Wednesday, April 25, 2007

GLOBAL WARMING- WHAT THE HELL CAN WE DO..WITHOUT SACRIFICING TOILET PAPER THAT IS...

so, i read recently, that Sheryl Crow has posted on her new blog that there should be a limit to the use of toilet paper in a bid to save the environment. while environment and its preservation is a cause i am passionate about, i see this as one of the most useless advices ever! sacrifice basic hygiene for um, saving trees? when you know that your co workers like Paris Hilton and all will make thei dogs write books that will be widely published by cutting these very trees???!!!!!! its rather stupid. while environment seems to be the new 'it' thing on the block, people are fast joining the bandwagon of people supporting this cause.

but in reality, none of them offer any advice on what an individual can do to curb global warming. political initiatives, though far more effective, are places where we will be wasting energy. politicians are usually too near sighted and contrived to come up with anything that has JUST good effects. its the people that you have to take a cause to. an individual is stronger than any ridculous system. all individuals is an undefeated entity. and this is what i wanted to do. i wanted to find out what a normal everyday doctor, day care worker, student or house maid could do to curb global warming. after all, they form a major chunk of the world population, not vain and stupid celebrities who prove time and again that you must have an IQ of below 100 to be famous, and waste their fame championing only those causes that involve visibly deformed little pitiable people.

in a world of nine billion people, time has come that we wake up. so i mailed every organization i could find on the internet, hoping that they would give me pointers on what non environmental activists could do to curb global warming on their part. i got no answer from all of them. like all charitable organizations, they want your money and signature on petitions, but will never tell you anything about the change you must make. ultimately, i used the one resource that is reliable, common sense. global warming is due to high carbon content in atmosphere. while there is nothing i can advice about curbing the CFC's, as AC's and fridge are for our comfort, i do have some pointers, that i am sure can help, and be incorporated in our daily life. and we dont need to go back to stone ages, or compromise on basic hygeine for that. all of these and more, i put to practice in my daily life.

1) TRAVEL BY CYCLE WHENEVER YOU CAN:now, use your common sense. if its 12 o clock and summer and you have temperatures above 30 degree celcius, or you are getting late for exams, you obviously wanna pick up that car or motorcycle. but there are so many places we travel by car that we dont need to. if its a class you gotta attend early in morning or sometime in evening, and if it isnt 40 kms away, then pick up that bicycle. something like back to school thing. you might say that your time would be wasted, but that is a lame and non existant excuse.first off, how much time and money do you spend in gym subscription? or time in front of the television watching pure bullshit. or in front of the computer dating virtual strangers, thinking it makes up for not having a life out of cyber space? it takes 12 mins to travel 5 kms by a car, and 20 by cycle! just 8 mins for 5 kms. plus, you do something for your figure, that no gym can do. Just going to a gym cant give you legs like Gisele Bundchen.... thats a myth they sell their products by. and even if they do, you will have strech marks. cardio is by far the most effective form of exercise, and cycling possibly the only one that strengthens your joints and tones your legs. plus, it increases your stamina, which means you wont loose a race with your great grandfather ( i cant understand how teenagers dont die of embarassment out of that).if you go in gruops, thats even better. also, use cycle for extremely short distances, like a quick ride to the grocery store on the next block. this one a deal, only an exceptionally dumb person will let pass.....

2) TURN OFF THOSE LIGHTS WHEN U DONT NEED THEMok, this is an extremely common and annoying habit that even i used to have. it takes concsious action for a month and then you will be habituated. so, turn off the electricity when you dont need it!!!! DO IT!!! you dont need lights at 12 in the noon, or AC in temperate climate. and you know somwthing guys.... if global warming happens any faster, your body will have to acclimatize to much higher temperatures. and you will even get toasted every time you go out in sun. stay out of sun, and your skin will look like an old toilet paper twice used. so, it makes sense to turn them lights off. other thing is, use individual electronic devices. like, dont turn on your comupter just to listen to music. GET A FREAKING IPOD!!! trust me, you will save a lot more on electricity bills than you spend on that damn ipod. just by turning off computers when not actively using them, a normal working office can save 1000000 rs every year in electrcity bills. computers are amazing, but they consume too much electricity.

3) PAPER BAGS, AND DUSTBINSin india, due to administractive apathy, people rarely use the dustbin. USE IT! or throw thrash in someone else's house, so they will come throw theirs in your house. then you will know what kind of a nuisance littering is. another thing is, please stop sticking to plastic. i know its inconveniet, as platic is the most useful material ever invented. but i would take a new approach than the more impractical Ban Plastic one... CONSERVE PLASTIC. use your head, come up with ways to limit the plastic content of your house. use air tight containers as opposed to those million plastic bottles. when you stock water in plastic bottles, you might wanna know that a few good quality ones are better than a 100 odd ones. or just use your coke bottles. ( i know ppl still prefer them over cans). stocking a lot of plastic bottles means more bottles to clean, which if you are a lazy bum, you wont do. this is actually extremely unhyegenic, as even platic, with a little bit of dust ( and the elixir of life water stuck all over it), is a germinating ground. you could be drinking those bacterias and viruses!!!!!also, recycle whenever you can. invest your money on things you can recycle. this will create a market for things that can be recycled and manufacturers wont have a choice but to recycle stuff. consumers control the market, not the other way round like its happening. so, RECYCLE!!!oh, and if you recycle intra house, you might save money and space too. lots of it. take a sunday and just clean your house. look at the things you have that you dont even need!!!! you work your ass off on a college degree and job to earn money that you eventually spend on things you dont even need, that clutter up your lovely house, and frustrate you!!!!!! it doesnt make any sense. so till they make recycling bin as common as public toilets and dustbins...... RECYCLE, inter and intra house.

ok, this is all i have for now. if anyone else has any suggesstions, you are invited to add em on here. look at these.. they are beneficial not just for environment, but for you too. they dont require you to compromise or go back to stone ages or burn to death, all of which are likely to happen if we remain indifferent towards environment. all they require is for you to be proactive and use your head. if you cant do this, you definitely aint saving on any toilet paper either.so GO GREEN!!!! its not an option, its a requirement!

