Black Friday Lines – and People Complain About Occupy Protesters

Nov 28, 2011 Environmental News

I’ve been hearing quite a bit about Black Friday lately. You can’t help it if you pay attention to just about any news source around here. People lined up days in advance, skipping their family’s Thanksgiving dinner just to get deals on whatever they’re after.

All I can think is about how much people complain about Occupy protesters sitting around too much. I’d sooner do that than spend days in line to buy something. At least they’re making a statement about a cause they believe in, hoping to make the world a little better, rather than spending days camping out to buy more things.

Admittedly, camping out for Black Friday is not without risk. You could get pepper sprayed by a fellow shopper apparently wanting to get ahead in line. You could get trampled by the crowds. Horror of horrors, you could miss out on whatever it was you’d hoped to buy. You just don’t know.

Personally, I can think of better uses for my time. Sales happen other times, and some patience can get you a really good deal with less trouble. I value my time too highly to trade days of my life for even a few hundred dollars saved.

Just think of what you could do with that time that others spent in Black Friday lines. I mentioned the various Occupy protests, but you certainly don’t have to join them. You can pick your own cause to support.

Tags: black friday, occupy protesters

What Are You Really Criticizing When You Complain About Business Practices?

Nov 7, 2011 Environmental News

A lot of people don’t like it when they hear you complain about business practices. You say businesses should pay their fair share of taxes or should limit their waste and emissions, they hear you saying that business is evil. How do you get people to hear what you’re really saying when you criticize a business?

It isn’t easy at times. Some people treat any criticism as an inappropriate attack on business, even when you see your statement or complaint as a reasonable thing to expect of businesses.

I’ve seen people claim, for example, that environmental regulations are too hard on businesses, and that regulations should be done away with or decreased so that businesses can earn more. Some of them truly believe the free market will take care of those messes without government oversight, completely forgetting the disasters and messes that encouraged lawmakers to create the regulations in the first place.

Sure, a business can say that it could save a lot of money if it didn’t have to obey so many environmental regulations. The problem is that the rest of us would pay the cost in terms of health and a sometimes seriously damaged environment. Look at what happened at Love Canal, for example.  Then consider that the economic benefits of environmental regulations are believed to significantly outweigh the costs.

I’ve seen too much of what happens when greed outweighs sense for a corporation. I worked at Home Depot when I was in college, at a time when they weren’t hiring so many retired contractors to work there, so the employees weren’t as knowledgeable as the company’s reputation made many customers think. Sure, the company saved money because they could pay less experienced people less, which looked good on the bottom line for a time, but they lost a lot of business because customers got frustrated with employees who had no idea how to help them. I suspect that’s a part of what allowed Lowe’s to get so bug.

Obviously, that’s not an environmental example, just something I saw personally and my own interpretation of it. I could be way off base, but I doubt I am.

That kind of situation had an impact much faster than can be seen with most environmental impacts. Some come about quickly, sure, but they don’t usually impact the company’s bottom line so directly or right away. That makes it easier to ignore, and that’s why I believe in environmental regulation. These costs shouldn’t be external to the company that created them.

I believe that there are significant problems with the way many modern corporations are run. For what it’s worth, I don’t consider them “people” either. The problem I have is that corporations consider the benefits to shareholders above all things, above the employees, above the community, above the environment, above the nation. I don’t think that’s a good thing at all.

I believe that businesses have a responsibility to the society they are in. That means paying taxes. That means considering the overall impact they’re having, not just the money they pay out to employees, executives and stockholders, but paying reasonable taxes and not creating a mess of the area they’re in. I really don’t think that’s unreasonable to ask.

Corporations aren’t people, but it’s about time we quit treating them as spoiled children, allowing them to have their way, and start expecting them to act more as responsible adults. They need to clean up their messes without complaint and pay their share of the expenses of the country that is their home.

Tags: business practices, complaining about businesses, environmental regulation, paying taxes

What Is Ocean Acidification and Why Should You Care?

Oct 12, 2011 Environmental News

Anyone paying attention at all these days has heard of global warming or climate change. It’s a big deal to some, complete nonsense to those who don’t believe in it. Climate change is only a part of the problem, however. Ocean acidification is a related problem, and quite serious. So what is it? Why does it matter?

