Okay, it's soapbox time!A reminder perhaps of one of the main reasons I live on a sailboat...
Minimizing one's carbon footprint, although what I really mean is footprint in general.
Granted, it's rather difficult for me to fully judge my carbon footprint. I use community resources that are difficult for me to individually gauge, for example, community bath houses (no we haven't quite started showering together yet... but, I'm open to that suggestion if some cute young guys start moving into the neighborhood! tee hee hee), community water, and community lighting to the "front door."
We do individually have electric meters at each boat slip. The monthly readings on my meter difficult to even imagine for many... My electric bill for October 2007 was a little less than $10, and the months thereafter, November 2007 through March 2008, each were under $1 per month. Over the past year and a half, none of my monthly electric bills have ever been over $10. Still, one of my next big projects will hopefully be solar panels and conversion to LED lights.
Home sweet home electricity and/or oil/gas use and our vehicles are mainly targeted when thinking of going green. But, there are so many other choices we make daily that have an impact as well. Sometimes I wonder if the others aren't discussed more because of the potential to impact us more directly. That we might actually feel the change we make...
One of those daily, sometimes three or more times daily, choices that affect our carbon footprint, whether or not you live on a sailboat, is food.
How much energy (fuel), water, and land did it take to produce your food? lest we forget that eating meat is more energy intensive than a vegetarian diet...
You can do more for the environment by eating a vegetarian diet than you can by driving a hybrid car, never mind comparing to those silly hybrid SUVs (the notion of which is ludicrous, but I suppose if you must it's something).
Is your food organic? pesticides may contain petroleum distillates...
How processed is the food you eat? Is it even still food...? Was it ever food ;p
How far did your food travel to get to you?
How much energy did it take to keep your food fresh?
How much energy and other resources did it take to package your food?
Not only does it take resources to package, but the packaging is also a resource. Think of the amount of energy in each plastic bag, each box, each jar, each can.
How much packaging did you tear through to get to the food? and don't respond by thinking you recycle it, another energy consumption.
Better not to have to recycle than to recycle.
How much energy for you to prepare your food choices? muscle or machine energy?
I don't know about you, but I think that lower impact food choices could also help one look better in that global warming bathing suit ;)
1 comment:
Have been trying to go more to the vegetarian way of living but really would like to add more locally grown produce. Kind of difficult in New England. I am pretty sure that living in New England creates a bigger footprint than in most other parts of the country.
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