[galveston]

[QUOTE=tomder55;2111511]OK lets see.. I drive 35 miles each way to work in my Outback (about 25 mpg) and pick up a decaf on on the way (in one of those styrofoam cups ) .

Do great minds think alike or what?

I love my Impreza. Wish I could afford a Legacy turbo!!

[spitvenom]

23 rolls a year? Just who are they talking about? Men? Men I can see, but a woman? Ha!! Not in this lifetime. More like 10 rolls a month minimum for a woman.

I was thinking the same thing twinkie. My wife goes through TP like nothing. When I lived alone I hardly ever needed to buy TP my wife moved in and I thought my bathroom became and extra storage center for Scott TP!!

[speechlesstx]

I was thinking the same thing twinkie. My wife goes through TP like nothing. When I lived alone I hardly ever needed to buy TP my wife moved in and I thought my bathroom became and extra storage center for Scott TP!!!

I hear you, Spit. Women are ruining the planet.

[speechlesstx]

Now you can leave this world with a clean conscience...

Finally: eco-friendly bio-cremations

WORRIED you haven't been green enough in life? Don't let death come in the way of a more eco-friendly you.

From coffins made of recycled cardboard to saying no to embalming chemicals that seep into the soil, people are increasingly searching for ways to make their final resting place a more environmentally-friendly one.

Now cremation, the choice today of a third of Americans and more than half of Canadians, is getting a green makeover.

A standard cremation spews into the air about 400kg of carbon dioxide - a greenhouse gas blamed for global warming - along with other pollutants like dioxins and mercury vapor if the deceased had silver tooth fillings.

On top of that each cremation guzzles as much energy, in the form of natural gas and electricity, as an 800km car trip.

Enter alkaline hydrolysis, a chemical body-disposal process its proponents call "bio-cremation" and say uses one-tenth the natural gas of fire-based cremation and one-third the electricity.

C02 emissions are cut by almost 90 per cent and no mercury escapes as fillings and other metal objects, such as hip or knee replacements, can be recovered intact and recycled.

"The target audience are those people who buy organic salmon rather than farmed salmon," Paul Rahill, president of the cremation division of Matthews International Corp, said.

"Those that buy a hybrid rather than a regular car."

The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company that makes caskets and other funeral products is planning the world's first commercial launch of human alkaline hydrolysis in January at a funeral home in St Petersburg, Florida.

The technique is not new but has only been used to dispose of laboratory animals and medical research cadavers at a few institutions.

Its commercial use has been held up partly because of its cost - the equipment is four times as expensive as that of traditional cremation - and because state and provincial legislation may need to be changed, especially laws governing what can be disposed of in the water system.

Overcoming peoples' squeamishness when they hear the process described, what Mr Rahill calls the 'ick' factor, is also an obstacle.

The Catholic Church in parts of the United States has objected, saying the practice "is not a respectful way to dispose of human remains".

In alkaline hydrolysis the body is submerged in water in a stainless steel chamber.

Heat, pressure and potassium hydroxide, chemicals used to make soap and bleach, are added to dissolve the tissue.

Two hours later all that's left is some bone residue and a syrupy brown liquid that is flushed down the drain.

The bones can be crushed and returned to the family as with cremation.

Flush your loved one away, ain't that special?

[tomder55]

I thought my bathroom became and extra storage center for Scott TP!!

Got to tell her to stop using it for origami projects.

I here Sheryl Crowe has an instructional video out about how to accomplish the wipe with a single sheet.

Galveston ;Getting stuck in snow is not an option for me . That is why I opted for the all-wheel drive Outback. It gives me that feature without having to drive an SUV.

[tomder55]

someone should tell the government that fat is a GOOD thing when you're homeless. The extra padding helps keep you warm in cold weather, and you can live off the reserves if you have to go a ways between meals.

Some religions ban pork.Others ban trans-fats.

[spitvenom]

Speech here is what I am going to do when I die.

Eternal Reefs, A Cremation Memorial Option

[tomder55]

So you want to become cement mix ? There are good fellas in Jersey who could arrange that.

[spitvenom]

Oh I know Tom that is why my mom never let me stay with my cousin's in Jersey during the summer. I want to be cremated anyway and I love the ocean so hey why not make me a home for fish. Plus it also makes a few annoying days for my family members who hate boats and the ocean.

[excon]

Speech here is what I am going to do when I die

Hello spit:

That is very cool. I'm going to be cremated, and my kids are going to snort my ashes. That's pretty ecco friendly, no?

excon

[tomder55]

I love the ocean so hey why not make me a home for fish.

Me too except I told my family to just make me fish food . I guess the enviro-wackos won't let that happen anymore.

[speechlesstx]

Becoming cement mix is different, annoying family after you're gone is classic.

As for me I really don't care what you do with me when I go, prop me up for a weekend at Bernie's experience if you want. I just hope it's not any time soon.

[spitvenom]

No they won't I looked into it already. But in San Fran they have these Great White shark tours where you can get in a cage and watch the sharks in the water. I told my wife if I come down with some terminal disease get me on that boat drug me up then throw me in. This way when some asked how I died everyone could say I was eaten by great whites. Now that I type this I guess the drugs wouldn't be good for the sharks. Damn

[speechlesstx]

Now that I type this I guess the drugs wouldn't be good for the sharks. damn

But it might help them not notice that bad taste in their mouth :D

[spitvenom]

Hey! ;)

[earl237]

I'm very pro-environment and animal rights, but I hate extremists. They give all environmentalists a bad name. I drink instant coffee, so I'm not sure if that counts for number 1. Using toilet paper is pretty much necessary. I don't buy new clothes unless I have to but I have to wash them after a reasonable amount of time. I often throw food that has gone bad into my gardens or in the woods so it can break down naturally or get eaten by bugs and animals instead of clogging up a landfill. I'm not giving up my sauerkraut or omelettes with fried onions and mushrooms so I guess I emit more greenhouse gasses than the average person.

