Because going green doesn’t have to mean buying a glorified golf cart.
0 to 60 in 4 seconds.
100% electric.
Zero emmisions.
Fuck yeah.
Take that, Jeremy Clarkson. Now go have more sugary tea and let the rest of your teeth rot away.
Technorati Tags: electric car, Tesla Motors Roadster, Jeremy Clarkson, environmentalism
I suffer from chemical sensitivity, as it’s known.
Basically this means that all the hazardous chemicals which are “approved” by government agencies for use in society — but which are known to be dangerous to our health — are even more dangerous for me than they are for people without chemical sensitivity (or enviromental sensitivity, as it’s also known).
There is a reason and specific origin behind my sensitivity, which I may someday relate. Suffice to say, that — like with asthmatics — I have to be very careful when activities like tarring of roofs occur in my neighborhood, activities which cause the air to become thick with chemicals or inhalant hazards.
On Tuesday, one of my immediate neighbors had their house tented and bombed with chemicals to destroy termites. The entire house was covered in a giant plastic balloon, and the chemical Vikane released as a fog inside. Twenty-four hours later, the tent was removed and fans installed to air the house out for another twenty-four hours. Then a pest inspector took air samples to decide if the house is safe for reoccupation. In the interim, warning signs are posted on the property, and no-one is allowed inside.
Vikane is a combination of flouride and sulfur, a trademark of Dow Chemical. It is toxic to life (duh) and does nothing at all to prevent the return of termites after fumigation. It’s also a number of times heavier than air, which means that when a treated house is aired, the chemical does not rise into the air, but settles slowly into surrounding soil, or creeps along the ground like an invisible toxic mist.
In other words, it gets blown out of the offender’s house and into surrounding properties.
Properties like mine.
My whole life of chemical sensitivity started with the indiscriminate use of a chemical like Vikane, a chemical since outlawed (but only after years of use in building projects) — Vikane itself is a replacement for another chemical considered too dangerous, which is slowly being phased out of use. There is nothing to say that Vikane itself will not eventually be outlawed because it is too toxic, just like its antecedent was. One look at the chemical business shows generations of outlawed products, one replacing the dangerous former, before it too is taken out of circulation, and so on into infinity. Such is the chemical business.
How am I to simply trust that the chemical has dissipated down to tolerable levels by the time it creeps into my yard? Is there even such a thing as a tolerance level for something designed to kill life which inhales it? Given the lobby-group structure of our government’s lawmaking process, can I even trust that something which is licensed is therefore acceptable for use in public? Given the vast history of products used heavily for years then pulled (everything from DDT to Saccharin), would I be naive in the extreme to simply trust our government?
Furthermore, there are growing concerns that the use of Vikane creates greenhouse gases, just as its predecessor caused ozone depletion. Just what we need.
There are many, many alternative and effective methods to kill termites, including heat, microwaves, and other methods. When I had a termite problem removed five years ago, I insisted a non-chemical method be used (heat was used). But my neighbors are either too ignorant, or too disinterested to use an alternative method, despite the presence of a number of alternative pest companies in the area to choose from.
It’s hard for me not to be overcome with anger for being subjected to yet another hazardous chemical — not just anger at my neighbor for hiring the company to do this in the first place, but also our society for so freely and casually allowing dangerous chemicals to be used so frequently and in such an unguarded manner. This is all the more angering because it is so easy and effective to use an alternative, non-toxic method.
But there’s nothing I can do. Since the product is licensed and legal to use, my hands are tied.
Not a feeling I relish very much.
(I damaged my left pointing finger today and am doing my damnedest to type this without its use, which makes the “f” and “g” keys miss it terribly)
Sometimes you read statistics and factoids which make you expel the breath in your lungs with the force of an explosion, accompanied by the words “holy fuck”!
Okay. We all know that transportation pollution is usually the big offender when it comes to dirty air. Here in pristine, unspoilt Los Angeles, transportation-based pollution (read: cars) is over 50% of the contributor to air pollution. It’s as much as 70% of the air polluter in many cities. Fine, that’s to be expected.
But lawnmowers?
Listen to this statistic:
In a single day, Southern California’s lawn tools spew out more pollution than all the aircraft in the Los Angeles area. A single mower puts out more pollution than 73 new cars.
Waitaminnit. More pollution than all the aircraft in LA?! More pollution than the fucking aircraft flying out of LAX?
Frank O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, said “In California, lawn mowers put out as much pollution today as about 25 percent of the cars combined,” meaning that a quarter of California’s air pollution is as a result of gas-powered lawnmowers. A quarter.
Also, here’s where the dumbass contribution really comes into play:
… garden equipment users spill 17 million gallons of fuel each year … more petroleum than spilled by the Exxon Valdez in the Gulf of Alaska.
Sweet mother of god. That either means that Americans are the sloppiest sons of bitches in the world, or they don’t care about poisoning the planet, or both.
Dudes, do us all a favor. Use an electric of push mower. Please. These statistics are just grotesque.
By the way, California is trying to pass legislature to force all gas-powered mowers in California to be rigged with a catalytic converter, which is one of the main instruments to reduce emissions in vehicles, introduced in the 70s. But Briggs and Stratton, the largest mower manufacturer in America, is exercising supreme interest group power to stall that legislature by introducing stumbling blocks and throwing money around. They don’t want the extra expense or inconvenience, you see.
Ain’t Corporate America wonderful?
Sources and quotes from CBS News, peoplepoweredmachines.com, and the EPA