Welcome to Blog Action Day! Today, over 7,500 blogs are participating, and this year’s theme is the environment. Some of the big supporters are Lifehacker, Reddit and Wired Magazine, among others. And basically the goal is to have bloggers all over the world talking about one topic on one day. Earlier this year, the "Bum Rush the Charts" movement was the same principle, just focused on independent music and power of podcasting as well as blogs.
But anyway, I digress (or if you happened to see the Family Guy Star Wars special…but I digest…), the goal of the day is to raise awareness, but not by changing blog formats, but including topics and discussions into blogs instead. And in a typical fashion for my blog, I have a random story/observation from the other day that fits in nicely. Click "Read More" to continue reading past the break… I was at Primanti Bros. in East McKeesport (I asked, the Monroeville location opens on Friday!) and I excused myself to go to the bathroom. As I was drying my hands using the blower, I read the labels on it, one of which talked about how it is better for the environment as compared to paper towels.
And while I think that might be true, I started thinking of what kind of research would have to be done to prove the accuracy of that claim. And while I’m not trying to be some sort of skeptic or anything like that, but it got me thinking about how it has to be powered, power that might have come from a fossil fuel plant, which isn’t the most environmentally-friendly.
And I think the same applies to the environmental/global warming debate in general. I’m not a researcher, I’m not a scientist, but I tend to take a stance in the middle of the whole debate. I do think that the planet goes through cycles of warming and cooling, but I also definitely think that the human race has had an impact, probably for the worse (as in, worse for wear) on the planet. To ignore the fact that humans have interacted, and influenced and change the world around them I think would be irresponsible.
But by the same token, so many people are claiming that this is a political issue and that people like Al Gore are only doing it for the political attention. Sadly, it’s a fact of life that we all live on the planet, and we should take an interest in it’s well-being, no matter our political affiliation (aside from using the environment as a scare tactic, that’s a bad thing). So I think that is the most aggrivating thing to me, so I just tend to ignore the clutter and try to make a difference.
I’ve talked about power options before, so I’m not going to reiterate those thoughts, but I will leave you with some practical information that everyone can use: Leave No Trace Outdoor Ethics!
Leave No Trace is a set of skills and principles that helps anyone outside to…leave no trace, leaving the environment so others can enjoy it as well.
The seven principles are:
1. Plan ahead and prepare
2. Travel and camp on durable surfaces
3. Dispose of waste properly (Pack it in, pack it out)
4. Leave what you find
5. Minimize campfire impacts
6. Respect wildlife
7. Be considerate of other visitors
And thankfully, these are mirrored throughout different organizations/hobbies that I’m involved with:
The Boy Scouts work with Leave No Trace, and they also work to promote their Outdoor Code:
As an American, I will do my best to be clean in my outdoor manner, be careful with fire, be considerate in the outdoors and be conservation minded.
And the geocaching community and their unofficial code:
The Geocachers’ Code
Safe · Legal · Ethical
When placing or seeking geocaches, I will:
* Not endanger myself or others.
* Observe all laws and rules of the area.
* Respect property rights and seek permission where appropriate.
* Avoid causing disruptions or public alarm.
* Minimize my and others’ impact on the environment
* Be considerate of others.
* Protect the integrity of the gamepiece.
And lastly, I don’t have a fun graphic for it, but SCUBA divers try to have as little impact as possible, including a quick reminder that is heard often: Take only photos, leave only bubbles." But of course, divers have to to extra careful to ensure that they are not harming the environment around them, usually by inadvertently hitting things around them (especially fragile coral) with their equipment.
That’s it for now, check out the Leave No Trace principles here, and I’ll catch you all later, lots of posts coming soon!
