Re: I AM A TOTAL NEWBIE BUT HAVE AND IMPORTANT Q????
Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 3:02 am
Hi, Richie. Welcome.
Remember the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle? Everyone gets all excited about recycling (probably because some corporate clown can make a buck off it), but the most important one is the first: Reduce.
The problem is consumption, and the solution is to consume less. Less of everything. Everything that you buy contributes to global warming. The raw materials were gathered using petroleum-based fuels. They were processed and manufactured using energy that, at least in part, came from fossil fuels. Then they were wrapped in packaging that had to be manufactured. Then they were shipped vast distances, using petroleum-based fuels. All that fuel consumption contributes to global warming.
That is why self-sufficiency (-ish) is a good thing, and why you are in the right place. When you make things yourself, you are economical with materials, and you do far less shipping. When you grow your own food, you use less fertilizers, you typically don't use machines to harvest, and you don't have to ship the product anywhere. Even if you buy from a local farmer, he or she is more likely to be a small-scale operator who uses less fuel, less fertilizer, less petroleum-based pesticides, etc., and, again, there is less shipping than in buying a product that came from the other side of the planet.
It may not seem like much, but folks like you and me becoming more self-sufficient is what will save the planet. In addition to our own activities, it reduces demand for the products of the big corporations. The only things that will force them to change their ways are either people like us refusing to buy their products, or their eventually running out of resources - which would spell disaster for us all.
So, self-sufficientish is the way.
Remember the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle? Everyone gets all excited about recycling (probably because some corporate clown can make a buck off it), but the most important one is the first: Reduce.
The problem is consumption, and the solution is to consume less. Less of everything. Everything that you buy contributes to global warming. The raw materials were gathered using petroleum-based fuels. They were processed and manufactured using energy that, at least in part, came from fossil fuels. Then they were wrapped in packaging that had to be manufactured. Then they were shipped vast distances, using petroleum-based fuels. All that fuel consumption contributes to global warming.
That is why self-sufficiency (-ish) is a good thing, and why you are in the right place. When you make things yourself, you are economical with materials, and you do far less shipping. When you grow your own food, you use less fertilizers, you typically don't use machines to harvest, and you don't have to ship the product anywhere. Even if you buy from a local farmer, he or she is more likely to be a small-scale operator who uses less fuel, less fertilizer, less petroleum-based pesticides, etc., and, again, there is less shipping than in buying a product that came from the other side of the planet.
It may not seem like much, but folks like you and me becoming more self-sufficient is what will save the planet. In addition to our own activities, it reduces demand for the products of the big corporations. The only things that will force them to change their ways are either people like us refusing to buy their products, or their eventually running out of resources - which would spell disaster for us all.
So, self-sufficientish is the way.
and welcome to ish. 
great question richie, it is only when people ask questions and not blindly follow like a bunch of lemmings off a cliff that things begin to happen.
every little bit counts!!!! and if you add up everybodys little bits i think that we the people will do more than the big guys in the long run.
I think it was something like "What can I do to combat global warming?"
, whatever the OP was up to.