[Pops]

So, thousands (maybe 10s) of posts this year on what They are doing to wreck the planet.

Lets have one on What I Did to save it.

In no particular order:
Saved water +/- 40%
LEDs = ?
New Energy Star Appliances (instead of move our 10-30 year old stuff 1500 miles last year)
Total miles driven, 2k +/- (2 people/2 cars) = 10k less than US average for our age
No "trips," no planes,
"heat pump" water heater. +/- 50% savings
Lots of new insulation, weatherstripping the old house
In fact most of our discretionary purchasing was for parts to use in "recycling" an old house. not sure if that is a plus or minus lol
And we have a pretty low income, itself a kind of mitigation, I guess. It was actually voluntary and planned, one of my most successful, LOL.

Toot yer horn!

[diemos]

Same thing I do every year.

Don't have kids.

[potterpaul]

Hey Diemos,

Me too, no kids this year, or any other year. Yeah, and I'm heating my place with wood, just like the last forty years.

Happy New Year, All.

[penury]

Absolutely nothing, the planet will b fine its humans are going away in my opinion not soon enough.

[JuanP]

I didn't have any children this year. As a matter of fact, I've never produced any biological offspring in my life. I think that is the best thing that any person can do for the planet. I also grow most of my food organically, and teach others how to grow organic food at the community gardens I visit. I also manage two butterfly gardens where we save thousands of Monarch and other types of butterflies every year. I also planted more than a thousand milkweeds.

[Peak_Yeast]

I did the same as always:

No partying
No travelling
No silly gifts race with friends or family
Only turns on the water heating when we need hot water.
All lightbulbs are flourescent or LED and has been for years.
About 80% of our energy for heating and electricity produced by our solar panels this year.


Besides:
1. Repaired this computer (and others) that im writing on right now that I found in the scrapyard
2. I also installed a heat pump SCOP 3.8 (COP 4. to replace last years petroleum oven. This has enabled me to keep a steady lower indoor temperature thus saving a lot of energy. We have 17C normally in the house now which is the lowest setting.
3. I built a triangular solar air heating covering the entire end of the house (about width 5m height about 4m) from second hand materials.
4. Improved the insulation on the fridge. Next I will pump cold air in the winter through a coil in it thus saving energy.
5. Improved double rubber seals on doors and windows
6. Made the first 3 raised beds for vegetables and planted winter crops like brussel sprouts.
7. Insulated the outhouse with second hand materials
8. Purchased second hand windows and doors with high quality two layer glass to replace the old 1 layers. 5 windows installed so far. 8 to go. And 1 door - 1 more to go.
9. Ripped and dug out the second entrance and insulated it to a high standard.

Oh yeah and worked only 1 day a week on official business. Like pops - very successful - besides it makes me feel I have a real life with the content i want. And I ruined the national GDP as much as possible which makes me very happy.

Thats about it.

[Shaved Monkey]

I didnt make any babies
Though
I drove virtually the entire east coast of Australia down and back up about 8 days x $50ish of fuel a day = $400ish
So my fuel bill for the year increased from the average of about $200ish a year.
Still fairly respectable compared to average Australians, but crap compared to the average third worlder.
While I was away I repaired fences, houses, appliances,and general plumbing for various family members and a few random strangers,re-used second hand material and extending the life of virtually everything I touched,meaning less shopping for everyone.
Also prepared and planted my dads vegetable garden which is feeding him now.
While I was away my solar panels generated enough electricity to have the power company pay me $50.
Back home veggies planted already feeding me virtually all my greens, all my herbs and lots more as well.
Virtually all my meals are cooked at home from scratch, with as much home grown content as possible, so menus reflect whats in abundance.(until the wife gets sick of eggplants then its barter time)
Water tanks are virtually full and the wet season hasn't started so the trees and veggies are getting a good watering with last years rain water to try and make room for this years rains when they come.
No Xmas presents, no excessive shopping,not much turning the cogs.
Bird bath is being refilled regularly to maintain stressed birds, during an El Niño year
Lots of beneficial plants have been grown to maintain the insect population.
Soil microbes are being regularly fed.
More trees and plants have been planted.

[SeaGypsy]

Lol Shaved I'm doing 2000km a week all this year, most of it in a 22 tonne truck, burning about $600 in diesel.

Mum had all her grandkids together yesterday for the second time ever, was a nice day with the family, rare that I'm down south.

[Newfie]

I don't know that did jack to "save the planet." What could one reasonably do?

Sure we all try to reduce, reuse, and recycle....but that's slowing the demise, not saving.

As always when I worked it was on mass transit projects. But I don't believe they "save the planet", just slow the death, and make more room for more people. Really not helpful at all.

We try to live light on Earth, and pretty much completed our work to move aboard and be largely off grid. But we will rent out our apt., so it will continue to exist and be an energy hog, so what does that really do? Not much if anything.

The one thing of some value is the land we bought up in Nova Scotia. I did nothing to it or with it, but just let it sit there sucking up carbon. I protected it from human influence. That is a positive.

