Change the World Wednesday – 22nd May

The difference between a boss and a leader: a boss says, ‘Go!’ -a leader says, ‘Let’s go!’. – E. M. Kelly

— Daniel (@QuotePlayground) May 22, 2013

You could of course extrapolate that to “Go green!” and Let’s go green!” and then it has a lot of meaning for the whole process of CTWW. The people who participate in CTWW challenges are leaders. The ‘goers’ are the politicians. The leaders get things done, the politicians wait for things to be done.

So, stealing Small’s thunder for a bit; let’s get more things done!

My torre serving more as a liquor cabinet

Moving along…

My torre arrived and is installed; as predicted it came wrapped in plastic and had some thin polystyrene pieces protecting the layers. The main package was cardboard, so the pollutant waste was less than I had thought.

On Thursday, I bought a new coffee table. I won’t bore you here with the whole story, should you feel the need to be bored click on the link for the full saga; I can assure you that the first half of that post is less than boring, you may be shocked or indeed it may pique your interest.

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Having got this far… I need more coffee.

BRB

Out of yesterday’s coffee for a quick fix; have to brew some more.

Oh, so you’re just going to have to sit there and wait.

If you think I am going to write something of interest before the coffee is ready, then you’re wrong; with a capital WR!

I don’t care, it’s just the way things are.

If you try to get anything tangible from me at this point, you are wasting your time and placing your life in danger.

And, don’t start with that “you’re addicted to coffee routine” again… I am NOT!

The crisis has been averted, coffee is ready, resume your places everybody, the post can continue.

*as if nothing untoward happened*

Yesterday, I bought one of those economic lightbulb thingies. Basically, it was in a fit of pique because my last incandescent burned out in less than two months. I also gave a fleeting thought to economising.

It wasn’t one of those squiggly ones, they are terrible; everytime I see one, I want to reach for another bottle of wine.

Gone is the soft warm glow of my 60w incandescent. Instead, this post is being brought to you by the harsh white glare of austerity; I feel like a Greek… maybe I could get an EU bailout, they seems to be all the fashion.

Click on the banner for the full post

This week’s CTWW.

Level 1 (The Green Novice) – This week, for at least one full day, disconnect from the Internet except as needed for work (this includes hand-held devices).

 

OR …
Level 2 (The Advanced Greenie) – Disconnect from the Internet, except for work, for the entire week.

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There are more Levels, but in the need to economise, you’ll have to click on the banner to see them, that is should you feel the need to seek a higher plane than us lowly beings down here.

A blathering wreck

This one is terrible. In 24 hours I would be a blathering wreck without even considering the consequences of a whole wekk. (Typo left to show how nervous I am) I would feel like Oklahoma, devastated. I don’t want to look like Hilary Clinton!

Seriously, my PC is 24/7, even when I am sleeping my PC is working. How else am I going to pirate English textbooks like a responsible teacher? Of course, I can do without the movies and music, but my pursuit of perfecting the English language is my greatest virtue… in fact, it is my only virtue.

I am going to have to claim ‘work’, not because of the overnight downloads, but because of my blogs. I drink coffee, I am a serious blogger. Many of you may/may not be aware that I have eight blogs and they take a lot of work to maintain my target of a daily post on them all; as it is I don’t always achieve my tally.

Probably more important is the high possibility of a systems failure if I switch the PC off; sometimes it restarts good, but other times I have a bitch of a job. You see my PC is a girl and suffers from PMT = PC mental tantrums.

Not Lixo, but you get the idea

I do, however, switch off the monitor physically overnight because Lixo can’t sleep; he sits up all night in my chair trying to catch the status bars on the downloads as the creep across the screen.

Then he spends all day sleeping on my clean shirts. He says he is ironing them, but I don’t believe it, because an iron doesn’t leave cat hairs over the black one.

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Some of this post has been serious, some parts not so serious. That’s what happens when you overcaffeinate.

Change the World Wednesday – 19th Oct

Well, the week has flown by, I didn’t even get to post a Monday Moaning this week. Sorry about that, I do like to start the week off with a moan.

Last weeks CTWW post, almost had me convinced. I had previously been dead set against CFLs in the past, but I do try so hard to be a little greenish in my life, and I decided to cast my reservations to the wind and begin a slow replacement of the incandescent light bulbs, one as a trial, then others as they burn out.

But then I had a comment from a reader that jerked me back to reality and the myriad of reasons why CFLs should be avoided at all costs, you can read about that on Rather Frightening.

Here’s a quick demonstration that shows you that there is something definitely not right with CFLs.

Look at the two reflected spectra on the CD surface. The right is an incandescent light source, the left, a CFL.

Notice how the CFL has three ‘hot spots’ at the extremes of the spectrum. Ultra-violet and infra red. I am not an expert, but here’s the story from q-re-s.com, read it, it explains why the light from CFLs will never equal the light from incandescents.

Looks like we don’t yet have all the answers, and have shown that by flying off half cocked with CFLs. You know what? I can see the writing on the wall. It won’t be too far in the future when CFLs are banned (Germany has already legislated against CFLs in certain applications) and we have to replace with solution of the moment, be it LEDs or OLEDS or Super Dooper Non-carbon emmitting candles. Guess who gets to benefit? If you guessed you, then you are dead wrong… once again the corporations will reap their ill-gotten gains at your expense and gullibility.

