Save the World in Three Moves or Less

There is a post like this one Found here - Green Testimonials

But I'll repost mine here as well, because I need to add on!!

• Now
• Recycle everything that can be
• all CFL bulbs in house (old ones all burned out at once!)
• Use SIGG bottles, instead of buying plastic water bottles
• killed grass in back yard & put in rock (live in AZ, no need to water grass, water is already low)
• use ONLY homemade cleaning supplies
• Bissell Steam Mop for hard floors (no chemicals here!)
• the Prius of course!! Two of them!
• reuse ziplock baggies (like the ones i put trailmix in)
• buy in bulk
• all produce comes from sprouts or local
• hubby carpools to work (70 miles-with a lady who drives a large SUV, he drives of course!)
• replacing faucets & other appliences to low-flow/energy star
• shut off excess appliances (i.e. microwave clock over stove with clock also)
• turn off applances when not in use
• signed up for paperless billing/on no-junk mail lists (www.greendimes.com)
• stopped service on magazines we don't read
• shop with Eco-friendly bags (www.ecobags.com)
• cold water washing @ ALL times!
• turned off "heated dry" mode on dishwasher & only Full loads!
• take my own cup (like if i get coffee at the gas station, which is rare!)
• walk to places within 1=1.5miles (blockbuster)
• Donate - someone may want it!
• A/C set no lower than 80 in our home
• buy recycled printer paper
• re-useable batteries & recycle other ones where appropriate
• Shop @ goodwill every Saturday (Just got 5 winter sweaters for like $10!)
• Clean with White Vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, nothing else (ok, we still have some windex left! But once its gone.. NO MORE)
• Install programmable Digital thermostats (just did today!)
• re-useable movie cup (buy once/refills every time you bring it in) same with a few of the other places we go, we buy the cups or take our own
  Future
• Solar panels on home for electricity/water
• install energy efficient windows

Thats all I can think of right now!!

 

1. We recycle everything we can.

2. We reuse grocery bags and use them as dog poo bags and reuse our ziplocs. I save the plastic containers food comes in for my lunches I bring to work.

3. As bulbs around the house are burning out, they're being replaced with CFLs.

4. Our water heater is set on vacation.

5. We wash our clothes mostly in cold water and dry them on the energy saver cycle.

6. We removed our dishwasher and wash everything by hand.

7. We watch very little TV and keep all unnecessary lights off.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Sep 8 2007, 12:11 AM) [snapback]508938[/snapback]</div>

I'd be a lot less worried if this were so.

I know you asked for three, but I cannot limit it to 3. All of these, to me, have equally broad ranging, positive impacts.

1. Vegetarian diet (with rare intake of dairy. I cannot give up my cheese but do require a microbial based rennet or enzyme). In the future, I will amend this with a locally grown, organic diet when we move to our land.
2. Wise water use or non use. Practices range from shutting off water whilst I lather or while I brush my teeth, killing off my turf to plant natives in 1/2 of my yard, installing rain barrels, not watering my remaining turf ever.
3. Enhancing, protecting and providing habitat to support biodiversity at my house, on our vacant land and when I engage in volunteer work to remove exotic, introduced communities in support of native communities.
4. I consume as minimally as possible.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Sep 7 2007, 12:25 AM) [snapback]508388[/snapback]</div>

Got up this AM and decided to do another gas tax calculation.

Suppose we adopted this policy: fund the Iraq war with a tax on gasoline. Then repeal the tax when the war is over. That would be one fiscally conservative approach to funding the war.

How large a tax would be necessary? I don't recall seeing the calculation before, though someone must have done it.

The US Congressional Research Service estimates the direct spending on Iraq at $450 over five fiscal years, or an average of about $90B/year. (http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf). Good enough estimate for doing a rough calculation.

Based on DOE statistics, US annual consumption of gasoline amounts to roughly 141 billion gallons (280,000,000 barrels/month, 42 gallons/barrel).

So, if I did the arithmetic right, that works out to $0.63/gallon. If spread across all refined liquid petroleum products (gas, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil etc.) it would be about half that.

Either way that's large in comparison to the current shortfall between fuel tax revenues and the cost of building and maintaining the roads (my earlier in this thread). Americans currently pay roughly 50 cents per gallon combined state/federal gas tax. It would have to rise about 16 cents to make gas tax revenues equal to the cost of building and maintaining the road network. So funding the war out of a gas tax, rather than debt, would have more of an impact on fuel taxes than merely forcing fuel and vehicle taxes to pay the full cost of the roads.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(chogan @ Oct 6 2007, 04:27 AM) [snapback]522129[/snapback]</div>

That's how it used to be done. Of course, the theoretical advantage of borrowing the money is that you can turn around and inflate the debt away.

