A non-clicky poll to liven things up....

Lucyboo25

If you could get everyone in the world to commit to ONE green behavior, what would it be and why?

I'd turn the planet entirely vegetarian.

GRKaters

Everyone would use reusable shopping bags exclusively.

 

Mrs.MauiBride24

Easy access to recycling.  And if you already have that, then recycling!

Maybe I have it too easy, but it's not that hard!  I get frustrated w/ a friend who won't recycle because "there's no room for another can/bin/bag in our kitchen" and also complains about the city only picking up trash once/week... if they recycled, their trash would be much, MUCH less.

tigerhearted

I can't decide between:

1) Organic and hormone-free everything, including grass-fed free-range beef/chicken/etc, plus more locally-available products.

and

2) Convenient, reliable, and efficient public transportation that everyone uses.

toadstool

I like the public transportation idea. I wish our city had a better system. I have looked into taking the bus to work a few days a week and it would take me over 2 hrs to travel about 7 miles. Also the bus lines are not running often enough. I would either get to work about an hour early or about an hour late.

fireytiger

I would change the way people handle transportation. I would have all the roads set up for bicyclists and/or pedestrians to get around easily. I would have better public transportation for those who can't walk or ride bikes. And all those SUVs that get like 5mpg? No more of those. I love it in Kansas City, but that is one thing that I can't stand, is that it's almost impossible to get around in the Kansas City metro area without a car. The public transportation system is a joke at best, and any calls to improve it get voted down. And of course, everyone LOVES to drive Hummers, SUVs, big trucks to boost their ego rather than to actually haul things... there's a lot of waste out here and it saddens me.

Joenali

The chemicals we use to clean. We use vinegar at home I guess it would be nice if everyone could ditch the harsh chemicals we clean our houses with.

juno

One child policy down to 2 billion, two child policy after that.  Because I think that's what the UN says that's what our sustainable population is at a reasaonble standard of living.  If it's some other number, whatever that number is.

IndiaInk

Pasture-raised meat animals instead of our industrial agriculture system that is currently in place. 

jennyk213

tigerhearted:

1) Organic and hormone-free everything, including grass-fed free-range beef/chicken/etc, plus more locally-available products.

This. 

Ms.Jade

No more disposables. It's so senseless. People with their paper plates, whole offices with nothing but styrofoam cups, and I hate to think about how many millions of Starbucks cups get tossed each day. Everyone would have to bring their own reusable cups etc.

annabelle.27

A lot of good ideas here... I like the ones about public transportation (I don't use it myself because it sucks in my city, but I would if it were a practical option for me), no more disposable anything, no harsh chemical cleaning agents, and organic everything.

I think mine would be either only locally-grown food (excepting those who live in climates that can't grow food year round- they can import during non-productive months), which would force more cities to look at creative ways to grow food (I watched a documentary once about how Cuba has renovated old skyscrapers in the city to grow food in, providing work, cheaper food, and lower pollution), or composting/recycling.

MrsBrownsFan

I would love to see us get all of our power from solar, wind, or water sources.

I would also like to see animals for food raised only in humane ways. 

elviebird

I mentioned limiting to 2 kids per family and got flamed to high heaven by The Bump. 

But I like the idea of no disposables!!

fireytiger

Yeah, I admit, I'm not wild about the idea of limiting how many children a person is allowed to have, simply because of how screwed up things have gotten in China because of that (people killing their daughters because they value sons more, etc). Just like I wasn't super wild about "turning everyone vegetarian" idea, because i'm allergic to many non-meat sources of protein (like beans), and a number of veggies. But, this all was just a hypothetical "what would you do" thing, so I don't think anyone is gonna fly off the handle for it.

belovedbride07

tigerhearted:

I can't decide between:

1) Organic and hormone-free everything, including grass-fed free-range beef/chicken/etc, plus more locally-available products.

and

2) Convenient, reliable, and efficient public transportation that everyone uses.

