that!
I like Earth day–it’s not much to ask, recognizing that you should love your Mother once a year. I did a bit of gardening and didn’t drive. I bought a bike so that I can reduce my driving. I have always recycled. I am rabid about turning lights/water off and recycling stuff, so today was no different.
I did stand in line at 0730 last Saturday and got a 55 gallon rain barrel for the yard (the village was offering them at a reduced cost from the Water Reclamation Project of Cook County). They only had 25 of them–many, many people went away pissed and disappointed.

When was the last time anyone even saw a hippie? Unbathed, unclean, hairy people today are usually homeless. I haven’t seen a hippie since college and they were scarce on the ground then (1980s). :dubious:

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[QUOTE=mcott]
The worst, though is an email I got today from Aeroplan - Air Canada’s frequent flyer program:
[/QUOTE]

wolfstu and I were chatting on MSN earlier today about that very e-mail:

Usually, greenwashing isn’t this transparent. I guess they felt it would be too incongruous when they go back to whining that a high-speed rail link in the Quebec-Windsor corridor would take away air passengers on those routes (KIND OF THE POINT).

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[QUOTE=Belrix]
Not me!

My company has reusable mugs for us and is getting rid of the compostable paper ones in the breakrooms. I already had a mug at my desk but this one looks a bit bigger so I’ll take it.

[/QUOTE]

No better way to save the earth than manufacturing a bunch of shit nobody really needs.

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[QUOTE=T_SQUARE]
No better way to save the earth than manufacturing a bunch of shit nobody really needs.
[/QUOTE]

Or using them instead of paper ones which are made from a renewable resource!

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[QUOTE=eleanorigby]
When was the last time anyone even saw a hippie? Unbathed, unclean, hairy people today are usually homeless. I haven’t seen a hippie since college and they were scarce on the ground then (1980s). :dubious:
[/QUOTE]

You don’t live on the west coast of the United States, do you? And for the record, a few of them bathe.

-Eben

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[QUOTE=Una Persson]
FWIW when I used to take high school students on tours of coal power plants, they didn’t get anything out of it either. Except when I convinced a rotary dumper operator to let the students each have a turn dumping a 120-ton coal car. Boom.
[/QUOTE]

That sounds like a good idea. I’ve never been allowed to work the dumper. ::jealous::

I suppose we could take them to the top of the boiler and let them fire the shotgun to loosen slag. It’s fun the first few times. Although providing schoolkids with firearms might be against someone’s policy.

For some reason, we also don’t give too many tours of our coal plant on Earth Day.