- changing the perspective on change
- to not look at it as a bad thing but as a possitive
- how can I be most effective in terms of audience, who do I need to communicate too to encurage a result (older generations, perhaps rich people)
- do research and design, keep coming up with different solutions
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Driving Over Short Distances
It's amazing how some people will still use a car to drive down a block or two. They're so used to driving that when ever they travel out side, they'll drive. But to waste so much of the worlds resources and produce extra green house gases for actions that would have taken just as long, seems shameful.
"Just Throw it in the Garbage"
People are so just to just throwing everything out in the garbage, to be taken away from their responsibility. You don't even have to thinking about it, when you don't have use for the thing any more you chuck it to the trash. But landfills are not the best place to take care of most of the things we throw away. I'm sure by now most people realize this fact, and are even informed of some of the places where they can take their unused left overs to be dealt with. They're just so used to throwing stuff out with all the rest no matter what that may mean.
Used to Temporary Packaging
People are just so used to having temporary packaging, it feels a lot more convenient then having to drag your own containers around. And we're so used to that availability that we gravitate to that particular action of purchasing products in temporary packs over bringing your own.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Buying Water
It's very strange to think some times how often bottled water is purchased for the price they're charged, but it's convenient and portable. But the problem now is that they're filling up our landfills and plastics are building up in our seas. So the next time you're anticipating looking for water on the go, think about taking a stainless steel bottle with you instead and just refilling. If you're worried about it being heavy, look for one that's thin bodied hence lighter. They're also more durable then plastic water bottles, they don't break, leak, crack, nor leach toxic chemicals.
Styrofoam Food
Everyone's experienced fastfood containers before, typically they're made out of styrofoam. It's a cheep and toxic way to transport food. Not only is the food you're getting not good for you but the container you're getting it in, leaches out toxins when heated (note food is hot). Hence the better choice may just be to develop a habit of bringing your own container from home. By reusing it, you can help lower the styrofoam build up in dumps and give your self some sort of piece of mind about eating fast food.
Leaving Computers on Over Night
This was one of the habits that I identified while shadowing a wasteful friend. He would leave his computer on for most of the day then over night to download anime or something. A lot of the time he would leave the light on too (which is an other habit, but this one happened because it was the computer room). He could go away for hours even out the door and just leave all the stuff on. Most people are probably not that bad, but still to some level this happens quite a bit. What people don't know is that when computers are running, they also off gas CO2. Every year millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases are released by them. This does not only sit badly with the environment but also the user as well, it creates a toxic space to be around. So remember to turn off your computers when you don't need it for you own good literally.
Dishwashers?
Personally I've never lived in a house with a dishwasher before, and I've only seen it used once at a friend's place. I have to say I don't really understand the use of it (this might be because I'm so used to just hand washing, it can be a nice time to just do something repetitive and think). Either way dishwashers are big resource hogs, they are major users of both electricity and water. But it seems that people tend to use them as frequently as they can. So the suggestion is to wait till they're full to use it, even try to cut down on the number of plates and utensils used at meals to reduce having to clean them, and to try to let things air dry over machine dry which takes extra electricity. Better then all of them would be to return to hand washing, and control the amount of soap and water you use and let run down the drain.
Leaving Lights On In Unused Rooms
This is probably one of the most commonly known habits that's discussed on sustainable living, to simply turn off lights in rooms that are not used. Yet it seems people still have problems tackling it. They often forget, or they'll think the usual "I'll be back there real soon." I even know some people who argue that they just don't like being in a house with so many dark rooms. It makes me think that perhaps just getting people to remember to turn of the lights isn't enough, maybe we should show them an alternative to lighting the room.
The sun has worked in the past, why not now? Plus according to studies on the eye, the spectrum of natural light creates less stress on our cones and rods, which is better for protecting our eye sight. So instead of turning on lights, why not just open the curtains and add a couple more reflective surfaces to extend the light usage.
