Monthly Archives: January 2007

Observations at the Grocery Store

Just going grocery shopping can be interesting when you want to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. I was shopping the other day and just marveling at some of the wasteful stuff there.

I like buying from my local Henry’s as they have a good selection of organic foods, although not exclusively organic. But I especially like the bulk bins. I could wish for a choice between paper and plastic bags at the bins, but let’s face it… it’s much harder to keep a paper bag from leaking small stuff like flour, so I understand the choice. Then there’s the problem of trying to have the paper bags available neatly rather than torn and all over the floor.

But I don’t shop there exclusively. It was at the other grocery store I go to that I really got to thinking about some of the waste. Continue reading →

Want vs. Need

One of the hardest things about trying to live a greener lifestyle is trying to remember to keep control of your wants versus your needs. We live in a very acquisitive society, making this even more difficult.

For example, I would dearly love to have a laptop computer with a wireless internet connection. Don’t absolutely need one, as I already own a computer, but I really, really want one.

Having a laptop would allow me to work in the back yard as the kids play, take care of my business while on vacation rather than trusting my sister to watch it, and borrowing a computer whenever possible to take a peek. I can justify it pretty well. But at the same time it’s not an absolute need, merely something that could be quite advantageous.

Similarly, when my husband and I decided not to replace my car, it was part a budgetary decision and partially because we really don’t utterly need a second car. It’s a little luxury that gives me more freedom to do things with the kids, but I can get by without it. Continue reading →

President Bush’s Support of Ethanol as Fuel

That’s politics for you. Always moving too slowly.

President Bush has called for fuel consumption to be cut by 20% over the next 10 years. Sounds great, and overall it’s a great idea, but his concepts for implementation are not ideal.

Using ethanol as fuel has its disadvantages. It doesn’t really do much for fuel efficiency, and making it can have an impact on other agriculture. There’s only so much that can be grown, after all. This could mean higher prices at the grocery store.

Ethanol is not very competitive. It produces less energy than gasoline and requires a subsidy to keep the prices down. Worse, to grow enough corn to meet the demand this would create would require more fertilizer, which is petroleum based. Kind of funny that it can take more petroleum to grow corn for ethanol than the ethanol would replace.

If ethanol must be produced there are better crops for it that produce far more fuel. If we are to go down this path, I hope we are sane enough to pick the right crops for the job.

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Is Recycling Worth it?

This should be an interesting thing to take a look at. I was reading over on Evolgen about whether or not it is really environmentally beneficial to recycle most goods.

Now, the concession is made that recycling aluminum cans is good, and nothing was said of other metals. Given the value of most metals I would expect them to in general be worth recycling.

However, there could be a case made that things such as paper and plastic take more energy to recycle than recycling saves. This is an arguement made by Penn and Teller on their show.

I’m pretty much a chronic skeptic, so when someone like Penn and Teller say it, I’m not going to take it too much to heart. But it can get me to thinking and exploring. Continue reading →

Environmentally Responsible Jewelry

I’m a big fan of jewelry. I worked my way through college at a jewelry store. But I am well aware that it is not exactly environmentally friendly. In fact, it often isn’t all that good to the people doing the mining; hence all the talk about conflict diamonds.

But I did just run across a rather interesting website called greenKarat. They use recycled gold in their jewelry.

Their store isn’t very big, but the concept is very interesting. They even have a ring you can have made from slices of the pebble of your choosing.

They have the option of adding a voluntary carbon tax to your purchases. It’s an interesting concept but I would have to read more to really understand the impact of choosing to pay it. They use the money to support projects which adhere to The Gold Standard. The project which they are supporting may change, so I won’t list it here. Continue reading →