Best products from r/Green

(1) The environmental movement encompasses a great many areas. So it's hard to generalize. Regarding your focus on the oil sands, there is a very clear argument for using wind, hydro and solar power rather than fossil fuels because of the impact greenhouse gases have on the temperature of the planet. This isn't just whining or posturing, it's common sense.

(2) ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.’ Edmund Burke

By suggesting that people working for the fossil fuel industry are good people who have no alternative you are giving what is referred to as the 'Yuppie Nuremberg Defense'. Which is to say, they can't be held accountable for the evil they do to the environment because they have to pay the mortgage somehow. The same could be said of the people who work for monsanto or fishing trawlers that sweep the bottom of the sea without any concern that they are killing the ecosystem.

(3) See (1). But one thing to consider as a possible unifying theme of the modern environmentalists is the question of intergenerational equity and sustainable development: Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sinking massive investments into the Keystone XL is short term thinking and many believe that that money should be spent on renewable infrastructure rather than fossil fuel infrastructure.

(4) People who work in the fossil fuel industry don't have the monopoly on hypocrisy, consistent misapplication of ethical principles, or love of convenience. We're all human. Just because someone is concerned about the protection of the environment doesn't mean they should never be allowed to drive or fly again.

In your example you mention a soccer mom (rather than an environmentalist... interesting) who buys organic food for her children and gasp drives the kids home in an SUV. Maybe her version of being an environmentalist is to make sure that her kids eat the healthiest food possible. There is nothing wrong with that.

Then there's someone like me who doesn't own a car, uses reusable bags, mugs, and bottles but eats too much steak, drinks too much coke and flies to too many conferences. Does this make me an irredeemable hypocrite? Some people will say, yes. But that matters little to me because I've dedicated my life to international environmental law, not being a vegetarian who doesn't travel.

>I want the world to change, I want people to live happy an fulfilling lives. That means something different to everyone, but we will need clean air, water and food.

The hardest thing for you to do will be to take an inventory of your life and your beliefs and weigh those against some new information. Go out and take a course about sustainability, buy a couple of books about the environmental crisis we are facing, learn about climate change and look I mean really look at the numbers. If we want to come close to reducing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere to 350ppm then we will have to dramatically change the way our society works. We need a 'space race' style investment in renewable energy and a reevaluation of our understanding of economic growth and our consumptive needs.

If you really put the time in, you'll start to see why the Keystone XL project has attracted so much negative attention and why it may not be possible to have clean air, water and food in a world that insists on building this pipeline.

As Bill McKibben (of 350.org) says, continued reliance on fossil fuels as the source of our energy can't be compared to a couple of kids experimenting with cigarettes behind their school, or a pack a dayer who wants to quit but has a shitty boss, the continued investment in fossil fuel infrastructure is like a terminal lung cancer patient sneaking out of the ICU to take a couple of drags before he has another operation.

The only reason your company can exist is because of an enormous amount of market manipulation by the government, the exact market manipulation you and Gary Johnson are against. I promise you, without it, you would be out of a job. Technologies like solar, wind, and hydrogen fuel cells suffer from massive start-up costs and would never be able to compete with fossil fuels which benefit form massive economies of scale. The free market got us into this mess because the free market, while it is good for lots of things, is terrible at discounting for the future costs of pollution, a lot of the problem being that it's so damn hard to know what those costs will be. The free market is why Lake Erie died. The free market is why Centralia, PA is completely uninhabitable. The free market is why people's water all over Pennsylvania is now flammable. The free market is why the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico is now crippled and will be for decades.

I have a Masters of Economics, my focus was Environmental Econ, and I'm working on my PhD in Envi Econ now. This is my life. I eat, breathe, and sleep environmental economics.

Here's some good reading on the subject:

Public Policies for Environmental Protection, Portney and Stavins (2000)

The Wealth of Nature: Economics as if Survival Mattered, Greer (2011)

Environmental Policy: New Directions for the Twenty-first Century, Vig and Craft (2009)

The Environmental Case: Translating Values Into Policy, Layzer (2011)

And a couple blogs that I like:

env-econ.net

greeneconomics.blogspot.com

No problem, I'm happy to help, ambiguous packaging like this really annoys me.

EDIT:
OK I think I've solved this,

I looked on amazon.com and found curtain rings matching your pictures here It looks like they are nickel plated, and according to the Agency for toxic substances and Disease
>"The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has determined that nickel metal may reasonably be anticipated to be a carcinogen and that nickel compounds are known human carcinogens"

So in conclusion it appears that these rings are nickel plated and that since they are a moving part (i.e. curtains drawn repeatedly) there is a potential of creating Nickle dust which is considered by the OEHHA to be a carcinogen (which is why it has the warning).