[ROCKMAN]

newfie - Isn't that's the basic problem: no one here (or even hundreds of thousands reducing their carbon footprint) won't change the path we're on. They certainly deserves kudos for not contributing as much to the problem but their collective efforts are rather insignificant. The world is currently (2014 latest data) producing more fossil fuel energy then ever before in history: 69.37 quadrillion Btu. That's a 22% increase just since 2009. I would withhold any optimism until we at least stop increasing our fossil fuel consumption.

[Plantagenet]

I don't know that did jack to "save the planet." What could one reasonably do?

Sure we all try to reduce, reuse, and recycle....but that's slowing the demise, not saving.

As always when I worked it was on mass transit projects. But I don't believe they "save the planet", just slow the death, and make more room for more people. Really not helpful at all.

Very thoughtful post, Newfie. You're 100% right.

The one thing of some value is the land we bought up in Nova Scotia. I did nothing to it or with it, but just let it sit there sucking up carbon. I protected it from human influence. That is a positive.

Yup. I'm doing the same thing with two parcels of land here in Alaska.

Its about the only thing an average person can do to pump some carbon back down out of the atmosphere.

[AgentR11]

Are we talking about saving the planet, or saving industrial civilization? Or just doing something to save, or improve the chance that there might be some thousands of homo sapiens running around ten centuries from now.

My opinion, is that the planet really is perfectly fine. Even the biosphere is fine. What is not in great shape is a particular set of animals dependent upon the continuation of this abnormal state of cold but not REALLY cold; nor is industrial civilization fine, in that it is dependent upon this not quite warm state for its food calorie production.

For my effort to save industrial civilization, I telecommute, live in a small, comfortable house, and do much of my local shopping by bicycle. I don't fly, or otherwise travel recreationally, and only travel commercially when both myself and a substantial quantity of material adequate to justify the transportation need to be somewhere. I'm in the process of swapping to LED bulbs as my CFs give out.

I think this is a pointless effort, but do it anyway as ethics demands the attempt.

The third saveable is far more important to me, and the focus of much of my thought and effort; but it is nebulous, and nearly indistinguishable from what I think of as the normal, instinctive behavior of a hominid parent. The civilized world will tell you that we don't have instinct, or that anything we might associate as instinct is some annoying, violent, or uncouth hold over from a vile past. Yet I trust it fundamentally, the core of what causes a human to become a human; and hopefully in that expression, culture and instinct become interwoven and will be a reliable tool for those that may come after me to meet the end of one world with a strong heart, and greet the coming of the next as opportunity, and not tragedy.

Whatever the outcome. It is, and always has been true; that there will be a last human; and there will have been those who loved that human, and died.

[GregT]

Yup. I'm doing the same thing with two parcels of land here in Alaska.

Its about the only thing an average person can do to pump some carbon back down out of the atmosphere.

Wouldn't it make more sense to cut your own carbon footprint planter? Instead of pretending to try to find ways to pump a tiny percentage of what you are personally responsible for adding into the atmosphere, back out? Are you going to continue to be a hypocrite? Or will you woman up?

[SeaGypsy]

My 500 liters a week mostly diesel, delivers 90% of the fruit & veg for a town of 16,000 people. If the service wasn't there the same people would burn a hell of a lot more going elsewhere. I don't feel bad about it.

[Newfie]

Yup. I'm doing the same thing with two parcels of land here in Alaska.

Its about the only thing an average person can do to pump some carbon back down out of the atmosphere.

Wouldn't it make more sense to cut your own carbon footprint planter? Instead of pretending to try to find ways to pump a tiny percentage of what you are personally responsible for adding into the atmosphere, back out? Are you going to continue to be a hypocrite? Or will you woman up?

First, I agree that we should reduce our foot print, but that is still draining from the resiviour, no matter how little. To "Save the planet" implies that you either stop withdrawing altogether or refill the resiviour.

I don't feel like arguing over population at the moment, but there it is.

[Ibon]

Agree with Newfie and Agent, none of us, with our frugal gestures, are doing jack shit to save the planet. I could tell a nice story but I don't believe it is doing anything to specifically save the planet.

[GHung]

Save the planet? What a grandiose idea. I continued to be a parasite destroying its host even while tweaking my systems to be less so. I gave up hoping to reduce our collective impacts on our biosphere several years ago and decided to focus on being less dependent on declining waste-based complex/collective systems. It's a retirement plan.

[dohboi]

Technically, reducing ones footprint (which I do think we are all under a deep moral obligation to do) is almost always going to be more like 'killing the planet a tiny bit less quickly' than it is 'saving the planet' (and of course in this context that means more like the biosphere, and within that, complex life and many of the systems that have created conditions for their evolution in the last millions to tens of millions of years).

[Newfie]

Doh,

Agreed, with the proviso that the reductions we make DO NOT go towards increasing our population. Otherwise it's at best am zero sum, and quite possibly worse, if simply by increasing the amount of human misery through greater numbers.