Hmmm. Maybe I should start pushing landlords to start install wind turbines and photovoltaic cells?

corpore-metal

mcjake

Yatta!

allnamesused

Mister Adequate

This isn't always good for the environment. Many items made from recycled materials cost more than non-recycled-content items, and when they do, it's often because recycling them uses more energy/harsh, polluting chemicals than using fresh material.

I'm not against recycling per se, but it isn't automatically better.
-Kle.

Klebert L. Hall

psdbny

I need this. Where are the instructions?

Evil Tortie's Mom

Pwnieboy

bjarmson

tetracycloide

A HUGE amount of the world's energy is spent on housing and buildings. If you're a home-owner or the owner of commercial real estate, do everything in your power to get energy use to zero; then cover the rest with local energy (solar, geothermal, wind, etc.). Even locally burnt coal can be better than coal from a far off plant - it's still dirty, but at least you've saved the Earth from transmission losses.

Hybrid cars really aren't the answer. Until they have useful organic batteries the industrial processes involved in making the Prius' battery pack are ruinous. I think ultra-efficient clean diesel is the way to go for now.

Eat vegetables grown locally. The amount of energy wasted on factory farming is ridiculous, and local veggies usually have more minerals and vitamins anyway (they're picked later).

Unfortunately though, the bottom line is that living in Ecotopia today is mostly an exercise in futility. Our industrial base simply isn't set up to allow us to do this. We get clothes made from cotton that wipes out local ecosystems. We subsidize over-investment and under-utilization in Iowa corn, French cheese and Japanese rice. We're penny-wise and pound-foolish by burning coal rather than collecting solar to save 10 cents/watt.

I think #5 is the most important suggestion. Until we change the system, changing from within the system is really, really hard.

Brock

Seriously though, water conservation should be up there too.

Pwnieboy

braak

Annalee Newitz

Annalee Newitz

Unforunately for your friends, I've repurposed it into a fancy remote control for my dishwasher.

See, what I did was, I put it on the end of a stick. Like, a really long stick. And now, I can press the buttons on the dishwasher from across the room!

braak

bjarmson

Annalee Newitz

(Also, I turned an optical USB mouse into a heated optical USB mouse, does that count? Otherwise, I have a new project involving an etch-a-sketch, but I bought a new one for that, so I guess it doesn't count...)

desiredusername

I can get all kinds of things.

braak

Annalee Newitz

Rus

Though let me say, as someone who's read MAKE magazine a lot, knowing how someone else repurposed old forklift motors into an electric car is a lot different from being able to repurpose old forklift motors into an electric car.

Every day I shake my fist in anger that my high school made me go through the college prepatory program, instead of attending the Vo-Tech school.

braak

Annalee Newitz

By the way, this post is utterly pointless for those of us who only seek to bring about the apocalypse. Just sayin'.

Ed Grabianowski

braak