My opinion on this matter is that you should return them or throw them away and get some wood or steel ones.

Thank you for the Gold whoever gave me it!

See if your library has The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices and read it. In a nutshell, the Union of Concerned Scientists research the impact of many kinds of spending choices and outline the biggest things you can change/the most important spending decisions you make in determining your impact on the environment.

>Paper or plastic? Bus or car? Old house or new? Cloth diapers or disposables? Some choices have a huge impact on the environment; others are of negligible importance. To those of us who care about our quality of life and what is happening to the earth, this is a vastly important issue. In these pages, the Union of Concerned Scientists help inform consumers about everyday decisions that significantly affect the environment. For example, a few major decisions--such as the choice of a house or vehicle--have such a disproportionately large affect on the environment that minor environmental infractions shrink by comparison.

Aside from that, be an informed and participatory voter!

So I have not done any green building myself, but I've met a number of people who have. One of them wrote this book which I only browsed through but it is essentially a ground up guide to sustainable building techniques, mostly from an architectural standpoint I believe. There are other books like this that should be incredibly helpful in giving you an idea of what to build.

A 2.5% vinegar solution is sufficient for disinfecting surfaces. The vinegar you buy at the store is 5% so a 50/50 mix with water is good. Costco sells cheap gallon jugs of vinegar.

Anything vinegar doesn't clean up, rubbing alcohol will.

Loofas cut down to once inch thick pads are just as good scrubbing pads as anything I've ever seen and they last several weeks as long as you let them dry out between uses. And then they can be composted when you are done.

If you need a bit of extra scrubbing power, baking soda works well on wet surfaces, and salt works well on dry surfaces.

Terry cloth towels are cheap in bulk and last a long time. Please avoid using microfiber towels as every time you wash them little bits break off and are washed down into our water ways.

Nothing works better for lint free cleaning glass/mirrors than rubbing alcohol and a crumpled up piece of newspaper (which can be composted after use).

I love my cloth pads! These are the exact ones I use. Dutchess Cloth Menstrual Pads - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UZL0WCK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_6ojYzb18444PZ

Green Metropolis - For a good read.

Environmental Justice - For notes from legal cases.

The Environment Equation - For specific steps you can take.

>Can we produce hydrogen on a large scale without fossil fuels?

Hydrogen fuel becomes a practical reality

The launch of the UK’s first commercial-scale hydrogen production and refuelling facility powered by solar energy heralds the dawn of an era of true carbon-free fuel.

The gas will be generated at Honda UK's manufacturing plant in Swindon at the rate of 20 tonnes per year using a process called solar hydrolysis, whereby Hydrogen will be produced from water...

http://www.shdlogistics.com/news/view/hydrogen-fuel-becomes-a-practical-reality

Solar Hydrogen- the Fuel of the Future
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1849731950/

Nice an Environmental Science guy. Once again I encourage you to do some reading. "Foundations: Their Power And Influence" a good book to start with. What you call "paranoia" is more accurately described as "awareness" as in I am aware of the deception. This is not fiction I am describing here. You obviously will not look into the claims I have made because your cognitive dissonance inhibits your ability to see beyond the information you paid to be indoctrinated with. You think that you received a "quality" education because you paid for it. Like I said this is documented historical fact. How much of your "Environmental Science" education went into the history of corporate funded curriculum in universities? I am going to guess zero. Your education is worthless without historical context. You also ignored the FACT that thinkprogress is funded by George Soros, a billionaire, who owns large chunks of energy and oil corporations. Oh but that's the cognitive dissonance kicking in.

well they sell them...

http://www.amazon.com/PluggedSolar-Inverter-Solar-Included-Breakthough/dp/B008AQS4AY

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/03/14/plug-solar-panel-kit-truly-diy/

So perhaps you should talk to them.

I gotchu.

We Need to Invest in Glacial Ice Makers an That Ain Cheap, Something Like this that turns ocean water into snow, set it and forget it, and come back in 50 years and take another photo of the giant snow mountain you just made. Theory. We get it done. Theoretically.

If you have a house and have access to the side sewer (I had to ask the city for where it was and then dig down to it), you can use this to directly dump it into the sewer. Installation is easy if you have access to the side sewer and impossible if not.

Nice, but as Naomi Klein has repeatedly pointed out (and wrote a book on), global warming requires abandoning capitalism, no matter how much money initiatives like this generate.