The sun has worked in the past, why not now? Plus according to studies on the eye, the spectrum of natural light creates less stress on our cones and rods, which is better for protecting our eye sight. So instead of turning on lights, why not just open the curtains and add a couple more reflective surfaces to extend the light usage.
Washing/Drying Machines to Do Our Laundry
They are perhaps two of the worst, most environmentally unfriendly devices that we all seem to have a home. Yet we are so attached them, they spew out chemicals, and drains energy like mad but they also keep our hands wrinkle free, and accomplishes a job that would have other wise taken us hours to accomplish. And having this luxury, has also created couple other wasteful habits. We tend to wash our clothes more often since it's so easy, draining extra resources to clean things that aren't really dirty.
What I would propose to do would be firstly to try to wash our clothes less often; maybe that pair of jeans can be worn more then once or twice. And to also consider hand washing in cold water. But if you're that attached, there's always setting your washing machines to cold water even if it's for a couple loads, you might even be surprised at how much you end up saving. If you wash four out of every five loads of laundry in cold water each month, you’ll save about 35 kilograms of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere. If you wash 80 per cent of your laundry on the cold/cold cycle every year, you’ll save up to $100 or more on your energy bill.
The Drying Machine is also just as bad, it's one of the leading contributers to your monthly electric bill (especially at my house with three families living together). But if you give this action much thought, it seems strange to be paying so much just to do something a hanger can do for so much less. So it may take more time and it wont make your clothes smell better. But hey you already had a level of fragrance from detergent washing. So perhaps next time when you're not in too much of a rush to have things dried, you might want to just air dry them.
What I would propose to do would be firstly to try to wash our clothes less often; maybe that pair of jeans can be worn more then once or twice. And to also consider hand washing in cold water. But if you're that attached, there's always setting your washing machines to cold water even if it's for a couple loads, you might even be surprised at how much you end up saving. If you wash four out of every five loads of laundry in cold water each month, you’ll save about 35 kilograms of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere. If you wash 80 per cent of your laundry on the cold/cold cycle every year, you’ll save up to $100 or more on your energy bill.
The Drying Machine is also just as bad, it's one of the leading contributers to your monthly electric bill (especially at my house with three families living together). But if you give this action much thought, it seems strange to be paying so much just to do something a hanger can do for so much less. So it may take more time and it wont make your clothes smell better. But hey you already had a level of fragrance from detergent washing. So perhaps next time when you're not in too much of a rush to have things dried, you might want to just air dry them.
Wassup Short
Found a funny video on YouTube about how change is happening now. The video is called WASSUP, and is part of a series. It never cease to surprise me how a lot of the most clever and most inspiring things can come from humor.
Setting Your Heaters, and Air Conditioners Too High
Everyone doesn't like being cold in the winter, and hot in the summer and when you have gadgets like Heaters and AC you don't have to anymore. You can even make it so that you can wear that top that makes you look amazing anytime you want. But the thing is that people now a days are so used having that control that they begin to over use them. Everyone remembers the big black out that summer 5 years ago. If we learn to dress more warmly and trap heat in our rooms in the winter and dress more loosely and turn off all non essential devices, we could probably avoid such occurrences in the future. Plus it also saves money which working people always love. So instead of going to the thermostat or AC to solve your room temperature problems go to your closet.
Additional Facts:
- Lowering your thermostat by 10-15 per cent for 16 hours each day can save you up to 20 per cent on your bills.
- Open your windows at night to better circulate cooler air
- Take note of possible air pathways to create your own wind to cool down
Turning off Heaters and AC in Unused Rooms
This is probably a separate habit but it's still related so I'll group them together. When the room is not being used it's probably smarter to not pay to heat or cool it. I often hear that they were thinking that they'll be going back to the room at some point in the day but then just happen to not as a reason. If the person is doing that a lot then they're probably going to end up spending a lot of extra energy that's bad for the check book and the world.
Additional Facts:
- Lowering your thermostat by 10-15 per cent for 16 hours each day can save you up to 20 per cent on your bills.
