Happy Earth Day

Earth (Photo credit: stef thomas)

Today is Earth Day.  I will be honest.  I usually harbor negative thoughts towards Earth Day.  The idea behind Earth Day itself is noble.  I think we should do what we can to keep the planet clean.  It is a good thing to recycle and to try to preserve our natural resources.   The main reason that I tend to have negative thoughts about Earth Day is what the environmental movement has become.  Rather than focus on conservation, it has become more of an attack or capitalism and the American way of life.

When I was a young and wide eyed innocent, I was very conscientious about the environment.  In junior high school, I was a member of the ecology club.  One of the things that we did as members of that club was to travel to local tributaries and collect water samples.  We would then test those samples for various chemical levels.  One of my favorite awards from those school days was a certificate from President Gerald Ford for our work in the environment.  We also took a field trip to the Eastern Shore where we paddled canoes through some waterways enjoying nature.  That was simple awesome.

My interest in things environmental waned considerably over the years.  It is not that I was going around doing things intentionally to harm the environment but rather I just lost interest in conscientiously paying much attention to it.  When the news media started their hyping of man made global warming, I paid some cursory attention to the stories.  As more and more coverage of intense storms received coverage, I started to wonder if there was something to it.  However, a few years ago, I read a story that indicated that several other planets were also showing signs of warming.  Since there were no humans on those planets, I started to believe that any warming was primarily caused by natural forces.

Crystal earth recycle icon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These days, I am trying to do what I can to conserve resources.  I prefer to think of myself as a conservationist rather than an enviromentalist.  I am trying to recycle a lot more items these days.  In the past, I would only recycle cans and bottles, but now I am also adding more boxes and other items to my recycling bin.  I have gotten better about taking my reusable tote bags with me to the grocery store, partly because I have too many plastic bags around the house and my grocer gives a nickel back for every reusable bag I use.  Today, I went to Target and they gave me a small reusable tote in honor of Earth Day.  I discovered that they also give a nickel discount for using reusable bags.

The company that I work for is very big into trying to implement sustainable policies.  I do get a sense of pride in working for a company that also wants to be a responsible citizen.  They have switched a lot of our lighting to more energy efficient LED lighting.  They have also installed energy efficient hand dryers in the restrooms.  Since Earth Day was today, my company decided to celebrate on Friday.  They gave each of us a new, reusable bag.  They also decided that they were going to turn out the lights in the common areas of the office for one hour.

Personally, I am not a fan of turning out the lights for an hour.  Usually, we all end up having to turn the lights on that we have in our cubicles in order to see, which kind of defeats the purpose of turning out the lights.  I think a more meaningful gesture would be to switch from our traditional 5-day, 8-hour work week to a 4-day, 10 hour work weeks or to allow more telecommuting.  Both would take a lot of cars off of the road and reduce the amount of energy used in the building.  Still, the company has their heart in the right place.

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Safe for Another Year

Australian Green Bag (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I live in Bowie, Maryland which is part of Prince George's County.  PG County, like a large portion of the state, is heavily controlled by the Democrats.   Like all good Democrats, county officials never met a tax they didn't like.  Locally, they have been pushing a 5-cent per bag on any plastic bags consumers get from the store when they do their shopping.  Their reasoning for pushing for a bag tax was to help curb litter, encourage the use or reusable bags, and to raise money for environmental projects.

Needless to say, I am against any new taxes being imposed on me.  Most of the time, I do try to use reusable bags when I do my weekly grocery shopping.  One of the reasons that I use them is that my local grocery store gives me a discount of 5-cents for every reusable bag that I use.  To me, that sort of reward is more apt to get the type of desired behavior than the punishment of paying a tax.  It also makes sense for the grocery store because it helps reduce their expense of providing bags.

In the past, I have forgotten my bags at home, or left them in the car.  The one thing I have found is that I usually end up with a lot more plastic bags on those occasions than the number of reusable bags that I would use.  I will use about 4 or 5 reusable bags on a shopping trip, whereas I would use at least 10 plastic bags for that same trip. The plastic bags just do not hold as much product as the reusable bags do.  Sure an extra 50 cents or so per shopping trip doesn't sound like much, but it adds up, especially if you are a lower income person living paycheck to paycheck.

The bag tax measured did manage to pass through the county council.  Something that I was not aware of, is that any new law for the county has to be approved by the state general assembly.  Since the state assembly is heavily Democratic, and a similar measure has been in place in neighboring Montgomery County, I figured it was a done deal.  Surprisingly, the measure was defeated in the state Senate by one vote as the county did not show with enough specifics how the measure would improve the environment.  I fully expect it to come back like the proverbial bad penny next year.

While us PG County resident have dodged that particular tax burden this year, that is not to say our tax worries are behind us.  Governor Martin O'Malley has been pushing for more and more tax increases.  He has been pushing for an increase in the state income tax with a surtax for higher earners.  He continues to push for an increase in the gasoline tax.  At one point, he was asking to have the state sales tax apply to gasoline on top of the current flat gas tax.  Now he says he would consider raising the sales tax from 6% to 7% in lieu of the gasoline tax.  He says he is flexible.  Yeah, as long as he can raise taxes, he is flexible as to the form of the tax.

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