Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Local or Global or Locally Global!


I've spouted off about what the clever people and the people with money should do to save us from ourselves and our oil habit; now what can I do? Yup, me! What can I do in the mid-west to help alleviate the problems of global warming and consuming our depleting, nonrenewable natural resources?

There are many things I can do that cost nothing or actually save me money. Gardening can save me money in numerous ways.
1) I don't have to buy a certain amount of my food.
2) I don't have to travel to town after the food that grows right outside my door.
3) Because I am not consuming food grown by someone else I am saving fuel because the store does not have to truck in as much food.
4) I can sell or give away the excess food I don't need to others or barter for things they have I need. This cuts down on manufacturing costs.
5) If I barter for a ride to town I can save fuel that way plus cut down on my share of carbon emissions.
6) Growing green plants cleans the air naturally.

This may seem trivial to many and the old argument is that, "Oh, what can you actually save by doing any of those things."

This statement misses the point. Point being; if many of us do this we can save LOTS of nonrenewable natural resources and cut out a great deal of carbon emissions therefore downsizing our carbon footprint.

The UK has come up with an organization called the "Carbon Trust". This Trust will analyze the various stages that a product goes through from the beginning all the way through to the consumer and give the product a carbon footprint measured in grams. Thereby allowing one to know how large a carbon footprint one is leaving on the globe. If a person buys all the products they consume from eco-conscious companies that participate in this plan; one can feasibly keep track of ones own carbon footprint measured in grams.

St Paul Minnesota heats much of its downtown area with a clean burning incinerator, burning wood waste that otherwise would be thrown out. This runs the boiler system that runs under the streets to the individual buildings heating them during the long winter months up north. It has taken many years and a lot of effort but this process leaves an extra 6 million dollars a year in the city that would otherwise be paid out in fuel costs.

There are many other projects out there that are helping in other ways also. If we stick together we as a nation can lick this love affair we have with foreign oil.

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