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Restoring the environment

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I'm from the other end of the spectrum.
V.I.P Member
Where I live, a number of the salmon hatcheries are run by volunteer groups
That sounds like the sort of thing I had in mind. If people are showing the initiative, everyone with the power to do so should help make things happen! It's like your getting a freebie or at least half off.
 
If everyone just sat back and waited for others to fix things for them then nothing would ever happen. I like seeing projects like this one take off:

There are two ways to do things, a few doing a lot of work, or a many doing a little work. We each have the capacity to do a little something to make this world a better place. I love these grassroots initiatives like this.

Now, I may have solar panels, battery storage, and electric vehicles, but I think I surprise people when I say it had NOTHING to do with global warming concerns or the environment, as it was primarily a financial thing, and secondarily, it is my way to "stick it" to the "big electric" and "big fossil fuel" and achieve some degree of independence. I am saving quite a bit of money, it is far more convenient for me, and I'm living a slightly higher lifestyle. Selfish motives mostly.

The home I am designing and engineering right now will be a "high tech" off-grid home. Solar PV, solar thermal water heat, passive solar, solar water condensers, geothermal, wind turbine, an attached food greenhouse, 18-inch/46cm thick outside walls and roof of concrete and structural foam, water collection into a cistern, etc. Redundant systems. As little as possible from government and utility influence as I can get. Independence is the key.

I want some property where I can grow fruit trees, have some bee hives, hunt, fish, raise chickens,...do all the things I enjoyed as a kid at my grandparent's home. I plan on selling my excess power to the grid, and not pull from it. I plan on selling my excess food at the local farmer's market. Spend some money up front, save and make money on the back end. Take care of myself first, then give back.

We must not be afraid to invest in our futures. Sure, it costs money and work up front, but if you can get a return on investment in 5-10 years or less, you'd be silly not to.

So, you don't need to be an environmentalist, per se, but you do have the power over yourself to do something positive for your environment, even if your primary motivation is yourself. You can plant seagrass to reestablish a habitat for fish, in order to feed yourself and others, for example, but it may also enhance the general ecosystem. If you can get a "win-win" out of what you are doing, that's a great thing.
 
We have a nice tradition here, every year in May all the kids from the primary schools and middle schools are sent out with garbage bags and spend a couple of days picking up trash along the main roads. It's because when the snow melts there's some trash left behind from winter. And our Constitution Day is in May so the roads and everything looks nice and clean for that. We did that when I was a kid and they're still doing it now. It's just one small thing but it helps a lot I think. Good to get rid of it so birds and other animals don't eat it or get stuck in something.

I also do that every spring, as soon as the snow melts I take a walk around the property and the road where I live and pick up trash if I see any. It's a nice spring tradition, cleaning up after winter and welcoming spring.
 
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We have a nice tradition here, every year in May all the kids from the primary schools and middle schools are sent out with garbage bags and spend a couple of days picking up trash along the main roads.
We have the same thing here, hoards of kids organised in to supervised groups and given a section of country side to clean up. About 20 years ago in Alice Springs one of the organisers was out flagging areas of desert so that kids wouldn't get lost and he came across a stranded tourist.

The man was a paraplegic. He was in a hire car, just a two wheel drive sedan, and he drove off the road and over some sand dunes looking for somewhere to get a nice photo, and naturally he got bogged. He got his wheelchair out of the car and tried to use that but that just got bogged as well.

It was only by pure chance that he had been found, no one had reported him missing. He had been there for two days, and like most typical tourists he only had a 500 ml bottle of water with him.
 
We have the same thing here, hoards of kids organised in to supervised groups and given a section of country side to clean up. About 20 years ago in Alice Springs one of the organisers was out flagging areas of desert so that kids wouldn't get lost and he came across a stranded tourist.

The man was a paraplegic. He was in a hire car, just a two wheel drive sedan, and he drove off the road and over some sand dunes looking for somewhere to get a nice photo, and naturally he got bogged. He got his wheelchair out of the car and tried to use that but that just got bogged as well.

It was only by pure chance that he had been found, no one had reported him missing. He had been there for two days, and like most typical tourists he only had a 500 ml bottle of water with him.

Wow, that was one lucky guy. It's good that you guys also get the kids to clean up trash, it helps I think and it's good for the kids to do some dirty work.
 
We have the same thing here, hoards of kids organised in to supervised groups and given a section of country side to clean up. About 20 years ago in Alice Springs one of the organisers was out flagging areas of desert so that kids wouldn't get lost and he came across a stranded tourist.

The man was a paraplegic. He was in a hire car, just a two wheel drive sedan, and he drove off the road and over some sand dunes looking for somewhere to get a nice photo, and naturally he got bogged. He got his wheelchair out of the car and tried to use that but that just got bogged as well.

It was only by pure chance that he had been found, no one had reported him missing. He had been there for two days, and like most typical tourists he only had a 500 ml bottle of water with him.
That's one lucky guy and a good example of how quickly problems can get compounded if you lack a bit of knowledge. It's also almost miraculous that he survived with his disability. My dad has a serious spinal problem and he has to keep hydrated properly etc or things can get bad for him pretty quick compared to someone without his problems.

