Eco-Friendly 5

5/22/23 Finally adding a Part 5 thanks to seeing a lot more people actually give a shit about the environment for once. It's not just me and like a handful of people per thousand anymore yayyy

Some interesting websites

Solar Cooking by Mindy 3/12/24 An intro to solar cooking that the author has apparently actually been using consistently for around 20 years. The rest of the site is certainly interesting to peruse too.
Sunshine On My Shoulder 3/12/24 Here's another blog, with easy recipes for solar cooking, some that can be done with even the simplest solar ovens
3/12/24 Some of my own thoughts on solar cooking tech: This technology can definitely be expanded upon and adapted for many, many other uses. For instance steam generation of electricity by superheating water in a black-coated pipe coil at the focal point, perhaps with the assistance of Fresnel lenses, then diverting it into a loop for electricity generation. Essentially, just treat it like a steam turbine powered by coal after the initial water superheating. Where and how else can you use a heated fluid in a pipe? Also, I am not convinced that the WHO's guidelines for just mildly heating water are that brilliant of an idea for water treatment in developing areas. if it were up to me and i had to design a water treatment system for a remote village, here is what i'd do: design a solar-powered holding tank to boil water for 5 minutes, batch per batch, pour it down a rather long stone or metal pipe/chute to give off heat, then store it in several small cisterns to cool completely and be pumped off for use. The key to everything working in an automated way could be weight of the water and measured temperature and time of full rolling boil in the boiling chamber. A much easier version of this idea: get or make a solar cooker that reliably holds enough heat to boil however much water at a full rolling boil for 5 minutes, with a thermometer to ensure it reaches the correct heat for the appropriate amount of time, or a heatproof transparent lid for the pot that you can actually see the water boiling in, then take the setup out of the sun, take off the reflector panels and the solar cooker's clear lid and let the stockpot cool; pour off and enjoy. Finally, solar cookers are decidedly not safe in the sun exposure department. Using a pipe to divert a heated fluid that circulates through a loop could involve making a coiled hot plate on the opposite side of the solar cooker so you don't get burned and can for instance cook up stuff as if it was on a stove, while under a pop-up camping canopy, or patio sun umbrella. Or, the loop could feed through the walls of a diy insulated solar oven. Get this heated up enough and you have yourself a solar forge without risk of sunburn. There are possibilities.
Accidental Hippies 3/7/24 Til now I held off on adding homesteading websites. They were all either not informative enough, or informative in a dangerous manner such as "just drink water from the pond directly" type of stuff, or assumed nonexistent riches in the reader, or frankly batshit stuff about doomsday prepping, using parenthood as some kind of badge of superior morality, or cultish quasi-religious nut stuff. This is, refreshingly, none of the above. Just commonsense and informative, and helpful enough for everyone. Even if you don't have land, and it doesn't assume you automatically do either; there's a whole section devoted to helping you buy some without getting ripped off. Yay!
Texas Homesteader 4/17/24 Another homesteading website with the folks running that ranch obviously trying their best, especially with regards to the planet's health.
Sustainability articles at For Dummies 12/2/23 Surprisingly informative stuff. You could (and I have) spend years off and on scouring the Internet for information like this, but here is a lot of it, neatly gathered in one place.
Recycling For Dummies Cheat Sheet Added 12/2/23 A surprisingly helpful and informative article from a For Dummies book. The author has a website also, Everyday Recycler. Of interest: Brand directory of brands that use recycling to make their products
Wren Solutions not before seen. As leery as I am about experimental technologies and carbon offset type stuff to hurt with one hand and heal with the other, especially with money involved, there is a lot of interesting stuff here. 12/2/23 Not as impressed anymore... meh
The Spruce Green Home Improvements

1/31/24 Some extra eco-friendly ideas

Not sure about this but I might have remembered or concocted some version of the 7 R's. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - that's three. I think it could be Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refuse, Repair, Repurpose, Restore (aka refurbish). Each of these mean: Reduce means use less stuff. Reuse means just that. Reycle also means just that. Refuse means don't cave to hard-sell marketing pitches for stuff you do not need, and don't buy stuff you do not need. Repair means fix your stuff if it's broken. Repurpose means upcycle, or donate or sell to keep the item being used instead of trashed. Restore means rehabilitate something that is past its prime, like maybe a shabby piece of furniture, by refinishing it or something.

