Saving the Environment, One Pinterest DIY Tutorial at a Time

For as often as we talk about saving the planet, as a species, we often fall into the category of 'all talk and no action'.  We talk about taking the bus once in awhile, or using reusable shopping bags, or recycling.  But this often falls short of turning into legitimate action to reduce our impact on the planet.  Basically, we are incredibly good at avoiding what we should do most of time.  For example, am I eating tortilla chips for dinner?  Yes, yes I am.  (They were a vegetable at one time, right?)

But sometimes, the things we should do come in the disguise of something we want to do.  One way this occurs:  Pinterest.

Now, of course, we all know that the main purpose of Pinterest is so women can plan their future weddings in digital splendor, from dress, to ring, to colors.  Of course, I'm kidding. (A little).

But one thing Pinterest is also really good at is providing users with endless 'do it yourself', or 'diy' tutorials for everything homegood and craft-related.  Do you want to learn how to stain wood using ingredients like tea, vinegar, and hydrogen peroxide?  There's a tutorial for that, here.  Do you want to make a bowl out of an old record? You can learn how to do that here. (I've tried this one before, pictures below.  It's actually pretty easy and turns out well.)  How about a windchime made out of old beer bottle caps? Here's a tutorial for you. (Actually, this one is cool, too.  It took forever to save the caps, but there's a picture that, too.)

I made this, for some reason.

I made this, too.

Now, most of these crafts seem rather pointless.  But they have one thing in common: reusing materials that would otherwise be thrown away.  Reusing, recycling, and repurposing are all major themes that unite the many tutorials of Pinterest.  And this is important because it provides a way for everyday people to reduce their impact on the environment by reducing the sheer amount of things they send to the landfill each year.  And not in a way they should -- in a way they want to.  Admittedly, the impact of this is only minimal, but it is better than nothing.

Furthermore, the proliferation of Pinterest in everyday society shows that the concepts of diy, and finding ways to turn our trash into treasure are something that people are interested in.  It shows a cultural shift to being concerned about what we throw away, what we use in our homes, and how that affects the environment.  And more important than any number of beer bottle windchimes or paper flowers, this cultural shift will be what puts us on a path to being more sustainable going into the future.  Which is what we really need.

Yeah, I made these, too.

Yeah, at this point I'm just bragging a little bit.

As an added bonus, I had to find a way to incorporate this video into my blog.  This is a perfect representation of the true emotional connection to crafting -- a lot of love, but an even greater amount of trial and error and cussing.  (Warning: video contains mild, edited profanity.)

Noise Pollution

Noise Pollution

Of all the types of pollution, noise pollution is one of the most abstract forms.  It doesn't make sense that sound can be likened to CO2 emissions or smog.  It seems strange because it usually doesn't directly harm anyone directly -- it's just really really annoying. 

So noise... pollution?

Noise pollution isn't just being made to listen to Nickelback ad nauseum.  Noise pollution occurs when loud noise disrupts or harms the balance of life for both humans and animals. Some of normal culprits include:

• Cars
• Airplanes
• Outdoor concerts and events
• Parties
• Manufacturing facilities

The Effects

In more concrete terms, sound becomes noise pollution when it begins to disrupt sleep, conversation, or hurts an individual's overall health (according to the EPA).  Over longer periods of exposure, noise pollution can contribute to many adverse health effects, including:

•  High blood pressure
• Stress
• Sleep loss
• Hearing loss
•  Speech interception

Noise as Pollution

Like all forms of pollution, noise becomes noise pollution at levels when the private marginal cost of more noise is different than the social marginal cost of the same noise.  The way that noise pollution differs from different forms of pollution is that it is more difficult to tell how much is too much.  It is possible to determine safe levels of many pollutants and from there create guidelines for lessening the amount of that pollutant overall.  Noise is much trickier because it is largely subjective to each individual.  While we can determine noise levels that lead to hearing loss, the lack of more instant physical harm associated with noise means that one person's rock concert is another person's noise pollution. 

