Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:YES. A thousand times yes. But you can deny yourself most holiday plastic and still, by buying food for your own survival, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions (ex: beef is by far the most polluting food item to produce).
So it's too easy for me to fall into guilt and what ifs. That's what I'm mostly working on - how not to feel the burden of flying to Europe and Asia to visit my parents or my aunts. How to celebrate milestones and live my daily life with ease, but without polluting too much. What to buy to make the least impact on the planet.
Overall, it bears repeating that our greatest power lies in VOTING for politicians that will push through climate change and pollution mitigation. Each of our individual efforts doesn't even register compared to what governments can do, so it's useless to guilt-trip others into leading more responsible lives. What matters is convincing them that our species will not survive that easily if we don't act now on a global scale - and that means new legislation and enforcement.
I've become a single-issue voter - I will vote for the person who is most able to mitigate climate change.
Plastic has nothing to do with climate change.
Plastic is made from oil, which is almost completely responsible for climate change.
Anonymous wrote:I was thinking this was about controlling credit card spending
Anonymous wrote:Go into a dollar store. It’s an entire store of random plastic crud. And they are everywhere.
Anonymous wrote:I love Costco but they are the worst about unnecessary plastic. I buy a little tube of face cream and it comes in an enormous plastic flat pack. Is that to cut down on shoplifting? I’ve started paying more to buy that stuff elsewhere so I don’t get the huge plastic pack around it.
I don’t mind the plastic bags that come with clothes because they can be repurposed for other things, but maybe they could be made out of something more biodegradable
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:YES. A thousand times yes. But you can deny yourself most holiday plastic and still, by buying food for your own survival, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions (ex: beef is by far the most polluting food item to produce).
So it's too easy for me to fall into guilt and what ifs. That's what I'm mostly working on - how not to feel the burden of flying to Europe and Asia to visit my parents or my aunts. How to celebrate milestones and live my daily life with ease, but without polluting too much. What to buy to make the least impact on the planet.
Overall, it bears repeating that our greatest power lies in VOTING for politicians that will push through climate change and pollution mitigation. Each of our individual efforts doesn't even register compared to what governments can do, so it's useless to guilt-trip others into leading more responsible lives. What matters is convincing them that our species will not survive that easily if we don't act now on a global scale - and that means new legislation and enforcement.
I've become a single-issue voter - I will vote for the person who is most able to mitigate climate change.
Plastic has nothing to do with climate change.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:YES. A thousand times yes. But you can deny yourself most holiday plastic and still, by buying food for your own survival, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions (ex: beef is by far the most polluting food item to produce).
So it's too easy for me to fall into guilt and what ifs. That's what I'm mostly working on - how not to feel the burden of flying to Europe and Asia to visit my parents or my aunts. How to celebrate milestones and live my daily life with ease, but without polluting too much. What to buy to make the least impact on the planet.
Overall, it bears repeating that our greatest power lies in VOTING for politicians that will push through climate change and pollution mitigation. Each of our individual efforts doesn't even register compared to what governments can do, so it's useless to guilt-trip others into leading more responsible lives. What matters is convincing them that our species will not survive that easily if we don't act now on a global scale - and that means new legislation and enforcement.
I've become a single-issue voter - I will vote for the person who is most able to mitigate climate change.
Agree but individual effort does not hurt, it could even propagate a grassroots effort.
Anonymous wrote:YES. A thousand times yes. But you can deny yourself most holiday plastic and still, by buying food for your own survival, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions (ex: beef is by far the most polluting food item to produce).
So it's too easy for me to fall into guilt and what ifs. That's what I'm mostly working on - how not to feel the burden of flying to Europe and Asia to visit my parents or my aunts. How to celebrate milestones and live my daily life with ease, but without polluting too much. What to buy to make the least impact on the planet.
Overall, it bears repeating that our greatest power lies in VOTING for politicians that will push through climate change and pollution mitigation. Each of our individual efforts doesn't even register compared to what governments can do, so it's useless to guilt-trip others into leading more responsible lives. What matters is convincing them that our species will not survive that easily if we don't act now on a global scale - and that means new legislation and enforcement.
I've become a single-issue voter - I will vote for the person who is most able to mitigate climate change.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I just finished decorating my porch for Christmas and very purposefully, have used old canisters, my mom’s old ice skates
and my grandfather’s wooden skis. Tossed old glass ornaments in a old metal locker basket. Love it all and there’s nothing out there that was made or manufactured prior to 1960.
I no longer buy any new holiday knickknacks; it’s all plastic junk. I buy all of my Christmas ribbon and boxes new, unopened from thrift stores.
I guarantee my future grandchildren won’t be decorating or upcycling with everyday items from 1980-present.
I get your point but your timeframe is off. Stuff made in the 1980s was still really good -- American steel (heavier than the stuff we are now importing) and American hardwood were still common. Many, many things were still made in the USA in the 1980s, with the higher production standards. It really wasn't until the 1990s that stuff started being made all abroad (which doesn't always mean cheap crap, but often does). NAFTA was 1993, and China didn't overtake the US as a production site until 2010. Sometimes we forget how recent our reliance on cheap foreign manufacturing is.
There's a reason that they now tell you to throw a crib out after 10 years -- cheap plastic parts or the cheap metals instead of heavy steel; fast growth wood that splinters with use instead of hardwoods, etc. The old cribs could be handed down for decades and be sturdy as ever (assuming the slats weren't too far apart -- which is a different safety issue).
Anonymous wrote:I just finished decorating my porch for Christmas and very purposefully, have used old canisters, my mom’s old ice skates
and my grandfather’s wooden skis. Tossed old glass ornaments in a old metal locker basket. Love it all and there’s nothing out there that was made or manufactured prior to 1960.
I no longer buy any new holiday knickknacks; it’s all plastic junk. I buy all of my Christmas ribbon and boxes new, unopened from thrift stores.
I guarantee my future grandchildren won’t be decorating or upcycling with everyday items from 1980-present.
Anonymous wrote:I hate it when painters use massive yards of sheet plastic for drop cloths. They used to use canvass cloth and reuse it. Incredibly wasteful.
Anonymous wrote:I don't like it but I find people are very selective about what environmental waste they don't like. I'm extremely skeptical of people who dislike (for instance) Christmas decorations but who want to travel internationally.