- Open your windows at night to better circulate cooler air
- Take note of possible air pathways to create your own wind to cool down
Turning off Heaters and AC in Unused Rooms
This is probably a separate habit but it's still related so I'll group them together. When the room is not being used it's probably smarter to not pay to heat or cool it. I often hear that they were thinking that they'll be going back to the room at some point in the day but then just happen to not as a reason. If the person is doing that a lot then they're probably going to end up spending a lot of extra energy that's bad for the check book and the world.
Open Curtains During the Day and Close Them at Night in the Winter
Most people tend to forget that sun light can do more then just light a space, but it can also heat it. When light particles travels and converts kinetic energy, part of it gets transformed into waste heat energy, this is what we can use to heat our homes and spaces. So open your windows in during the day in the winter and help cut down your heating costs, and your electricity consumption.
But when the sun sets and night comes, it's important to close those blinds. This is because heat escapes at night. When there is a state with greater and less heat energy, a gradient is created because the side with more will always try to spread out to the lesser. It's like osmosis but with heat. Hence by closing the blinds you're creating an extra barrier for the heat to escape, as well as providing a surface for the light in your room to bounce off of to continue offering it's heat energy to your room.
Also note that when light passes through glass, it increases the amount of heat exhaust produced, thus more glass in the room, the more free heat you'll have.
But when the sun sets and night comes, it's important to close those blinds. This is because heat escapes at night. When there is a state with greater and less heat energy, a gradient is created because the side with more will always try to spread out to the lesser. It's like osmosis but with heat. Hence by closing the blinds you're creating an extra barrier for the heat to escape, as well as providing a surface for the light in your room to bounce off of to continue offering it's heat energy to your room.
Also note that when light passes through glass, it increases the amount of heat exhaust produced, thus more glass in the room, the more free heat you'll have.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Note to Self
- bikes open up local business over reducing casual business
- looking to the future, planing bike lanes as an alternate to oil motor vehicles
- looking to the future, planing bike lanes as an alternate to oil motor vehicles
The Green Agenda Question
Canada just had their Federal Election and one of the major issues discussed was Canada's green initiatives. (to be continued)
Smoke in Public Places
This is a poster from a campaign is about the effects of smoking in public places, and the fact that it effects more people then just the smokers. The balloons illustrates what you send up into the air for all the non smokers in the room.
Free Range vs Office Grown Human
A simple image can say a thousand words, a concept that this series certainly does by juxtaposing our concept of purchasing chicken meat and the human condition. It questions which do you think is the healthier choice, the free range or the confined version. Which path would you take?
Subway Temperature Awareness
Simple, clear, fast, and to the point was this campaign to raise awareness for the problem of heat exhaustion in the London Underground. The use of a gradient and the dynamic of stairs leading into a transition of cool to hot is a simple one but very elegantly done at the same time. The news paper cover as a fan was just genius. Again it altered perspective through education.
I-DO-NOT_EXIST
I came across I really interesting campaign about the importance of design in our world called The I-DO-NOT-EXIST Workshop. Though it is geared towards children to demonstrate how design can be just as fruitful a pursuit as medicine or engineering, I think it has a great potential to move the mind of an adult as well. I'm especially impressed by the simplicity of the campaign provoke a change in view point (zing, similar pursuit to mine). It didn't elicit a viewer's guilt over their previous notions, rather it opened the door to a new line of thought drenched in truth.
The Blame Game
During the initial trials with my proposed idea, a question arose about the popular usage of guilt to induce behavioral change. It was concluded that it was a failing method for it typically resulted in annoyance and adversity. I came across something that looked deeper into the psychology of that claim.
An online article by the name of Avoiding Responsibilities in Life by Robert Vibert discusses how the human mind cognates the sense of guilt in conjunction with the painful feeling of shame. The article argues that people today are avoiding responsibilities for their actions with denial, by blaming others for even their smallest mistakes. The reasoning for this, it explains, is that most modern day people are confusing the presence of guilt with the emotion of shame. Shame is an emotion that conjures pain, while guilt is one that provokes self analysis. Guilt can be alleviated when you correct your mistake, it teaches you not to do it again. Shame brings humiliation hence activating our pain avoidance tendencies. Thus when the two gets confused together, we blame others for our smallest mistakes to avoid pain.