It's certainly a good advert for getting kids to do a little tidying up. You never know what good it might do! :)
 
That's one lucky guy and a good example of how quickly problems can get compounded if you lack a bit of knowledge.
He was only a few hundred metres from the main road, but no one could see him. One thing to remember in remote areas in Australia - there is no moblie phone service except in towns. If you go 10 Ks out of town you no longer have service.

The other knowledge that he should have possessed is painfully obvious to most of us. Desert = sand, only specialist vehicles can drive there. Desert = no water, you need to carry some with you.
 
A friend of mine started a recycling depot, but it wasn't just the usual selection of bins. My drill press is still run by the motor off a washing machine I found there. There were other departments, but my favourite was the free bookstore. Some of the magazines were not even a month old. The shopping made it doubly worth a trip there.
 
A friend of mine started a recycling depot, but it wasn't just the usual selection of bins. My drill press is still run by the motor off a washing machine I found there. There were other departments, but my favourite was the free bookstore. Some of the magazines were not even a month old. The shopping made it doubly worth a trip there.
A friend's lathe is/was driven by a motor rescued from a rubbish dump in the sixties. It might've been made in 20's and bar being re-bushed (it is plain bearing) it still works. Quietest motor I have ever stood near!
 
I have friends who help the forest, and even got me onto a tree planting crew. Unfortunately, it was a feel-good excursion for city folk who could barely function on the land after burning lots of gas to get there. Still, some trees were planted, but they may not be suitable for the climate that will be here when they mature. We are winning a few skirmishes, but losing the war to the energy companies, who have been the biggest influence on history for a century now.
 
I wish I could just go to our local recycling centre and take loads of "trash" home with me! I see things all the time that I could use to build cool stuff or repair but they won't let you due to legal/liability reasons. Of course the staff help themselves!
 
I wish I could just go to our local recycling centre and take loads of "trash" home with me! I see things all the time that I could use to build cool stuff or repair but they won't let you due to legal/liability reasons. Of course the staff help themselves!
At my friend's yard, they were really hard-nosed about not giving out paint, but in my new locale, I found ten gallons of blended, recycled paint at a real bargain price and superb quality. And, you just reminded me that I stored it where it might freeze when I conserve heat now.
 
At my friend's yard, they were really hard-nosed about not giving out paint, but in my new locale, I found ten gallons of blended, recycled paint at a real bargain price and superb quality. And, you just reminded me that I stored it where it might freeze when I conserve heat now.
That's cool! I'm glad I helped jog your memory! :)

I wish that I could grab a few things at the recycling centre. A long while ago I was finishing up my dissertation and my poor Mac Mini was struggling to cope with rendering the pages and pages of MaxMSP patches I had created, something along the lines of 280 individual string models. The video RAM was not sufficient.

When helping my dad get rid of some junk at the recycling centre, I noticed a slightly beat up G4 PowerMac to the side of the dumpsters, actually a few Mac computers. I knew enough about them that I felt sure there was an 80% chance I could get the PowerMac running and maybe have an easier time of doing my work without the GPU hanging.

I walked over, took a look at it and asked the guy who worked there if it would be ok if I took it and explained why. He seemed fairly open to the idea and said "well if I don't see you take it, not much I can do about it, I'm just going to look at this wall for 30 seconds..." With a wink. So I picked it up only to have this other guy come running over shouting and bawling at me. I worked out pretty quickly he had been grabbing the Apple machines to sell. I know this because after I saw the same machine I had looked at on eBay in the local area.

I went back a few years later to dispose of my iMac. It's GPU had finally completely died and I had removed all the useful parts. I took it to the appropriate dumpster when the same guy that had been so aggressive spotted me with it. He began to half run towards me, so I speeded up. I took great pleasure spiking that iMac full force, screen first into the dumpster as hard as possible. The look of disappointment on his face made me feel so much better :)
 
^^ Good for you!
I recently realized that I have sometimes split my only money between groceries and hardware, and have pretty low sales resistance for raw materials when I need the quality, but have very seldom bought an expensive component. I scrounge, and use scraps for the majority of many projects. My tools are also bargains. I got that drill press, the exact model I wanted, for cheap because it came with a motor that needed to be manually started in the correct direction. I used it 'till it died anyway.
 
^^ Good for you!
I recently realized that I have sometimes split my only money between groceries and hardware, and have pretty low sales resistance for raw materials when I need the quality, but have very seldom bought an expensive component. I scrounge, and use scraps for the majority of many projects. My tools are also bargains. I got that drill press, the exact model I wanted, for cheap because it came with a motor that needed to be manually started in the correct direction. I used it 'till it died anyway.
Most things I own, unless bought as gifts (and even then not always) are things I bought in need of repair. I think people see the things I have and assume I've spent a lot of money on them. But no, I just let my brain bridge the financial gap. I've gotten things that are worth hundreds that I paid peanuts for!

I often have lots of junk around that I once in a while will go over visually to find useful components. I've got loads of RAM ICs that would cost a fortune from DigiKey or Mouser. I've got quite a few micro controllers and CPLDs pulled from things like old TVs and set top boxes. Honestly, the stuff we throw away as a society is quite shocking to me! I suppose I'm a bit unusual in that I know the value of these things and not many seem to share my interests. Still, it's very rewarding to fix things and get many years of use out of them! :)
 

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