49 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth Essay Example for Free

49 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth Essay Some of them, with their complicated timers and instant start-up features, constantly consume small amounts of electricity. (Even the TV? my wife asks. Good thinking, I tell her.) 3. SEPARATE YOUR GARBAGE. At our house we have separate garbage cans for glass, paper, plastic, aluminum, wood, organic matter, natural fabrics, synthetic fabrics, and rubber. (We split the work—my wife does the separating, I drop everything off at the recycling center.) 4. USE LESS WATER. We have two bricks in our toilet tank. But theres a much simpler way to save water: Dont flush every time! (Dont take the sports section in there with you! is my wifes tip. A sense of humor isso important.) 5. DONT MOW THE LAWN. Let it grow. Naturally. Like a meadow. (Like a dump! jokes my wife.) See more:  Perseverance essay 6. DONT SHAVE AS OFTEN. I shave once a week. (If its good enough for Don Johnson, I quip. That was passà © years ago, my wife informs me.) 7. DRIVE SLOWER. I try to maintain a nice, steady 40 miles per hour, the legal minimum on most highways. Also, I roll up the windows. It reduces wind resistance and noise. (You cant hear those horns? my wife asks, incredulous.) 8. SHOP WITH A RE-USABLE SHOPPING BAG. And, if you can, walk to the store. (Itll do wonders for your figure, I mention casually to the missus.) 9. BOYCOTT! Boycott polluters, or anyone who sells any product that can cause pollution, or any product that might contain an ingredient that can cause pollution. (What does that leave? my wife asks. Just the good stuff, I reply.) 1 0. DO YOUR LAUNDRY BY HAND. It may be drudgery of the lowest order to have to hand-launder your clothes and hang them on a clothesline, but it saves water and energy. (Whistle while you work, I kid my wife. Hitler is a jerk, she continues. Id forgotten that verse!) 11. TURN DOWN THE HEAT. Especially the water heater. (They take cold showers in Sweden, I like to hint. Go to Sweden!—my wife.) 12. TAKE FEWER SHOWERS. But dont share them, even if its been touted, albeit humorously, in other x-number-of-simple-things-you-can-do-to-save-the-earth books. Why? It uses more water. Figure it out for yourself. Better would be to take a bath in recycled bath water. Best: An occasional sponge bath. (No, Im not kidding, I tell the wife.) 13. REPLACE METAL DOORKNOBS. During the winter, when its very dry, touch a metal doorknob and you get a little shock from the static electricity. Thats wasted electricity, I figure. Weve replaced all our metal doorknobs with ones made of non-conducting rubber, wood or glass. (Youve got a screw loose, my wife points out. And shes right!) 14. GO SOLAR. For a small investment of about ten thousand dollars you can convert your house to solar energy. Itll pay for itself in twenty years, I estimate. (What next? my wife wonders, as we all do.) 15. MOUNT A WINDMILL ON YOUR ROOF. Its cheap—about eight hundred dollars—and easy to install. (A little more to the right, I yell up to her.) 16. MAKE YOUR OWN HONEY. In addition to producing delicious honey, our beehive is a real conversation starter. (We have to talk, my wife says. See?) 17. WORK AT HOME. Recently, I quit my job of twenty years to become a full-time writer. I write at home, on a computer. Im not using up any gasoline or motor oil, Im not wearing out any clothing or shoes. To put it simply: Im not a drain on the environment. (You dont move, my wife observes, exaggerating slightly.) 18. BOARD UP THE WINDOWS. Windows are nice, but they either let in too much heat, or let out too much, or vice versa. (This is better than mini-blinds! I shout to the wife, who can barely hear me over her own hammering.) 1 9. GET RID OF THE TELEPHONE. Think you cant live without a telephone? Think again. Weve done fine. (Who would call us? my wife rationalizes.) 20. GET RID OF THE BED. Many leading chiropractors say that sleeping on the floor, with no mattress or cushion, is the best way to sleep. (We certainly havent needed a bed much lately, my wife confides to a mutual friend.) 21. GET OUT AND ORGANIZE. At my wifes suggestion, I got out of the house and into the community—to organize. Now I work with a diverse group of community activists and we meet four times a week—at our house. (Whoare these people? my wife asks. They are the people, I tell her proudly.) 