Monday, October 15, 2007
Blog Action Day! (Better Late Than Never!)
10:40 p.m. / 22:40
So, here I am with less than two hours of Blog Action Day remaining, wondering what my contribution to environmental awareness will be tonight. I had completely forgotten about this bloggy event until I was reading other blogs today.
I did have a pro-environment idea earlier today. I was imagining a fund for grants to be given to college students (under-grad or grad) who have to commute long distance from home to school to pay for, or help pay for, fuel-efficient cars. I knew several people when I was in college who drove from an hour or more away every day, or at least several times a week. I also had a co-worker who drove to a university three hours away once a week for her grad school classes. There might have to be rules about the number of miles traveled, and investigation into the reasons for commuting the long distance, rather than just moving closer.
There are numerous books on the state of the environment and of course right now one of the best known is Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Just this month republican Newt Gingrich published A Contract With the Earth, so Earth lovin' is not just a democrat activity anymore. To be fair, I haven't read very much of either one of these. If it opposing viewpoints you want, there are quite a few books out there now to tell you why us treehuggers are wrong. My own environmental reading is embarrassingly limited to Carl Hiaasen novels like Hoot and Sick Puppy.
I recently heard that being a vegetarian and driving a Hummer is better for the environment than eating meat and driving a hybrid. This may or may not be true. If there's anyone who can point me in the direction of information that supports this statement, please do share. For that matter, if you can point me to information that explains why this is total bullshit, then please do share.
In closing to this mess of a post, I'd just like to say pay attention and think about your actions. There is no such thing as doing too little, just as long as you're doing what you can do.
So, here I am with less than two hours of Blog Action Day remaining, wondering what my contribution to environmental awareness will be tonight. I had completely forgotten about this bloggy event until I was reading other blogs today.
I did have a pro-environment idea earlier today. I was imagining a fund for grants to be given to college students (under-grad or grad) who have to commute long distance from home to school to pay for, or help pay for, fuel-efficient cars. I knew several people when I was in college who drove from an hour or more away every day, or at least several times a week. I also had a co-worker who drove to a university three hours away once a week for her grad school classes. There might have to be rules about the number of miles traveled, and investigation into the reasons for commuting the long distance, rather than just moving closer.
There are numerous books on the state of the environment and of course right now one of the best known is Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Just this month republican Newt Gingrich published A Contract With the Earth, so Earth lovin' is not just a democrat activity anymore. To be fair, I haven't read very much of either one of these. If it opposing viewpoints you want, there are quite a few books out there now to tell you why us treehuggers are wrong. My own environmental reading is embarrassingly limited to Carl Hiaasen novels like Hoot and Sick Puppy.
I recently heard that being a vegetarian and driving a Hummer is better for the environment than eating meat and driving a hybrid. This may or may not be true. If there's anyone who can point me in the direction of information that supports this statement, please do share. For that matter, if you can point me to information that explains why this is total bullshit, then please do share.
In closing to this mess of a post, I'd just like to say pay attention and think about your actions. There is no such thing as doing too little, just as long as you're doing what you can do.
