One easy thing to do or to abstain from for a better environment

[MagisterCultuum]

I've stopped eating all Fish other than those grown in Aquaculture. As bombshoo said, it strangely isn't that difficult to stop eating Fish...

Another thing you can do is stop drinking bottled water.

Bottled Water is 100% the same thing as tap water(it even says so on the bottle...), if anything, it's worse, because Bottled Water companies don't have as much restrictions in their product as the government does with their tap water. So basically you are paying a dollar fifty for an environmentally hazardous plastic bottle filled with tap water.

The whole idea that tap water is dirtier than Bottled Water is an extravagantly successful marketing campaign and 100% false...

When we used to buy bottled water we always went for the distilled stuff, which is not at all the same as tap water.

Tap water quality varies greatly from place to place. Where I live government restrictions make the water worse. We are lucky to have a water source that is pretty safe to drink before any sort of treatment, and unlucky to have a lot of old homes in the area that still use lead pipes. Government regulations apply to what is in the water at the tap rather than at the treatment plant. Due to a few older homes lead pipes, the plant is legally required to add a caustic solution so that everyone has hard water that can coat the old pipes and prevent lead from leaking out of them. I've had tap water when away on vacation that tastes much better than any bottled water I've tried, but can't stand the taste of the local tap water before filtering it.

 

[TheLastOne36]

^^ That depends on your tap water source. I have to filter my tap water to able to stand the taste.

Obviously it depends on how your local water supply is. However, all major cities and towns in the US and Canada should have access to clean, well treated tap water.

That taste is the taste of your houses old pipes my friend.

When we used to buy bottled water we always went for the distilled stuff, which is not at all the same as tap water.

Distilling is still the best root no doubt. I have a distilling machine on my kitchen counter as a matter of fact.

 

[Murky]

Obviously it depends on how your local water supply is. However, all major cities and towns in the US and Canada should have access to clean, well treated tap water.

That taste is the taste of your houses old pipes my friend.

I live in a new efficiency apartment. All the pipes are supposed to be new. The city has had some issues with water lines breaking though.

Distilling is still the best root no doubt. I have a distilling machine on my kitchen counter as a matter of fact.

Cool. I haven't tried distilling water yet. I mainly use a Brita Filter Pitcher then I heat water on my stove for tea and coffee. The filter removes most of the contaminants and boiling kills any organisms that might be floating around in it.

 

[TheLastOne36]

I just leave the distiller on over night and let it work. In the morning I have lots of clean water to put in the fridge. In my opinion, one of my greatest investments.

You can taste the difference as well. IMO it tastes fresher/purer than bottled/tap/filtered/boiled water. People claim that distilled water is lacking in certain minerals though.

 

[amadeus]

I guess an 8x10 jail cell would have a rather low carbon footprint.

The government is the biggest polluter. Why should I spend my money at something that's wrecking the environment?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I live in a new efficiency apartment. All the pipes are supposed to be new. The city has had some issues with water lines breaking though.

As I explained in my post, it does not matter if your pipes are new if you live in an municipality where other people have old pipes. Federal regulations require them to add a caustic solution and other additives to prevent lead from leaking into other people's water, even though it greatly reduces the quality of your water.

 

[innonimatu]

I live in a new efficiency apartment. All the pipes are supposed to be new. The city has had some issues with water lines breaking though.

Frankly, as things stand (at least here in the corner of Europe where I live) I'd take old iron pipes over new ones any day. New ones are plastic crap.

 

[El_Machinae]

Your refrigerator expends energy cooling the contents! (duh)

- if your fridge or freezer is not full, put empty boxes in them. I use cereal boxes. The boxes 'trap' the cold air, and so you don't exchange as much cold air with your kitchen every time you open the fridge.

- it's winter time, and for many of us, this means sub-zero temperatures. What I do is have two 4 litre jugs full of water. When I leave in the morning, I pull one of them from the fridge and place it outside my front door. Eventually it freezes into ice, and so I eventually bring it indoors and put it in my refrigerator, to help cool it. By then, the other jug is often melted and so the next morning I put it outside. If done correctly, there's nearly no extra door-opening, and putting 4 litres of ice into the fridge saves a lot of energy.

Food is very energy-intensive and heavily subsidized! (duh)
- not wasting food is a huge contribution. Plan your meals so that your foods don't end up spoiling. Intentionally eat stuff instead of letting it go bad. You'll save more than just a few of your own dollars. Because of the subsidies and poor regulations, the environmental impact of food is quite a bit higher than is intuitive

 

[Arwon]

Don't put cream in your coffee. There's a lot of calories/energy spent getting cream into your coffee, and dollars-to-donuts we don't need the extra food calories either. A similar concept is to just not drink soda pop.

