Well, the AW blog chain is rolling along. I am picking up where Fokker Aeroplanbau left off
at http://rightfarright.blogspot.com/ . This blog chain has no set topic, we are just supposed to roll off each other as we go along. So far, the topic has been climate change, and our impact (or lack of impact) on it.
My topic will be individual responsibility about resources, and the scientists can fight and argue over whether or not it affects our climate. Rain forests are disappearing, logging is clearing huge chunks of the United States, and whether or not it affects the weather, I am not well educated enough to tell you. I don't think it's a good thing for trees to be sacrificed to fuel the wasteful practices of some people. I was raised with "waste not, want not" ringing through the air, from my grandmother and a plethora of aunts and cousins. I still use my teabags at least twice. It kills me to see someone write one line on a piece of paper and then throw it out. It's one of my pet peeves!
We live in a world glutted with paper. Paper cups, paper napkins, paper liner on the try at the deli, paper instructions, paper wrapper around the paper cup, paper receipt for buying the newspaper. I remember the joy of buying clean white paper to print out my stories. Now I am older and A) Poor and B) More aware. I would love to print out my stuff on new paper, but now I use recycled paper from an excellent source: my work! You would not believe the amount of paper we throw out in the specialty plumbing business. I am not such a snob as to overlook free paper, I don't care if it's got orders or breakdowns of faucets and toilets on the other side! This way it is: A) FREE! and B)Would just be going into a landfill if I didn't use it. When I'm done marking up my manuscript and done retyping it, I'll carry that to the recycle bin at my apartment complex. That is at least 500 pages of paper I know aren't going to be disintegrating among the plastic bottles and broken dollies in a landfill. When it's time to start querying, I'm going to make my first attempts online. If I should find an awesome agent I just HAVE to query that doesn't accept email queries, I will use recycled paper, recycled packaging material (and probably recycled money to mail it with. Who needs cable tv, right?!)
Do I think this is going to change the world? Is the Antarctic going to stop melting? Are the polar bears going to have more seals to eat? Probably not. But there is no reason to buy a new ream of paper (even though... oh doesn't it smell good?) wrapped in a paper wrapper, for which I will get a paper receipt, and a plastic bag to carry it home in. I do this because it seems like the right thing to do, and it might make things a little easier on our friends, the trees.
If you are interested, here is the rest of the blog chainers:
Razib Ahmed: http://hobbyeconomist.blogspot.com/ --- Hobby EconomistFokker Aeroplanbau: http://rightfarright.blogspot.com/ -- I'm Always Right, Far RightBettielee: http://farseeingfairytales.blogspot.com/ ---- Far Seeing Fairy Tales Bsolah: http://www.benjaminsolah.com/blog ---- Benjamin Solah, Marxist TalksForbidden Snowflake: http://www.alleslinks.com/ ------ DeliriousRosemerry: http://beyondtourism.wordpress.com/ --- Beyond Tourism: Florida's YesteryearDnic: http://four-lettered-words.blogspot.com/ ---------- Four-Lettered WordsLady Cat: http://www.randomwriterlythoughts.blogspot.com/ --- Random Writerly ThoughtsTruelyana: http://expressiveworld.com/ -- Expressive World Tika: http://tikanewman.blogspot.com/ ---------- Tika Newman Bill Ward: http://www.billwardwriter.com/ --- BillWardWriter.comdancingandflying: http://madeofcarbon.blogspot.com/ ---- Made of Carbon
Spoken like a true fairy, and I mean that in a good sense! Maybe one person can't make a big change, but a lot of people doing little things can.
ReplyDeleteWell spoken. Problem is and I tend to think the same, one person doesn't make change so why should I give up certain things or restrict myself if it won't matter what I do. Stupid thing is the more people think like this the less will get changed because the lot of people never does anything, it'll always stay a small number. Hope that changes.
ReplyDeleteLittle steps! And one person at a time. =] I think every little bit helps.
ReplyDeleteIt was an excellent piece of entry in this blog chain. I wish that more of us could have the same kind of commitment and dedication towards environment. You are right in the sense that one person can not make any significant difference. However, the effort of one person can encourage many people. In fact, I have noticed that many people are eager to do something for the environment but they feel that they are alone and they don’t stand out in the crowd. However, if there are more people like you in every society then many other people will get a lot of encouragement from this matter.
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone for commenting! I thank you for your kind words, and what you've said, admission or agreement. Baby steps, indeed. I love my country, I love our freedom, but I wish there were a requirement to be more earth friendly... oh well
ReplyDeleteGood post!
ReplyDeleteAnother baby step you can do is join the Freecycle group in your area. So if you have something you don't anymore like old books, your couch, a blender whatever you post it on freecycle and if someone wants it they just say so and you can have them come pick it up. Either have them meet you someplace and give it to them or whatever. It keeps things that are reusable and would end up in the landfill out of it. One man's trash is another man's treasure.
ReplyDeleteThis is rosemerry from AW.
Very inspiring post! Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteFound your blog from the AW blogroll.