If you want to do something about the environment, don't jerk your knee like so many other people, politicians, hollywood actors etc are doing.  If your immediate reaction is to blame the oil companies, the power companies, the car companies, the garbage companies then you really need to stop.  The other thing I keep hearing is that the oil companies are making all these huge profits and they should spend that money on alternative energy.

When the uneducated public says this I just get annoyed, but when are so called leaders say stuff like this I get worried.  They are not helping true stewards of the earth.  They actually may do things that will lead to unintended consequences which will do more damage than anything else...but it just may get them elected.

Who do you think is demanding all this energy?
What do you think these companies do with all their profits?  If you know anything about publicly traded companies you know they are not hoarding the money.
Do you think public companies can invest money into products like alternative energy that are guaranteed losses?  Who do you think companies are accountable to?  The shareholders.  As a shareholder through mutual funds I expect companies to run their businesses to give me a decent return on my investment.

Have you seen DOE stats on the growth of alternative energy?   It is not that exciting.

So before we keep pointing the finger at the companies that are providing us the energy that allows us to drive to work, that runs our computers, that keeps us warm, that basically has provided the infrastructure for us to live free, maybe we should think about the real problem.

I am sick of the politicians who try to appear like they care.  What do they really care about?  Getting elected...let's see how visionary is that...4 years....8 years...

I am not going to slam the companies that operate under the principles of the free market and SEC.  I am not going to ask them to act in an irresponsible manner.  I am going to ask them to change their business models by changing what I ask for.

The environment and energy are not simple issues.  Energy has made this country great.  How soon we forget. These companies some of us are slamming will meet our demand...that is what they are supposed to do.  If they operated in any other manner, it would not make sense.  Hmmm, now what have I heard lately that does not make sense.

Stay mindful of all you are hearing.  The solutions are systemic.

Why don't you start by buying a reel mower.  We could use the exercise.

Is 100 mpg really the right way to go? Or is 1 mpg the way to go?

Slowing down to speed up.

We thought that computers and email would free us up.  We could do things more efficiently so we can get things done faster.  What happened…we are plugged in all the time.  We work more.  We can’t get away.

Now imagine what 100 mpg could do?  We will drive more.  We will demand more.  We can ship things farther.

Yes we will use less gasoline and we may think we will save money, but as with any change to a structure, someone will change the rules and how we respond to this change is not as simple as looking at it the same way we look at things now.

If only we had email….then we could get our work done in half the time….or maybe we will just redefine how much we can get done or how far we can drive or or or.

What if we had cars that only got 1 mpg?  What would that do?  Maybe by slowing down we would focus that energy on something else?

100 mpg…is that similar to masking the pain…minimizing the pain so we our wants can continue to grow.  So that we can create even more wants based on this new capability?  So we can become dependent on the new “It’s my right”?

Psychologists say the pain of losing something is greater in absolute terms than the positive feelings of getting something.  Increase gas mileage will give us something and then when we say we need to change it will only be harder.

If we want to move towards a new energy source, what does this do?  If does reduce the short term effects of our main source of energy which we cannot turn off tomorrow, but we need to be aware of unintended consequences.

Shifting the burden to short term solutions will impair the longer term systemic solutions.  More dependence, more needs or want fulfilled, more infrastructure, more global demand not just US will make shifting to that new energy source even harder.

I am all for better MPG…but be careful that MPG doesn’t stand for More Pollution Guaranteed or Mere Politics Guys or My Problem is Gone or 100 Million People Gained.

The problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. – Albert Einstein

Reduce, reuse, recylce.  The 3Rs of reducing waste.  I think the one we need to pay the most attention to is Reducing.  The other two reuse and recycle are more reactionary or after the fact.  By reducing, we do not produce the items in the first place.

It is great to recycle because this helps reduce our use of natural resources and prevents additional waste from being produced.  However, recycling requires a lot of resources all on its own.  Here are some examples

collection and transport of recycling
energy required to breakdown the recycled material
emissions from recycling
facilities required to recycle products

These are not minor costs.  Recycling does reduce the use of pure raw materials and also the disposal of waste.

Reusing is also a good way to reduce use of natural resources.  I reuse jars, growing up we used to reuse ice cream containers, I sometimes reuse scrap paper, I reuse old clothes as rags.  But there are only so many jars of nails I need, so many rags I need and so many coffee tables made of old computer cases.

This brings me back to reducing.  Yesterday I was watching a commercial about a toy doll that had the much needed feature of getting food stains on its mouth that the child could wipe off.  Someone created a doll out plastic that was different just becuase you could wipe its mouth.  All that plastic which a child will get bored of after a few days or months.  Then into a box and eventually into the trash.  This does not include the transportation costs to get it to the store, the packaging which is required to actually get you to buy the doll, the space needed to sell the doll, the plastic needed to securely fasten the doll to the packaging so that we parents have to perform surgery to release it for our kids to play...and if it requires batteries. 

This is just an example which plays out with so many things we think we need.  MP3 players, bigger homes that we have to heat and cool, bigger cars, advertising papers we receive in the mail but immediately toss and on and on and on.

We need to reduce our consumption and creation of more.  Demand for fuel and oil is growing more and more.  Why?  It is because of how much we demand.  We demand volume, variety and I want it now.

Who is paying for the cost or the diseconomy of producing all the services and materials, distributing these items and then ultimately disposing of them.  What do we think is going to happen to all this stuff we are making and selling.

As you walk through a department store next time, look at all the stuff.  Soon the next season’s stuff will be out on the shelves.  What happens to all the stuff that is sold or not sold?  Does it just vaporize back into the raw materials it was made from?

As individuals and as a society, we need to reduce our consumption.  We cannot keep up with this rate of producing things, of transporting things, of storing things and then of ultimately disposing of things.

As individuals we have to look beyond the immediate and look at the system we have created and not deny that we have created the problems.  We think we deserve to live in massive houses.  But we do not think about all the energy we need to keep our home warm or cool, that the cost is not just the dollars we have to spend.

This is not where it ends.  We demand more, but are not willing to pay more of the costs.  We talk about how energy companies should invest more in alternative energy.  How they should stop polluting the world.  Who do we think is demanding all this energy?

Who do we think is not buying solar panels?  Who do we think is buying bigger homes, SUVs, demanding more stuff like MP3 players, dolls that look like me, tomatoes in December?

We need to Reduce at the source.  We need to look in the mirror.  We need to focus on the Big R and less on the recycle and reuse. We need to appreciate what is driving all this demand for stuff and the consequences of this demand in the entire product life cycle.

This won’t be easy to change our behaviors when we are so used to having it all.  So next time you buy that gallon of milk and the cashier starts to put it in a bag, say “I don’t need a bag, thanks.  It will just go in the trash when I get home.”  Reduce - it starts with a U (you).