In fact, losing weight (or not gaining weight) is a huge contribution. Increasing obesity has caused our fuel efficiency to be ~2.5 mpg than it could have been, because we're not only heavier but we need bigger cars.

When you say "cream" what do you mean? Don't you just put milk in?

^^ That depends on your tap water source. I have to filter my tap water to able to stand the taste.

Try keeping a couple of jugs and refrigerating it. It makes even heavily treated (Spain) or mineral filled (Adelaide) water taste fine.

 

[Narz]

Don't eat meat. Take public transport instead of driving. Those two alone should cut your eco-footprint by more than half.

You could also buy LED lightbulbs. My electric bill for a 2-bedroom apartment is generally between $10-$18 a month.

 

[Narz]

Your refrigerator expends energy cooling the contents! (duh)

- if your fridge or freezer is not full, put empty boxes in them. I use cereal boxes. The boxes 'trap' the cold air, and so you don't exchange as much cold air with your kitchen every time you open the fridge.

- it's winter time, and for many of us, this means sub-zero temperatures. What I do is have two 4 litre jugs full of water. When I leave in the morning, I pull one of them from the fridge and place it outside my front door. Eventually it freezes into ice, and so I eventually bring it indoors and put it in my refrigerator, to help cool it. By then, the other jug is often melted and so the next morning I put it outside. If done correctly, there's nearly no extra door-opening, and putting 4 litres of ice into the fridge saves a lot of energy.

Food is very energy-intensive and heavily subsidized! (duh)
- not wasting food is a huge contribution. Plan your meals so that your foods don't end up spoiling. Intentionally eat stuff instead of letting it go bad. You'll save more than just a few of your own dollars. Because of the subsidies and poor regulations, the environmental impact of food is quite a bit higher than is intuitive

That ice thing is brilliant El Mac. I admire your dedication.

Not wasting food is another huge thing people can do. I figure I probably eat 99% of the food I buy so I'm pretty pleased with myself for that.

 

[Quintillus]

Don't eat orange roughy. Their fishing is not sustainable.

 

[Old Hippy]

Don't eat orange roughy. Their fishing is not sustainable.

Guilty ... went out on trawler once,'bout 10 years ago, just a deck hand, 3 days $2000 and 10 double semitrailer loads of fish shipped interstate, packaged and sent to Europe


anyhow... plant a tree every year, and do not cut one down for Xmas, mine is in a wine tub, should get 20 odd years out of it, then it will stay outside

 

[BasketCase]

There's one thing, not mentioned yet in this thread, that will be far better for the planet than anything else.

Abstain from sex.



No joke. The thing that's destroying the planet is not how much we're consuming. The problem is that there are seven billion of us, and population growth is expanding consumption far faster than recycling and conservation could possibly reduce it. Until we get our population under control, conservation efforts will always be futile.

 

[Old Hippy]

There's one thing, not mentioned yet in this thread, that will be far better for the planet than anything else.

Abstain from sex.



No joke. The thing that's destroying the planet is not how much we're consuming. The problem is that there are seven billion of us, and population growth is expanding consumption far faster than recycling and conservation could possibly reduce it. Until we get our population under control, conservation efforts will always be futile.

good advice .... but don't you think "use contraception" would be more fun

 

[Thedrin]

Both of the following are outside the scope of this thread:

Narz:
Don't eat meat.

BasketCase:
Abstain from sex.

From the thread title: One easy thing to do or abstain from for a better environment.

 

[luiz]

Use plastic bags instead of paper bags. If properly disposed of they are far more eco-friendly.

 

[Silurian]

Choose the time of day you carry out heat generating activities to avoid using heating.

If it is not too cold but not comfortable to just sit around consider delaying putting on the heating (or put it on low) and do some cleaning etc that warms you up.

 

[dutchfire]

Use plastic bags instead of paper bags. If properly disposed of they are far more eco-friendly.

Isn't using your own shopping bag instead of throw-away bags even better?

 

[dutchfire]

Your refrigerator expends energy cooling the contents! (duh)

- if your fridge or freezer is not full, put empty boxes in them. I use cereal boxes. The boxes 'trap' the cold air, and so you don't exchange as much cold air with your kitchen every time you open the fridge.

That one sounds interesting, I might try it!