General News Belated Happy Earth Day

LakanLunti · Apr 23, 2015

Ok, first of all I'll do a face palm for posting this a 30 hours late.

According to FOX News, the Earth is doing just fine, thank you.

Here are some factual REALITIES that will give us reason to at least say Happy Earth day to one's self.

1. Natural resources are more abundant and affordable today than ever before in history. ‎Short term (sometimes decades-long) the price of most natural resources -- from cocoa to cotton to coal -- is cheaper today in real terms than 50, 100, or 500 years ago. This has happened even as the world's population has nearly tripled. Technology has far outpaced depletion of the earth's resources.

2. Energy -- the master resource -- is super-abundant. Remember when people like Stanford biologist Paul R. Ehrlich warned nearly 50 years ago (and Barack Obama just three years ago) that we were running out of oil and gas? Today, thanks to fracking ushering in a new age of oil and gas, the United States has hundreds of years of petroleum at its disposal and at least an estimated 290 years of coal. Keep in mind, this may be a low-ball estimate; since 2000, the Energy Information Administration's estimates of recoverable reserves have actually increased by more than 7 percent.

We're not running out of energy, we are running into it.

3. Our air and water are cleaner. Since the late 1970s, pollutants in the air have plunged. Lead pollution plunged by more than 90 percent, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide by more than 50 percent, with ozone and nitrogen dioxide declining as well. This means that emissions per capita have declined even as the economy in terms of real GDP nearly tripled. By nearly every standard measure, it is much, much, much cleaner today in the United States than 50 or even 100 years ago. The air is so clean now that the EPA worries about carbon dioxide -- which isn't even a pollutant. ‎(And, by the way, carbon emissions are falling too, thanks to fracking.). One hundred years ago, about one in four deaths in the U.S. was due to contaminants in drinking water. But from 1971-2002, fewer than 3 people per year in the U.S. were documented to have died from water contamination.

4. There is no Malthusian nightmare of overpopulation. Birth rates have fallen by about one-half around the world over the last 50 years. ‎ Developed countries are having too few kids, not too many. Even with a population of 7.3 billion people, average incomes, especially in poor countries, have surged over the last forty years. The number of people in abject poverty fell by almost one billion from 1981 to 2011, even as global population increased by more than 1.5 billion.

5. Global per capita food production is 40 percent higher today than as recently as 1950. In most nations the nutrition problem today is obesity -- too many calories consumed -- not hunger. The number of famines and related deaths over the last 100 years has fallen in half. More than 12 million lives on average were lost each decade from the 1920s-1960s to famine. Since then, fewer than 4 million lives on average per decade were lost. Tragically, these famines are often caused by political corruption -- not nature. Furthermore, the price of food has fallen steadily in the U.S. And most nations steadily for 200 years.

6. The rate of death and physical destruction from natural disasters or severe weather changes has plummeted over the last 50 to 100 years. Loss of life from hurricanes, floods, hurricanes, heat, droughts, and so on is at or near record lows. This is because we have much better advance warning systems, our infrastructure is much more durable, and we have inventions like air conditioning, to adapt to weather changes. ‎We are constantly discovering new ways to harness and even tame nature.
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It's been a while since I've read a good news pertaining to Earth's condition. I feel very happy to know that the Earth, whom I really LOVE, is still ok and fine. Now the problem is with it's inhabitants. HUMANS. :dry: Let us show that we care for Earth in our own little way. Little ways like PROPER garbage disposal and avoiding take outs in fast food chains and recycling. I would want to see that EC isnt only LGBT friendly, but also environment friendly <3

I would like to end this with this photo. Quadruple Rainbow, taken by Amanda Curtis. When? April 22, 2015, EARTH DAY

See, even Earth is pro LGBT!

LD579 · Apr 23, 2015

I'm not gonna touch upon the correctness of the article or the views of Fox News, but I thought it'd be nice to share some easy ways to save on energy and resources and generally be a lot more green.

Water
1. Staggered showers: When you take a shower, you can cut down on water usage by turning the shower off while you scrub up with soap or shampoo your hair. Once you're done lathering up, you can turn the shower back on and wash it off.
2. Use less water when rinsing dishes, and don't leave the tap running when it doesn't need to be running

Purchases
3. Buying in bulk reduces the wrapping and plastic used, etc., while saving you money as well
4. Buying local (Such as from local farms) supports local farmers as well as vastly cuts down on emissions from imported food
5. If you can find a way to eliminate packaging altogether, go for it. This could be something as simple as not buying bottled water and instead using a canteen for your own water, or making your own lunches and bringing them to school/work instead of buying packaged lunches. This should also save you money and it will likely be a lot healthier as well.

Electricity
6. Unplug and/or turn off electronics and chargers when not in use. Don't leave the TV on if you're not watching
7. Turn off lights in rooms when they're not in use. It's insane how many rooms in schools, for instance, have them on at all times. Of course, there might be regulations at schools for this, so while it might be beyond you to turn off lights in rooms at schools, you can do this at home definitely. Also, take advantage of natural lighting from the outdoors by leaving curtains and blinds open when it's daytime. This can reduce or even eliminate your need for electrical lighting.

Transportation
8. Public transit will run whether people are on it or not. It can be a great alternative to driving, depending on prices and other factors. There are some deals for students, such as where I live that give unlimited transit for students for a fair (Also mandatory, actually) price.
9. Carpooling is a legit strategy, and you can split gas money as well.
10. Walking or biking is cool and gives you exercise.
11. If you have to drive from point A to point B, you could park your car at C, get out of the car, and then walk to B, do whatever it is you had to do, and then walk back to C and drive home to A. This results in less gas used and gets you walking around a bit more. See this handy diagram: A -------- C -- B

Misc.
12. DON'T LITTER. IT'S ANNOYING FOR EVERYONE AND JERKISH. It can cause a lot of havoc for animals as well (Fish and turtles caught in soft drink plastics, for example).
13. And, of course, reduce, reuse, and recycle paper, plastic, soft drink cans, cardboard, etc.

Some things that might get you started on thinking about the topic as well are terms like ecological footprint and the 100-mile diet. I know there was a family that aimed to reduce their garbage to 1 bag a year, and they managed to do so. Obviously that's a little extreme, but it's good to have goals, and they can be made and found anywhere. There's so much more that I've left out, but hopefully that gives people some ideas =]

Speaking of schools, you could organize an Earth Day and spread these ideas as well as others. It's really not that hard, especially if you know how to work with administration and proposing/presenting ideas. I remember I used to hold workshops about these concepts, and we managed to collect data on lights on in classrooms during lunch which were abandoned, and talked to some of those classrooms' teachers, as well as organizing a day for the school to be more green. Altogether, these actions stack up and get people primed to create their own ideas on how to be green.

As an aside, I remember reading about microbeads that're often in scrubs and cleansers. Those are apparently pretty terrible for the environment and water because they can be hard to filter once they go down the drain, and can cause havoc for marine life. If you can find a scrub/cleanser without them, I'd recommend doing so. Lots of things naturally exfoliate, too, such as oatmeal soap, which smells really nice and is really nice cool all around.

General News Belated Happy Earth Day

LakanLunti
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LD579
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General News Belated Happy Earth Day

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LakanLunti Full Member

LD579 Full Member

LakanLunti
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LD579
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