Thanks for the insights. Interesting as always. The current administration's love of spending coupled with its aversion to taxes has really been a double whammy. Maybe it's a brilliant move to revitalize the disappearing American manufacturing base. Soon, the dollar will be so worthless that Chinese junk will be wildly expensive. Domestic manufacturing will be the only way to provide affordable goods.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Oct 7 2007, 12:08 AM) [snapback]522353[/snapback]</div>

I don't think the aid to US manufacturing was intentional. In fact, I don't think the destruction of the value of the dollar was intentional. I don't think they thought about at all. They certainly didn't heed the warnings of the best investors and speculators (e.g, Warren Buffet, George Soros) who predicted (and acted on) the decline of the dollar. But that's sure where things are going. And it's gotten almost no press play. New all-time lows against the Euro, and less than parity with the Canadian dollar. Down from about 1.23 Euros per dollar circa 2000. From an international standpoint, we've witnessed an incredible destruction of wealth, which again gets zero press attention. In the world markets, your dollar assets are worth about 57% of what they were worth in 2000, which does not hit home except for those traveling overseas, I guess. Oh, and those who buy oil in dollars instead of Euros.

And it would be surprising if it got better any time soon. The underlying reasons are pretty clear (we're living beyond our means, and our current accounts are only the tip of the iceberg on that). We show zero signs that we'll stop any time soon, and the demographics point toward a steady worsening of the situation over the next two decades.

Anyway, my point with the gas tax is that I'd always heard it said that the cost of defending our access to oil ought to be included in the overall tax on fuels, as that is part of our expense in obtaining the crude oil. But I had always assumed that we spent far more on roads and other auto infrastructure than we spent in "keeping the peace" in the Middle East. But that's dead wrong. For the past year, if I recall the appropriation numbers right, the supplemental appropriation for Iraq and Afghanistan was actually larger than total US spending on the road network.

So the bottom line is that, this year, I think we're actually spending more on Middle-East "peacekeeping" activities than we'll spend building and maintaining roads and bridges. (And that's just the current-year cash cost, which ignores the very large present discounted value of the health/rehab/disability/retirement payments that must be made to soldiers wounded in the current conflicts, as well as the cost of replacing the material and equipment used up in these conflicts).

That doesn't seem very smart. And it seems unlikely to change. Because we've socialized and hidden the cost. Seems like bad policy to me. Seems like a smarter policy would be tell the American public they can pay another 60 cents a gallon for gas, and keep doing what we're doing, paid for on a cash basis. Or we can quit Iraq and drop the price of gasoline by 60 cents.

All in the context of the original idea in this thread, which was not subsidizing things that we know are bad for us.

 

I was joking about the mfg and exports. I agree that we should be made to pay instead of just putting stuff on credit. The problem with this country is that no one wants to pay taxes yet everyone wants all the perks. The republicans are very guilty of this, especially this administration. It is rather disturbing that it isn't more widely commented on. It's the end of an era but no one wants to actually say it (at least no one with a broadcasting network). I should have been banking in Euros all this time. The problem for me is that I don't really know what to do about it. I'm afraid that I'd loose my shirt playing currencies and all of that. What's the best investment strategy in times like these? Buy gold? Buy land in Idaho and build a compound? Include more foreign investment in my portfolio?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Sep 7 2007, 09:05 PM) [snapback]508894[/snapback]</div>

For the sake of this discussion, it doesn't matter if the taxes pay for the roads. We should be ADDING taxes to the price to pay for the damage to our health and environment.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(chogan @ Oct 7 2007, 04:53 AM) [snapback]522401[/snapback]</div>

Not the original idea of this whole thread... but certainly of this spur of it. And whoever started THAT is likely brilliant.

Wow. 63c. Seems like a slam-dunk to me. I honestly had no idea it would be that cheap to pay for the war. I'd vote for $1.00 extra tax, and have whoever gets it passed keep the change. But no... every politician on both sides of the isle seems bent on keeping gasoline just as cheap as possible. "We'll just keep picking at this scab. Eventually I'm sure it'll heal."

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ 2007 10 07 21:17) [snapback]522607[/snapback]</div>

Not to put too fine a point on it, Darrell, but I think the ideas are more important than who proposed them. "Pricing everything equal to its full cost" includes the concept of subsidies of all kinds, and not just for things that aren't good for us. It's not just about 'us' as humans, but about all of life. Our accounting system is doing a poor job at giving us the information we need to make decisions. Long-range, big-picture thinking is not rewarded, and that's a serious problem. Our behaviour will change when we understand the implications and consequences of our choices.

 

bubble wrapping windows is a cheap and easy way to insulate windows in the winter.. easy to take down when you have company

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Conse.../bubblewrap.htm

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(douglas001001 @ Oct 9 2007, 02:42 PM) [snapback]523220[/snapback]</div>

Brilliant. Wish I'd thought of it, definitely going to do it. I must have half-a-dozen windows in my house that are used for light but not for views where this would be no hardship at all.

 

Parked the Prius and started using one of these for most of my commutes.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lowlander @ Oct 9 2007, 03:06 PM) [snapback]523289[/snapback]</div>

That thing got a HEMI?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Oct 10 2007, 04:10 AM) [snapback]523387[/snapback]</div>

Uhm, no, it runs on nuclear energy, coal and wind.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lowlander @ Oct 10 2007, 10:01 AM) [snapback]523628[/snapback]</div>

I know. I was just being a twit.

 

heat/cool home using geo-exchange (http://www.geoexchange.org/). I have a 5000 s.f. home in Maryland and pay roughly 1/2 each month compared to 2200 s.f. house with typical central air and oil heat.

Can't wait to install solar panels.