- John Locke
- New York, NY
- United States
This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »
What have you done to help the Earth?
In honor of Earth Day, I have a question for everyone on TED.com. What have you done to benefit the Earth? Have you recycled, started a club, raised awarness about the Earth's condition, turned down your heating and cooling ststem? Whatever you have done to help the Earth, I want to you post it right here. And, if you haven't done anything to help the Earth than write about something that you plan on/want to do in the near future.
Who knows, maybe it will inspire more people to contribute to saving our planet!
Topics:
Earth environment
Mark Hurych
We need an Ushahidi of global challenge accomplishments. We need to celebrate the breakthroughs and great successes: ping, a sustainable fish farm in Spain; ping, Urban Farm Guys in Missouri start a community garden/school; ping, Barefoot College brings solar energy technology to remote India; ping, ...
Sokratis Kappis`
Now take a look at religion... There is typically at least one day per week that people are asked to maintain their awareness to their particular religious beliefs- I believe the main reason for this is to maintain the responsibility of faith in people's minds. Imagine if people were told to help their faith once a year....
And that is faith.
The Earth is real. And our reality demands that we perpetually maintain the thought of helping Earth-currently our only home... So, to answer your question- I believe that the absolute best thing that I can do as an individual is to responsibly maintain the thought of helping Earth in my mind every day, so that the thought of helping Earth permeates through my every action.
Kent Spencer 10+
Mwenjew Wewngwa
I plan on putting wider smiles on more faces.
Mary M. 50+
Don Ruch
Veronica Delarosa-Clark
Orlando Hawkins 20+
Letitia Falk 10+
Chittaranjan Ghoshal
There are a lot of poverty stricken people here who would eventually get vegetables for free atleast for a couple of months because the plants would grow in no man's land with no one to claim it. The reason to sow seeds(grow the plant) near a pond/lake is because the ground water level in such areas are good which support the plant to evolve easily. An act of 5 days should go a long way and manify itself multiple times towards betterment of all. Its only developing and not destroying. Only helping, not hurting.
After a lot of thinking Nature proves but one thing. Not having trees is really not a problem. Growing trees is easy. Living in peace and developing a good atmosphere is not tough.
Chittaranjan Ghoshal
Last year as I was cutting vegetables(usually grown with pesticides & harmful chemical fertilizers) there I found a lot of seeds coming out of vegetables. Let's sow them(I thought)!!! And after watering it for about a month it started giving me vegetables which were organic. It tasted so good and it was for free as well(inflation is on a rise).
Another day I was going on my bike towards city during rainy season. It was all green every where as I witnessed nothing but lush greenery all around me. As if mother earth wrapped in a green dress. During this season I didnt even have to water the plants and I got mango trees coming out of the seeds apart from other plants and trees. It was all effortless.
I wondered it was so easy to take care of nature which only gives and never asks for anything. Such is the power of nature that when a seed is sown in soil combined with water, it as if miraculously gives out a creation in the form of a tree. All this is so easy. Such is the power potent in the seed, in the soil. Nature's miracle. Evolution!!! So what do I plan!!!
Whenever I cut vegetables I will keep the seed aside(which doesnt spoil once dried). In India just before the rainy season I will go near a river/lake/pond or any other place with the seeds and something to dig a soil. Lots of varieties of seeds/flowers etc. are available. The place should also be bit isolated so that the plants when come out are safe. Then rain takes care of everything from there. If 1 day I could devote to this task this season then I shall have innumerable trees.
Hubert de Bourgogne
2. I went to my work on bicycle (20km/1 hr) most of my life.
3. When I use a car I drive fuel efficient, 16 - 20 km/liter
4. Similar behavior with other energy consumptions
5. I found a way for North America to switch completely to fuel-free power. Look for it elsewhere in these conversations.
Related subjects:
1. The CO2-hype. My opinion: the whole CO2-hype is based on lies. Motivation: Compare Earth withe Venus, nearer to the Sun and 250,000 times more kg CO2 on each m2 planet surface.If CO2 really had the greenhouse effect it is blamed for, then the temperature on Venus should be well above ten times its present value.
2. Incandescence bulbs are cheap, lifetime 1000 hrs, inefficient. CFL lamps are 5 - 8 times more expensive, lifetime 8,000 hrs if burning continuously but only 1,000 hrs if turned on/off depending on need, LED's are more expensive, more efficient and have long lifetime independent from switching on/off, but unpleasant color.
