I'm beginning to think I truly am weird, but, that's okay with me. I like being weird. It means I'm different, not run of the mill or another fake clone.
But what's got me thinking I'm weird today is the fact that I have never, not once it my life wondered "why are we here". You know, the theological question that everyone seems to ask? I have never wondered why we are here on Earth. I just know that we are and whether we like being here or not we have to deal with it. I don't wonder what we're doing here or if we have a purpose and if we do what that purpose might be. When you get down to it the fact remains: we ARE here and there's nothing we can do to change that fact. And I wouldn't want to change it. I like being here on Earth. I am happy being on this planet, in this time. Do I think our planet needs help? OH YEA! We humans are damaging and hurting Her faster than we can heal Her. (Check out my post about Interesting Articles for some examples). I'm sure humans aren't the only ones out there hurting the planet, there's got to be some animals somewhere that are doing some destructive habits. However...
I was reading this book yesterday and in it, it pointed out that every change we make to how we do things doesn't just have one effect but several effects. For example: A beaver building a dam creates him a home right? Ok, well that dam can also block the flow of water in the local stream. If he cut down a tree to make that dam then he could've destroyed a squirrels home as well as a birds (this then makes them have a to create a new home thus invading another tree and whatever it's got going on). And if that tree was supplying nutrients to smaller trees or organisms that grow in it's shade or near it, they've all been affected to. Now lets go back to the stream...if the dam blocked the flow of water then it cut off the water supply the rest of the stream thus leaving the plants and animals living on the surrounding areas to rely on rain or find another source of water. And lets say there were salmon in that stream...they can no longer go upstream to their mating grounds. And if they can't get upstream to their mating grounds that's going to hurt the salmon population of that area. See what I mean by the smallest changes have a ripple affect?
This is another reason to make small changes in your life that you will most likely not notice. For example: don't take the scenic route to work, take the shorter route. Instead of blowing the A/C all the time in the summer, open the windows and get a nice breeze. Ceiling fans and floor fans also consume less energy. When replacing lightbulbs, we all know LED bulbs are better right? They may cost more but they last longer and require less energy to do their job. Instead of trying to replace them all at once? Try doing one at a time. Above my kitchen counter there are 4 small lights. One of them has an LED bulb while the others still have the regular run of the mill bulbs.
Doing these things can make a larger impact on the environment. Doing several small things can have the same impact as doing one large thing. But the sad thing is, this isn't something we can solve individually. We can't help the planet just by one person doing something. It's going to take several people pitching in and doing these smaller things. If everyone instituted the 3 small changes I suggested above, what kind of a difference do you think we'd all make?
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That wasn't meant to turn out into a semi-article but...it gave me ideas for some. This is what happens when I free write. I start off talking about one thing and end up on something totally different. But...you know how most people (I won't say everyone) have a cause? Something they want to fight for and support? I think I've found mine. For a long time I thought it would be animal rights and while I do support animal rights, I'm not a passionate advocate of them. And first off I'd like to correct myself...I support animal WELFARE. I believe in the humane treatment of animals regardless of what they're being raised for. Animal rights would mean that nobody could eat them, even if they needed the nutrients and protein in them to survive.
However my cause? You can probably guess it by now: The welfare of our planet. Most people refer to the planet as Gaia so that's how I'm going to refer to Her in future blog posts.
Showing posts with label animal welfare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animal welfare. Show all posts
Friday, March 6, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Interesting Articles
I was reading the latest issue of National Geographic (March 2009) the other day and came across an interesting article. Well a couple different interesting articles. The first one is on page 61 and called "It Starts At Home". It's talking about saving energy. One family wanted to see if they could reduce their carbon emitions from their home by 80% for a month. According to the article (written by Peter Miller) the average household produces about 150lbs of carbon dioxide a day (driving a car is included in this). They cut back on everything-driving less, using eco/earth friendly lawn equipment, watching less tv, etc. The outcome of this was that they trimmed their emissions by twice as much as was their goal! Their efforts saved them nearly $200 on their electric bill. Who wouldn't like that? Some of their findings are:
*one gallon of gasoline adds 19.6lbs of CO2 to the atmosphere
*a kilo-watt hour of electricity in the U.S. produces 1.5lbs of CO2
*every 100 cubic feet of natual gas emits 12lbs of CO2
They plugged in their numbers to different charts (one provided by the EPA) and found that their carbon emissions were 30% higher than the average american household. They started off by emitting 54,273lbs/year (4522.75/month) and in the end of a month (this was a month long test) they had reduced their emissions to 70.5lbs a day...that's roughly 2,185.5lbs a month!!! That's a lot!!!
The article also pointed out that it's houses, not cars, that produce the most CO2 because of everything that's plugged in and just stays plugged in (like refrigerators, ovens, etc). Now while I can't unplug all my kitchen appliances, unplugging little things will help too. Things like cell phone chargers or radios and tvs when not in use. "If we turned off home computers when not in use we would cut their CO2 impact by 8.3 million tons a year, or 50%." That's huge!! I myself do not own a home computer (I rely on public computers and the ones at work-where I am now) to do anything online.
