Wednesday, January 20, 2021 is a day many will remember.  The years of chaos have ended, but a worldwide pandemic is raging.  There is no time to celebrate - we need to evaluate.  Four years of governmental mismanagement combined with business and private pollution and a climate change window that has all but closed has created a dire situation.  The new administration has their work cut out for them.  I am scared to see what the various secretary’s offices look like - the day after a frat party?  And the White House, my mind sees something akin to one of those White House disaster movies.

If the US government is going to do one thing, get a one-dose vaccine. Next, invest in infrastructure.  In that endeavor, I ponder and consider what my role is in the recovery and the change into a sustainable country.  Before I can change, I must figure those things that have the greatest impact and go from there.  The carbon footprint is often what is referred to when a person is figuring out their environmental impact.  I use the three “R’s” to look at my ability to affect those changes. 

The biggest contributor to your footprint is fuel use.  First, and the easiest of the three is to reduce use, that has been extremely easy in this last year of Covid-19 restrictions.  Reuse is beyond my scientific knowledge.  Recycling fuel might be the most difficult, but I know where to bring my waste oil, so that’s the best I can do.  I feel this is a good starting spot, but leaves lots of room for improvement.

The next suggestion is changing bulbs to more energy-efficient types.  I believe we are good with that, but I’m sure there is room for improvement.  Cutting down on bulb use is easy, but the disposal is still a difficult thing.  There is no way to recycle bulbs at this time, but there are more efficient bulbs that come on the market from time to time.  We always have our eyes open for new and better bulbs and we try to limit light use in unoccupied rooms.  I believe that the computers, TV, and video games can be vampires for energy, so I do my best to use power strips.  This is very doable!

Garbage is a big one! Reducing garbage and composting is essential to address the global problem of waste.  I feel there is room for great improvement when it comes to buying things with less packaging and cardboard.  A key to reducing your garbage is not to make any.  If you are able to buy in bulk, and store the materials in reusable containers, this is by far the most effective way to instantly reduce the amount of packaging.  Bring those bottles in for the five cents return, it’s figured into the price!  Shopping smart is the way to gradually reduce the volume of packing materials in your groceries and other weekly purchases.  Our money choices change the market: represent a greener world with your buying power.

Right now, market forces are radically changing with the President’s order to buy electric vehicles for the Federal fleet.  Soon, there will be coast to coast charging stations and the paradigm of the transportation industry will have changed.  Things like solar and wind power will now be easier to get, and that gives homeowners a chance to live in greater harmony with nature and the immediate ecosystem.  This trend will reduce the average persons carbon footprint by 1/3rd.  If we are all able to transform dwellings into net positive energy producers, society will no longer need things like overhead power lines, underground gas lines, and other environmentally deadly practices that are now excepted by most, like the use of deadly chemicals for lawn care as an example.  The green way is available if we seek it and accept the daily effort that it requires.

Before all that great new stuff can be used, all the old stuff must be disposed of. Without local comprehensive recycling, this new green economy will be built on the toxic garbage of the last 100 years of industrialization. The plan for the green economy must include remediation of the toxic, the reuse of anything possible, and the efficient recycling to create valuable raw materials for a cleaner world. All waste must be reevaluated to see how it can be dealt with without harming other parts of the world by disposing of it. Waste must be dealt with locally; this will give local government incentive to reduce waste. People will adapt or pay more, that is the way of things. I hope we all don’t pay for a few people’s inaction, all this needed to be done yesterday!