not consuming

If you regularly drive with only yourself, don't buy a big car. Get a VS125 Scooter. There's plenty of space for shopping, and the petrol usage is much lower.

Grow your own food with hydroponics and aquaponics.

Get rid of your television, and make the family room into a library.

 

Buy local.

There is just about no better way to consume less than doing that.

Buy local foods, local merchandise, etc.

The amount of energy it takes to transport goods from the location where they are grown or manufactured to where you are is astronomical. Instead of going to the Big Retail stores, go to your local farmer's market or flee market.

 

Well considering that I live in a very small town, and the only supermarket we have here besides a Walmart is an Organic food store where everything is mega-expensive. I would actually buy locally but as things are right now, it's nearly impossible for me to do so.

 

I didn't support going full veg before, but I realized that all animal products' nutritions "cost" much more plants, than the same amount of nutritions directly from plants.

Also carnivores are more "expensive" than herbivores, because of similar reasons. And indeed, carnivores have smaller populations than herbivores. Natural balance shaped it that way, because otherwise there's no way to sustain them.

If the academic community doesn't attract me too strongly, I plan next year to move to some very primitive villages, and even get a job as a worker there. I think it's good to have this experience, and the life there is much healthier than anything else, counting in all the physical struggles.

 

Nobody said that consuming less was cheap.

 

I think many people have financial reasons for the decisions they make, that's completely understandable. I think the hope is, as I see it anyways, that we do what we can, the cumulative results will be great. I'm sure most of us would love to do more too.

 

take mass transit instead of taking a car
dim down my laptop a bit
reusing things

 

Hahahha so funny that you say that when most Americans DRIVE 10 feet in order to throw their garbage haha <3

So why would that make a difference?

 

Huh?

Because of the energy cost of refrigeration, packaging, storage, transporting, and so forth that is added to products which you could buy at your local farmer's market which were grown right outside your town with virtually none of that energy cost.



You know, considering you give me a lot of crap for being "arrogant" and "condescending" to your views, you certainly do a pretty good job of doing it in regards to my views.

 

What? :| I have not been condescending?
If you are talking about the comment I made about driving, then that wasnt meant as that at all. Just that on the subject of power, I was making a point that; what difference would it make to reduce the power when people are taking short stupid rides like that further poisoning the environment when they could simply walk 10 feet...

 

If you say so. It seemed just as arrogant and presumptuous as the "Blah, blah, blah, the grass is always greener..." comment you made in the British Socialism thread. However, that is just my perception.

Americans are lazy, but we could save a tremendous amount of energy by using our local resources.

 

Wow I had no idea you took that comment so hard Satya. Perhaps we need to resolve this, because I don't want you to hold grudges against me :/

And by the 'Blah blah blah the grass is always greener' I was simply thinking out loud of how TIRED I was of people insinuating that those words simply explain why I like America... Like it is nothing...

I think that alot of energy would be saved by shopping locally, however then we would have to stop importing in my opinion. Which in turn would not work because it has shown that importing increases the general welfare.

 

I didn't really take it hard. I'm simply expressing how I have perceived some of your words to be condescending.

Importing increases the general welfare? How did you come to that conclusion?

 

Yeah, I think a lot of people are in that boat, and I have been too. Sometimes I feel guilty for not shopping at Walmart because a lot of Americans can't afford not to.

Also, I always wonder, for those of us who have the choice to spend a few dollars extra, if it would be better to save a little by buying cheap Walmart stuff that's made with exploited labor so as to donate the money saved to some organization that fights the unfair World Trade Organization rules, or an organization that fights world poverty some other way? Which way has most impact? I respect people who try to do either (avoid buying stuff made with exploited labor or donate money to organizations that try to reduce world poverty), and we all have personal reasons that might make one or the other more practical. But I still wonder which has most impact.

I mean donating to organizations that try to get at the root of the problem...teaching a person to fish, not just giving food aid.

 

I've been walking to work for the past three years, or else I've been carpooling. 'Course, that's just kind of a hiccup because I don't want to pay for parking and my car doesn't work. But I say it's justified all the same.

I also went totally vegan, but that was more of a personal choice and a test for me. I might have to return to eating a higher grade of protein, though, if my health doesn't change.

When I remember, I use reusable cloth shopping bags (those things hold a *ton* and they're really sturdy!) and I reuse all my plastic bags as garbage bags. I waste too much electricity though. And I take ten minute showers. Tho', I do brush my teeth in the shower too.

Heh.

I'd love to have a house that supports sustainability and is built partially underground (like this hobbit house) and I'd love to grow my own veg and fruit and have a goat or two. Maybe a few chickens if I get back into eating eggs.

 

-use reusable bags most the time and use any grocery bags I get for garbage or recycling.

-recycle all my cardboard food boxes and whatever can be recycled. (I buy too much packaged stuff tho.)

-compost food waste

-use reusable waterbottles and reusable mugs most the time and try to go to restaurants that have real dishes instead of paper, tho I don't do the second one enuf.

-reusable containers to bring lunch, store leftovers, etc.

-I've tried to grow vegetables a few times. Now I know some ways not to grow vegetables.

-buy used clothes/furniture/equipment when I manage to find the extra time to shop for what I need at places that sell used things.

-procrastinate on shopping chores.

-mend clothing if I can. If someone compliments clothing, say thanks and tell them how old it is, or if it's meaningful if someone gave it to me, if it is old or handed down

 

Technically, it should be... so much of what is 'in-organic' these days (i.e., hyper-industrialized or genetically modified) as a LOT of hidden costs you pay for via taxes (subsidies), increased healthcare costs (decreased health), et cetera. The organic (i.e., 'the way it used to be' product) looks more expensive, but is actually not... not by a long shot. Same goes for gasoline. At the pump you appear to be paying 2.80$ (assuming you are american, of course) while in fact it's costing you more like $9-$10 a gallon when all is said and done.