Ride a bike and ur Green???
Thread started by
User1 at 09.10.08 - 12:01 pm
For all that think you're all high and mighty, and you know who you are, ;-) Think again!
I just completed a Carbon Footprint Survey and answered that I never drive, never ride a bus, never ride a train or fly a plane. Just get around by riding a bike. Guess how many earths it would take if everyone lived like I answered? Nope, guess again........... nope, guess again.............nope, guess again. Give up? Over 7 earths!
Personally It looks like I live my life where it would take almost 4 earths if everyone lived like I did. I've taken other carbon footprint test and came out with about the same results.
http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.html
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Thanks for the link! I just sent out a message to my coworkers urging everyone to come up with a better recycling system around here (and a link to the quiz). It's sad, but sometimes you just need a Flash presentation to convince people...
canadienne09.10.08 - 12:37 pm
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Oh yeah I forgot to mention you could do this test anonymously. You can bypass adding your email address by clicking the bottom link.
User109.10.08 - 12:49 pm
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Totally flawed quiz, it still comes up as over 2.5 earths no matter what you answer.
I'm pretty sure folks like farmhands and day laborers eating rice and beans and living 6 guys to a small apartment, or crusty punks eating dumpstered food and living in a squat with no electricity don't have that big of footprint.
maxtheheathen09.10.08 - 1:19 pm
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My footprint came up to 4 earths needed, That with a fullsize car and motorcycle, thought it would be higher.
sc_nomad09.10.08 - 1:48 pm
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Yeah, the one for Australia is a bit more comprehensive, it's weird how they have more questions to make it a bit easier, still I think the lowest you can get is a little over 1.
The test is flawed.
FuzzBeast09.10.08 - 3:06 pm
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3.5 earths for me. I think my major downfall is that I eat out all the time.
Roadblock09.10.08 - 3:50 pm
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well yeah, the number of earths thing at the end is kinda silly/flawed, and i don't think it's supposed to be taken literally (i mean, honestly how accurate could a little flash program be?) but it's trying to make a few key points. Namely, for one, that we're putting a strain on the Earth's resources and it can't keep up with us. Secondly, that there are things you can do with your lifestyle that will severely lessen your impact. Thirdly, the 2.5 number suggests that no matter how you live, the Earth just can't support such a huge population of people who all have to live somewhere, eat something, and buy products and services
sometimes... Mind you, that isn't always the case outside of the United States... so yeah, there's that undertone too.
canadienne09.10.08 - 3:50 pm
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Reminds me of how my mom told me stories of growing up in Borneo and living 20 people to an un-powered, stilt house.
They farmed rice, corn, raised animals for meat, and used an interesting combination of spears, machete's, and Winchester rifles to get their job done.
Then when it came time to bring that shit to the market, on their backs or on a donkey it went.
There were sugarcane trains and surveyors with cars back in the day(1960's-70's) but that was it for then.
I guess if we really wanted to reduce carbon footprint, we should all start living like cowboys again!!!!
bentstrider09.10.08 - 3:59 pm
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well, considering the automatic extra "earths" it tacks on if you select the US, particularly since the questions for other regions are more comprehensive and more accurate, I'd say the test is somewhat flawed (you also cannot, on the us one, tell it you don't use gas), and it tacks on this huge "services" chunk to the graph, that doesnt seem to relate to anything.
FuzzBeast09.10.08 - 4:01 pm
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Hippies: "We're reall sorry America, but you take up to much space."
America: "Oh really, we didn't know."
Hippies: "Ah, Yup"
America: "Well why don't we make more?"
Hippies: "What?! You can't make more land, that's stupid."
America: "We don't need to." America pulls out her M1911 and ganks the hippy. "We just need a little conservation. If we all work together like this we can make more room and the land we do have."
:END PSA:
I hate Hippyuppies, here are a few of their suggestions.
"Why don't you spend 200,000 dollars and make your house solar powered? You would save 337,000,000 Global Acres. While your at it buy energy Star Appliances for the home you don't have, you'll save a flock of fucking pandas"
I'm all for conservation and environmentalism, but overstating things like this is just ridiculous.
franz
09.10.08 - 4:35 pm
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yeah, what the fuck is that "services" part of the chart? totally unaffected by any question.
maxtheheathen09.10.08 - 4:45 pm
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perhaps you're right, but honestly, I think gimmicky shit like this reaches a certain demographic... you know... a
simpler demographic (which arguably needs the biggest kick in the ass)... therefore, I'm all for it.
canadienne09.10.08 - 4:46 pm
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I took this test and it didn't tell me what I wanted to hear. I'm pretty sure it's flawed.
PC09.10.08 - 4:48 pm
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actually, it's more like I took this test, then tried every possible answer, noting the lack of changes in certain aspects depending on answer possibilities.