Harvey Von Gunderman III
Hubert de Bourgogne
What comes in has to go out, or else the temperature will increase.
Twice the energy inflow from the Sun and 250,000 times the quantity of CO2 means that the greenhouse effect on Venus is 500,000 times larger than on Earth.
The radiation of heat is proportional to the fourth power of the absolute temperature. The fourth root of 500,000 is about 26. So the absolute temperature on Venus should be 26 times the absolute temperature on Earth. The average absolute temperature on Earth is about 280°K. The absolute temperature on Venus is actually less than three times the absolute temperature on Earth.
Therefor CO2 cannot have the greenhouse effect it is accused to have.
Everybody should have known that already because there is no proper correlation between the increase of temperature and the increase of CO2 during the last century.
Presume that the heat from the Sun would be completely absorbed in the top layer of the atmosphere on Venus. Then that layer would radiate the same quantity of heat down as it radiates up. Meaning that the surface would become as hot as the atmosphere.
But we still have to stop using fossil and nuclear fuel. President Obama would say "Yes we can".
It can be done within ten to twenty years and pay it with the money we are saving on fuel.
Shallow Water Walker
Melissa Gillum
Jose V Balaguer
Oh, and recycling.
Paul Palmer 10+
John Locke
Terry Harman
Guess I came to this conversation thread a bit too late as it's about to close. Have been totaly inspired by your website especially as my current job is working as a refuse/recycling collector (dustman in UK parlance) helping a multinational greenwash it's activities. Damn they even got an old animal rights, ex-tree protester like me... Thanks for the heads up, it's helped me realise that it's reduce first, reuse second and if there's no other alternative THEN recycle it. Thank you so much for reminding me of this valuable fact.
Well at least I'm collecting garden 'waste' from people taking it to a local farm which composts and uses it for fertilizer. Though of course the irony of doing this in a huge vehicle which will eventually break down be shipped to the 'third world' for refurbishment and helping burning tons and tons of diesel to collect stuff from people who would be better off composting it themselves and growing vegetables rather than having a water intensive lawn fed by tap water was never lost on me.
Anyhow...
On a personal level, don't drive and never have. Been vegetarian for over 20 years thus minimizing my land use, been an environmental and social justice activist for just as long. Never been in to the latest gadgets and toys, my favourite piece of technology is a wind up torch which turns a trickle of electricity into a powerful light by a cunning use of LED's and magnifying lenses, is completely water proof and will probably last longer being useful on the planet than my own lifetime. Forage sustainably and grow some of my own food. Always recycled long before it was popular (for whatever it's worth)
Sir I admire your stance, may you soon put me out of a job ;)
Paul Palmer 10+
On my home page, if you recall, I quote Sinclair Lewis pointing out how difficult it is to convince a man of something that this salary requires he not believe. I hope you are a man of the new consciousness. Sinclair Lewis would admire your stand.
Only one caution: don't forget about redesign. It is more important than all the reduce and reuse and recycle words put together. When goods are designed for excess and one-time use you are caught in the jaws of the design vise and no matter how you twist and turn to escape, the design ultimately controls most of your options.
Paul
Terry Harman
In the abscence of widespread redesign though, reduce can go a long way. Don't buy a fuel efficient car or a hybrid car or an electric car. Just dont buy a car.
Regards Terry
Paul Palmer 10+
I suppose certain people thought that if they challenged me - "but what have you done" - I would have no comeback and they could pat themselves on the back.
I am a scientist (PhD, Chemistry, Yale) and one of the wonderful things about scientists is that they love being wrong. Sure, they are only human, and feel a twinge, but professionally speaking, being shown to be wrong is the way we make progress.
What I have been doing here is showing people who are NOT scientists that what they have believed up to now is wrong. And how do they respond? By personal vituperation. Shoot the messenger. How dare you tell us authoritatively that our superficial ideas that we got out of thin air are not the essence of environmentalism? How dare you do actual published work and actual study that does not conform to the current propaganda? How dare you think critically about something we thought we understood?
