Skip to main content

Prius owners and Biofuel users beware!

I'm sorry to say that driving a Prius or making your own biofuel doesn't make you "green". These things might make you feel good, and they might reduce the world's energy consumption by a few BTUs.

But you can be very "green" by spending NO money at all.

I'm not anti-Prius, and I'm not against biofuel. In fact, I think they're both cool. And I'm certainly not an environmental wacko. I'm just a pragmatist.

In the end, reducing your purchases, investing money wisely (say, in a new fridge or in CFL bulbs), and recouping money on your prior expenditures is, in the end, a very green strategy that can help minimize your negative impact on the environment.

And now, the six most important environmental tips you've been waiting for!...
  1. Buy less new stuff. The stuff you buy requires substantial energy and materials to produce, package, and ship. The less crap you buy, the better for the environment. Remember that factories require a lot of energy and materials, and produce a lot of waste. Almost everything you buy comes from some sort of a factory.
  2. Need something? Then buy used stuff on eBay or Craigslist or at the neighborhood tag sale. In a sense, used stuff costs nothing to produce. Sell or give away all of the stuff you don't use any more - the reuse of your old stuff slows down the amount of new stuff other people have to buy. Sell that old iPod that's in the drawer, make a kid happy, and make some money.
  3. Share your stuff. Share gardening tools with neighbors. Give your magazines to your friends at work. Use the public library. Minimize the amount of idle stuff in "storage". Airlines are experts at making the most efficient use of the airplanes they have so that they can minimize the number of airplanes they need to buy. Imagine doing that with your stuff within your neighborhood.
  4. Fix "broken" stuff. Fix it yourself, or give it to someone who can.
  5. Live in a smaller building. Or, live in a multi-family building. If you have extra room in your house, think about renting it out for storage or whatever. If you have a spare garage bay, rent it to the neighbor for his MG (or whatever) - it's money in your pocket, and it means that your neighbor won't have to build a new garage bay that requires a lot of energy and materials to make.
  6. Try not to throw out stuff. Donate away things you don't need. Everything that goes in the trash or down the drain is basically environmental waste. The easiest way to reduce your waste is to not buy junk, or to give the stuff you don't want to those who can use it. Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and other places that accept your used stuff.
Of course, I still consume energy and throw stuff out. But my goal is to minimize.

In the end, being green isn't always easy to see. A good kitchen dishwasher can be more green than washing dishes by hand. The purchase of a brand new fridge is more green than keeping a 15 year old fridge. 50 households hiring a lawn service can be more green than 50 households with 50 lawn mowers.

To the Prius owners and Biofuel fiends - you've made an investment in a great technology. Just remember that there is much more to being green than driving an efficient car or burning waste oil.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Fixing a SodaStream Jet, part 1: Disassembly Guide

I've had my SodaStream Jet for years, and once in a while something has gone wrong. Disassembly is the first step to repair.  Start with this article to see how to disassemble the SodaStream, and then once you have that down, scroll through my other articles to see how I repaired specfic SodaStream problems. SodaStream Jet Disassembly Guide Tools Required Flat head screwdriver Phillips head screwdriver 1. Remove the Carbonator.  Duh. 2. Remove the black panel lever The front big black tilt lever needs to be removed first. Removing this panel is tricky, but it isn't impossible. Looking up at the bottom of the black panel, there are two tabs, one on the left and one on the right. These tabs fully secure the panel in place. The trick is to use a flat-head screwdriver under the plastic to gently lever the tabs out of the way.  Note in the pictures how I approach these tabs with my screwdriver.  I usually release the left side first, and then I release ...
Read more

Macintosh: Upgrading an eMac

It's been a long time since I wrote this article, but the fact remains: The good old eMac can still be useful if you take the simple steps to keep it as good as it can be.  All can run Tiger, and most can run Leopard - great operating systems for their day with a bit of useful life.  This article describes the procedure I used to upgrade my old eMac, including: Replacing the internal hard disk with a large capacity drive. Increasing the memory for performance Upgrading the operating system Here I'm upgrading a 700 MHz eMac, but the procedure and tasks for upgrading other eMac models should be almost identical. Upgrading versus Replacing My sister's eMac is of the 700 mhz variety, with 256 MB of memory. The machine seemed to be getting "slower", and the original 40 GB disk was becoming jammed packed with photos and iTunes, and within a few months she'd be out of disk space. There were two options to address the problems: upgrade the eMac, or go o...
Read more

