Re-thinking what you consider to be junk: re-use and re-purpose
2 Comments Published by Seamus Ford June 20th, 2008 in Commentary, Family/Children, Recycling, Social Responsibility.The world is filling up with stuff.
Modern industrial society has lost touch with the real value of what it produces. Our wasteful consumption and our disposable attitude toward so much of what we produce and use is going to hurt our children. In spite of the fact that most parents would never eat first and feed their kids what is left over, when it comes to our use of natural resources we are doing just that. As the planet’s population grows and we reach the peak of our oil production capacity along with many other minerals and materials we are robbing our children. We have eaten the best parts of the chicken and we are leaving them with the bone.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=804489402901316216When you stop and really think about it, it is unsettling. This video invites you to re-think what you consider to be junk. It invites you to let go of the “What will the neighbors think” mindset and re-look at what you use and see if you can give it a second life.
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Great site!
Not sure how topical this comment is to your re-purposing article, but I’ll leave it anyway:
I switched our entire home over to CFLs 5-6 years ago, mostly to qualify for a 20% rebate from PG&E (the local utility in San Francisco) for lowering my electric consumption 20% below the previous year’s use. Not only did I qualify for the rebate, but I have continued to do so every year since then, and have saved (conservatively) over 12 kw in electricity.
This rebate was a great incentive – at the time CFLs were considerably more expensive than incandescent bulbs, and I would not have made the switch as early as I did without the rebate offer (which really only amounted to a $15 reduction in my electric bill, however the challenge was sufficient to get me into action. I would support similar programs throughout the country; I was surprised how quickly a little game got me moving where endless reams of environmental education did nothing.
I believe that the biggest place we can make a difference is in individual action – if every citizen just changed 1 incandescent bulb to a CFL, that action alone would make a noticeable difference not only in the amount carbon emitted by the nation as a whole, but also in the amount of fossil fuels burned. This is true across the board, f’rinstance, if every citizen simply did not drive their car one day a week, the difference in air quality, carbon emissions and fossil fuel use would be impressive.
My point is, it is not necessary to completely rearrange your lifestyle to be more environmentally friendly – it is only necessary to (a) make a single change in your own lifestyle, and (b) convince a WHOLE BUNCH of other people to do likewise (which is of course what the Internet is for!)
Thanks for the good work, Seamus.
Grant
“I have a wide stance”
Absolutely brilliant video – thank you so much for sharing it here. This ties in with our own values in life and is exactly the kind of thing my husband does all the time. He made our daughter a fabulous tree house from gash wood, old wire netting etc and a neighbour saw it going up and donated an old corrugated steel roofing panel that had been sitting at the bottom of his garden for years. She’s had years of pleasure from a ‘pile of junk’
Keep up the great work; your blog is an inspiration……….