1/14/24 Some extra eco-friendly upgrades that are simple to do

For the love of fuck, vote. This handy section exists for the USA but it's important worldwide too, unless your country is so fucked (i.e. Russia, China, Iran) that you as an individual can do nothing in which case may the Gods spirit you out of there sooner rather than later. Regarding places that are less fucked, if you live there, promote legal immigration so that the people who have seen what happens when you lose all your state-supplied rights can help you protect them when you're surrounded by people who have never even imagined how bad it could get.
Switch from regular pencils to mechanical ones. Less trees chopped down.
Counterintuitive swaps: electric razors instead of plain plastic ones. Washcloths instead of plastic scrubby poufs. George Foreman grill instead of outdoor grill; less resources consumed every time you use it AND it's better for you as long as you remember to unplug it after each use (it does not have an auto-shutoff function). Also, you can make toast on it. Electric teakettles instead of stovetop ones. All of these things are more efficient and improve quality of life. If you look over your household budget and expenditures month by month, and organize them by category, bolding stuff you have to get more than once every few months, you'll likely see more areas where you can replace inefficient items with better ones. Recurring purchases might just be replaceable with more durable things you can use for a longer period of time.
The more staples you can get in bulk and safely store, the better it is for the environment. Less packaging, less shipping, less repeat trips to the store, you get the idea. But don't go overboard. Being a hoarder is horrible for the environment not to mention everyone else. If you're stockpiling for the end of the world, you're one of the idiots causing all the grocery store runs and food shortages, and fuck you. Maybe stick to getting a couple month's worth of stuff at a time, or a year max, sticking to online-only stuff if you're getting serious bulk amounts of things. Regarding handling all this bulk later, it might be worth it to repackage it when you get it home into reusable containers and/or distribute it around the living space or in storage areas in a way that makes sense. Depending on what it is. Otherwise you can find yourself lugging around massive containers for small tasks and when you need something quickly later, that can be a hassle at best. So give it some thought
If you can buy it, you can probably buy it secondhand. Shop around. Lots of stuff is still perfectly good when previously used and is at least somewhat cheaper too.
Study home economics each and every year. There's always more to learn. Learn as much as you can and adopt as much as you can as long as it makes sense. Home economics really is part of resource management, and if you are staying at home more to save energy and money, it's a good idea to make it as efficient and pleasant as possible. This also is applicable to every other area of life, be that work, travel, commuting, business - it's pretty astonishing how learning this one discipline makes all the others make a bit more comprehensible.
Make a real point of chatting online with people who do not live in the same country as you. Broadening your horizons like this helps you get perspective on everything, not just environmental issues.
As soon as the aviation industry gets its collective head out of its ass, actually fly on an eco-friendly airline (I'm talking solar powered, battery powered thanks to recharging with eco-friendly electricity, or hydrogen powered; the technology is almost there, don't believe aviation companies that tell you they're "eco friendly" due to carbon offsets, hybrid planes or shit like that; they are not) and go visit places you've always wanted to. Be a good visitor, and learn what you can. Same basic idea as the online chatting, and it's important to flood travel spaces with nonrich nonassholes pronto to reverse all the damage the former have done
Do the same thing with more local transportation companies - if they have truly eco friendly options such as electric buses powered by solar panel electricity for instance, be some of their first customers. Trains powered by solar panel or wind turbine electricity? Sure, why not. If bullet train even better, travel a few states over in a few hours. Get out there, see what's there.
See what's in your religion that is eco friendly and spread that message to everyone you can. It is in every religion I know. And believe me, I know some weird ones. I did not include every single one I'd ever heard of or interacted with in this website's religion section; just the ones I was familiar enough with to speak about in public

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