It's Confusing Being Green!!

Remember back when we celebrated Earth Day 10 years ago, its 20th anniversary, and how all the stores were selling and promoting earth-friendly products? We stood in grocery lines deliberating over whether or not to ask for "paper or plastic" from the bagger. Then, the grocery stores started selling those nifty reusable cloth bags. (How many of us are still using them?)

Now, with the recent 30th anniversary of Earth Day and the ensuing flood of green products hitting the market, it seems I'm faced with more dilemmas in trying to be good to Mother Earth. Now, you know I am a skeptic about global warming being caused by humans, but I do believe in taking good care of this beautiful planet God created. But how fortuitous that we have those oh-so-helpful Hollywood celebs telling us all the things we should and should not be doing! I remember Oprah and her guests recently promoting the new compact fluorescent lightbulbs -- that they last much longer and save energy. When I went to buy them, I was shocked at how much they cost, so I decided maybe next payday.

Well, now I'm glad I didn't buy those bulbs!! I just caught on FoxNews the other day a remark from Britt Hume about them being bad for the environment! It turns out that breaking one of the bulbs could cause mercury to leak out! The CFLs used inside contain enough to be dangerous! He reports of one woman breaking a compact fluorescent bulb in her daughter's bedroom and having to spend $2,000 to have the mercury pollutant properly cleaned! (Source: "Junk Science: Light Bulb Lunacy.")

About hybrid cars: I read in my local paper of a police officer having to take disability for 6 months after being exposed to sulphuric acid. She was trying to move a hybrid car, damaged in an accident, when she breathed in the dangerous fumes and damaged her lungs! Now, emergency responders need to be aware of the extra hazards they face when working an accident scene involving such cars. (I'm not all that impressed with hybrid cars, by the way. It's a pretty pricey technology for not much return for your dollar. My Hyundai, when they first hit the US market back in the 80's, got almost 50 mpg. And, remember the Moody Mobile back in the 70's? That was the father and son team who were amateur car racers. They had modified a simple gasoline engine so that it got 70+ mpg! They sold the rights to one of the big car manufacturers. We all said to each other: "We'll never hear of that again!" Sure 'nuf!)

And, biofuels?!? The confusion continues! Notice food getting more expensive, such as milk? That's because oil companies are buying up corn like crazy to make ethanol. It has also caused tortillas in Mexico to soar 40% in one month recently! And, now some environmental groups are coming out with great concerns about the impact biofuels could have on our planet. It seems that Brazil, for example, produces a lot of biofuel from sugar cane and soybeans, but at the expense of the rainforest (Source: "Brazil's biofuel plan is unsustainable").

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, The World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth say that "the Government's dash for biofuels is ill thought out, lacks appropriate safeguards and could be creating more problems that it solves." The danger lies in biofuels being produced at the expense of rainforests and wetlands, which would threaten endangered habitats and species. They could also release far more carbon into the earth's atmosphere. And, not all biofuels are created equal: they vary widely and some can even result in an overall increase in greenhouse gas emissions (source: 'Green fuels' could be bad for the environment). Now, some scientists -- the anti-global-warming-hysteria scientists -- don't put much stock in CO2 and other greenhouse gases being a problem, but we all know how essential our forests are to our planet. I find it ironic, though, that the Greens first want alternative energy sources, and then biofuels turn out to perhaps cause an even bigger problem.

Just because something is a renewable resource doesn't mean it's good for the environment. According to some environmental groups, palm oil diesel can be extremely detrimental to the environment. This large, lucrative crop causes Indonesia to clear rainforest land to grow more crops. In Europe, rapeseed oil is a primary biofuel, but it is expensive to produce. Therefore, when Europe opts to purchase the cheaper Indonesian product, it is, according Der Spiegel, subsidizing the destruction of vital rainforests (source: "The Fuels of the Future: Farming the World's Energy").

A recent study by atmospheric scientist Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford University found that ethanol can pose substantial health risks. “If every vehicle in the United States ran on fuel made primarily from ethanol instead of pure gasoline, the number of respiratory-related deaths and hospitalizations would likely increase,” states the media release for Jacobson’s study. "Ethanol is being promoted as a clean and renewable fuel that will reduce global warming and air pollution,” said Jacobson, “but our results show that a high blend of ethanol poses an equal or greater risk to public health than gasoline, which already causes significant health damage.” (Source: "Junk Science: Green-Gas Lighting?")

So, what's a hard-working, beer-budget, trying-to-be-earth-friendly person supposed to do? I propose sticking with the basic, cheaper, easier things to do and wait out the hoopla about new products until their kinks have been worked out.