FuzzBeast09.10.08 - 5:03 pm
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yeah, same for me, took the test realistically, said 2.8 earths,
took it again answering as though i were a freegan living off grid, still 2.5 earths. WTF?
maxtheheathen09.10.08 - 5:08 pm
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OR you could just make energy efficient choices when the situation applies to you. Like if you
need to replace an appliance. But no, bashing this exercise and writing it off as being flawed and therefore an excuse to live without these concerns... that's easier.
canadienne09.10.08 - 5:13 pm
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Freegans couldn't "reclaim" the waste products of industrialism if there were no industrialism. And in any event, the earth is so overpopulated that it couldn't sustain us all even if we eliminated "the grid." The 2.5 earths figure is probably right.
The only solution to this problem, in addition to eliminating all economic systems and all industry, is to reduce the earth's population by half. Immediately. So I'm asking that each of you go out and kill somebody right now. If every person on earth did this one simple thing to heal the planet, and
then went out and smashed capitalism, it would only take one earth to sustain all of what's left of humanity.
PC09.10.08 - 5:18 pm
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I think it's flawed because it doesn't emphasise enough the choices that make a difference; not burning gas, eating veggie food, not buying loads of consumer goods.
it makesthing seem futile with this big chunk of the chart that makes no sense.
maxtheheathen09.10.08 - 5:18 pm
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or the people who ARE bashing it already live with these concerns, and know the test is not giving us accurate answers. Some of us live nearly off or off the grid, use as few resources as possible, make most of what we need (only buying as little as possible, scrounging most of it), eat only local foods, don't drive, etc, and even if you give answers like that (and do live like that), the test doesnt really change the answers. I remember the old version of this test, less gimmicky with the flash and stuff, but it still had the same flaws, and it doesnt even tell you WHY it's higher, or what the "services" category is.
FuzzBeast09.10.08 - 5:20 pm
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oh, and if you pick australia, the other option for a region, make the same choices (plus the extra ones it affords you), it gives you a number that is approximately half that of the US one... there's something wrong with the test.
FuzzBeast09.10.08 - 5:21 pm
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Things *are* futile. And what better way to vent your frustration with this futility than to walk outside your door, right now, and kill a human being in cold blood? And the awesome thing about this is that you won't be making things worse. You'll be making things better! Better for the children! Or at least for the ones that aren't irreparably traumatized because you killed their parents.
PC09.10.08 - 5:22 pm
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LOL actually PC once again has the correct answer!
Actually this test is pretty accurate when you consider what's out there to survey with. Sierra Club has a pretty good one. Go do their test and get back to us. My bet is that your results will be similar. I'll let you explore and find it on your own. It really is a great site!
I just did the test with the US version and the Australian version. Yeah there's a few added questions for the Australian's version such as what region of Australia do you live in? And do you have energy bulbs? Then one or two other minor differences. They both have the same questioning really.
Before anyone question the process did you bother to look in the FAQ? You got a better one you would like to share with everyone?
Getting back to the US vs Australia quiz. I went through both and answered as green as I could. I got 2.4 earths to 1 earth in Australia. But how could that be accurate you ask? Well we have far more of a supporting infrastructure than Australia, don't we? Laws in regards to transport maybe? What about demanding our produce today? Lifestyle maybe?
User109.10.08 - 5:25 pm
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Fuzz, without a wasteful, environmentally destructive economic system overtly dedicated to producing unnecessary objects in the name of mindless economic "growth," there would be nothing to scrounge. Just because you are arguably not contributing to that system doesn't mean that it isn't necessary for that system to be in place to sustain you. Thus, the 2.5 (or more) earths. Admit it, there's no way out. Controlled, voluntary citizen homicide is the only answer! Just please don't kill me.
PC09.10.08 - 5:26 pm
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dang you're fast PC!
This was the question I was referring to.......
I took this test and it didn't tell me what I wanted to hear. I'm pretty sure it's flawed.
PC
User109.10.08 - 5:26 pm
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It makes me feel uncomfortable when you agree with me, Allan. Knock it off.
PC09.10.08 - 5:28 pm
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Yeah frightly I was thinking the same thing PC while reading the thread. Hate the test, so it *must* be flawed.
User109.10.08 - 5:33 pm
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PC,
actually, there's 3 tenets to the recycle logo, hence the 3 arrows on it, reduce, recycle and RE-USE, sure, if everyone was re-using their old waste materials instead of just going out and buying new crap, sure there would be almost nothing to scavenge, however, in any society, not just a western one, there is waste, aside from bare hunter gatherer societies, it's just something humans do.
However, it's not just the issue of freeganing (or umm, recycling/re-using if you want to call a spade a spade) the issue with the test is that, say a person selects all of the minimum options, living in the US it tacks on an entire extra earth for no apparent reason, plus, on some of the options there is no way to select none (it goes to I don't know), For example, I have no gas in my apartment, there is no way to select "$0.00" as the amount of gas I buy every month, the counter starts at 5 bucks. There's also the matter of the vague (and unexplained, even in the faq) "services" section of the graph.