Well, that got a bit long-winded…

This week’s Change the World Wednesday:

This week, find one way to lower the environmental impact of your pet.

OR …
If you don’t have a pet, suggest ways that we can protect wild animals.

Will have to wait. It’s 3:30am, and I am going back to bed…

Up again, got coffee.

Meow Meow when she was a kitteh...

At the moment I don’t have a pet. My last two, Meow Meow and da Meow were poisoned here in the praça (park) where I live.

How do you make a pet eco-friendly?

Well, I guess the major problem with pets is poop. Both used my compost heap. I used to put a small square of sand (collected from the street) next to the compost and when it got too soiled, I just turned it into the compost and got more sand. A few years ago when I had Pexote and Pivete, our two dogs, their poop was scooped off the lawn and straight into the compost.

Okay, that deals with what comes out, but what about what goes in?

I don’t buy (or didn’t) dry pet food, nor the canned stuff. I stopped that when I read about how they manufacture it and how the corporations control what advice your vet gives about such products. The vets say it’s good for your pet because the corporations dictate (by way of donations and funding) what the universities teach them to say.

The story I read of one vet who rebelled against pet food after having one of the dogs under his care become an epileptic, losing it’s fur, etc. He changed the dog to a diet of raw bones, yup, just raw bones and within two weeks the epileptic fits had stopped and the dog’s coat had begun to shine. He was working on the basis that that’s what dogs ate before humans started messing with their dietary needs. Since then all the animals he sees, he recommends a change back to raw bones and meat. The owners report that their pets become different animals, more active, healthier growth, lose their bad breath and fat ones lose weight and look like dogs instead of barrels on legs.

If your pet food comes like this, go and talk to your butcher about bones

I just put “processed pet food is bad” into Google hoping I could find the story, but it produced such a plethora of results, there wasn’t a hope of finding that particular one. You do it and have a browse. The first page of results has NOTHING good to say about processed pet food.

Another aspect of pets, fleas and such. When I had the cats, I couldn’t afford fancy flea powders at R$10 (about $7) a throw, I used a little sodium bicarb, rubbed that in and the fleas decided my cats weren’t such a good host.

I never used detergents or soaps or shampoos with my animals, just the garden hose and a good rub both for cats and dogs.

That’s about it, I guess. Not much, but I am interested to see what others have to say.

Good challenge.

 

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Rather Frightening

Are CFLs that safe?

Earlier in the week in my Change the World Wednesday post, I took the challenge to replace my incandescent light bulbs with CFLs as they expire.

I had previously resisted. Firstly because I had tried them in the past, seven years ago, and their purported longer life didn’t prove to be all that correct. Secondly, the frequencies of UV and electromagnetic radiation they emitted were harmful.

A comment left on my post, has also caused me to explore the ‘benefits’ again.

I found a wealth of information here, and it seems that the UV danger is from being in close proximity to the light source, bedside or reading lamps, but UV filters should be employed because CFLs do not have them. We know enough about UV radiation to know that it is harmful to the skin, especially those with sensitive skin.

Carbon Footprint

Then there is this consideration: “It may surprise many people to know that CFLs increase a consumer’s carbon footprint in a ‘cradle to grave’ analysis. Full costs to manufacture, operate and safely dispose of a CFL have never been disclosed to the public.” And…

Electro-Polluters

“CFLs emit electromagnetic radiation, a type of energy that can make people very sick. Many people have reported skin rashes and irritation due to ultra-violet (UV) radiation. Radio frequency radiation is even more of a concern.  The effects of exposure to radio frequency radiation, as well as to high voltage spikes and transients, are known to cause illness, are virtually ignored by environmental groups and green building consultants alike.”

Source: The Dark Side Of CFLs Read the full story, it tells of how the corporations are again making their profits via governments not doing the right things.

CFL vs Incandescent

While some countries are preparing to ban, or have already banned incandescent lightbulbs in favour of fluorescent or CFLs; there are others, New Zealand and Germany who have done an about turn on their bans and lifted them; and in the case of the latter introduced restrictions and prohibitions as to where CFLs can and cannot be used.

General Electric was researching HEIs but then this:

“GE Consumer & Industrial and GE Global Research have suspended the development of the high-efficiency incandescent lamp (HEI) to place greater focus and investment on what we believe will be the ultimate in energy efficient lighting — light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).”

Source: Environmental Leader Read more

All this can be tied up with this: “the problem that politicians wants incandescent bulbs phased out faster than the industry can deliver alternatives.” From EV as well.

So it all boils down to corporations and politicians, money and corruption; that we are only being told half-truths… again!

Oops!

The Final Straw

What happens if you break a CFL while installing or removing?

The clean up bill can run to $2,000… shocked?

Read this: The CFL mercury nightmare

Conclusion

Having recanted my original views, I am about to do so again. All the evidence to the contrary that I have been faced with affirms my original doubts.

Oh, and we haven’t even discussed the safe disposal of CFLs. I have searched and at the time of writing I can find no programme here in Brazil; one of the countries banning incandescent lightbulbs. We are talking millions (Brazil’s population is 180 million) of homes, many more millions of CFLs and no where to dump the mercury.