Friday, April 20, 2007

I'm a bad, bad man


While watching 20/20's Earth Day Special, I found out just how horrible I am:

I use paper towels. 20/20 just told me about the obscene amount of paper towels I will use in my lifetime. It's a big number.

I am a bad, bad man.

Diane Sawyer also said I use too many of those plastic grocery bags. Well, I do have a whole cupboard full of them. They are just waiting there in a big clump for their turn to go walk the dog with me and be turned inside out to pick up poop. After I throw them away, the bags last thousands of years, but the poop doesn't. Poop is good.

I am a bad, bad man.

I like cheap stuff and that's bad. I should desire to spend much more money on my stuff, but since I am so darn cheap, I am forcing China to make my stuff. When China makes my stuff, they pollute the world. If only I didn't want cheap stuff.

I am a bad, bad man.

I occasionally take a shower. Diane says (I feel like she talks to us like we're kindergartners) that if I (and everyone else) lop one minute off my shower, than the state of Texas can have drinking water for a month. I sometimes just bask in the warmness of the shower for my own selfish satisfaction--it feels good.

I'm a bad, bad man.

Turns out I use electricity too. Now I thought Diane liked electricity better than gas, not enough for me to stop worrying about using it. I felt real bad when Diane took me on a tour around the world and showed me how they turned the lights out on all the landmarks. It's not as pretty with the lights out.

I am a bad, bad man.

In China they have a lot of bicycles. They are good people. I have a bicycle and I even considered riding it to work, but I found out it would take me a whole 20 minutes and I'd arrive all sweaty. I like cars.

I am a bad, bad man.

Sorry.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I definitely do what I can. As a child they placed a dump right next to where my parents live. The neighbors fought it but the company one. There is lots of land around my parents way. My father took my brother and me to see the dumping zone a few times each year. I saw the amount of waste that accumulated. It didn't get smaller it just kept getting massive. I went back there a few years ago and the amount of trash is staggering. I guess you could say seeing all that stuff that would not decompose is forever hammered in my brain. I saw how the place was before all the trash and now twenty five years later I'm seeing exactly how much stuff we can accumulate.
I'm all for conserving, using alternatives if possible, but some of the "leaders" do more harm than good since they have the Do As I Say Not As I Do mentality. Occasionally I talk about it and I also practice what I preach. Hmm, not sure if I call it preaching since I don't go out of my way to tell everyone I know. I do a lot of simple things such as I take cloth bags to the grocery store. I used cloth wipes instead of baby wipes. :-)
I'm a tree hugging conservative. ;-)
..and no you aren't a bad man. :-)

Anonymous said...

I should have typed "won"

UGN said...

Opal:

If I grew up next to a dump I guess I might have another perspective too. I don't mean to leave the wrong impression, but I do plenty of things that are environmentally friendly. In California they want to outlaw incandescent bulbs, which is a huge abuse of the state's power. I am against it, but I ALREADY use the spiral energy-saving bulbs. I am very responsible and save and conserve too; I just don't like being told we have to or else the earth as we know it will destruct.

Thanks for dropping by again!

Anonymous said...

Why do they want to outlaw the lights?
I sent you an email in regards to Baraka. I'll also reply to it on my website.

UGN said...

yes, there is a bill in CA to ban the use of regular light bulbs and make everybody buy those flourescent bulbs that run only 13 or so watts as opposed to 60, 75, 100 watts or more. I save a lot of money on my electricity bill by using the energy-saving bulbs myself, but I am opposed to a law telling people what kind of bulbs they need to buy.

jon said...

I'm a much worse man than you. Rest easy.

UGN said...

Jon:

You've got promise not to tell anyone: I don't save my aluminum cans.