On my website I have a Bizarro cartoon that shows a church pulpit with a recycling symbol and carries the message that recycling has become a religion. Watch the movie Serial Mom for the same message. Is this because it promises salvation? Well, sort of. But the real reason is that it is pumped up and blown out by a powerful, rich industry that is making money hand over fist by first, doing the bits of recycling that go on and second, using recycling to pump up the torrents of garbage that are being generated. Yes my friends, you are being conned by a corporate campaign to deceive you and you have succumbed to it. What you need to do is to stop pretending to be so exquisitely sensitive and investigate the sources of your recycling worship.
The only thing you don't like about my diatribe is that I show you are wrong. All of that "personal style" bs is just crap. Grow up!
John Locke
I am thankful for the effort you put forth on the issue of the environment; however, I ask that you try to emulate the warm and educational atmosphere that I feel is usually on TED.com.
Blair Troutman
Thanks for your response. Years ago, the bumpersticker "Think globally, Act locally" was in vogue. Many of the responses to your question are excellent examples of setting this philosophy in motion. I think that a new and complimentary paradigm of "Think locally, Act globally" is a new challenge for us all. Beyond a clever twist, I believe that establishing local environmental initiatives and developing them into regional, national, and global initiatives will create a truly powerful force of environmental change. Whether it is the local children's elementary school rainwater harvesting and organic gardening initiative, the Irish ban on plastic shopping bags, or the global safe drinking water and sanitation programs, they are also effective expressions of badly needed environmentalism.
John Locke
Mary M. 50+
I once armed my students with gloves, and we walked around the school and picked up all the litter around.....candy wrappers, sporks from the cafeteria, pencils, straws, papers.......etc.
We then came back and glued all the trash onto a 3X10 foot long paper and decorated it with messages about littering and keeping the earth clean...........I "thought" I was doing a good thing.
Turns out I got into a heep of trouble with the administration. I was told that it was not appropriate to do such a project, that it was shameful, and they didn't want to see what we had found.
I had to throw away my project, much to the disappointment of my little 7 year old students.
But I hope, that those students walked away with the message, that helping the earth starts with each one of us. Don't throw trash on the floor, out the window of your car, etc....
Our family leads by example.....we hope we set a good one.
Thank you for your timely question, Earth Day is one of my favorite times of the year in school. One year we made an Earth quilt..........it got displayed in the library............but I much rather plant trees, do a little clean up and the like.
Colleen Steen 500+
We have "Green up Day" here in Vermont, which everyone participates in....schools, state government, agency of transportation, businesses, clubs, and many, many individuals. After the winter months, there seems to be more trash around, so Green-up Day happens in May, and it's really a great project that has been happening for many years with enthusiastic participation from community members throughout the state.
I'm sure you are a GREAT example, and I believe we always teach anything best by our own example:>)
"BE" what we want to "SEE" in our world:>)
John Locke
John Locke
Mary M. 50+
It was to awaken kids up to what they were doing. One straw is nothing. But multiply it by 20 or 30 and then you have a problem
Well, they took umbrage at my display......but, still, my students I think, benefitted from the activity.
Thank you for this timely question. I have really enjoyed reading everyone's comments.
"Earth Day is every day" quote by Mary M.
Derek Young 30+
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/this-could-be-big-abc-news/more-mere-magic-mushrooms-154207424.html
Enjoy! Let me know what you think! =)
Colleen Steen 500+
Have you seen this TED talk...also about mushrooms and our earth...
http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html?source=email#.T5fhi4La3Kc.
There is a theory that we have everything we need on this earth, we simply need to figure out how to use it appropriately. Unfortunately, many times, greed gets in the way of using our resources appropriately!
Derek Young 30+
That Ted talk was the most fascinating topic to this date, that I've seen! I think if we could drop Mr. Stamets spores on an area with high radioactive soil/materials, it could possibly create a more livable environment. It could also deal with all the nuclear waste that is coming from nuclear plants! Wow, I didn't know I was so interested in Mycology until right now! This is revolutionary! Inspirational!
Thank You Colleen! This could possibly change my direction of interest. =)
Allan Macdougall 30+
If I could, I would build my own 'Passivhaus' - a house so energy-efficient, that theoretically would be completely off-grid.
John Locke
Allan Macdougall 30+
By coincidence, there is a published interview with E O Wilson in this week's New Scientist entitled: "From altruism to a new Enlightenment". Intersting stuff!
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428610.200-e-o-wilson-from-altruism-to-a-new-enlightenment.html?