Some Solutions

Admittedly, most of the solutions to noise pollution come from trying to remove the sources of noise, or from moving pollutees away from the source.  As with rock concerts or even bars, it is less typical to find housing right next to these places.  It is a combination of land use planning and zoning that causes this, as well as pure economics in that anything built there wouldn't be worth what it took to build housing there. 

Many communities also use legislation to lessen the amount of residential noise in many areas, specifically with regards to parties.  While cities often can't outright ban parties, they can make it much more difficult to have parties.  An example of an indirect attempt at lessening parties includes the Social Host Ordinance that is being proposed in Fort Collins, CO (you can read about it here).  If this ordinance is passed, it would hold the host of the party liable for any underage drinking that occurred at the party.  It seems that this is unrelated to noise pollution, but in a college town where a lot of underage drinking happens at house parties, this bill could create an incentive to students to not host parties -- thus reducing the amount of noise pollution.

The Where of Food

Food...

I know I talk about food a lot.  It's not just because I like food (like this. Seriously, doesn't this look good?).  It's not simply because food service is how I pay my rent.  But because it is perhaps one of the biggest challenges in sustainability.  And it is a challenge that we can't legislate or reduce our way out of very much because as a society, we need food. 

Food is a Multifaceted Problem

Food is perhaps the most unique challenge in sustainability only because it contributes to greenhouse gas production and resource degradation in so many various ways.  Some of them include:

• Land Use - It takes land to produce food, whether you are growing corn or using grazing pasture for cattle. 
• Water Use - Like land, growing food also requires water.  While water is a renewable resource, the challenge typically comes when water resources are not located where they need to be all the time.  Some places have too much water, and some places don't have enough.  Furthermore, growing large quantities of food in one place may be inefficient because there isn't naturally enough water in an area.  But we grow food there anyway.
• Methane Emissions - Methane is a greenhouse gas that is estimated to be more effective at holding heat than carbon dioxide.  Food contributes to methane emissions in several ways, including emissions from cattle farts (recall discussions of cow farts from other posts) and as wasted food decomposes.  
• Carbon Emissions - While growing food generally works to decrease carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, our tendency to grow food far away from where it is sold and consumed forces us to transport our food.  This transportation often produces a lot of carbon dioxide due to vehicle emissions.
• Soil Nutrient Degradation - Large-scale farming can contribute to the degradation of nitrogen and other nutrients in the soil that make it fertile for other things to grow
• Fertilizer Use and Other Pollutants - In order to combat soil nutrient degradation, large-scale farming operations tend to use fertilizers to artificially replenish the nutrients in soil.  However, many of these fertilizers have the potential to hurt drinkable water supplies by polluting the water with harmful substances.  In addition to straightforward fertilizer use, maintaining the health of agricultural goods (cattle, etc.) leads to the use of other substances such as antibiotics, microbes, ammonia, nitrates, heavy metals and salts that can pollute water sources.

Unlike Manufacturing

Unlike manufacturing and other sectors, it is much more difficult to ban, lessen, or even discourage many of the practices that lead to each of these barriers to sustainable food.  We don't need a big screen TV or another car in the way that we need food.  Unlike manufacturing and other sectors, the emissions and pollution created by producing food are necessary and impossible to avoid.

The Way We Grow Food Doesn't Help

While food production leads to each of these other problems, the core reason for this is that we are trying to grow foods in ways that doesn't work very well and doesn't make much sense.  We grow food far away from where it is consumed, and in areas that aren't suited for food production.  Furthermore, the distribution channels of food place it far away from where it is consumed too.  An example of this is the phenomenon known as a 'food desert,' which is when there is no affordable, conventional grocery store located within a reasonable distance of where people live.  While it may seem obvious if this occurs in small towns, the problem is also common in inner cities, too.

How Can We Fix It?

It is true that we can't do very much to reduce the amount of food we produce.  Food waste is a problem, yes, but it is a problem that isn't going anywhere.  So that leaves us with the general solution of trying to produce food closer to where we sell and consume it.  Also, this comes from producing food in areas that are suited for it, and producing foods that are naturally suited to the climate of a region.  It generally comes down to producing food in ways that are naturally efficient, rather than overly-manipulating conditions to create the right climate for our food.  It isn't perfect, but it's a start.