Porsche Key Remote Battery Repair Video How-To

We now live in the age where part of your life is spending time and money maintaining and repairing things like your car keys . My Porsche's remote key was getting weaker and weaker, until one day it stopped operating altogether. Keyless remote without the remoteness. Not so good. I was a bit fearful spending a sizable chunk of my time and money at the dealership to have such a small problem addressed, and so I decided that I would try to replace the battery myself. Items required A clear work surface A small flat blade screw driver. A quality lithium CR-2032 Battery, available here. Procedure The following video shows how I successfully opened up the key without breaking it, and replaced the alarm remote battery. In short, from the vantage point of the key's steel part facing away and the buttons facing up: I take a small screwdriver and press on the little plastic tab on the left side.  At the same time I use my fingers to start to pull the two halves apart.  From th...
Read more

Robust Installation of an HDHomeRun Networked TV Tuner. 64 OTA channels!

I added an HDHomerun (HDHR) over-the-air (OTA) streaming box to my home network, bringing over-the-air broadcast TV to my computers, phones and tablets.  The HDHR is a big upgrade from my previous setup: using a simple "window mount" antenna directly connected to my TV. A TV-attached antenna is good for watching some TV for free, but the HDHR offers so much more flexibility. Figure 0: HDHomeRun on my basement wall   My original OTA TV setup was haphazard at best. It was finicky, ugly, and hard for other people at home to use. I would actually tape my antenna to a window whenever I wanted to watch OTA TV. Plus, it only worked on my TV and not with my other devices. I wanted a cleaner and more modern OTA setup. After looking at possibilities, I developed two goals: (1) bring my OTA TV into the modern Internet-connected era, and (2) set it up in a reliable and pretty way so that other family members wouldn't have to fool around with the antenna or anything else.  With that,...
Read more

Fixing a SodaStream Jet, Repair #2 - Broken Fill Button

My Soda Stream Jet's fill button broke, which means I can not longer carbonate water by pressing the pushbutton. This caused all sorts of grief in my household. Here is how I managed to repair my Jet to give it another 10 years of life (hopefully). First, a look at the button The fill button on the top of the SodaStream is actually a simple lever. Pressing down on the button moves a pin that does the actual work of pressing open the Carbonator's valve. Unfortunately, the axis point is fairly thin and can see a lot of stress. That's where my Soda Stream button cracked. [ I think the usage tip here is "don't over-press the button like a gorilla, it doesn't do anything but put high stress on the button."] Cracked levering point of the button The Pesky Lever Retaining Pin The Fix It was pretty easy for me to replace the button: Take off the back of the Soda Stream and remove the carbonator. Push out the the button lever's steel retaining pin. This takes qu...
Read more

Excellent DD-WRT Router for Me: Netgear WNDR3400 / N600

My WiFi performance was suffering, and so I decided to do something about it and upgrade my router. When I say my WiFi performance was suffering, I really mean it:  I live in a large high-rise apartment building and there are 100+ WiFi access points visible from my home office.  All of the contentious traffic was severely curtailing my WiFi reliability.  I was lucky to get 1 Mbit/second throughput.  Sometimes I was lucky to stay connected even with my WiFi router in the same room. I decided it was time to go for 5 GHz, which is a WiFi band which is used less frequently and which has a tougher time traversing walls.  And of course I wanted DD-WRT support.  The set of features I was looking for included: Trouble-free DD-WRT support 5 GHz 802.11n Support Simultaneous dual band capability Inexpensive.  Maybe even cheap.  For me this means under $50.  Under $35 is even better! It sounds like an easy task to bring all this together: A...
Read more

Other Posts

Show more