John Locke
Paul Palmer 10+
But when we think about improving the world, we can't be hemmed in by our lack of power to then urge effective ways to make change. At least we have to aim for a deep understanding, even if we aren't in positions of power.
The people who control big money and national legislation don't satisfy themselves with choosing one type of green bean over another. Change is not merely personal to them. They move you and I around like pawns. They make sure that hundreds of millions of people all get the same message and perform the same actions that make them money and accrue their power.
in the resource field, this takes the form of first of all, making sure that they can get lots of resources all around the globe for pennies. This may take war, or bribing officials, or loans with harsh terms made to impoverished countries, but the resources are sure to be cheaply available.
Then they actively design their products to make use of those cheap resources - metals, oil, plastic, natural products - and to fall apart as soon as possible. The theory is that you will rush out and buy one more new piece of crap. And it works for them. The key is DESIGN TO FAIL. They even shamelessly call it planned obsolescence.
Powerless individuals then look to escape the net by buying one item designed to fail slightly less quickly rather than another item designed to fail as soon as the warranty expires. It can't work.
The only way to change this is to look behind the curtain at the Wizard who is doing the design and CHANGING THE WAY GOODS ARE DESIGNED.
We need to design for perpetual reuse, not for discard. Sound scary? If you say yes, you really have been swept up into the system. I have proven how easy it really is to design for reuse by doing it and presenting it publicly.
Colleen Steen 500+
With all due respect, sweet, liberal, and being people who do not "kick dogs" is not the topic here.
Cut the crap, and lets hear..." What have you done to help the Earth?".
That is the topic of this discussion...not interested in your gloom and doom. I am very aware of facts, and they are not "scary". If they are to you....so be it!
John Locke
Paul Palmer 10+
Then I wrote the only book in existence on Zero Waste showing how to apply the same principles I had developed to the entire panoply of poorly designed commodities, in the same way that we had worked with chemicals.
Then I started to develop a gigantic website called the Zero Waste Institute with analyses of how resource despoliation and conservation really work, scientifically, not just the first superficial ideas.
Along the way I testified at conferences and joined lawsuits. I wrote papers. The EPA produced three studies of my work. I also reused the entire Baldwin Park Superfund. All the dirt, wood, plastic, copper, steel and mercury. At 20% of the cost of the idiot garbage companies.
So glad you asked. Does your city have a Zero Waste resolution in place? Probably does. I invented the term. Check Wikipedia.
So what have you done?
http://www.zerowasteinstitute.org
Try dipping in there this time.
Derek Young 30+
It seems that you are advertising for an admirable cause, but I think you assume that because you support a great cause that you can be condescending. I am sure that you have good intentions, but I think you should try to get off your high horse once in awhile. Your lack of empathy is really starting to make me feel like you are here to guilt everyone into an amazing idea or you are just denouncing any other ideas that isn't your own.
Paul, you should try to spread an idea through reciprocity, not jamm it down our brains. I am sure your current method works with politicians and other stubborn monetary driven institutions. Please Paul, I want to read/hear your thoughts without feeling that you are figuratively slapping me or maybe this is an ingenous way to make connections with your audience?
I am sorry, but I just can't ingest these ideas while I am being insulted or watching others be insulted as well.
I hope that the next plan of action is that we all holster our emotions and try to be civil.
Thanks for reading my thoughts and I hope we can have a nice transition. =)
Colleen Steen 500+
So far, the comments I've seen that you have written on TED seem to be condescending, and critical of other people's comments, rather than expressing your own thoughts/feelings regarding the topics. Critizing what others do, or do not do, is not very productive or interesting to read Paul.
In your recent comment, you tell us what YOU are doing... "I've been working actively on resource conservation for thirty years". That is GREAT Paul, and I respect your contribution to the health of the earth that we all share:>)
Mary M. 50+
Congratulations on, not only identifying the harm others are doing, but doing something about it. As the last sentence of your comment clearly states: " I have proven how easy it really is to design for reuse by doing it and presenting it publicly."
You were kind to come back and elaborate on demand........Your message was not lost on me.
