I was pondering how population affects our environment, when I came upon this article in the Yale Environment 360 called, “Too Many People,
Too Much Consumption” by scientists Paul and Anne Ehrlich at Stanford. In it, they argue that we need to reduce our population if we are to solve our enviromental problems. I could not agree more. Once someone is born, they are free to pursue life happiness, a car, a house and the American dream right? It seems obvious that best way to avoid the problem is to have fewer people.
But I read the article, eagerly looking for the part where they talk about how we reduce the population, but found very little. Their suggestion is to do so (I kid you not):
Through a global dialogue in which people discuss the human predicament and decide whether they would like to see a maximum number of people living at a minimum standard of living, or perhaps a much lower population size that gives individuals a broad choice of lifestyles.
Huh? Really? That seems kind of a like a recipe to do nothing.
I think a much more straightforward option is to make sure that women around the world have access to education. Quoting the National Center for Health Statistics study, there was, “a direct relationship between years of education and birth rates, with the highest birth rates among women with the lowest educational attainment.” This means that those of us who feel strongly about the planet should support the efforts of those who are working to educate women around the world. It’s a huge way we can make a difference.
If you’re like me, you probably take less public transit than you could - I blame it on transit maps, which are always so freaking hard to figure out! But these days, with gas prices the way they are, and the whole planet melting and all, it’s a good time to find a workaround.
Fortunately Google offers great transit instructions in 50 cities worldwide, including the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Austria, France, Italy, Poland, Russia, Swizerland and the UK? Just go to Google Transit, and enter your start point and destination!
This link shows the results I get from Google Transit for a trip from my alma mater, the University of California at Berkeley to the Google campus.
You can also get the same transit help on your mobile phone via Google Maps for Mobile (GMM), which is actually a great app that I use all the time. Go to the GMM page to download the app to your phone (works on some phones) or just to learn more. There’s even a video about how it works!
As a frequent salad eater, I am always wracked with guilt when I go to my favorite supermarket for salads - Draegers Market in San Mateo - because their salad containers are the clear plastic variety. But man, their croutons are great.
So today, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Whole Foods now offers EATware decomposable containers for their salads! According to the site, EATware containers, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes, decompose in soil in 180 days, and disperse in water in 2 weeks! They also don’t have any laminates or coatings, and yet are oil, water and heat resistant. Pretty awesome.
I’m going to take the container I got with my salad today and stick it in my compost bin, just to see how long it takes before it decomposes. I’m also going to write an email to Dragers, and tell them that until they switch over to something like EATware, my salad business is going to Whole Foods.
We’re obviously big believers in greentech or cleantech here at TTMYGG, so it was interesting to see this list of high-tech luminaries who have made the changeover. There are some big shots on the list, which shows that cleantech is getting serious.
- Vinod Khosla, Founder Khosla Ventures.
- John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins.
- Elon Musk, Chairman, Tesla, Chairman, CEO SolarCity
- Steve Jurvetson, Partner Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
- Bill Gross, Founder Idealab.
- Al Gore, Chairman Generation Investment Managment, Partner Kleiner Perkins.
- Bill Joy, Partner Kleiner Perkins.
Unfortunately, unless you’re a big shot, it’s unlikely that you’d be able to invest with them or in them, but one thing you could do is join them! Here, thanks to earth2tech.com, is a map of 101 cleantech startups. Take a look at what’s around you, or somewhere you wouldn’t mind living, and get in on the ground floor!
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