Sam’s Comments (group member since Jul 26, 2010)

Sam’s comments from the Green Group group.

Well I'm glad I haven't depressed anybody with my rantings Reenbean!

I'm starting with customising, repairing and renewing the clothes I have then I plan to move on to making the more simple styles before hopefully moving on to the more complex garments. I've looked at hemp and I'm also going to try organic cottons and the like too. And of course trying for locally sourced materials as much as possible :-)

Apologies for coming to this thread so late but work has been rather manic of late.

I've been interested in nature and environment since I can remember and as a result I'm now an Ecological Consultant who works with contractors, developers etc to try and reduce the environmental impact of schemes, proposals etc.

On a personal level, while I do still eat meat (nature did make me an omnivore after all), I buy only organic and locally produced meat and keep my consumption to a low level. I also use a green non-profict energy supplier, do much of my own baking/cooking rather than buy food that is overly packaged and have recently started on the path to making my own clothes (although that is a little slow going admittedly) and those I do have a worn until they are in tatters and then used as cleaning rags, cushion stuffing etc.

My opinion of humanity as a whole gets lower and lower the older I get and to be honest I struggle to see people as a collective doing anything significant enough to protect the environment that 'hurts' their perceived standards of living or their wallets until they absolutely have to, which lets face it will be too late. I frequently get quizzed by clients with the classic 'well what are you doing to protect the environment?' when I tell them what mitigation measures they'll need to put in place for their schemes/proposals. Obviously I then feel rather smug when I give them my list of personal actions and actions my employers are also making.

Sorry to be depressing and negative but history shows that humanity is reactive and not proactive. Hopefully one day soon the message will get through that the green movement will help and protect them as much as the environment. Lets face it Earth has been through bigger things and come out the other side, so while we may be having massive effects on the environment, she'll bounce back and survive and when she does, she'll bite us in the backside (I'm strangely looking forward to this).

Well it is said that climate change increases the odds of freak weather occurring so there's a fair chance it is due to that. Trouble is there's no way to tell conclusively.

Have finally got around to reading this and I was actually quite impressed with it. I did find all the background experiments and psychology details a bit much but her ideas and ways of portraying things was really good and surprisingly readable. Certainly worth reading, especially if you work in a field that requires involving people who don't necessarily have the same take on green issues.

Damn good point that Marieke, luckily I've never locked my bike to a tree (couldn't even if I felt the need as I've got one of those heavy duty D locks for my bike which would never fit around a tree by itself never mind the tree and my bike). Seen a few do that in town here but they frequently got a stern talking to by any community officers that spot them.

Ooo that is quite freaky, obviously we share a wave length or two Kirsten!

It is interesting to see how different countries deal with these issues. I think a big thing about burying waste here is our lack of space to actually do so and the EU has increasingly tough guidelines in place governing such activities which make it more and more expensive. Which in turn forces companies/businesses etc to find suitable alternatives, it's probably the only reason why they do so to be honest but if that's what it takes, so be it in my view.

Marieke wrote: "Sam wrote: "Here in the UK our doctors and pharmacies will take any and all unused medication and dispose of it appropriately and there is a big campaign at the moment to get people thinking about ..."

Here they get re-used if they are still sealed and in date, either by shelters and emergency clinics or sent on to Third World countries. Or if they can't be re-used they are incinerated as bio hazard waste. This may not be ideal but air quality requirements minimise the emissions from such places and it does neutralise the chemicals within the medications so they don't have the environmental impacts they would have done if they were just flushed or sent to land fill.

Here in the UK our doctors and pharmacies will take any and all unused medication and dispose of it appropriately and there is a big campaign at the moment to get people thinking about the medications they have lying around and if they really need to keep getting more just to have it wasted. I don't think I would ever just throw medication out, no matter what I've done to them, it just seem right at all.

Marieke wrote: "Sam! I was going to ask about that! Gosh...maybe I'll find a book about sewage treatment after I read "Garbage Land." I'm also wondering if any knows anything about the doggy doolie septic systems ..."

