[Vision2020] An Inconvenient Truth: What you gonna do?

[Megan Prusynski]

I haven't seen the movie yet (gasp!) since I've been traveling a lot  
lately, but I do plan to see it. I find it rather funny that Al  
Gore's lifestyle, like most politicians, is pretty much the opposite  
of how we need to be living if we hope to combat global warming...  
but at least he's willing to admit global warming is a serious  
threat, and that it exists.

I think it is up to each individual to change their lifestyle and  
make some sacrifices for the environment's sake, obviously waiting  
for our government to take action on global warming isn't working so  
well. Americans don't usually like to be told that they need to make  
sacrifices, though, but there are a lot of little things we can do to  
create positive change that are relatively easy. I've been trying  
consciously to decrease my footprint the last few years, so I have  
some ideas on where to start, but obviously these things need to  
happen on a grand scale...

So here's what I've done recently in a small effort to make my  
lifestyle line up with my ideals and try to curb global warming...

1. Went vegetarian. Best decision I have ever made. I won't discuss  
all of the numerous reasons I made this decision (animal welfare,  
aversion to factory farming, health, world hunger, beliefs, etc...)  
but a major reason was the environment. Nearly half the water and 80%  
of the agricultural land in this country are used to raise animals  
for food. More than one-third of all the fossil fuels produced in the  
US are used to raise animals for food. Eating lower on the food chain  
is simply less wasteful: it takes about 20 times more energy to  
produce meat than it does to produce plants for food. If more of us  
ate a plant-based diet instead of a meat-based one, we would lower  
our energy needs, contribute a hell of a lot less pollution, and save  
precious water and land resources as well. (Check out http:// 
www.goveg.com/environment.asp for more info).

2. Converted my car to run on bio-fuels and invested in a bike  
trailer. For in-town errands, my boyfriend and I use a bike with a  
trailer that fits all our groceries. For road trips, we use our newly  
converted VW bus that runs on waste veggie oil & bio-diesel. Bio- 
fuels are carbon-neutral (the plants used to grow them compensate for  
the carbon emitted when they are burned), have lower emissions, and  
can be grown domestically, reducing our need for foreign oil (and  
therefore war!). Any diesel vehicle can be converted to run on waste  
vegetable oil by installing a kit with an extra veggie oil tank. If  
you're interested, I'm sure my boyfriend (an engineering alumni from  
UI) wouldn't mind making a living off of converting vehicles. Running  
on grease is better for longer trips, since you have to warm up on  
diesel or bio-diesel, and yes, the exhaust does smell like french  
fries. Speaking of veggie oil, does anyone know of any restaurants  
(other than the Breakfast Club, who graciously supplies us with oil  
each week) that want a better way to recycle their waste vegetable  
oil from fryers? Bio-fuels are only one of many many alternative  
energy & fuel sources that I hope become more popular.

3. I'm in the process (always) of learning to live more simply, eat  
more locally-grown food, and simply thinking about the environmental  
consequences of every action. By being more conscious and spreading  
that consciousness, we can make green living the norm. Society needs  
to work towards sustainability, one person at a time.

Just thought I'd share my ideas on the subject of living more  
sustainably and curbing global warming through a change in lifestyle.  
What is everyone else doing to help this problem? :)

peace!

~megan



[Vision2020] Inconvenient Truth: What you gonna do?

Nils Peterson nils_peterson at wsu.edu
Tue Aug 22 06:40:42 PDT 2006


So did you see Al Gore's movie? My sister, the infamous 'Rock Doc' of  
the
DNews went, prepared to debunk Gore's latest invention since the  
Internet.
She came away saying the science was solid, but not saying she had any
actions in mind.

My immediate thoughts are along the lines of conservation rather than
running out to by a Prius.

Which folds into another thought that has passed through v2020. I  
posted a
response to talk about making an 'internal bypass' of Hwy 8 along the  
old RR
route between downtown and UI. Aaron Ament later told me he'd biked the
route to look closer.

If we were to heed Gore and cut car trips down we wouldn't need the  
bypass.
Just a thought
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20060823/61ad91d9/attachment-0001.htm