Three more pieces of evidence that Japan is much more environmentally conscience than the U.S.:
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1. There is a very cool, new, innovative electricity generator already in use at a train station here which produces energy from people walking across a plate as they enter the station! It's absolutely ingenious. I wish I had thought of it. Maybe if the U.S. government (i.e. Bush) would stop denying global warming and dragging his feet on solutions, U.S. companies would be doing the innovation.
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1. There is a very cool, new, innovative electricity generator already in use at a train station here which produces energy from people walking across a plate as they enter the station! It's absolutely ingenious. I wish I had thought of it. Maybe if the U.S. government (i.e. Bush) would stop denying global warming and dragging his feet on solutions, U.S. companies would be doing the innovation.
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2. Many Japanese stores charge ¥5 (about 5¢) per plastic bag you get which encourages people to use reusable, canvas bags and the like. This was recently implemented in Ireland and has been a smashing success.
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3. Most Japanese apartments have only a washing machine and not a dryer. I'm not quite sure why this is. This was also true in Belfast and Papua New Guinea. I must admit, I like using a dryer -- not only it is a pain to hang laundry and take it down, but I like how the dryer makes the clothes softer and gets out more of the lint out. Nevertheless, dryers consume a lot of energy. Some people don't like seeing other people's laundry hanging out, but I don't mind -- it reminds me of how energy-conscience the country is. The picture below is taken from our new apartment -- you can see all of the laundry out. Our apartment looks just like the ones in the picture.
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I know of a few stores around here that are starting to do the same thing...charging about 5 cents per plastic bag...Ikea being one of them. I've yet to pick up some reusable bags but in the meantime have a HUGE stash of plastic bags that I reuse for tons of stuff and will start taking in my own plastic bags into the store until they fall apart. I also do three loads of laundry and only use two driers and hang the rest. Un poquito a la vez! Hasta luego :o)
ReplyDeleteSafeway & Trader Joe's sell inexpensive reusable bags & I think you get a discount when you use them. I haven't bought any yet but probably will. Right now we get paper at TJ's so we can put our newspapers in them for recycling. I have my IKEA bag b/c I am WAY TOO FRUGAL to pay $0.05 for a disposable bag when I can pay $0.59 for a durable one that can be used for a lot of things! Actually, the US is taking what I think is a better approach to green - it's being market-driven (vs. being forced to by our government). Consumers are demanding more "green" things & almost every magazine has some sort of "green" tip. I like seeing free-enterprise leading the way. However, I still want to see more solar, wind, nuclear, etc. energy as well as drilling in ANWAR. I plan on my next car being a diesel & after shelling out nearly $40 for to fill my 2-door convertible, I'm even more excited about diesel. I think overall (battery-life, tire-life, price etc.) that diesels are a better value & with low-sulfur & biodiesel a viable competitor to hybrids).
ReplyDeleteI agree that plastic bags can be useful -- we use them as garbage bags and reuse them for other uses, too. P.S. We love Ikea -- most of our furniture is from there.
ReplyDeleteGretchen - the free market has shortcomings and the environment is a major example. Pollution costs *nothing* to companies. They have no incentive to innovate and use cleaner fuels without government inducements. The bottom line is that slowly, the whole world is greening and will be demanding cleaner cars and cleaner fuel alternatives. The way the U.S. is going, all of that revenue will be headed to Japan and Europe instead of the U.S. because there is no home-grown market for the technologies. Just like right now all of our electronics come from Korea and Japan and how Toyota is now the #1 car company in the world. We are only shooting ourselves in the foot.
As far as ANWR goes, it is so short sighted to drill up there. The best case scenario is that we get some global warming-producing oil which will stave off the energy crisis for a couple of decades. The worst case scenario is that we don't get much oil and muck up a beautiful and pristine wildlife environment. What ever happened to the precautionary principle? I absolutely can't imagine that a genuine cost-benefit analysis including potential risks will show it's worth the effort (not to mention that it's not free, a costly infrastructure will have to be built -- probably given in a no-bid contract to Cheney's buddies at Haliburton)
All we have to do is put one of those plates under W's desk. With all the foot-dragging he does, we could power all of North America!
ReplyDelete"Global Warming" is not even finished, it is still open for discussions and arguments on whether humans are the main contributors. You should look at both sides of the argument; there are legitimate environmentalists and climate change experts whom challenges the "Global Warming" scare. No, they are not paid by oil companies.
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