How do you live at home and commute to work are the most important factors in the way you impact the environment.
We came across one of those quizzes, that helps you figure out whether or not you are living “green”. You know, Do You Recycle, and such. The shallowness of this type of questions really demonstrates the lack of understanding by the “green” community, what the real ecological problems are all about.
The Existing Alternatives type of quiz would have focused on the two major areas where an average person impacts the Earth: Commute and Dwelling.
How and how far do you commute?
If you ride alone in a car for more than 15 minutes each way – congratulations, you have contributed your fair share to destroying the Earth. And yes, at that point, it really does not matter whether or not you recycle you empties. Luckily, there are plenty of Existing Alternatives to that:
- The easiest and the most widely accepted is carpooling – burning half as much fossil fuel is a huge improvement for both your consciousness and the air.
- Another popular Alternative that is often overlooked is telecommuting – stay at home!
- One of the least considered – public transit. Guess why it is there? For you to get to work!
If you don’t leave close to transit – move closer, or better yet… - …move close enough to work, so you can … walk there. Yes, the easiest Existing Alternative that does not only keep the roads empty, and environment clean, but also you healthy and stress-free.
Your home.
- Footprint. First, calculate your personal footprint – the actual one, not that “carbon” variety. All you need to do is to take the surface that your dwelling claimed from nature, and yes, count both back and front yard - that Wal-Mart grass does not pass for nature. Now divide that by the number of inhabitants. Easy, right? Congratulations to all the high-rise dwellers, and shame on all those suburbanites – you better start recycle double speed, you are destroying our Mother Nature!
- Heating and Cooling the Space. Next thing you should do is to calculate how much space do you heat / cool on a regular basis. We hope, by now everyone is educated enough not to let the heat or cold escape through doors and windows. So, we are talking only about internal space. At the same time, your basement still gets a share of heat. So take the total square footage of your house and multiply by the ceiling height. You are not heating just the surface! And now divide it by the number of dwellers.
Of course, on their own these numbers do not mean anything. We are yet to come up with some kind of useful guidelines. But try comparing yourself with a family of three leaving in one-bedroom apartment of a high-rise within a 10 minute walk from their work and school. How much can you improve?
You have probably noticed the absence of questions about recycling and hybrid-driving from this “green living” article – it is for a reason. Recycling actually takes up a lot more energy and resources than producing brand new materials. Same goes for hybrids. And what good hybrids are, if they are causing just as much gridlock for all the semis on the highways?
The only way that we can move the needle on the environment, is by applying common sense not by hiding behind all kind of promotional posters.
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