CleanEnergy Footprints

Last week, Jen Rennicks offered a blog for our readers about taking political actions to stop future offshore oil drilling as a response to our nation’s largest, most horrific environmental disaster of all time.  But let’s take this a little further – where it can really hit home – to you – to me, to the things we do everyday.  Whether we like or not, we are all complicit in the need for oil in this country.  We are all intertwined in this web of transportation fueled by oil and gas.  Our lives would not be the same if we did not have oil providing power for our cars, our buses, our trucks hauling goods, our airplanes, and even our boats.  We are an inherently mobile society because of oil and gas and we are completely addicted.

I have been feeling incredibly depressed and angered about the Gulf oil disaster (this is no “spill,” folks) and I know in my heart it is because I, along with all of you, are the reason we are drilling for oil.  We have become so accustomed to getting gas and oil whenever and wherever we want. We can drive to the store, to see our friends, to the movies, to shop, to the next town, to Florida, to visit our family, or we can fly to a vacation spot whenever we want.  We are the creators of the demand for more oil that causes companies like BP to say to Congress ‘we have to have more, more, more leases!’  And we are the reason that oil and gas companies are looking for places to drill in even riskier places than ever before – because we want more.

So what to do?  I believe that we, as addicted consumers of fossil fuels,  MUST be big enough to all accept responsibility.  Yes, BP screwed up.  And yes, the Minerals Management Service screwed up.  And yes, TransOcean and Haliburton are problem-children in this disaster and are also responsible.  But you and I get to take our own responsibility for this.  Today reveals a new opportunity to start making new decisions in our lives that help decrease our demand for MORE oil.

You’ve heard it all before, and here it is again, but these are no-kidding, honest-to-goodness ways that YOU can become part of the new world order that calls for LESS oil and LESS dependency, not more.

1. Find alternate modes of transportation as often as possible. Carpooling, riding the bus, riding your bike, walking, riding a scooter or motorcycle, tele-commuting when you can, and combining errands are all good ways to lighten your need for more oil.  I recently got an electric scooter that is 100% gas free!  Some might ask whether an electric vehicle (EV) is really better than gas when our energy grid is so heavy with coal, but studies find that indeed an electric vehicle IS a cleaner choice when CO2 emissions are compared. Here in the Southeast we need to simultaneously green our grid and reduce the burning of coal in order for EVs to really be a winning choice.  Transportation choices are obviously the biggest way you can have an impact on gas consumption.  Set goals for yourself to drive fewer times each week.

2. Save energy. Here in the Southeast, roughly 60% of our power comes from coal and all that coal has to be imported to us from out of state – mainly on trains and boats that use diesel and fuel oil.  Every kilowatt you save by turning up the A/C, turning off a light, insulating your home, or upgrading your windows helps to reduce the demand you place on coal that places demand on oil.

3. Shop locally. Here are Top Ten Reasons to Shop Locally, with one of the most important being to reduce your carbon footprint!  Food in our nation gets shipped thousands and thousands of miles to arrive in your local store – that means gallons and gallons of gas and a lot of CO2 emissions.  Shopping at your local farmers market or selecting local food and food in season in your grocery store, 1. supports your local economy, 2. tastes fresher and better, 3. decreases the miles traveled (and thus oil/gas used) to get the food from them to you.  Shopping locally doesn’t have to be limited to food — find local artists to support, clothing designers, and furniture builders.

4. Plastic comes from oil. Think about how much plastic is in your life!  It all comes from oil.  What can you cut out of your purchasing and consumption habits that come from plastic?  I can think of so many ways that I can reduce my demand for plastics…

* Buy glass or ceramic food storage containers.

* Use a Sigg bottle for water or a reusable plastic bottle rather than disposables.

* Bring your own shopping bags!!  Get in the habit of leaving canvas or Chico bags in your car so they are readily available when you need to run into the store – ANY store!  And think about this – San Francisco became the first city in the U.S. to BAN plastic bags at stores – lobby your city to adopt this ban too!

1. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to produce the plastic bags used in the U.S. each year.
   
2. Although plastic bags are recyclable, less than 3% of them actually are. The rest end up in landfills, oceans, and as litter.
3. An estimated 4 billion plastic bags end up as litter each year worldwide.
4. Adopting the use of reusable bags for one’s entire life can “save” (reduce) the need for over 20,000 plastic bags (WOW).
   
5. Click here to learn more about the vast benefits of using reusable bags instead of plastic.

* Buy food with less packaging – do you really need that plastic bag or will you wash the veggies anyway?  Look for items you can buy in bulk.

* Buy cleaning products that are concentrated and have less packaging – good brands are Method and Seventh Generation.

* Many building products are plastic-based, so in your home repairs look for natural, sustainable materials to use instead of PVC pipes or vinyl siding.

* Purchase clothing made of natural fibers – rayon and polyester are synthetics that originate from oil, so find the organic cotton and hemp materials that are less oil-intensive.

Friends, I could go on and on about the ways to cut oil out of our daily lives, but really the most important thing is that we all realize that we are part of this issue and we are part of the solution.  The little things you do in your daily life really DO matter.  So please, for the sake of the oceans and all the creatures that are now suffering immensely from this disastrous oil catastrophe, get committed to some places in your life where you can lessen your connection to our nation’s oil addiction.