Less laundry less often: how to lighten the washday load on the environment

The clothes we wash and wear each week might seem unconnected to the growing plastic pollution crisis in our oceans but a sobering truth is emerging.

 Front-loading washing machines use far less energy and water.

With each wash, synthetic fabrics shed thousands of plastic particles, leading to broad-scale contamination of waterways. Now it appears we’re drinking that plastic, with a study of tap water in various countries finding 83% of samples were contaminated with plastic fibres.

Doing the laundry has other environmental implications, too, from the water and power used to the harmful substances hidden in common detergents. A more natural approach to laundry is crucial for the health of humans and the planet, so consider our practical steps on how to make the switch.

Read The Guardian story - “Less laundry less often: how to lighten the washday load on the environment.”

The truth about solar

Watch the 11 minute YouTube clip - “The truth about solar.”

Looming realities of climate change not something we want to confront

D

avid Roberts writing on The Vox cuts to the chase about the looming realities of climate change.

He writes:

“There has always been an odd tenor to discussions among climate scientists, policy wonks, and politicians, a passive-aggressive quality, and I think it can be traced to the fact that everyone involved has to dance around the obvious truth, at risk of losing their status and influence.

“The obvious truth about global warming is this: barring miracles, humanity is in for some awful shit.”

Read the whole story - “The awful truth about climate change no one wants to admit”.

We're beyond 'argument' and 'debate', now it is 'conversation' and 'discussion'

The time for climate change action advocates to be using such words as “argument” or “debate” is over and from here it is more important to say “conversation” or “discussion”.

Understanding the mind
will help us understand
climate change.

Psychological research clearly illustrates that the use of “argument” or “debate” serves only the purposes of the skeptics who cherry-pick facts to convince the uninformed that climate change is not really happening.

In fact the last six words in that sentence “climate change is not really happening” is of itself dangerous and immediately becomes a “truth” for those among the undecided masses with those same people almost automatically and unconsciously attributing that “fact” to whoever made that statement, even if it is an august organization such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

No longer can we discuss myths as basic research shows that within just days most people quickly forget what is and isn’t a myth and, equally become confused about the realities, the facts that were unambiguously explained to them.

People tend to hear what they want to hear and if what they are hearing does not within personal frames of reality, then they seem to mysteriously change what they heard.

Further confusing all that, the complexities and realities of climate change are so vast that it is unlikely they fit within the imagined realities of anyone and so while it is challenging and difficult to keep personal understandings in synch with what is really happening, it is doubly difficult to have another understand and accept what is unfolding.

So, be careful with your language, choose your words carefully and remember that even the most precise and accurately engineering statement can be manipulated by dedicated skeptics.