22. BAN ALL CHLOROFLUOROCARBONS. Not just spray cans, but the refrigerator and the air conditioner. Get rid of them! We now have ice delivered to our house every day. (Youre crazy! my wife shouts from the kitchen. So was Van Gogh! I shout back.) 23. TREAT WOUNDS NATURALLY. If youre injured, cut on the head, above the eyebrow—from a sharp piece of ice, lets say—treat it naturally. Salt and lemon juice is the combination my wife favors. (I want a divorce, she says, pouring salt on my wound. Ouch! I say.) 24. KNOW THE LAW. And know a good lawyer. (My wife does.) 25. WHEN YOU MOVE, BE A GOOD NEIGHBOR. Having recently relocated to a smaller environment—an apartment—I can empathize with anyone who has had to go through a moving experience as I call it. Remember, along with a new habitat come new co-inhabitants. Get to know them. They are your neighbors and, as simplistic as this sounds, they are the keys to your survival. (When I explain this simplistic theory to one of my new neighbors, shes fascinated. Maybe the beard works!) 26. CARPOOL. At my new part-time job I carpool with a couple of the ladies from the office. Were saving gas, money, and were getting to know each other better. (He used to have a fear of intimacy, my wife tells the judge. On the advice of Barry, my lawyer, I can say nothing.) 27. MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR. I know, I know. But, if I could just use one earth-saving tip to draw your attention to the beautiful and cosmic experience of making love with a truly giving and understanding sexual partner. (Takethat, you lying, blood-sucking witch!) 28. SHARE YOUR SHOWERS. Ive done a complete one-eighty on this one. Use a kitchen timer. (Or Ravels Bolero!) 29. WOMEN! Or should I say, women judges! (This just in: She gets the car, the house—everything except the profits from this book, Dear Reader.) 30. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. When someone (especially someone much younger and less experienced than yourself that you only met two weeks ago) tells you that one person cant make a difference—that no matter how much shouting and yelling and whining and complaining one person does nothing will change, that youre too old to be acting that way, that you should settle down and focus on one thing and do that well—when someone lays that trip on you, its time to split. (I can make a difference! I tell her, gathering my things.) 31. BUNDLE AND RECYCLE NEWSPAPERS. Sorry, I lost sight of what were trying to do here, which is save the earth. Take all your old newspapers, bundle them together, and bring them to a recycling center. Theyll give you a few bucks, which is nothing to sneeze at. (What happened?) 32. BUY A RECYCLED CAR. There are some good deals in used cars—if you take the time to look. (I didnt, and boy am I sorry.) 33. DONT LITTER THE HIGHWAYS. Be considerate. There are laws, but theyre rarely enforced. (Except in my case, of course. I told the officer I wasnt living in my car—it had broken down, I was tired—but: A $100 fine for vagrancy, a night in jail, a towing charge of $75, and a ticket—Im getting rid of this damn car!) 34. KEEP FIGHTING. Thats right. No matter how tough it gets, the fight to save the earth will go on, with or without you. (Right now its without. Im back to my old habits again—smoking, drinking, and hanging out with a bunch of losers. One of them is a real nut, calls himself The Master.) 35. DONATE OLD CLOTHING. There are people out there who can get some good use out of your old moth-eaten sweater or sports jacket or worn-out pair of shoes. (Im a 41 short.) 36. FOLLOW THE MASTER. The Master has forged an alliance with the human spirit that allows him to speak directly and simultaneously to every living thing on this planet. (Follow The Master.) 37. THINK FOR YOURSELF. Take it from someone who, after having his self-esteem obliterated by a persuasive con man and his gang of sycophants, escaped on foot—with nothing to eat for nine days but wild berries and mushrooms—and lived to talk about it! (You might have seen the story in the papers—DAZED FOLLOWER OF DIZZY GURU FOUND ON FREEWAY) 38. HI, HOW ARE YOU? I knew it was her before I picked up the phone. (The cobwebs that covered the receiver were now sticking to my face. Fine, I said.) 39. DONT BE FOOLED. A wise consumer is a protected consumer. (I told my ex this when we got together for some Irish coffee at the mini-mall, near the old house. She ended up selling that barn for—get this—$650,000! Honey, it seems like old times! I whooped.) 40. RECYCLE! REVIVE! RERUN! Excuse my exuberance, but something is finally happening out there—something positive, something good. People are separating their garbage. Theyre using biodegradable, ecologically safe, recyclable and reusable materials. Everything old is new again! (When my ex-wife and I decided to re-marry, I suggested a Save the Earth clause be added to our pre-nuptial agreement. We have to talk, she said, showing great interest at the time.) 41. MOVE TO THE COUNTRY. Inherit the land again. Thats what we did. Bought forty-three acres in Upstate New York. Its a working farm, where my wife can go out to the barn and milk the cows, pick out the freshest eggs and knit our clothes from the wool she shears from our very own sheep. (And I can finish this book!)