Anyone who wants to live a more ecofriendly life should read this article. It's very eye opening and some of the practices should be adopted by everyone. A simple one is just to rely on natural light during the day instead of using a lamp or open up windows and let some fresh air into the house in the spring and summer instead of running the air conditioner nonstop. One summer I had a one bedroom apartment on my own. I didn't use hardly any lamps and almost never ran my air conditioner. My computer was plugged in but not on unless in use and my tv was almost always on as was my video game system. Do you know what my electric bill averaged that summer? $20!! That's for an all electric place. I don't know how I managed to keep it so low but I did. That was much easier on my wallet.
The other two articles have nothing to do with being more ecofriendly but I found them interesting regardless. One is about the blue whale. I just found the sheer size of the creature to be like WOW. Imagine a city bus...now double it's length...that's the length of a blue whale! It's tongue alone weighs as much as an elephant. A newborn blue whale weighs about 3 tons but they gain 9lbs an hour!!! When they are fully grown they'll weigh 200 tons. It's the largest creature on earth and that's just like...WOW.
The other thing that interested me wasn't really an article. It's just like a paragraph in the back of the magazine about rats in India. I have family over there right now and this kind of shocked me. Apparently every 50 years or so there's a major outbreak of the rodent population in places like Mizoram and Bangladesh. There's a specific type of Bamboo that only flowers every 50 years and when it does it draws "tens of millions of hungry rats". Problem is once all the bamboo has been eaten the rats then move on to precious crops like rice which as I understand it is a staple in the Indian diet. In the 1950's the outbreak led to things like faminine and political upheaval. There was also some special on this last night on channel 20 (WFYI I think). The current outbreak (I think) subsided in 2008 and won't be back til around 2057. And we thought rats here in the states were bad...I can't imagine what it's like with all those rats over there!!!
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See this is the kind of stuff I want to write about. When writing articles I mean. My dream is to write fiction novels of course. But I'm interested in animals and our planets wellbeing as well. I'd love to contribute articles like these to publications like National Geographic. These are the kind of articles that get my attention-the ones about different animals, and healthy eating, and ecofriendly things. Perhaps I should start channeling my interest of these things into articles and then pitch those to different magazines.
This is another dream to add to my list of things I want to accomplish before I die: have atleast one article published in National Geographic.
*one gallon of gasoline adds 19.6lbs of CO2 to the atmosphere
*a kilo-watt hour of electricity in the U.S. produces 1.5lbs of CO2
*every 100 cubic feet of natual gas emits 12lbs of CO2
They plugged in their numbers to different charts (one provided by the EPA) and found that their carbon emissions were 30% higher than the average american household. They started off by emitting 54,273lbs/year (4522.75/month) and in the end of a month (this was a month long test) they had reduced their emissions to 70.5lbs a day...that's roughly 2,185.5lbs a month!!! That's a lot!!!
The article also pointed out that it's houses, not cars, that produce the most CO2 because of everything that's plugged in and just stays plugged in (like refrigerators, ovens, etc). Now while I can't unplug all my kitchen appliances, unplugging little things will help too. Things like cell phone chargers or radios and tvs when not in use. "If we turned off home computers when not in use we would cut their CO2 impact by 8.3 million tons a year, or 50%." That's huge!! I myself do not own a home computer (I rely on public computers and the ones at work-where I am now) to do anything online.
Anyone who wants to live a more ecofriendly life should read this article. It's very eye opening and some of the practices should be adopted by everyone. A simple one is just to rely on natural light during the day instead of using a lamp or open up windows and let some fresh air into the house in the spring and summer instead of running the air conditioner nonstop. One summer I had a one bedroom apartment on my own. I didn't use hardly any lamps and almost never ran my air conditioner. My computer was plugged in but not on unless in use and my tv was almost always on as was my video game system. Do you know what my electric bill averaged that summer? $20!! That's for an all electric place. I don't know how I managed to keep it so low but I did. That was much easier on my wallet.
The other two articles have nothing to do with being more ecofriendly but I found them interesting regardless. One is about the blue whale. I just found the sheer size of the creature to be like WOW. Imagine a city bus...now double it's length...that's the length of a blue whale! It's tongue alone weighs as much as an elephant. A newborn blue whale weighs about 3 tons but they gain 9lbs an hour!!! When they are fully grown they'll weigh 200 tons. It's the largest creature on earth and that's just like...WOW.
The other thing that interested me wasn't really an article. It's just like a paragraph in the back of the magazine about rats in India. I have family over there right now and this kind of shocked me. Apparently every 50 years or so there's a major outbreak of the rodent population in places like Mizoram and Bangladesh. There's a specific type of Bamboo that only flowers every 50 years and when it does it draws "tens of millions of hungry rats". Problem is once all the bamboo has been eaten the rats then move on to precious crops like rice which as I understand it is a staple in the Indian diet. In the 1950's the outbreak led to things like faminine and political upheaval. There was also some special on this last night on channel 20 (WFYI I think). The current outbreak (I think) subsided in 2008 and won't be back til around 2057. And we thought rats here in the states were bad...I can't imagine what it's like with all those rats over there!!!