Ocean acidification is the result of the ocean absorbing carbon dioxide.  It does this normally, but as the amount of carbon in the atmosphere increases, so does the rate at which the ocean absorbs it. This is not a good thing overall, although photosynthetic algae and sea grasses may do better.

But shelled sea life suffers tremendously. More acidic sea water slowly dissolves their shells. This can impact the entire food chain, as many creatures eat shelled sea life, and of course many people do as well. Ocean acidification may result in the failure and erosion of coral reefs as well, with all that implies for the creatures which have evolved to live in them, whether or not they have a shell.

The plastic pollution in the ocean also increases the acidity.

It often amazes me how little ocean acidification is discussed when people talk about carbon emissions. It’s one of the most important impacts to consider. The oceans are big, but there’s only so much they can take, and this is something we can measure. The current increase in acidity is 30%, with the potential for the ocean to become more acidic than it has been in 20 million years.

A billion people worldwide rely on the ocean as a source of protein. It’s not a small matter to find a replacement for that. The impact of acidification may have been seen already in the Pacific coast regions of North America, where shellfish beds have been failing. The pteropods which are a basic food source for many fish and whales are decreasing in number. This isn’t just a guess. We can see it happening.

Tags: carbon, ocean acidification

Are Reusable Bags a Bad Idea After All?

Nov 16, 2010 Eco Friendly Home, Environmental News

I’ve seen a few stories on the news lately about many types of reusable bags having a high lead content. This is an issue because the lead can rub off and contaminate your food. Not immediately, as the bags tested used materials that would not leech lead too easily. But as it wears down, maybe a problem.

Does this mean buying reusable bags is a bad idea?

Not in my book. What it means is that you need to think about the type of reusable bags you get. The cheapies from the grocery store are likely not such a good idea.

Not that I’ve generally liked the cheap reusables anyhow. From what I’ve read, they don’t last well anyhow. I prefer to buy things that last. Better to buy once than over and over.

I love my cotton bag, for example. It’s sturdy, and even if it develops a hole or tear, odds are good that I can patch it. I have no worries about lead with it. I don’t have to worry that in the someday future that it needs to be disposed of, that it will leech horrid nasties into the landfill. Cotton bags are also more easily washable, which is great for getting rid of germs.

Of course, it also pays to remember that the media can hype these things up quite a bit. If you’re worried about lead getting onto your food from your reusable bags, make sure you rinse the food off before eating it. At the very least, you’ll cut it down.

Tags: lead, reusable bags

Caps On or Off for Plastic Bottle Recycling?

Nov 8, 2010 Environmental News

Even when you try to avoid plastic bottles, most of us end up dealing with them sometimes. If you’re lucky and live in an area with easy recycling, you can toss them into the recycle bin. If you’re really lucky, they take all types of plastic, not just #1 and #2.

There’s one step that confuses a lot of people. It’s whether or not to remove the lid from their plastic containers before recycling. It’s a different type of plastic. Can the lids be recycled too?

That depends on where you live. The Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers says it is more often okay to leave the lids on now, but to check with your local recycler to be certain. Used to be they didn’t want the lids at all, and would toss any bottles with lids rather than take the time to remove the lid. The lids would jam their machinery. Now many of them are willing to deal with the lids. The demand for the type of plastic used in lids has apparently increased over time.

Personally, I don’t like to leave the caps on when I send a bottle for recycling. Not that I have a problem with recycling the lids. It’s just that I think it’s better to let the bottles dry out with the lid off.

You always need to pay attention to the recycling rules in your area. Where I used to live, their flyer only said they too plastics #1 and #2, and only in the shape of a bottle. When my husband talked to some of their representatives at a home expo, he was told they took all types of plastic, including plastic bags.

Where we are now takes plastics #1-7, but absolutely no plastic bags. They provided a great little chart we keep on the fridge that shows what they do and do not accept.

Just as with the rules about plastic caps, the rules for recycling other products can change over time and by where you live. You can’t take the answer from one place and be certain it’s right for another. You have to get answers that are specific to where you’re dealing with the recycling.

Overall, however, I’m just glad to hear that plastic caps can often be recycled. Much as I prefer to avoid using plastic at all, it’s nice to know that when it comes into my life, even that little piece may be able to be recycled. I just have to check the local rules.

Tags: plastic caps, plastic recycling, Recycling