Friday, September 28, 2007

The Economics of Leaving a Low Carbon Footprint

An article called A Green Revolution for Your Budget, gives the thoughts of Colin Beavan on how to save money and help the environment at the same time.

He lives in New York with his wife and his 2 year old daughter. They use no electricity. The article does not say how they stay warm in the winter. Gas? I guess they don't use air conditioning in the summer either. I suppose if you get hotter with no AC, you need to drink more water. Is that good for the environment?

They do eat expensive cheese. But I guess their daughter does not drink much milk if they don't have a fridge. Unless they go buy a bottle of milk and drink it right away. But then that means grocery stores would have to use more power to keep more milk cool if we did not all have fridges. The milk has to be kept cool some place. So this does not seem to help the environment.

The don't buy anything new except socks and underwear. They buy alot of stuff at flea markets. Do they brush their teeth? But not many people can do this since there is a small amount of used stuff available. If we all went to flea markets, most of us would come up with nothing and then have to go buy new stuff.

They used to eat out or order out all the time. They figured out that cost alot of money (STOP THE PRESSES!). So now they don't eat out at all and save.

They ride bikes and scooters to work. I hope that is not dangerous in New York. They once road two and a half hours to get to the beach. I guess that built up their appetites, meaning they needed to eat more. Whoops, that leaves a carbon footprint.

Appliances use energy even when turned off. So you should unplug them. You can save 6 to 26 percent of your bill. So if your bill is $100 a month, you could save $26. That is less than a dollar a day and you have to go around and unplug everthing. Then plug it back in when you want to use it. And constantly reset the time on your alarm clocks.

They say buy food that is grown close to home (within 250 miles). So I guess people in Alaska can't eat bananas or drink orange juice. What if the stuff grown in your area is just not that good?

1 comment:

champ said...

I'm not so sure about this environment thing. Some people believe in science and others believe in God. I am one of the later but I am also a avid fan of the former. If god gave us the knowledge, then I'm sure he has a plan for the environment. I think we'll be okay no matter how much we consume so long as we produce.