[paraclete]

I'm guilty of all of those sins and I intend to continue my life stye. What idiot drew up that list and left out the important things

1. You burn wood in an inhouse fire place;particulate emissions as well as CO2

2. you burn rubbish or leaves; particulate, poison and CO2 emissions

3. you travel in V8 autos, SUV and other large vehicles

4. you use ethenol which has been produced from corn

I'll think of some more later

[NeedKarma]

The article is either gone or subscription-only, can you post the whole thing tom?

[tomder55]

I'll try ,but this was originally posted in 2009 .

[tomder55]

Part 1

Five eco-crimes we commit every day by Dave. S. Reay


1/12/2009 New Scientist Magazine issue 2736.
WHEN the UN Climate Change Conference opens in Copenhagen next month, all eyes will be on the delegates' efforts to broker a deal that will prevent catastrophic global warming. Yet amid all the talk of caps, targets and trading, it is easy to forget who is ultimately responsible for the mess we find ourselves in. I have long argued that climate change begins at home. Each of us in the developed world has played our part in creating this problem and, while there is no doubt that coordinated global action is needed to tackle it, we can each be part of the solution.

So, ask yourself this: how green am I really? You might think you are doing your bit for the environment, but even if you shun bottled water, buy local produce and reuse your plastic bags, chances are that you have some habits that are far more environmentally damaging than you realise. What's more, if everyone else is doing these things too, their detrimental effects really add up.

1 Coffee
Take coffee. Its vendors are in the vanguard of those promoting more “sustainable” products, with organic and fair trade options now widely available. Starbucks even boasts a programme it calls Shared PlanetTM programme – the irony of that trademark appears to be lost on them – which has the declared aim of minimising the company's environmental impact and increasing involvement with local communities.

That's no bad thing, as far as it goes: fair trade can help to stop the exploitation of farmers, and buying organic may ensure more sustainable production techniques. But the average cup of black filter coffee is still responsible for 125 grams of CO2 emissions. Of this, two-thirds comes from production and most of the rest from brewing.

Opting for the more prosaic joys of instant coffee reduces that figure to around 80 grams. Yet that still means a six-a-day caffeine habit clocks up more than 175 kilograms of CO2 each year. That's the equivalent of a flight across Europe – from London to Rome, say. Add milk, and the methane belched by dairy cows means you increase your coffee's climate-changing emissions by more than a third.

175 kilograms The annual CO2 emission of a six-a-day coffee habit. Equivalent to a single flight between London and Rome
It doesn't end there, though. The environmental group WWF has calculated that it takes 200 litres of water to produce the coffee, milk, sugar and cup for just one regular takeout latte. So if everyone ditched their pre-work coffee fix that would do wonders for the planet.

2 Toilet paper
Then there's toilet paper. Like coffee companies, loo paper manufacturers have long provided options for environmentally conscious consumers. Top of the list is 100 per cent recycled paper, which avoids much of the energy use and emissions associated with harvesting and processing new wood. Every kilogram of recycled tissue saves some 30 litres of water and between 3 and 4 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Since 1 kilowatt-hour of grid electricity is responsible for around 500 grams of CO2, that means a saving of 1.5 to 2 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of tissue.

Recycled toilet tissue is most widely used in Europe and Latin America, but even there it still only accounts for 1 in 5 rolls. In the US it remains very much a niche product. The average American gets through 23 toilet rolls each year, adding up to more than 7 billion rolls for the country in total. Of these, just 1 in 50 are from 100 per cent recycled fibres. As Greenpeace pointed out earlier this year, this not only wastes energy and water, it also puts additional logging pressure on old-growth forest in North America, forests which play a vital role in supporting native biodiversity.

The reason toilet roll made from new wood is preferred is quite simple: its long fibres produce the softest and fluffiest paper. Every time paper is recycled, the fibres become shorter, making for an increasingly rough bathroom experience. Recycled paper can't compete on softness so some use of new wood by the toilet paper industry may be inevitable. Sourcing Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) approved toilet tissue will help to ensure that any new wood fibres that are added to the mix have come from sustainable forestry projects that protect, rather than threaten, old-growth forest ecosystems.

3 Fast fashion
Next on my list of everyday decadence is fast fashion. In 1990, global textile production stood at 40 million tonnes. By 2005 that figure had risen to around 60 million tonnes. This surge in manufacture and consumption has been helped by fast-moving fashion trends and sweatshop price tags. As a result, much of the clothing we buy ends up being discarded long before it has worn out. In the UK, where the average item is worn for less than a third of its useful lifespan, more than a million tonnes of clothing are thrown away each year. The bulk of it ends up buried like woolly lasagne sheets in landfill sites or being used as multicoloured incinerator fodder.

Even the global economic crisis appears to have had little impact on our love affair with fast fashion; UK clothing sales this summer were up 11 per cent on the same time last year. If we can't entirely kick the habit, we can at least dispose of the evidence in a greener way.

At present, in the UK and US, only around a quarter of unwanted textiles are reused or recycled. Recycled textiles have many uses, from mattress fillings and upholstery to bags and shoes, but the truly green alternative is reuse. The energy required to collect, process and sell a reused item of clothing is only 2 per cent of the energy required to manufacture a new garment. Every kilogram of virgin cotton preserved by reusing second-hand clothing saves 65 kilowatt-hours of energy, equivalent to about 32.5 kilograms of CO2. For polyester, the savings rise to 90 kilowatt-hours per kilogram.

The clothing and textile sector in the UK alone is responsible for more than 3 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. Switching to second-hand alternatives could therefore yield some big energy savings and cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.