KCRag Forum

FangKC wrote: Who is the biggest environmentalist?

http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/article/ ... 2F19521927

The event, which is open to the public, will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday in the Sunset Drive Office Building parking lot at 11811 S. Sunset Drive, Olathe.

For information, call the Johnson County Environmental Department at 913-715-6900.

KCMax wrote: Johnson County will try to set an electronics recycling world record

Scientists led by Shahzeen Attari  of the Earth Institute at Columbia University surveyed 505 Americans (recruited through Craigslist), asking them to name the best ways to conserve energy. The most common answers had to do with curtailing use (by turning off lights or driving less, for instance) rather than improving efficiency (installing more efficient lightbulbs and appliances, say). But it is energy efficiency that offers the only possibility for dialing back our voracious consumption of energy and the fossil fuels that generate it. The reason is basic psychology: we are just not going to become a nation of pedestrians, let alone do without all our electronic toys. The only hope is therefore to continue satisfying those materialistic needs but with less electricity and gasoline. Yet as Attari and her colleagues report in a study in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,  only 12 percent of participants mentioned efficiency improvements as ?the most effective way? to conserve energy, while 55 percent mentioned curtailing use. Specifically: 20 percent said turn off lights, but only 3.6 percent said use more efficient bulbs; 15 percent said drive less or use public transit, but only 3 percent said use a more efficient car. No wonder Americans are so resistant to taking personal steps to mitigate climate change: they think it means doing without....

The real problem, Attari told me, is that when people pick the easy things, the low-hanging fruit, they figure they've done their bit for the environment and then don't take steps that could actually make a difference.

KCMax wrote:Aren't these two thoughts contradictory? Asking people to only to improve efficiency, rather than curtailing use IS low-hanging fruit. What would makes more of a difference - driving a Prius or NOT DRIVING AT ALL?

KCMax wrote: Newsweek: Why We're So Clueless About Being Green

Aren't these two thoughts contradictory? Asking people to only to improve efficiency, rather than curtailing use IS low-hanging fruit. What would makes more of a difference - driving a Prius or NOT DRIVING AT ALL?

Highlander wrote:Drive a Prius if you wish.  Not driving is practically impossible everywhere in the US outside of a couple of select metro areas.

DaveKCMO wrote: socially unattractive, not impossible.

mudjack wrote: I lived for a few years in KC without a car. It's really not that bad once you get used to it. If we ever build a great transit system, I would consider going carless again.