Mountain Mom's List of Things That Are NOT Green

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Mountain Mom's List of Things That Don't Help

While Looking for Lazy Ideas to Go Green, I also found a number of things that are a myth or just plain don't help the environment. Check this list to make sure you aren't doing something that is either not worth doing or possible totally counterproductive. Some of these may seem a little 'tongue-in-cheek', but I'm just giving you something to think about. That means this is a list of things to do to make you even Lazier! Does your Mom love you or what?

Air Filter: The kid down at the Kwickie oil change place would have you believe otherwise, but a replacing your dirty air filter in your car will not help your car's gas mileage. In today's cars, a computer chip determines the air flow going into the engine, dirty filter or not. A dirty air filter does affect your car's acceleration a bit, but not a lot. I replace the air filter after about 50,000 miles. The oil change kid hates me because he goes to the trouble of taking the air filter out to show me all the dirt in it, even after I told him not to bother.

Cars: Unless you drive a lot more than average, replacing your old gas guzzler with a nice shiny new high-mileage vehicle is not helping the environment. Yes, it will help your situation, but someone else will start driving your old gas hog. Make no mistake, kids, I think getting a more efficient car is a good idea, and it will help eventually down the line, but to do this "to help the environment" isn't really true. Now, if you were to send your old car to the crusher...that would help! Also, check Hybrid Vehicles.

Electricity: I hear much about "phantom power" which is the electricity used by all the little battery chargers, printers, scanners, TV's and all those things that you think are "off" but are really still drawing a little power. I found that to be very little, especially when you have mostly Energy Star rated devices. After unplugging things to make sure they didn't use any power, I was disappointed that there was almost no savings. Instead, I was inconvenienced by remotes that wouldn't work and electronic gear that took too long to warm up.

Ethanol (Biofuels): I guess this is not the ideal replacement for high-priced oil. The current rise in food prices is not really caused by farmers switching from food crops to fuel crops, it's caused by higher gasoline prices. However, it does cause concern that it could happen. In Brazil they switched to ethanol-type fuels because of all the organic matter available, supposedly created by deforestation. They don't need to switch from food production. E85 seems to be a good interim step for us, but until there's a good way to make fuel from from organic waste instead of food crops, we need to move slowly.

Hybrid Vehicles: They are a great idea, however, according to Wired Magazine, it takes 113 million BTUs of energy to make a Toyota Prius. With about 113,000 BTUs of energy in a gallon of gasoline, the Prius has consumed the equivalent of 1,000 gallons of gasoline before it gets to the dealer. You'll need to drive the Prius 46,000 miles before you overcome that initial use of energy, part of which is attributed to manufacturing the battery. You can think of it as a long-term environmental decision, but you could buy a used, high mpg car instead. They have already paid their manufacturing energy "credits". Some cars made in the 90's get gas mileage in the 30's and 40's, although their prices are beginning to rise.

Light Bulbs: There are a few light fixtures in your house where Compact Florescent Lights won't help. A room that you go in for just a few seconds, like a pantry or closet, is still a good place for a good old fashioned incandescent light bulb. The florescent may not fire up fast enough, and the short time the light is on isn't enough to gain the benefits of florescent savings. Actually, florescents require a short burst of energy to get started which means they are less efficient than incandescent when used for less than a minute. This is a good place to use up all those old bulbs that are piling up in the basement.

	Switching to a Laptop: I found a web site that recommends switching your computer use to a laptop because it uses so much less energy than a desktop. I don't agree. Your desktop can be set to go to sleep and not use that much energy. But even more important, laptops use rather large and potentially polluting batteries. Users typically buy a new battery every year or so and toss the old one in the trash. Desktops are more readily recycled and won't add as many toxic metals to the landfill.
	Warehouse Stores: The stores themselves, Costco, Sam's Club and the like, are fine. They have efficient lighting and stuff, it's what they encourage us to do. First, many of us actually end up buying larger quantities than we can really use, consuming more, and spending more money, not less. Second, larger quantities mean more waste products. It's true you might buy one large box of items, but just as often, one box contains many more small boxes, forcing us to deal with almost twice as much packaging. And third, we forego shopping bags and take out our purchases in those large store boxes, which, along with the medium size boxes that enclose the smaller boxes, are normally recycled by other retailers who have efficient cardboard recycling capabilities. It's harder for us to recycle those large boxes, so often those big boxes just end up in our trash. We feel lucky these stores let us carry our stuff out in these boxes, when, in reality, we're disposing it for them.
	Whining: Until you get rid of your gas-guzzling SUV or stop leaving your air conditioning on 24/7, you have NO right to complain! It isn't the Arabs, the oil companies or the government causing the high price of energy, it's those people who refuse to admit they are the problem. If it's you, stop whining, and if it's your neighbors, take pity on them. As long as you try to do things right, there is room for an exchange of ideas. But if you're driving a monster truck back and forth to work, you've lost your ticket to the debate. Of course, if you choose to get 10 mpg and it gives you pleasure, that's OK...you just can't complain about the price of oil.
	Other Notions that are NOT Green: Premium fuel Gasoline additives Filling your tank in the morning Turning off your car's air conditioner and opening the windows while driving on the highway.

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