7 comments:

distant_dreams said...

"Global warming" thats an awfully hot subject eh...

Well... shruti ji... the thing is.. your heart is in the right place... but why are you taking your frustration on us? I mean things like,

"how much time and money do you spend in gym subscription? or time in front of the television watching pure bullshit. or in front of the computer dating virtual strangers, thinking it makes up for not having a life out of cyber space?"

Now- what was the point of this? this isn't true and you make it sound like "get a life! you ass" seems like your taking your frustration on something else in this...

Your right... global warming is a very serious issue... we should take it seriously... but really... what does using the garbage bin have to do with global warming? [=D]

And your right about the points in general.. but things like

"dont turn on your comupter just to listen to music. GET A FREAKING IPOD!!!"

Ipod's aren't something that one would call cheap... not everyone can afford one, besides, if you wanted to recharge your ipod... you would need to switch on your computer anyway, and listening to music on your system speakers can't compare to using the ipod...

On the other hand, if you had said.. "Switch off the monitors while listening to music..." it would have been okay.. i mean the monitor consumes the most power in a computer. The rest of the computer really does not consume much power... a computer in fact is one of the lowest consumers of power... on the other hand, heaters, biolers, electronic stoves and the lot consume the most power...

A few of the things that can be done for the global warming thing...

1) plant plants and trees, grow your own garden.. not only does this help, (imagine every house having its own garden..) but also, if you grow crops you can save on buying vegetables and have very fresh fruits and veggies to eat..

2)don't smoke... (its not that big a problem, but helps)

3) pour water over the floors, its a easier and cools the house down... was used a long time ago and can still be used today..

3) try to make a compost pit and put all bio-degradable things into it and make bio-gas.. was also used a long time ago.. can still be used today... these probably aren't things that everybody! can implement... but most can...

4) car-pool... go together to work in one car or one bike...

5)use re-chargeble batterites instead of ordinary ones..

6)The R's comes to mind... Reduce, reuse and recycle...

distant_dreams said...

and another thing... "a normal working office can save 1000000 rs every year in electricity bills"

thats not really true... most offices have the computers off in the night, its during the daytime that they need it... and if they shut them down then, well they might as well close shop..

anyway... these aren't the only suggestions... only a few... guess there are lot more...

anyway... later then... "Up with the green revolution!! yeah!!"

Shruti said...

the comments arent directed at anyone but those whom they truly describe. i love the other ideas though! :)

i know that the screen monitor takes up most of the electricity, didnt have the presece of mind to write it down at that time, so i will apologize for that. i think a shuffle, which isnt as costly as an ipod, would prolly do the trick too. point is, electricity is precious. i did not write abt bio fuels n all that, because most people wont even do the basic things mentioned out here... forget replantation n all...
usin a garbage bin makes it easier for the people involved in recycling or collecting garbage, to collect the refuse. throwing plastic in drains is one of the off shoots of not throwing garbage in the bin. potentially harmful. this isnt just abt global warming in general, but abt being a bit more concsious towards the environment.

again, your suggestions are really great, and i appreciate the effort a lot! :)

distant_dreams said...

Eitherway, seems like you had a really bad incident with some guy on the net to get so angry at them...

Anyway... yeah.. thats what i meant... if its an article about Global Warming and you talk about the ecology... it doesn't make much sense..

And about the ipod thing... well... Me thinks... if i said that to someone, they will probably just think i was paid by ipod for selling their products.. But anyway.. I guess what you meant is an mp3 player in general...

And plastics... you know I would rather not have them at all, rather than just dump them in the right place...

Oh! and by the way, the political initiative thing, it does work if you put a protest. Cause i went with a group of people through some organisation here in chennai and we had protested against the cutting of trees on the main road... They did a really good job of it and ever since the cutting's stopped... So, if you protest enough, stuff does happen...

Anyway... hmmm... do you do any of these?

Shruti said...

yes, i do most of these. no, there was no experiance on the net that was bad or related to a boy. yes, i did mean the mp3 things. and the political initiative might work for trees but if there are serious implications or gains to b made, they might not. all thats left is hapless debate. for instance, there was a debate on the very nature of global warming, its still not clear if there are any means to harness renewable energy to replace non renewable.

i agree, we would rather not have plastic, i tried the paper bag thing. but practically, plastic is actually, an integral part of many things in our daily lives and to say ban platic and to do it, is a whole diff story. there is a plastic paper bag ban in mumbai though.... but that has just made people conserve plastic, as u see, paper bags cannot replace plastic in totality.
global warming, is a resultant of taking ecology for granted.

distant_dreams said...

ah... yeah... well...I guess you're right... the ban on plastic doesn't work... tried it myself... but what im saying is that instead of that... try other methods... spend research money on that... but people really don't care... life goes on and everyones just like.. "So what if the worlds warming up? its not my job to fix it... I can't change the world.." oh well...

Shruti said...

but i am sure that for every, "we dont care", there are people who do. i guess if we just hold on, most will see the light and actually contribute.....