Goodreads Bookshelf
My Green Dream
Another blogger is trying to start up a meme that caught my eye. With Earth Day just around the corner, rising fuel costs, and a desire to be more environmentally friendly, she suggests creating a "Green Dream list." If wishes sequestered carbon, we wouldn't be in the situation, but talking about our hopes for the future can help raise awareness and bring them that much closer to reality. What changes would you like to see in the world?
She made a genii's three wishes, so I suppose I could try that too, despite my natural aversion to concision. I like her solar-powered water heater (or, at the very least, smaller on-demand water heaters like most of Europe has as well, and who wouldn't want an end to junk mail and unrequested catalogs--and not just for environmental reasons! I will add three new dreams instead of repeating hers.
1. I recently read about modifications to the Prius that some owners are doing themselves and that some companies are developing kits to make, which basically give the cars bigger batteries and allow them to be plugged in, allowing incredible gas mileage numbers of the sorts of short trips that we often find ourselves making (and which are the least fuel efficient). I'd like such a modification to 1) be relatively inexpensive and 2) not void my warranty. Hybrid cars aren't the solution to our problems, but since I already have one and hope to keep it for many years, I'd like it to give me as much as it can.
2. I would like to see food production become more localized, from drawing more on local (and, while we're at it, organic) agriculture to a larger percentage of the population becoming more self-sufficient with little gardens. The more connected we can be to our food and our planet, the better.
3. I would like to see American cities and towns become more walkable, both through better zoning and through good, convenient public transportation to fill the gaps between what we can reasonably walk and what we can't.