Hesters Ambivalence in The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

Hester's Ambivalence in The Scarlet Letter Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne's book The Scarlet Letter, Hester's attitudes toward her adultery are ambivalent. This ambivalence is shown by breaking the book into three different parts. In each part her attitudes change significantly. Hester starts by seeing her act as a sin that she is sorry for committing. She changes and no longer feels sorry for the sin. Finally, Hester sees the act as not sinful, but she regrets committing it. In the first part, covering the first six chapters, Hester thinks of her action as a sin. In chapter four she tells her husband that it was her fault for committing adultery when she says, "I have greatly wronged thee" (79). In chapter six Hawthorne writes that Hester knows "her deed had been evil" (92). This evil deed, in Hester's eyes, causes Pearl to act sinful, so Hester feels overwhelming guilt. At this point Hester feels that her actions were evil and were her fault, therefore she is sorry for committing adultery. In chapter five Hester's attitudes are the same but Hawthorne shows that these attitudes are not stable and are susceptible to change. Hester moves to a cottage on the outskirts of Boston, but because her sentence does not restrict her to the limits of the Puritan settlement, Hester could return to Europe to start over. She decides to stay because she makes herself believe that the town "has been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment" (84). This belief gives the impression that she views her action as a sin and feels a need to further punish herself. But this belief only covers her actual feelings. To the contrary, as Hawthorne describes, her real reason for staying is that "There dwelt, there trod the feet of one with whom she deemed herself connected in a union, that, unrecognized on earth, would bring them together before the bar of final judgment, and make their that marriage altar, for a joint futurity of endless retribution" (84). This comment means that the real reason for her staying is that Reverend Dimmsdale, the father of her child, lives there and she hopes to someday marry him.

A Review on the Article: “A Good Way to Pick a Fight”

Charles L. Mee presented an untraditional observation on how the Cold War began in his article â€Å"A Good Way to Pick a Fight†. Providing a compilation of series of events that may have influenced the spark of the Cold War, Mr. Mee gave a different view on why the Cold War seemed inevitable.Charles L. Mee presented opened his article with several incidents from the three respective leaders that were linked to the Cold War: President Harry Truman of the United States of America, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union. He illustrated some of the statements or actions that the three leaders had done that helped to start the Cold War.The author states that, unlike what most of us know that President Truman started the Cold War, all of the three countries involved in the Cold War made their respective actions for the war to happen.It is not only President Truman who wanted the war but so as Churchill and Stalin. It just so happene d that the United States of America was the one to first declare the war. The author argued that the war is inevitable, that the true starting point of the war was buried in haze because all of the three sides are struggling to be the one to have the upper hand of starting the war.Indeed, all three of them initiated actions that were later became the source of war. But I think that if only all three of them trusted each other’s agreements, there would be no cold war. When a war has ended, the next thing that should happen is peace. People tend to go to war to obtain peace.That is, I think, most of us think. But after studying some of the most famous wars of our times, I think that power is the real source of conflicts. It has always been power. Past leaders thought that to obtain peace, they should have more power. To control order, one must become powerful over the other. And I think that power sparked the Cold War.In a way, I think that Charles L. Mee is right. The United S tates could have started the war literally but it is also true that the Soviet Union was also planning to go to war. Hence, it was just a matter of who will initiate the first move. The â€Å"Big Three†, I think, had each of their contributions for the origin of the Cold War.Upon reading the article, the most important thing that I have learned was the circumstances that occurred when the atomic bombs were launched to Japan. I have learned that the atomic bombing was not merely necessary and was just a mere act of power.The United States Government launched the atomic bombs because they want to threaten their future enemies during that time. A particular line from the article caught my attention. That is the statement of Admiral William Leahy on his explanation of the Japan atomic bombing. He said that the bombs were dropped â€Å"because of the vast sums that had been spent on the project†.Another purpose of the â€Å"unnecessary† Japan atomic bombing was to sh ow to the Soviet Union that the United States has a weapon capable of destructing massive areas in seconds. The American Government did the bombing to control the situation that was arising between them and the Soviet Union, which later developed as the â€Å"Cold War†.Bibliography:Mee, Charles Jr. L. â€Å"A Good Way to Pick a Fight†. American Heritage Magazine. Aug 1977: vol 28, issue 5.