An online article by the name of Avoiding Responsibilities in Life by Robert Vibert discusses how the human mind cognates the sense of guilt in conjunction with the painful feeling of shame. The article argues that people today are avoiding responsibilities for their actions with denial, by blaming others for even their smallest mistakes. The reasoning for this, it explains, is that most modern day people are confusing the presence of guilt with the emotion of shame. Shame is an emotion that conjures pain, while guilt is one that provokes self analysis. Guilt can be alleviated when you correct your mistake, it teaches you not to do it again. Shame brings humiliation hence activating our pain avoidance tendencies. Thus when the two gets confused together, we blame others for our smallest mistakes to avoid pain.
Change Happens
Recently I came across quite a difficult conundrum that has thrown a wrench into the purpose of my pursuit.
It was suggested that our planet changing is unavoidable. Ice ages come and go while wiping out entire species and most of the life on Earth. Large asteroids will fall and decimate a whole continent perhaps. Theses things have been happening to our planet for eons and it's most likely safe to say that we view this as a natural course of the planet existence, things will die out and new life will take it's place. Thus who is to say that what is currently happening to our planet (global warming, glacial melting, polluted air) is wrong and unnatural. Because we caused it? Well it would be retorted with who says we're not a natural course as well? Human beings are so used to thinking of them selves as out side of the natural sphere, but the truth is that we are not. Sure, our species seem to behave and operate quite differently then the other living things on our planet, but that doesn't mean we're not just an animal like the rest of them.
But we might say that we forced the change by choice, the other great natural disasters where made unconsciously. This still doesn't refute the fact that we are also part of the natural course of the planet. Thinking and choosing is part of our nature, thus that is the type of natural forces we exert. Plus who says that our effects will generate that much of a fire in the woods in the grand scheme of things. To the Earth our existence is but one key on the large piano of it's life, the Earth is highly adaptive. So our impact may take a couple eons to dissipate fully, either way it will happen. The only real threat here is to our selves and our species' survival. That is the concept that we really have to realize. The Earth will fix it self, but it probably wont be fast enough to save us. The only one's we're harming (other then the other life forms that currently inhabit the planet with us) is our selves. When the Earth can't sustain us, then what? Space, with it's lack of fertile land for food, and nomadic way of life?
It was suggested that our planet changing is unavoidable. Ice ages come and go while wiping out entire species and most of the life on Earth. Large asteroids will fall and decimate a whole continent perhaps. Theses things have been happening to our planet for eons and it's most likely safe to say that we view this as a natural course of the planet existence, things will die out and new life will take it's place. Thus who is to say that what is currently happening to our planet (global warming, glacial melting, polluted air) is wrong and unnatural. Because we caused it? Well it would be retorted with who says we're not a natural course as well? Human beings are so used to thinking of them selves as out side of the natural sphere, but the truth is that we are not. Sure, our species seem to behave and operate quite differently then the other living things on our planet, but that doesn't mean we're not just an animal like the rest of them.
But we might say that we forced the change by choice, the other great natural disasters where made unconsciously. This still doesn't refute the fact that we are also part of the natural course of the planet. Thinking and choosing is part of our nature, thus that is the type of natural forces we exert. Plus who says that our effects will generate that much of a fire in the woods in the grand scheme of things. To the Earth our existence is but one key on the large piano of it's life, the Earth is highly adaptive. So our impact may take a couple eons to dissipate fully, either way it will happen. The only real threat here is to our selves and our species' survival. That is the concept that we really have to realize. The Earth will fix it self, but it probably wont be fast enough to save us. The only one's we're harming (other then the other life forms that currently inhabit the planet with us) is our selves. When the Earth can't sustain us, then what? Space, with it's lack of fertile land for food, and nomadic way of life?
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