Consumption and Consumerism

 This article is a part of Blog Action Day, an initiative where over 14000 bloggers will write something about the environment on the same day.

 I love how it’s Blog Action Day the day that I doubt I will be getting any sleep. So maybe my post won’t be anything of value, with lots and lots of links (and minor errors). Apologies for excluding anyone who does not attend my school in the next paragraph.

But if you’re reading this and have some interest in the environment, there’s a Treehugger meeting on consumption this Wednesday, I believe in Room 31 (or 41, I’m terrible with room numbers). It’s at the intersection between the foreign language wing and the science wing, and looks a lot like the new wing. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t in the club or if you can’t come every Thursday morning to the regular club meeting, but as long as you want to talk about the environment, that’s the only reason you need. I personally will not be attending this meeting as I have a field hockey game but I will be going to the rest of them throughout the year. And if you can’t go, try recruiting people for me =).

So consumption. There’s a rather nifty page on the Sierra Club’s website all about sustainable consumption with quite a few handouts, breaking up the word into several smaller areas. I guess that in providing a bit of a background (so that you won’t feel clueless when you do end up going to the meeting on Wednesday, or just so you can be a bit more informed), I shall do the same.

 Food
Ah, this is one of the major terms we hear when it comes to consumption, with good reason. In fact, it takes about 10 fossil fuel calories in order to produce each food calorie in an average American diet. When you add that up, that’s approximately the amount of energy needed to power our cars or our homes. Especially if you eat a lot of meat.

I’ve decided that I won’t be hyocritical and rant about how everyone in the nation should convert to vegetarianism (like most environmentalists), as I personally am not a vegetarianism. But I can rant about how everyone can and should eat less meat. Remember the ecology unit from Biology class? Think for a moment about the trophic levels and the trophic pyramid, or the pyramid of energy. One gets the most energy by eating low on the trophic pyramid and the least by eating high on the pyramid (or the food chain, if that’s easier to think about), for organisms use much of the energy from their consumption of other organisms in staying alive; very little is actually stored in the organism.

But don’t forget vegetables. Whenever possible, try to opt for unproccessed foods that are organic, locally sourced, or both. I know they may be expensive at times, but the amount of chemicals that they put into conventional fruits and vegetables and the distances that they travel are relatively appalling. And the process of processing (haha. pun. not really.) sucks up quite a bit of energy as well.

Links
Eat Well Guide (a guide to sustainable food)
The True Cost of Food: Take Action
The SUV in the Pantry
The Meatrix
Grocery Store Wars (I posted this in an earlier post but I’m not sure if everyone saw this)
Note: The last two links are videos, if for whatever reason they don’t work on your computer, they’re also on Youtube.

Energy
This too is an important topic environmentally (as it is influenced by most of our environmental choices), and has gained quite a bit of attention with both the fossil fuel deficit and global warming.

There’s always a media focus on “clean cars”. Personally, I support the production of high fuel efficiency cars as opposed to Hummers. However, we need to realize that hybrids still consume energy, and try to walk/bike/carpool/mass transit as much as possible. But efficiency in general is an important step to reducing one’s energy consumption (the ubiquitous compact fluorescent lightbulbs should be reffered to). Do a mini energy audit of your house to check for leaks and problems that lead to energy being wasted, replace inefficient appliances, make sure the car tires are pumped, etc. (A little side note: you’ll save money if you take these steps as well.) I’m sure you’ve already heard most of these, but if you haven’t, it’s better worth repeating such information than having people uninformed. It’s a shame when energy is wasted.

Clean energy is something that should definitely be expanded on (with the exception perhaps of nuclear and biofuels, as those are controversial and have social as well as environmental implications). If the money spent on subsidizing coal and oil were transferred to wind, solar, and geothermal energies, then we’d be much farther ahead in such technologies.

Links
How Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Can Fuel Our Future: Clean Power Comes on Strong
Alliance to Save Energy
Home Energy Audits
Energy Star
Native Energy
http://www.grist.org/comments/interactivist/2006/08/07/keane/index1.html

Water & Manufactured goods

Next time I write, I’ll get to this. I promise. But to appease you for now, I’ll give you a link to a page with a Water Footprint Calculator.

So that concludes my Blog Day Post, and I still haven’t studied for AP Euro. I’d just like to finish up with a few links from other blogs participating in this wonderful event (and random, helpful links). And please remember that seeing reusable bottles make me happy, unless of course, they leach. So shun bottled water with me. It will be extremely entertaining, especially when the SIGG bottles come in and our water bottles are many times better than everyone elses (until everyone gets reuseable bottles, then we will all be equal in our coolness). Alright. I’ll stop ranting now.

 20 Simple Ways to Help the Environment by Using Your Computer
The Butterfly Effect and the Environment: How Tiny Actions Can Save the World
10 Simple Ways You Can Save the Planet and Money
Blog Action Day: You the Consumer (something that’s actually relevent to my topic; oh my!)
Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Treat the Environment Well
Energy Cures (random charity I found, great cause)
Grist
NRDC
ClimateCrisis.net
Filter For Good, Refill Not Landfill, SIGG FAQ, Reuse Me: The R3ice Plan (yes I had to include bottled water here and put my own website on the list. You might see this again on the water post)