human power’s Recent Comments

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  Wow, after over four decades I'm coming back into style (the next thing you know it won't be legal to run over cyclists anymore). I live in the notoriously rainy Willamette Valley and only use a dryer when it insists on raining nonstop for double-digit numbers of consecutive days, and then only after removing as much moisture as possible by hanging everything inside my unheated house. Sadly, there are 104 households on my dead-end street, and only one other hangs their laundry to dry. On the upside, I have two neighbors who want me to build them lines now. My sister-in-law lives in one of those communities that prohibits laundry lines. In fact, she was reported for having her indoor drying rack located where it was visible from the road. I think CA tried to pass a law making anti-laundry line codes void, but I don't think it made it.On A surprising sneak peek at the clothesline revolution posted 5 days, 5 hours ago 31 Responses

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  Interesting article. From my own personal point of reference, I consider anyone who drives a car, heats a structure rather than retrofit it or uses air conditioning to be a climate change denier. Obviously, they rather outnumber those of us who maintain more concern for the quality of life available to billions of people than to our own sedentary pleasures. How sad. We may be the generation that ends history.On We have met the deniers, and they are us posted 1 week, 1 day ago 147 Responses

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  Sorry to quibble, but people who eat the meat from animals that someone else (or something else) killed and processed are not carnivores, they are more properly called scavengers. I like the other implications of Foodprovider's first comment. It would be nice to see the land that is given over to cars (fossil-fool powered wheelchairs) converted to greenspace. In fact, a recent article on the BBC site pointed out that proximity to large green spaces dramatically improves both the mental a physical health of people.On Corn-based meat and ethanol: burning the planet to a crisp posted 3 weeks, 6 days ago 85 Responses

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  Okay, I'm being lazy here, but what is the definition of renewable energy being used. Where I live our local public utility just agreed to subsidize (by purchasing power from) a biomass electricity generator. It is to be entirely fueled by unsustainable clear-cutting of the young trees around our degraded rivers. Would this qualify? How about nuclear? Personally, I would much rather see individual carbon quotas instituted so that one cannot simply buy the ability to destroy our environment.On Kerry-Boxer clean energy bill: Chairman's mark and EPA analysis released posted 3 weeks, 6 days ago 5 Responses

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  Good on you Gar. Believe it or not, I do enjoy a good celebration and public party. It's just that I am soooo tired of all the civic greenwashing around my brown town. For example, Oregon placed in the top five states for "energy efficiency". However, looking at the study, it only considered things on paper, not actual use. So, we have decent building codes; big deal when most of our structures predate insulation, huge amounts of work has been done sans permits and remodeling does not require retrofitting. In fact, the residents of Eugene use over twice the electricity per person as the last city I lived in in CA (almost identical climates). We have decent emissions standards for autos thanks to CA, but everyone drives SUVs to the coast/mountains every week. Nine months of the year I am virtually alone on the poorly maintained bike paths. That said, let's get enthused and enjoy our victories, but let's not pretend that sustainability is a brand you can buy at the warehouse store. We simply cannot shoehorn our energy-intensive American habits into a sustainable living arrangement. We can all do much better than we are; I know because I was once privileged to live in a city where over 90% of all personal transportation needs were met by bike. Perhaps because of this experience I don't get very excited by the sight of a few bikes in a parade even though I know we will have to start with a few in order to get a movement. Have a fun roving dance. It sounds like fun.On Find an action. Shout 350. Tell us about it! posted 3 weeks, 6 days ago 7 Responses