Thursday, March 1, 2012

It's a new month and I ought not digress into last weekends traffic nightmares- no surprise for Los Angeles on Oscar weekend. However, 2 failed attempts of going out for general errands not able to find parking + being stuck in traffic for up to an hour in a radius of 1 mile from my home is a bit outrageous.

The digression was had to make a point. If traffic is this bad, as in most cities, it must be communicated that our environmental problems persist. Like a child with a bad habit.

I once thought  that the general public did not have the tools necessary to understand how pollution + energy consumption could be reduced. However, as an adult, I realize these are problems simply ignored.

It's a challenge to live responsibly in this way but being mindful of how to do it isn't that hard. Turn off lights not being used, buy energy efficient products, take less trips with a car by planning ahead to do it all in one outing, recycle as much as possible, understand water is a luxury not to be wasted, plan your next home to be a shorter commute to work, walk or ride a bike once in a while, purchase reusable products, etc. These are simple concepts, the complexities are much greater when coming up with workable ideas on a global scale.

Check out your own carbon footprint: http://www.earthlab.com/ecp.aspx

(my carbon footprint per year is 6.9 Tons with an Earth Conservation Plan score of 242- beat that!)

Billy Crystal was the host of the Oscars this year and having once met him before, he described to me how in the 1970's you could not see the Hollywood Hills because of all the smog- thankfully someone was paying attention enough to clear up that problem!