Thank you very much
Paul Palmer 10+
When I refer to recycling, I AM including all of the bogus governmental programs that are set up with major input from garbage companies to do the collecting and hauling, including the collection of electronic goods and the so-called toxic wastes and the free garbage pickup days and all the rest of the official recycling hoopla. And Jake, yes, I am saying that that kind of recycling is BAD, BAD, BAD. The more of that kind of recycling that there is, the worse the earth is groaning because that kind of recycling is a greenwash, not a solution. - a deception used by an industry to make it appear that some destructive practice is socially or environmentally superior. Monsanto will tell you that GMO foods are good because they create more food, even when this is patently untrue. The most highly processed foods you can buy - breakfast cereals - are covered with signs about NUTRITION. It is so effective that virtually no one realizes that when they talk about avoiding processed foods, they should be thinking Cheerios and Wheaties. Recycling is a standard GREENWASH, not an environmentally positive response to a problem. The garbage company doesn't give a fig for your cute dollhouses made out aluminum cans. They will get the cans eventually anyway because that is the way this wasteful society works. What they DO care about is the horrible notion that we could stop making new containers at all and just refill the ones we already have. That DOES threaten their business. So they put out dumpsters for broken glass and tell you everything is just fine if you break all of your perfectly usable bottles.
Resource conservation is NOT a trivial exercise. It is a complex, interconnected puzzle. Read the website and think deeply about the issues there.
Colleen Steen 500+
The concept of recycling and reusing needs to start with each and every one of us as individuals. If you want to stay in your gloom and doom paradigm...so be it. What we focus on expands. I'm focusing on change, and interestingly enough, I'm seeing that in our world every day:>) YOU "think deeply about the issues" Paul:>)
Blair Troutman
Forty years ago when I was growing up in Ohio,fish kills in Lake Erie were common and the Great Lakes were predicted to be deemed unfit for swimming for eternity. Whille some activities were protesting, one told me, "Get educated and make a proactive difference." After an undergraduate degree, two graduate degrees, and thirty years in the environmental field, I feel that I haven't begun to make the impact that I have challenged myself to make. The opportunities to benefit the earth on a collective rather than singular basis have me reassessing my goal on a global basis. The future of the planet belongs to our children and the duty to protect it belongs to us. My focus over the next 10 years is to help educate our children and to spur to action those whose duty it is to protect the earth that we inherited from our mothers and fathers.
John Locke
Vivek Trivedi 10+
Comment deleted
Derek Young 30+
When its yellow I let it mellow, and when its brown flush it down. jk...haha!
I took an evironmental science course once and I learned a lot of my impact on Earth. I try not to litter, I take public transit if I can, I use reusable bags, I try to recycle, I donate items, and I try to spread the word about taking an evironmental science course.
I highly suggest taking one once in your life. Changed my view of the world. =)
John Locke
edward long 100+
Dan F 50+
Earth Day to some extent is about the potential for achieving world peace. A fairly noble enterprise! We all know it is not enough just to want or wish for something. We can only get there by momentum and design.
If somehow, as diverse individuals and communities around the world we can connect to the fact we reap what we sow then it's possible for more of us to be and become more responsible and involved in an effort to be a more friendly member aboard spaceship earth.
As to my commitments. I have been working toward a more plant based diet, so I have become a wok man. Additionally, I work with a local volunteer water conservation group and have recycled and reused things for many years. I am a birder. So I take out my urge to hunt deer, etc., out on identifying birds in the wild. It works! I speak out as well. I generally favor prevention over treatment.
I like TED's policy which has been to offer a number of environmentalist center stage. Incidentally, I find YouTube fascinating regarding its expanded involvement in education, particularly of the physical sciences. It appears more and more people are tuning in on science and in my opinion that is a good thing for Earth Day. Do you sense that as well?
Work hard on your studies, and glad you find time to be part of TED.
John Locke
I have always been an 'environmentalist' but it has only been in that last year that I decided to really step up my game, so to speak. Now I have started a twitter account to help spread the word about TED.com and about GreenLiving.
http://www.organicliving.com/5reasons.html
Deanna Cottrell
powered by solar, wind and hydro. I will be planting a garden
this summer. My first. Suggestions and tips are welcome :)
I'm looking for a way to work from home and use my vehicle less.
We attend Solar Fest every year here in Vermont. What a great
place to learn, share and connect. I highly recommend checking
it out if you're near Tinmouth, VT in July. Not only is it informative,
it's a great time.
John Locke
Also I have given you a few websites that may help or offer tips to a new gardener.
http://plottips.blogspot.com/
www.geocities.com/mastergardener2k/
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2006-12-01/10-Best-Garden-Crops-for-Beginners.aspx