For The Love Of Conservation
Posted by torbjornrive on August 12, 2008
Gone are the days when one left the tap running while brushing our teeth. Gone are the days when leaving all the lights on in the house made one feel safer, more at home. But still we drive six blocks to the store. Fault of the city planner? This post is about working on the little things.
I’d like to blast out a little tune-up on several little things one can do to be the mini-environmentalist without even working too hard. Here are critical areas we should all be conscious of:
WATER: This is an easy one to conserve and is of utmost importance. All I’m saying is do what you can. Be more efficient in doing the dishes (don’t just leave ‘er running). Put a (well sealed!) Gatorade bottle full of sand (or water) in the toilet tank to save just that much each time you flush. Shower with a purpose. All the little things count, and if you’re on the west coast you know we’re in a bit of a drought now.
In British Columbia our electricity is supplied by at least 70% hydro power, so when there’s a drought we’re low on power too…
ELECTRICITY: This one’s been covered time and again, but it’s important to keep stressing. Do more of the little things like changing your lightbulbs (energy efficient) for the long-run. You’ll save in the long-run, there’s no doubt about that. If you live in Vagas you may think it’s a lost cause – but do the little things for your own wallet and you won’t mind as much.
GAS/TRAVEL: Uh-oh, here we go again. Find ‘alternate’ ways to carpool and/or commute. There, I said it. The fact that I bike to work and around my town clearly makes me a better person than you. Har har, just kidding. I’m too cheap to own a car, and you know what, that’s reflected in my savings account. I think that it’s been made clear (in many and most cases) that personal vehicles are utter overkill. Utter, I tell you. Keep it simple on two wheels, and get those legs working for you!
There we have it. I believe that change is becoming accepted as normal, but there’s still some thick skulls out there. I’ve been surprised myself at who’s never cared so little in their life. It has opened up my eyes to the fact that not everyone is willing to change the larger picture, but we can start with the smaller and work our way up.
Big change is scary. Good luck.
Reid said
“But still we drive six blocks to the store. Fault of the city planner?”
For six blocks, that’s just plain lazy. Most people are more than six blocks from the store though. However, one has to consider the context in which single use zoning was pushed (mainly disease-ridden over-crowded cities). People just took a practical idea a little too far and split all land uses into geographically separate areas.
“Put a (well sealed!) Gatorade bottle full of sand (or water) in the toilet tank to save just that much each time you flush. ”
This is a great idea. I wish I had thought of this as a means of fixing my toilet that kept leaking a little because that floating ball that gets pushed up was not properly calibrated, and the water wouldn’t shut off. Now I can save a little water too.
torbjornrive said
Driving within one’s neighbourhood is just plain fatness, that is true. But then again I don’t know what your local hood is like. I’ve mentioned before that I live three blocks from the grocer, and people from my apt building drive there all the time. It’s definitely habitual.
The bottle/brick in the toilet tank is an old-school trick and still very worth it. I like those half-flush toilets too. I have a busted one so I can do those halfies just by holding down the lever for 2 seconds. Amazing stuff, I know.
Reid said
I have a grocery store about 0.4 miles from my house. If I need something small I will walk there. More often than not, however, I drive. I really don’t feel like carrying a gallon of milk and a 12 pack of beer and all the other stuff home. It is much cheaper to buy food in quantity, and much easier to transport it by car (which I own anyway – which means I already have the fixed cost of operating a vehicle, which give me an incentive to use the vehicle to lower my fixed costs on a per trip basis). Also, unlike most people in my neighborhood, I tend to leave the shopping cart at the supermarket instead of taking it home with me.