Re: [Paddlewise] Petroleum IS the disaster.

On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 6:15 PM, Doug Lloyd <douglloyd_at_shaw.ca> wrote:

> ......I'm walking to the corner store
> for milk. Changed my buying locations to local retailer in the neighborhood
> too. Costs more. Will be using the kayak bike cart this summer. But I'm
> still part of the problem. Still use petroleum. Plastic everywhere. My
> mitigating actions feel like a few grains of sand......
>

Yes... we have met the enemy and he is us. No doubt about it. Much more true
now than in the 1950s when it was first penned in a Pogo cartoon strip.

Even so, lots of people taking small steps can make a big difference. We
changed over to fluorescent lights years ago. I dunno how much of a
difference they make to our electric bill (at US$0.04/kwhr) but they don't
go bad as often which is good enough for me. What if we all went to LED
lighting? And then set our houses up so that the lights (all LED) ran off
batteries charged by solar panels? Or all went to on-demand water heaters
instead of the big hot water tanks most of us (at least in the USA) use now.
Composting toilets could make a big difference in water usage but many
health districts won't permit them (stupidly, in my opinion).

I use two 30-watt solar panels on the RV instead of a generator. Turns out I
still have to listen to generators. Twenty five years after I first put
solar panels to use I still had people coming up to me and asking me if
those things worked. Good grief!

It's an education issue I think. Several of the people who asked me if they
worked were surprised that they did. We had enough power over a week's
camping that we never worried about turning on lights or watching a movie.
If they noticed and tried it then someone will come up to them and ask if
they work.

Packaging! What if Wal-Mart had to pay an excise tax on how many cubic yards
of packaging went out the door. What if every package had to list its volume
and that was tagged? Oregon makes people pay a deposit on bottles and cans
and some people augment their retirement by cleaning up the highways and
beaches.

Bicycles make so much sense (even if, as PeterO surmises, they work better
with electric motors to help). Sue and I have just been looking at a way we
could sell the lake house (gasp!) and build a much more efficient home next
to the shop and reduce our payments and carbon footprint at the same time.
I'm sure we'd save $1k a month.

Sure we use kayaks made of petroleum products (even our SOF kayaks) but we
can reduce in other ways. Our governments are, for the most part, too
hidebound to actually come up with effective ways to encourage us to change
but over the long stretch it's probably cost effective anyway. After all,
prices generally only go up (except for the stock market today).

I just wish I had a Segway. :P


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
www.nwkayaking.net
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