These are both big ones for me, too.  On 1, I frequently tell DH in the grocery store, "I wish I didn't have a choice."  I feel like the prices for organic wouldn't be so hard to stomach if I didn't have a non-organic option to compare it to.  (Although our last Whole Foods trip definitely boosted our EF egos when we came away with a week's worth of groceries, including some meat, for about $80...definitely not as bad as we thought!)

And for 2, I have a deep, deep love for public transportation (and a deep, deep hate for driving).  Unfortunately, I also have a deep, deep love for living in Southern California.  When we buy a house, we're hoping we can take public transit options into account, but it's so hard around here.  We live 13 driving miles from work, and it would take 2 hours each way to take the bus. 

fireytiger

Well, the quality of public transit depends on where you live I think. For me, I used to live in the San Diego area and I found the public transit at least usable. I could still get just about anywhere I really needed to go without a car, even if it took longer. But out here in Kansas City, it's ridiculous. There are very few bus lines, none of them really intersect well, you can sometimes have to wait an hour or two in between each bus, some of them stop running at like 4pm (WTF is the point of the bus then?!), and overall it's just a joke. But unfortunately here, we all live in the Kansas City METRO area, but we don't all live in Kansas City. So if you live in a suburb of Kansas City, you are not likely to be able to vote for things like public transportation propositions, even though you pay taxes to Kansas City, even though propositions for Kansas City will affect you. Every time those come up, they get voted down. Never fails.

FH and I are trying to find an apartment that's somewhat close to work, that is also close to grocery store and pharmacy (for his numerous prescriptions) so we can just walk or ride the bikes. But it's very hard, it's not set up for that out here at all. No sidewalks in most areas, no bike lanes... *sigh* And here I thought I'd never miss San Diego when I left :P

AmyLane542010

tigerhearted:

1) Organic and hormone-free everything, including grass-fed free-range beef/chicken/etc, plus more locally-available products.

 

I whole heartedly agree with this!

SuperGreen

belovedbride07:

(Although our last Whole Foods trip definitely boosted our EF egos when we came away with a week's worth of groceries, including some meat, for about $80...definitely not as bad as we thought!)

Nice work!  I buy like 5 things from WF and come away with an $80 bill

Mine would be that no one use anything disposable.  No more plastic bags, paper plates, paper towels, single-serving food, or plastic containers.  And no more semi-disposable consumer goods either, like computers that slow down and break after 2-3 years, cars that only last 100,000 miles, or appliances that are cheaper to buy a new one than fix the one you have.  Disposable goods take a huge amount of resources to mine, manufacture, ship, package, ship to the consumer, and store in a landfill until the end of time, and such a small fraction get recycled or reused.   

Daisy07gray

Amazing ideas ladies!  #1- I'd want to make it super expensive/ inconvient to throw things out- plastic bags, recyclables, appliences, containers... things would be more fresh and the cost of things would be lower overall once a demand for products that lasted.  #2- get rid of hormones and chemicals-- in our homes, foods, medicines, all over!

SpruceGrouse

I would make everyone, wild eaters.  Hunters and gatherers with gardens and small hobby farms, no more commercial food.  Large plots of land are not destroyed for crops and raising livestock.

we only eat meat we shoot and  never buy commercial meat.  We do a lot of gathering and growing too.  Wild game that you hunt yourself has a lower impact on the environment than tofu.  Think of the carbon footprint.  Also people that think they are not killing animals by eating tofu are wrong, the tractors can't work on fields that are full of groundhog holes, so they all get shot and discarded without being used for something else. Then there is the land that is cleared that destroys habitat.  When I take a deer from the woods, that is the only thing that leaves the woods, I don't have to cut down a lot of trees.

Nothing wrong with being vegetarian, but they would grow their own protein. and collect wild roots, shoots, fruits and vegetables.  I think that would be the best form of vegetarianism.

 I'm sure this wouldn't work now though with such a large human population, there would still be the greedy people that would take more than they need and that would ruin it for everyone else.

So I guess eliminating greed would make a bigger impact.

 

haislil

Everyone would be vegan.