I've always been somewhat environmentally minded. My family recycled back when I was kid and the town first started issuing recycling bins. Every house I can remember living in had two trash cans to separate the recycling from the regular trash. Rinsing out the cans and milk cartons, checking the bottoms of plastic bottles and containers for the recycling number, it's been ingrained in me for years. It's second nature. My parents my have started it, but Blackstone fostered it even further. So whether or not I would have investigated into what can and can't be recycled, he's constantly there to correct me. And it can be a bit confusing. Whereas most cardboard can be recycled, pizza boxes and frozen food boxes cannot. The little applesauce plastic cups, those can be recycled, but not the yogurt containers. Numbers 1 and 2 can be recycled, but nothing beyond that. So why even bother having any numbers beyond 3? (Here's why, though I don't see why it has to be this involved.) Better yet, why not just have a little Y or N in the little triangle instead of number?
When it came time for Blackstone to purchase a new car about a year ago, he decided to buy a Hybrid Camry. He'd actually always wanted a truck, and it would have made carting the field equipment and large pipes he straps to the roof for soil evaluations a little easier. But he's an Environmental Consultant, and became one because he is honestly concerned about protecting the environment, and gas-guzzling trucks are not exactly environmentally friendly. Couple that with the fact that business-wise, it's a good statement for him to make, and the amount of miles he travels each week can be quite considerable, and the hybrid seemed to be the best option.
Now, I've had people question me on the choice of buying a hybrid vehicle. Sure you save on gas, but the cost of the car is usually thousands more. And what about up-keep they'll ask. How easy will it be to maintain a hybrid vehicle? How much more expensive will the parts be? Why not just buy a compact car that gets mileage that's comparable and doesn't have the sticker shock? Valid arguments, by all means. Yes, the Hybrid Camry was thousands more than the regular Camry. But with the price of gas these days, having a car that gets 500 miles/15 gallon tank, we're definitely seeing that cost being off-set. As for upkeep, well, we don't really know yet. The car's still rather new, so we're not replacing much yet. I know if we need to replace the battery, it will be expensive. But a compact car really isn't an option for a family of four, and even if we weren't a family of four, at 6'3" Blackstone can't even fit in a compact car. Not to mention, strapping pipes to the roof of a compact car might pose a problem too. But hey, if you're a single person whose not too tall and you don't find the need to strap work equipment to the roof of your car, I can see why a standard compact car might still be an ecologically viable solution for you. I've heard people complain that a Hybrid, particularly the Prius, is just environmental bling. So what? If you're going to have bling, you might as well have it make a statement for the environment. And I believe that every dollar we spend on alternative energy products shows we're concerned about the environment and willing to invest our time and money in it. The more big business sees that, the more environmentally friendly products we're going to see on the market.
You hear a lot about the environment these days. The cost of gas at $4/gallon, heating your home with oil costing easily between $600-$800/month. It's starting to hurt. And it sucks. Believe me, I know full well just how badly it sucks and how stressfull it is. But there's a part of me that's enjoying this. There's a part that's smiling in smug satisfaction, because the oil companies and rich Republicans living high off the hog, it's not going to be quite so easy for them anymore. Because sticking with the status quo is becoming more and more detrimental to the middle class. The days of thoughtlessly cranking our thermostats, filling our huge SUV's and driving cross country - we can't afford them anymore. Paying our home heating bills and filling our cars with gas is getting beyond painful and almost impossible. People who never would have considered it before are turning the heat down and putting on another sweater. They're considering which of the two cars they should take to run errands based on which gets better mileage.
Those oil commercials I've heard lately, touting oil as the ecologically friendly energy choice, those annoy me. No way in hell is oil a better ecologoical choice over solar and wind power. Not to mention, we're simply running out of it. In the next few decades, oil won't even be a choice. But the good thing about it is that the oil is getting so expensive, the cost of investing in solar and wind power doesn't seem all that outrageous anymore. You're hearing more and more about other ways of saving BOTH money and the environment, by filtering rain water into your water tank, and geo-thermal heating and cooling systems, and countless other options.
Of course employing these options is still an investment. But that investment is getting more financially plausible every day. And I vastly hope the a Democratic President will help to devise way to make alternative energy more easily accessible to middle class America. Because I would love to have a wind turbine or a solar panel off-setting my energy consumption and my electric and oil bills. But unfortunately that's not a financial option for me yet, stress on the YET. First we need to invest in repairing our leaky bath tub, rotted flooring, old roof and draughty windows. Then we can start thinking about investing in alternative energy. The new roof and windows should help conserve energy too.
So many people complain that it's too much of an inconvenience to conserve the environment, and that attitude is getting us no where. There are many concessions I'm not willing to make either. Using public transportation just isn't an option here, it would cause me way too many problems and headaches. Sorry, Bitsy. I'm terrible about turning off our home computers. Mine is old and takes so long to boot, but I know it's something I should do. But I did buy my own bags to bring to the market and do shopping with. I have no problem shopping second hand for my kids clothes and books, but second hand clothes for myself, not so much.
I know I'm more of a Save the Whales Zsa-Zsa, than a serious environmentalist. But I try to do my part. And I do think that every little bit helps.
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