*************************************************************************
See this is the kind of stuff I want to write about. When writing articles I mean. My dream is to write fiction novels of course. But I'm interested in animals and our planets wellbeing as well. I'd love to contribute articles like these to publications like National Geographic. These are the kind of articles that get my attention-the ones about different animals, and healthy eating, and ecofriendly things. Perhaps I should start channeling my interest of these things into articles and then pitch those to different magazines.
This is another dream to add to my list of things I want to accomplish before I die: have atleast one article published in National Geographic.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Vegetarianism
Back at work after an...interesting weekend. I'm really wishing this weather would warm up and stay warm. We're supposed to get yet another winter storm warning tonight. Oh what joy. When leaving this morning my cat decided she wanted to have an outdoor adventure. Pffft. Didn't take her long to figure out it's cold and she ran to the backdoor. Atleast her wanting ten seconds outside didn't make us late. She hasn't been running out lately but she did this morning for some reason. She's nuts.
I have often thought about vegetarianism and animal welfare. I don't necessarily believe in animal rights...that would mean that no one could eat animals, even those people who need meat because of medical reasons. I don't believe in inhumane treatment of animals even if they are being raised just to be slaughtered for food. I go back and forth with the idea of me being a vegetarian. I spent a year or more as one before and I felt...different. I'm not sure how to describe it other than 'lighter'. I can see why Buddhist Monks think that what you eat affects your mind and your thoughts. I like the taste of meat, I love eating a steak (however mine has to be well done and dry). However whenever I think of the fact that it used to be a living thing it kind of turns my stomach to think about eating it. Like the other night eating wings. We went somewhere where they served the WHOLE wing. From the point it attaches to the chicken on. Just minus feathers plus breading. Not something that was easy to eat. I often debate becoming a vegetarian again. Believe me after some experiences I've had it wouldn't be hard:
-dissecting a pig that my teammates named 'Wilber" in high school (plus alot of other dissections)
-the wing thing from the other night
-a 'present' in the form of a bird that a stray cat left me on my back porck as a thank you for feeding her with a bite taken out
-back in my vegetarian days I did some research and discovered the terrbile conditions most animals are raised in, believe me: they're not humane in any way. Some of these animals are left to stew (no pun intended) in their own fecal matter...ewww!!!
None of this stuff makes it particularly easy for me to eat any kind of meat. ESPECIALLY chicken and pork. It's nearly impossible for me to eat bacon. And actually if I went vegetarian again I'd almost be able to consider myself a vegan. I don't use any leather products and avoid animal products when I can. The only thing that would be hard for me to give up would be cheese and milk...yea not sure I could do that. Cheese and milk are too good. Everything else though I can pretty much easily live without. This is something I've been pondering for awhile and something I'll continue to ponder awhile longer. I'll keep ya posted on my decision.
I have often thought about vegetarianism and animal welfare. I don't necessarily believe in animal rights...that would mean that no one could eat animals, even those people who need meat because of medical reasons. I don't believe in inhumane treatment of animals even if they are being raised just to be slaughtered for food. I go back and forth with the idea of me being a vegetarian. I spent a year or more as one before and I felt...different. I'm not sure how to describe it other than 'lighter'. I can see why Buddhist Monks think that what you eat affects your mind and your thoughts. I like the taste of meat, I love eating a steak (however mine has to be well done and dry). However whenever I think of the fact that it used to be a living thing it kind of turns my stomach to think about eating it. Like the other night eating wings. We went somewhere where they served the WHOLE wing. From the point it attaches to the chicken on. Just minus feathers plus breading. Not something that was easy to eat. I often debate becoming a vegetarian again. Believe me after some experiences I've had it wouldn't be hard:
-dissecting a pig that my teammates named 'Wilber" in high school (plus alot of other dissections)
-the wing thing from the other night
-a 'present' in the form of a bird that a stray cat left me on my back porck as a thank you for feeding her with a bite taken out
-back in my vegetarian days I did some research and discovered the terrbile conditions most animals are raised in, believe me: they're not humane in any way. Some of these animals are left to stew (no pun intended) in their own fecal matter...ewww!!!
None of this stuff makes it particularly easy for me to eat any kind of meat. ESPECIALLY chicken and pork. It's nearly impossible for me to eat bacon. And actually if I went vegetarian again I'd almost be able to consider myself a vegan. I don't use any leather products and avoid animal products when I can. The only thing that would be hard for me to give up would be cheese and milk...yea not sure I could do that. Cheese and milk are too good. Everything else though I can pretty much easily live without. This is something I've been pondering for awhile and something I'll continue to ponder awhile longer. I'll keep ya posted on my decision.
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