Green Tech Girl

The big elephant in the living room that many environmentalists don’t want to address is the overpopulation problem. With 6 billion people on the planet and growing, we need to start looking at voluntary humane ways of keeping the population down. If we don’t, mother nature will do it for us in the form of plagues and natural disasters.

I’m a woman so it’s fair for me to blame women for this overpopulation problem. Far too often, we women use children as a means of making our egos feel good. Certainly, some of this is a biological urge, but it can’t be all that, since I’m a woman with regular hormones and a decent sex drive who doesn’t get all jazzed up over babies.

For some women, however, having a “baby” is the difference between happiness and despair. Enter the “reborn doll.” This is like a “real doll” for women, but instead of being an anatomically correct sex doll, the reborn doll is a lifelike baby doll. These things look so realistic that police officers have bashed in car windows to rescue the baby dolls from hot cars in the summer.

Most of these dolls are simply dolls with realistic features and mohair. But some are now getting robotic elements - a beating heart or a chest that rises and falls like the child is breathing. Soon enough, these dolls may end up going to the extreme of realism. I can’t imagine why anyone would want a barfing, pooping baby doll, but you never know. The creepiest thought is whether or not they’ll actually make these things capable of suckling on a woman’s breast. Eeuw.

So the question is, which is more damaging to the environment in the long run - real babies, or an army of robot babies, who require parts and plastic and electronic batteries and components and all that nonsense?

Hmm…

First incandescent bulbs were the enemy. Now CFLs are getting bad marks from the EPA for their mercury content. Are there any good light bulbs out there? Maybe we need to switch to soy candles or something…

The Sierra Club has a quiz on the energy efficiency of various television technologies. You can take the quiz here. (I got a high score even though I guessed on many of the answers.)

I was interested to find out that my guess that it’s better to keep my old CRT than trade it in for a large widescreen was right - keeping the CRT is probably the more eco-thing to do. Why? (more…)

Here’s an interesting article by Mike Adams outlining why he thinks digital cameras are better for the environment than film cameras, even with the technology.

I’ll add one more plus to digital: Not only do you save the environment by not developing so much film, you cut back on clutter. I have an entire box of old photos that just sit there, doing nothing. I have three old photos albums that also just sit there and take up space. I should just scan it all in, back it up and be done with it. Besides, do I really need to keep bad photos of me in college, wearing cut-off shorts, black tights, and combat boots? Um, maybe not.

OK, I realize it is a bit ridiculous that I live by myself and own three television sets. To be fair, however, they are older sets, the big heavy behemoths of yesteryear: two 27″ screens and an old 13″ TV with a VCR built in.

The 13″ was being thrown out by a roommate years ago, which seemed like a waste, so I snagged it. It’s now in my office near my computer. The second 27″ a friend gave me (her landlord had it sitting around gathering dust). It’s now in my bedroom. The third 27″ is in the living room. I like it, actually. It’s big enough to see but it doesn’t take up too much space.

So I guess I don’t quite see the point in this constant TV-upgradamania that we seem to be going through. HDTV - why should I care? I have enjoyed TV for decades without HD so I miss HD about as much as I miss 3D TV. Which is…never. (more…)

I just got a Costco membership after being taken there on two trips by different folks who swear by the low prices there. (You must be careful, however, to not buy bulk items that you don’t really need.) I shop at Trader Joe’s for most of my groceries, but on occasion I have a hankering for things like Gatorade, Skippy, and deluxe macaroni, so I go to a normal grocery store for those items. Costco seemed like a better option.

But what about Whole Foods? Isn’t that supposed to be the feel good, environmental grocery store? Sure, but it’s damn expensive. I simply cannot afford to go there and shop regularly. The location near me, in West Los Angeles, has prices sometimes double or triple that of Trader Joe’s. (more…)

I am old enough (cough) to remember when it was actually environmentally cooler to tell the grocery store checkout person that you wanted a plastic bag. Use a plastic bag, save a tree!

I guess that may sound naive now, but that’s what people were thinking in the 1980s.

Now things have turned 180 degrees and plastic bags are the scourge of Satan. China has just banned them, and many American cities are looking to do so as well.

The reason? People are lazy asses, I guess, and they just don’t know how to reuse or recycle these bags properly. So they end up flying around and causing all sorts of havoc. (I have to ask…just how do plastic bags escape from people anyway? The way they fly around, it’s as if some kid had a balloon on a string they let go of. My bags never fly anywhere - they are carrying stuff! Duh!)

Yet, when you look at it from a manufacturing and transportation standpoint, which is truly better: Paper or plastic? (more…)

One of my best friends in the office is a label maker. It is a small machine that has a keyboard with a tiny screen and all it does is output sticky labels. I finally got one to get some serious organizing done and I find it truly makes my filing 10 times easier.

I also re-use my folders this way, by applying new labels over the old ones.

Yet, I have to wonder. Which is worse for the environment: Throwing out used folders and killing more trees to make new ones, or re-using folders by sticking on a label that requires new tape, a piece of electronics, and waste in the form of a used tape cartridge?

Another option is to create new labels with a computer, but that also takes up paper, involves adhesive, and uses up printer ink.

I suppose I could just handwrite on the sheet of computer labels, but for some reason that seems to drop my productivity and organization by a huge amount.

I think my biggest concern with the portable label maker is the cartridge. There seems to be no way to recycle it.

Perhaps I should just get one of those old fashioned label creators, that punches it out on a simple roll of tape.

But then I wouldn’t have my fancy label-making toy. See…I’m now justifying my e-waste. Shameful, really. Oh well.