A couple of thoughts:

I live in Southeast Texas, a few miles from where oil was discovered and in the middle of the largest concentration of refineries and chemical plants in the US. I can tell you that because of our laws concerning pollution this area is much better now than it was in the '40's, '50's and '60's. I can remember as a kid the smog and stench that is no longer here. Most of the major projects in the refineries in the past 20 years have been environmental projects to reduce the pollution output, which by the way, increased production also.

A professor from the local university does a study on one of our rivers every few years (actully has a post graduate student do their thesis on it) and the river is cleaner now and has more life in it than in the past. He contributes that to the clean water laws that are in place.

I used to think "What difference can I make? I'm just one person. So what if I leave a light on, or my car runs like crap and pollutes the air? Tuning it up won't make a difference." But then I heard a story that goes something like this:

Two friends were walking along the beach. Hundreds of starfish had washed ashore and as they walked, one friend would bend down and pick up a starfish and throw it back into the ocean. The other friend said, "Why are you doing that? There are hundreds of starfish on the beach. You can't possibly think you're making a difference." The other friend reached down picked up a starfish and as he tossed it back into the sea simply said, "Made a difference to that one, didn't it?"

I began to wonder what difference one person could make, so I did some research. Did you know that if you just turn off your computer, VCR/DVD player, and other electronics at night you can save over $200 an year on your energy bill? If 10,000 people did that, it would reduce the pollution equivalent to taking 1,000 cars off the road. So, what if 100,000 people did it? 1,000,000? There are 300 million people in the US. What if just 1/3 did their part? What kind of world would we leave for our kids and grandkids? I can tell you from experience, a much cleaner, healthier place for them. Let's all do our little bit to help.

This has been a public service announcement. Thank you and we now return to our regular posting.

 

Member: Rchurch..`Randall,
Thank you for taking your time to post your thoughts, & great story. We enjoyed reading 4-Sure. It was great to read that your area improved...Maybe there is `hope 4 our World ?

Thanks for sharing/posting your thoughts.
That's what our MCF Off Topic Threads are for...

We Appreciate, your contributions to our Forum.

 

I have to agree with GPD on this. When governments get involved in things like this, good intentions turn bad.

Here in the province of Ontario, the government has said that incandescent bulbs will be illegal as of 2012. Reason being that they are in-efficient and waste electricity. Good idea hunh? Not so fast. Because they are pushing people to use flourescent and compact flourescent bulbs. The problem is they contain mercury. They have to in order for them to work. And throwing them out in the trash releases that mercury when the bulb breaks open.

When that little fact was pointed out to our illustrious politicians, they responded by making it illegal to put flourescent bulbs in the garbage. So you have to bring your burnt out flourescent bulbs to drop off bins at various places like home improvement stores. There, they will take your burnt out flourescent bulbs for a small fee, and bring them to a government approved toxic waste dump.

So thanks to the government's efforts to be "green", my non-toxic 60 watt light bulb is being replaced by a flourescent tube that has to be sent to a toxic wast facility at an extra cost to me.

As for the air pollution, everyone here in Windsor (and downtown Detroit) are very well aware of air pollution. We are down wind of an area of Detroit called "Zug Island". One of the most pollution generating sections of Detroit.

Info on Zug Island: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zug_Island

 

to tell the truth, i actully try to conserve energy, i go around the house and turn out the lights, i do not tear emmisions equipment off my cars just because our county does not require emmisions tests, the only motorized yardwork equipment i have is a push mower and a weedwacker ( a pain since i do landscaping as my side job) i never burn garbage or chemicals, dispose of waste oil properly ( our township started a free to residents dropoff site, before that it went with my dad to work), i make a weekly trip to the recycling depot ever since they stoped collecting recyclables at the curb, and i collect the garbadge people throw along my street on a regular basis

enjoyed the story, randall, thats pretty much how my dad tought me to live, because in his words " its not like its gonna kill you"

a couple of weeks ago i was on a recycling run, someone in a beat up corsica was just finishing piling garbage bags as high as the bins. the other guy in front of me noses up behind the corsica in his dorango, and i boxed mr. corsica in at the front with the monte. the guy had an " oh crap" look on his face, which only got better when the county sherrif hopped out of the dorango! turns out the sherrif was on a recycling run himself. mr. corsica got a 5,000 dollar fine and was ordered to clean up his mess, and yours truly got a purdy gold metal that hags proudly on the montes rearviw mirror!

 

today i conserved energy by not turning the lights on at work. although i never turn them on there, so i guess every day is earth day. ha. nah not really, i just can't stand lights. my house is always dark. my neighbors think i'm really weird. not that i'd contest that.

i booked myself a hotel room downtown and a day at the spa for my vacation next month. watched the yankees game, all 14 innings which finally ended with a walkoff homer by melky cabrera (YEAHHH!). went to autozone - my favorite place lately - for an oil filter and i found a cigarette lighter that looks like a piston. it matches my keychain. i still can't get my front lighter socket to work, but at least it looks cool. i bought a shifter **** too but didn't realize till i got home that it doesn't have the button so it won't work in my car. oh well. gonna have to find one on ebay.

my bf came home from a work trip tonight so we are gonna watch "Quarantine" tonight. i've been dying to see that! and i'm trying to find a 32gb itouch on craigslist or ebay. i don't need one, i just want one.

 

"Quarantine" - just finished watching it. super creepy!!! anyone seen that? i have the ******* now. now i wanna turn all the lights on LOL.

 

Space,

Did you know that the rain forests are growing 5 times faster than we are cutting them down?

Did you know that the Antarctic contains 90% of the worlds drinkable water and the Antarctic ice cap reserve of drinkable water is growing larger every day?

Did you know that we have 5% more edible vegetation than we did 8 years ago?

Did you know that our population has boomed 1 billion more people in a couple of decades and those people need food to eat thus the rise in edible vegetation?

Did you know that the earth has been in a cooling trend for the last 10 years and not warming?

Did you know that all this is for only 2 reasons for all of this, the sun and the rise of co2?

We only hear one side of the story so sometimes we must use the gift of discernment to the best of our ability. We are never reminded that the earth has cycles and always has for 4 billion years. 100 years of human inventions can't change what the earth and sun have established those billions of years.

I think it it pompous and arrogant to think humans can change the ecosystem. But I try not to be wasteful and recycle anyways. It doesn't hurt.

I think the big guy upstairs know what He's doing.

Once big government finds a way to regulate oxygen and call it a polutant, we are all done for.

Happy earth day all, may she have billions more (and guess what she will with or without us.)

Just my opinion Uncle Space. Hi from Mia Joy!!!https://montecarloforum.com/forum/im...cons/icon6.gif