FuzzBeast09.10.08 - 6:02 pm
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As to the australian one being different, there are many options on the aussie one that are different. There is a question of miles on a bike, there are more options for housing construction (dirt/earth, adobe etc are available on the aussie one, not in the US, yet there are people who live in earth buildings in the US), and a few other options, like light bulbs etc.
the question about weather or not a person has electricity in their home is pointless, as even if you select no, you have to tell it you spend at least 5 bucks a month on electricity,
Other odd things, telling the survey you are vegan, eating no animal products, etc, it still adds quantity for grazing land in the final calculation, almost equivalent to crop land actually.
Like I said before the test is flawed.
Also, half the links it provides in the end part of the learn more part don't do a thing.
FuzzBeast09.10.08 - 6:07 pm
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You all must be living like monks. I took 10.9 earths.
The important thing is, that I chose red pants to walk around the neighborhood.
sexy09.10.08 - 6:47 pm
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That tested is totally flawed. They gave me a black luxury car, when I drive a pearl colored luxury car.
sexy09.10.08 - 6:50 pm
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And another two earths for the electricity and freon that you consume, Sexy David the Air Conditioned Anarchist!
PC09.10.08 - 7:37 pm
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That test sucks. U ride a bike there for ur green!
User109.10.08 - 7:38 pm
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you can also buy one of those t-shirts or canvas grocery bags that say something something 'green'. that makes people feel like their doing their part to clean up the planet. hey, girl! shopping!!! i bet PC has a collection of that shit.
meandmybluebike09.10.08 - 7:46 pm
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Every time you go on a group ride on a road paved with petroleum-based products, and stop at a big box supermarket with a lake-sized parking lot, and go inside said supermarket to purchase snacks and beer produced in any of a number of unsustainable ways, and get lost from the ride and use your cell phone made in China to make a call (carried by a tower on top of a billboard) to one of your friends to catch up again, and then take a bunch of pictures with your Taiwanese-made digital camera and post them on the Internet with your laptop of overseas manufacture, you are being sustained in some way by environmental ravaging. Even if you dumpster-dive or steal all of that shit instead of buying it, it still had to be made and shipped before it could get into your hands.
Now, a person who truly lived off the grid, using no manufactured products, never traveling except by walking or using hand-built carriages, using only natural medicine and growing all of her own food on a small plot might realistically need only one earth to sustain her, assuming she doesn't have too many children...but then, what's she doing on the Internet taking the test? Hmm? Hmm? Hmmmmmmmmm?
PC09.10.08 - 7:52 pm
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Unfortunately, I don't have a real air conditioner. If you ever came out and stayed with me, you would wish I did. I spent alot of money on roof insulation this spring. It helped by about 20 degrees. I could have put in central air for the same prices. A few wall A/C units for a quarter of the price of the insulation. When it is 100+ almost everyday as it was this summer in my neighborhood, you would understand the desire to have a air conditioner. You live by the ocean, you have no idea what Valley living is like.
sexy09.10.08 - 8:06 pm
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Lets do some real life decision. You go to the store to buy some watermelon. You have two choices;
a.) Organic Watermelon from Oregon
b.) Locally grown conventional Watermelon.
Which is less of an impact. The price for both is .33 cents a lbs.
sexy09.10.08 - 8:13 pm
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I'll take the one in the picture, and have it both ways.
PC09.10.08 - 8:15 pm
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This test is dangerous but neccesary rhetoric.
Some shortsighted people may see this test and think "Wow, maybe I should use more earth friendly products."
But he's not looking at the big picture. No matter how green you are you're still dooming the earth by your civilized existence, as proven by those who tried to take the test as if they contributed little to no waste.
That leaves only one option for true Environmentalists, Genocide. Mass suicide could be an option but do you really want to leave it up to all those other polluting assholes to kill themselves after you? HELL no, so that leaves us with mass murder.
The only question is who will get the jump on the others and be the first to start. I for one hope America leads the way.
franz09.10.08 - 9:09 pm
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I already came up with that idea. For biting my style, you will be the first to die.
PC09.10.08 - 9:11 pm
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you picked the organic one. It was too hard to photograph both, with my imported Korean cell phone. The phone that PC most likely unloaded from the boat for me.
sexy09.10.08 - 9:23 pm
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You suggested killing people, it's true. But voluntary citizen homicide, isn't the answer. We need to rid ourselves of entire Continents, we're not going to do that with any of your anarchist DIY Voluntary Citizen Homicide shit. We need an organized killing machine to save the earth, I don't think anything less can help us now.
franz09.10.08 - 9:24 pm
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Franz,
You haven't been following the "POLICE STATE" thread. If you did, you would have known there's a plan in place. The plan is to destroy continents, and has been implemented since 2003. I guess we're starting in the Middle East.
User109.10.08 - 9:48 pm
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