I’ve been on a sustainability kick, what with driving my gasoline-powered car way less (we’ll probably sell it at some point) and switching over to my electric car. It’s been disappointing to realize that maybe only 10% of the stuff I throw in the blue bin actually gets recycled, and if only a few billionaires pooled their resources to set up a better recycling workflow, this might reduce the amount of plastic whales get in their diet, but I digress (only for a moment).
The impetus for this shart of a post is the Cubs installing LED lights for night games:
I can see plenty of benefit here, wherein the Cubs will draw less energy from the grid, directly saving money that can (theoretically) be used to pay better players, and the indirect effects with using less energy is less coal or whatever being burned and spewed into the air as pollution and more carbon dioxide to fry us alive. I think they can certainly do more, what with the mountains of plastic cups used to set up cup snakes in the bleachers and all the various wrappers and cardboard containers. I’ve even seen people leave their $15 (probably more now) nacho helmets behind, so there’s more plastic waste for ya. And while there are plenty of bins around the ballpark to deposit refuse and recyclables, since a lot of people don’t care, they all get mixed up anyway, and if the custodial staff when I was in Chicago in both labs and classrooms were any indication, they’re all going in the landfill anyway. It’s really rather disappointing and alarming given everything science has told us about global climate change.
Another motivation for this side toot is a retweet from David about France wanting more solar power or whatever:
Solar power is an excellent idea, but as we well know, unless you’re on the space station and have no choice, there are many more efficient ways to generate electricity that do not involve fossil fuels. Solar is good because the sun isn’t expected to burn out for another few billion years, and it would be nice if humans could figure out how to harness it as efficiently as plants and other photosynthetic organisms do. I think switching to solar would be great if it wasn’t so damned expensive to set up in the first place, which is yet another problem of accessibility. More people would switch to electric cars and solar if it weren’t some glorified status symbol like when South Park made fun of people with hybrids. I have my own private beef with Tesla, but I’d bet they would be more adopted outside of rich bastardville if they didn’t cost $60K+. I suppose it would look super weird if the Cubs installed solar panels on the roof of the grandstand, but that might at least be more practical than a giant windmill above the Harry Caray statue (did they move him too? I forget).
One of the more annoying parts of going to the ballpark if you’re environmentally conscious is all the trash left over, not to mention the mixing of landfill waste with organics and recyclables. Even when I visited Oracle Park in San Francisco, where they’re big on responsible sanitation or whatever (San Francisco has their own set of social problems that we won’t get into but you probably know anyway), often you will see food waste in with the recycling and plastic cups in landfill containers. There just isn’t enough desire or personnel to make sure everyone does their part to keep waste properly separated. So no matter how much the ballpark (Wrigley or Oracle or otherwise) claims to be green, even if some of it is greenwashing, the impact is diluted by the apathy of the masses.
I’d like to think that in the future, it will be economically viable for everyone to truly pitch in. The apathy can hopefully be tempered with better education. We’ve got a long way to go.
Comments
I loved France’s solution. I can’t imagine how much republicans would shit their pants complaining about the green new deal, which doesn’t exist.
dmick89Quote Reply
I was mostly pondering the infrastructure that needs to be in place to train people how to implement, maintain, and use the technology needed for an effective recycling program. If nothing else, I’m guessing lots of people would be willing to help clean and sort recycling for a living wage, it’s a good way to generate tons of jobs that are necessary…
Rice CubeQuote Reply
There’s a really cool series where a lot of European, Asian, and Australian architects have repurposed old spaces for small, sustainable living. Probably could use some of that in bigger cities like NYC or Chicago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSKOg3KpTic
Rice CubeQuote Reply
When I lived inSeattle I read a lot about the sustainability that was considered and implemented in the new Climate Pledge Arena rebuild. I went into it thinking cynically that it was all just window dressing, but it actually seems legit and well thought out. https://climatepledgearena.com/sustainability/
Wenningtons Gorilla CockQuote Reply
The plant biologist in me wants to fix this…
BVSQuote Reply
BVS,
Was this in the Kraken arena article? Do they mean the plants will blow a hole in the building, or that they use the C4 mechanism of carbon fixing?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Cubs were more (are?) more sustainable than other teams given the % of fans arriving via public transport and lack of parking lots enticing individual vehicles. But even if every visitor took the El to Wrigley for a season, it may not offset the owners’ personal footprints.
SKQuote Reply
SK,
They’ll have to do fewer helicopter rides, and maybe convince fans to just bring their own reusable water jugs or whatever so there would be way less plastic waste. What they need is a Star Trek replicator system to recycle all the waste back into energy that can be reformed into new things, but I don’t think quantum technology is quite there yet
Here is the “active” thread btw –> http://www.obstructedview.net/dreamcast-53-ode-to-an-overhaul/
Rice CubeQuote Reply