I've never heard of those systems Marieke. My grandparents have dogs and tend to either leave their waste where it is (they live in the countryside so if it's on their land they leave it) or gather it up in biodegradable bags and add it to the compost heap. Get great fruit and veg out of it!

A friend of mine has a couple of cats and the litter she uses is biodegradable so can be flushed down the toliet rather than thrown out in the trash. Admittedly this may not necessarily be better but I know many sewerage works now use more environmentally friendly and natural methods of filtering waste and I reckon anything is better than landfill.

Marieke wrote: "here's a really fun idea! i'm going to do this myself but i'm going to do something better with the handles and possibly a lining."

I like that idea, I've got a fair few old t-shirts that I haven't wanted to throw out. I was thinking about turning them into draught excluders but this is a much better idea.

Marieke wrote: "thanks to a friend in another group, i found the the perfect tree!!!"

Now that's what I call recycling!

Kirsten wrote: "I don't know what I'd do if I had a fake tree. When I was a kid we used to go in the woods and cut one down, but now that my brother and I are pretty much grown, that doesn't really happen any more."

I would've loved to do that as a kid (actually I'd love to do that now) but here in the UK we don't really have the woodlands to do it as they've either been cut down already, are privately owned or are broad-leaved woodlands so don't really have good xmas trees in them.

Just out of interest why don't you do it any more, surely it's just as fun to do as an adult as it is as a kid?

I've gone for the artificial option as the lesser of two serious evils as there aren't any organic christmas tree farms anywhere near me (not sure if theres any in the UK for that matter). I figured that as long as I look after it and keep it for as long as possible that it's not quite as bad as the repeated, annual and excess use of herbicides. Would have rathered a eco friendly artificial tree though!

I try to buy as much as I can from my local markets rather than the supermarket, it's cheaper, better for the environment as the food is generally locally grown, there's less packaging, it's better for the community and best of there's plenty of banter with the stall holders, you don't get that kind of service in a supermarket!

I also buy my furniture, books and other household either from the market, secondhand stores or charity shops. Not only is it cheaper but you know the items are good quality as they've lasted years already (especially in the case of furniture).

Marieke wrote: "Sam wrote: "Marieke, we had a similar experiment done here in the UK getting people on Job Seekers Allowance working on farms and doing other jobs that migrant workers usually do. The idea was to ..."

Marieke, I'd love to see the video of that hearing. Be interesting to see how they address the issue of domestic farm workers. I know the debate here still continues especially now with government cuts to benefits and the like, the general debate of getting people off benefits and into work is getting wider coverage too.

Marieke, we had a similar experiment done here in the UK getting people on Job Seekers Allowance working on farms and doing other jobs that migrant workers usually do. The idea was to get people into work and see how they cope with those kind of jobs and hopefully put a stop to the arguement that they can't work because migrants are taking all the jobs and the results were very interesting. Half of the British workers quit after only a day or two complaining that the work was too hard or the conditions were too tough while the other half just got on with the job. It showed that although migration can be a problem it can also be a benefit as many migrant workers are willing to do jobs native workers will not (for whatever reason). I wonder if the same results will be seen in the US?

I remember the damage done by the Torrey Canyon spill off the west coast of Wales and that has only recently returned to what it was.

I was particularly annoyed by the news this morning as many of the papers are attacking Obama for being tough on BP over this whole incident, just because it's a British company. I mean come on people, I think they're missing the bigger picture. BP should be hung out to dry for the serious of errors and oversights that lead to this disaster and the slap-dashed effort it has made to fix the problem. As Lorne says where's the up-roar and outrage about that! It's disgraceful, I'm all for Obama putting BP through the courts and making them pay to clean up every last little drop of oil and to restore the area to what it was, no matter how much it costs, what it does to their profits or what it means for the shareholders. BP has a whole (shareholders included) need to take responsibility for the damage they have done.

Melissa wrote: "I've started the book and I have to say that I am hooked by the story being related by trees. I am a lover of trees in all ways rational and irrational.

Must finish this book right away!"

In that case Melissa, I bet you'll love this book, it is very much about the trees fighting back in their own way against the destruction that humanity has wrought, which is a premise I just loved.