http://www.care2.com/greenliving/all-i-want-for-my-birthday-is.html
All I want for my birthday is…
I turned 40 last week. I’m not throwing that out there to gain sympathy or support (truthfully I could care less that my physical shell is forty), but to explain the list below. I decided to take today’s space and throw out into the E-ether, all the things I’d like for my birthday this year. I doubt many of them will actually happen, but you never know, sometimes you toss a pebble in the pond and good things come of it, so maybe one of them will happen. Here goes.
For my 40th Birthday I would like the following:
• Environmental education in all schools–public, private, and beyond. And I’m not just talking about a course, but a concerted effort to make the environment a part of the entire school experience so that upon graduation, an understanding of the fragile balance in which we need to exist is instilled in every student.
• A law mandating that all new homes be required to generate the power they use, on site, by means of renewable energy. This would not only decrease the stress on the grid, but help limit the McMansioning of America.
• Restaurants where you are charged an additional fee for not finishing the food you are served.
• Prime shelf space in grocery stores to be given to foods that are local first and then, according to packaging–bulk, biodegradable, recyclable, and way in the back, packaging that needs to be trashed. Let’s get the good stuff out front.
• Let Americans know that there are solar panels back up on The White House roof and then add some more, and a few mini windmills to boot? And while we’re at it, why not clean up Congress’ power too?
• The eradication of the word “them,” because without “them” we are all us, and it is hard to hate ourselves.
• Publicly funded Campaign Finance Reform so we can end our allegiance to dirty power and move forward towards a future that makes sense.
• A set of Uilleann Pipes and lessons so I can learn how to play The Pina Colada Song.
• Free “Ride The Bus” days once a month in every city in the U.S.
• Transparency.
• A sincere push here in the U.S. to allow photovoltaic owners to sell back the extra power that they generate and use the sun to line their pocketbooks.
• Worm composters outside of all new restaurants. The castings could be sold or donated to public gardens (or maybe even given out as doggie bags!).
• Food mileage printed on boxes alongside the nutritional information they list.
• Rooftop gardens, vermicomposters and gray water systems as standard features in new home plans.
• Acknowledgment that Johnny Quest was the greatest cartoon ever created and that Tintin and Asterix tie for greatest comic book series of all time.
• Energy companies that break up homes by square footage, classify them by number of occupants, and then reward the top ten homes that use the least amount of energy by paying for that month’s bill.
• Everyone who reads this to head over to Kiva and consider making a microloan to someone in another part of the world. Kiva loans are low on risk, light on your wallet, and high on karma.
• Home energy usage meters as standard equipment in new homes.
• A retrofit for gasoline-powered vehicles that shows, in real time, how much money you are spending driving your car. Drivers would input price per gallon and fuel efficiency and could watch the money drain away.
• An increase in common sense, a departure from entitlement, and a sincere move towards an economy, ecology and society where we think of our impact on others before we think of our needs for ourselves.
• And finally, a lightly used Steve Austin doll in the operating room that turned into a space capsule. Remember how cool those were? He had the bionic eye and the arm with the cover that came off so you could see the wires, and that cool button on the back that made his arm do the karate chop?
Ok, I know that last one may be a toughie. If you don’t come across one, I’ll take all the other stuff and we’ll call it a day.
Thanks,
Dave
Dave Chameides is an environmental educator, freelance filmmaker and regular contributor to Care2’s Healthy & Green Living. He also writes alternative fuel articles for Edmunds.com and maintains the blogs 365 Days of Trash and Achieving Sustainability. While he is presently saving all of his trash for a year to better understand his environmental impact, his main focus is sustainability through education and he believes that with knowledge all things are possible. “Give people the facts and they’ll do the right thing.”
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28 comments
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love you man
it was the most interesting article i hve read this week
and yes great n cool ideas
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I also think that instead of building more houses (which means clearing more land), we should try and restore/take care of and use what buildings we do have. We should make all the homes and buildings that already exist powered by renewable clean energies (i.e. wind, solar, geothermal, etc...). But I agree that, if we ever should need to construct a new building, it should supply it own renewable energy and be self-sufficient, etc...
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I LOVE your ideas. I'll just add a few: in addition to a fee for not finishing the food with no good reason, restaurants should serve smaller portions and not be wasteful in that respect...
They should also not give a person water unless they ask for it (this was someone else's idea on saving water, which I loved too).
They should also not serve GM food and ingredients; or they should have more 100% organic options (and vegetarian/vegan options so people can also cut back on meat in regards to global warming). For example, inside a Target store at their food place, there is actually an organic food option (it's a kids meal). They also have a two organic hard-boiled eggs with salt and pepper option.
There is SO much that could be done. :)
P.S. I love the idea about putting how much of an impact each food item has on the environment regarding climate change.
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happy b-day, DAve! Like your idea about the grocery store shelving. It's so tough to tell what if anything is locally grown when you go to the produce department, even at a place like Whole Foods.
I'd extend it to give prime space to stuff that's fair trade and, give prime display space to sweatshop free and ethically produced goods at department stores. Walmart, pay attention!
BTW, yes on Asterix being the greatest comic of all time. Anyone who disagrees can be thrown into the lake with weights tied to their feet...and no, you may NOT sing!
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Happy belated Birthday Dave! I definitely agree with your environmental education idea, but your restaurant idea is a little off track... imho. My idea for that would be for restaurants to serve smaller portions... and charge less for the smaller portions. Then, maybe, most people might be able to actually finish their meals. If anyone should be penalized, it should be the restaurants. But again this can be completely avoided by serving smaller portions. Oh... I don't want to forget your wish for more societal common sense and less entitlement... great wishes!
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Why aren't all new homes being built with a wind powered generator and solar panels? It would be much cheaper and simpler than overhauling our entire power grid. Also, our power supply (as a whole) would not be as susceptible to natural disasters and terrorist attacks. P.S. You can add the three car garage later with the money you save on electricity. Speaking of which; you can keep all your car batteries charged for free too!
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How about a cap on the amount of money that can be spent on a campain regardless of where the money comes from. There'd be a lot less mud slinging and much more positive information out there. And a lot less campain adds to boot.
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Why aren't all new homes being built with a wind powered generator and solar panels? It would be much cheaper and simpler than overhauling our entire power grid. Also, our power supply (as a whole) would not be as susceptible to natural disasters and terrorist attacks. P.S. You can add the three car garage later with the money you save on electricity. Speaking of which; you can keep all your car batteries charged for free too!
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Ha, I've been out of internet access for a few days and just saw off of the comments. Thanks for the good birthday wishes. Its funny that everyone reacted so negatively to the restaurant idea even though the problems you expressed were exactly why i have I mentioned it. Absurd? Of course, but it gets folks talking no?
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