The Nature Of Human Beings By Niccolo Machiavelli s The...

Reason has been argued to be the essence of humans; however, humans are not the only rational beings to inhabit Earth. The nature of human beings tales far beyond rationality to characteristics such as emotion or pity. For example, if a man bears witness to a bull ferociously attacking another man, feelings of empathy, sympathy, and even pity quickly fill his mind. Thus, emphasizing that reason is not the sole essence of human beings. Humans are animals, and yes, they are rational beings. However, this does not give us the right to disregard emotional feelings that fall beyond rationality and other animals do not share the same qualities. Renà © Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, Niccolà ³ Machiavelli’s The Prince, and Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, support this ideology that the depth of human beings fall beyond reason, solidifying that emotions are also a foundation to human existence. Thomas Hobbes adds significant insight to the claim that human existen ce stretches beyond the voice of reason and speaks to the emotional attributes of the human mind. Hobbes argues that emotion is a part of the foundation to humans existence, whether it be feelings of empathy, fear, or hope. He relates this to a state of nature in which humans are in â€Å"continual fear and danger of violent death† (Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 58). The state of human nature is embodied by a constant fear of death. Without laws or a structured society, humans turn to their state of nature and become savages.Show MoreRelatedThe Human Nature Of The Prince, Thomas Hobbes And James Madison1447 Words   |  6 Pagesancestors. Furthermore, human qualities such as strong emotions come from what we think is important to us. Actions, whether they are good or bad, also derive from our most inner thoughts. The question now is what type of reasoning is natural to us all? This human nature is a topic explored by thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan, Niccollà ² Mac hiavelli in The Prince, Thomas Hobbes and James Madison in The Essential Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers. Human nature is the force that pushesRead MoreHobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Machiavelli Essay1855 Words   |  8 PagesHobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Machiavelli The thirteenth through the eighteenth century brought profound changes in the political realm of Western civilization. Beginning with the Scientific Revolution and only advancing during the Renaissance, secularization and skepticism lead to changes in not only the intellectual life of Westerners, but also to their politics. At the forefront of the political debate were well-versed men such as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. The influencesRead MoreThe Prince And His Power1675 Words   |  7 PagesThe Prince and His Power Kings ruled during the Early Modern Period in Europe and many Europeans addressed this. The issue of the prince and his power was discussed by statesmen, observers of the king, philosophers, political theorists, and bishops. Kings themselves would use various methods to not only build up their image, but to promote the power of the monarch. Each of these individuals had different views on by what means the prince got his power and how the prince should rule. The first viewRead MoreThe Natural State Of Man2222 Words   |  9 Pages Christine de Pizan, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Thomas Hobbes all formulated their foundation of understanding of human nature based on their personal experiences. Each applied their theories of human nature to political arrangements and how it ought to be reflected. Hobbes argues that it would be rational to contract with one another to create a government run by a sovereign holding absolute power, because only absolute power is sufficient to resolve disputes. Machiavelli argues that man has bothRead MoreAccountability Is The Responsibility Or Obligation Of Government Officials Act Of The Best Interests Of Society1587 Words   |  7 Pagesof government officials to act in the best interests of society† . In the UK, the best example of this is an MP being accountable to its constituents to listen to what they want and need and taking that to parliament. Accountability is used in democracy to prevent leaders, such as the Prime Minister or even MPs, from becoming power thirsty and corrupt. Without accountability, basic human rights and freedom can be dismissed by leaders and the public citizens become extremely vulnerable. The British