I originally posted this in another thread, but it really deserves its own topic, so I created a thread for it.
What are some ideas you have to save energy and impact? How do you do it around you own house? How can we do it as a city? State? Country? Race?
Here is a breakdown of my ideas...
I wonder how much energy and carbon emissions we would save if (1) every single rooftop either had solar panels or genetically modified grass (2) every light bulb was LED technology (3) every house, apartments etc had rain barrels for lawn watering (4) all of the car port roofs(mainly found in apartment complexes) had solar panels mounted on top (5) all of the street lights were motion activated and dimmed when no cars were within a certain distance from them (6) if all lawn irrigation actually watered the lawn and not the streets while having rain sensors and were properly set (7) if people actually used native plants to landscape with (there are a reason why certain plants grow in certain areas, but I am kind of a hypocrite on that one because I collect tropical plants)
Those are just a few examples. I have many more. If we did some little things to help the environment and reduce our impact, the changes would be huge.
I want to stand for personal freedom, but if people refuse to do things that will help our planet, should we force them to?
What about a law that states every rooftop either has to solar panels or covered in grass? I know the grass part would be difficult because the weight would require structural modifications, but if someone could create a genetically modified grass that stays green and continues photosynthesis during drought, grow very slow, and perhaps a type of soil it can grow in that weighs less than other soil compounds, it can work for certain buildings. As far as the solar panels, if every rooftop, car port etc... had them, think of all the energy they could produce and feed back into the grid.
The light bulb is another freedom issue. But why the hell are we selling incandescent's? LED technology has been around for nearly 90 years now, so keep that in mind.
How about the roofs of buses? We could create hybrid buses that have solar panels on top of them that can charge the battery constantly and switch to gas when the battery runs low.
Street lights could also dim to lower light outputs when no cars are detected within a few hundred feet. Every light could have a sensor and they could "talk to each other" and turn on a certain stretch lights for the oncoming car.
For sprinkler systems: if everyone could have rain sensors, routinely check heads for leaks and broken heads, make sure the water is directed to the vegetation and not the street, and don't over to where you start flooding the yard and water running off pouring into the street... so much water would be saved. It's also best to adjust watering seasonally. You don't have to water most grasses in the winter more than once a week and Bermuda really is already dormant and doesn't need to be water more than once every two weeks.
If everyone also had rain barrels that they could use for irrigation that would be a plus.
Another thing I would like to see are land bridges across and under highways for wildlife.
I'll post some more later. I realize this could very expensive and would likely require government assistance to implement it. A big first step would be to increase our standards of new construction. After that, we could then start government programs to help with existing properties and making them eco-friendly.
What do you think and what are your ideas?
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