The Common Sense Environmentalist

For those who know us or have seen our products you know that we are very concerned about the environment, our ecological footprint, sustainability, etc., etc.  What you may not know is the basis of these concerns.  After all, each side of the "climate change" argument will produce scientists, studies and reports which definitively debunk everything said by their dissenter's scientists, studies and reports.  So what is one to do? It is always good to review Occam's razor, before thinking about such weighty matters.  Occam's razor is best explained by the phrase, "the simplest explanation is usually the correct one".   Keeping this in mind, I have taken a common sense approach to this question.  Here are a few basic scenarios that have helped me come to realize why it is important that we live in a more sustainable manner.

1. If you stand close to the tail pipe of an SUV and take a deep breath, you will notice that the air does not smell clean.  You may even cough a time or two before realizing there are better places to stand if you would like to keep breathing.  On the other hand, if you are standing in the middle of the woods in a rural area with no cars or manufacturing facilities around and take a deep breath, you will notice that it is quite easy to do.  Further, you realize you don't cough and you don't have to leave if you wish to continue breathing.  Ergo, fewer cars or car emissions and more trees will mean that we will all be able to breathe better!
2. There are a lot of people on the earth.  They all would like to be able to eat, every day.  It takes approximately 16 pounds of grain to make 1 pound of beef, but it only takes 1 pound of grain to make 1 pound of grain =).  Ergo: It is a lot easier for us to feed everybody if we eat more plants and less meat.
3. I don't like to pay the trash man to take away my garbage.  So, if I go to the grocery store and by some canned green beans which they kindly put in a plastic bag, when I am done eating my green beans, I have a can and a plastic bag.  The next day, I can put the can and the plastic bag into my garden to compost.  If I wait a little while, about 500 years, the plastic bag and the aluminum can will have decomposed and I am ready to plant my garden.  However, if I go to my local farmer's market I can get my green beans along with my other vegetables in a cardboard box.  The next week, when I go back to the farmers market I can take that same box and give it back to my local farmer, who will give it back to me the following week with a bunch of vegetables.  Ergo: Buy local food that comes in reusable cardboard boxes and you won't have a bunch of cans and plastic bags in your garden.

These simple scenarios help me to remember why it is so important that we don't get caught up in the semantics or technicalities of the great climate change argument.  Just look at your world and how it works and find the simplest solution to the problem.  If you can think of any scenarios please share them as a comment under this entry.