The Environment - do you care?

The environment and related issues are gaining traction, initially after Al Gore's film:An Inconvenient Truth (http://www.climatecrisis.net)... and with the 07.07.07 Live Earth (http://www.liveearth.org) concerts / campaign.

I know politicians only care about what we tell them we care about as voters and how they can spin their position in the media to gain favour with voters. For example, if 100% of right handers in Australia wanted all left handed people to be executed... I'd be amongst the first shot.

Same with the environment, if the vast majority of voters wanted a more aggressive response from government on environmental issues... it would be done.

Some related websites if you want to read up about environmental issues are: Greenpeace (http://www.greenpeace.org) and in Australia you can check out: The Greens Political Party (http://www.greens.org.au/). Also wiki has an article on Climate Change (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change).

If you do care about the environment - what can we do as individuals?

My parent's drummed into me about turning lights out if you aren't using them...

Beyond that though, I've been gradually buying those new curly light bulbs that save electricity.

I can't elect to use green power on our power bill as we rent and the landlord controls that.

I still go for plastic bags at the checkout, that's something I could change.

Food scraps only get thrown out if the dog can't eat them.

The seals on our fridges are in top nick.

... what else should I be doing or looking out for?:whip:

I guess we all care about the environment and of course our own self preservation... but how important is a political party's environmental policy when it comes to your vote?

environmental policies are important to me... in that i think its important not to waste too much government expenditure on certain avenues of environmental issues.

i guess i dislike the way ppl think you are either for the environment or not. i dont think its black and white like that. the thing is.. some things are important, others are not.

Most of my relatives are pretty much middle class or wealthy... something I've noticed with a lot of them in the recent year is water tanks and solar heating hot water is all the rage.

None of them are big environmentalists or anything, but seem to be getting into the spirit of what could we do.

The 'carbon footprint' notion is brilliant marketing. The idea of lessening your carbon footprint really brings it down to what could I do to lessen my own impact on the environment without going hippie about the whole thing.

well yeah thats exactly it. I'm the same. i got my water tanks and solar panel installed and everything and my partner and i just bought a smartcar.

but i think this whole thing is primarily up to the individual, not government. it should be a choice more than a forced policy. education is where it should start at, but people need to be given the opportunity to take responsibility for themselves.

But aren't we in the environmental crapper because letting be and letting chose hasn't worked, but actually got us in the crapper?

i worked for Greening Australia for about 6 months doing some land conservation stuff..

awesome experience! slightly different from reducing your carbon emissions but still on the same level by keeping what we have now intact for many more years to come.

what i done was restore historical site, seed collection, small mammal trapping for research, tree planting, weeding... alot of stuff

i always try and do stuff around my home like the light bulbs, dont use the air conditioner much, lights off, cold? wear a jumper, small things but yeah it all makes a small difference.

i dont think that we should just sit back and expect the government to fix the environmental problems...sure they should take certain measures to control greenhouse emissions....and reckless toxic waste disposal...but it is up to the individual to do their part as well.....
we still must consume but if we are conservative with our resources and try not to waste
we are doing ok
i'm a water nazi...i cant stand people who waste water..every drop is precious...i don't water anything i cant eat....some vegies are so easy to grow and so are native fruits and berries...i cant figure watering pretty flowers that are of no use... when it is just as easy and pretty to grow vegies-fruits and berries
cheers

But aren't we in the environmental crapper because letting be and letting chose hasn't worked, but actually got us in the crapper?

I would say no. I think a big problem people have when thinking critically is that almost no one can discern correlation from causation.

And i wouldnt say we're in the crapper. people are learning. its generally accepted that rewards are more effective than punishment is, in enforcing positive behavior.

the world economy is stuffed so i dont think they will do the green stuff they promised