Boycotting BP is not the right target

I know I have been saying that I will not fill up at BP anymore because of the Gulf disaster. However, they aren't the appropriate target we should inflict are anger on. We should really be upset at the government for passing lax regulations under the pressure of lobbyists and the donors who helped them raised their campaign funds.

Boycotting BP will not really affect their bottom line since today, BP owns only about 100 of the 900 or so gas stations bearing its name. The rest are operated by independent business owners. Such a boycott would hurt the individual owners. And really, we do not have many more choices. ExxonMobil is also one of the nation's biggest polluters in the world and Chevron has been denying responsibility for its role in an environmental catastrophe in the Amazon.

Obama has rightly suspended offshore lease sales, but he continues to promote a deeply counterproductive energy policy — on Thursday, during a news conference discussing the administration's response to the spill, he touted a Senate climate bill that would provide massive financial incentives to states that open their coasts to drilling, thus making a repeat of the spill more likely. Those provisions have to go. It's in Washington, not London, where protesters should make their voices heard. Sprint Evo

Suburbanization

Suburbization is a term used to describe the growth of areas on the fringes of major cities. I do believe this is only an American phenomenon because I had a difficult time trying to describe what suburbs are in Chinese. Suburbs are one of the many causes of the increase in urban sprawl. Many residents of metropolitan areas no longer live and work within the central urban area, choosing instead to live in satellite communities called suburbs and commute to work via automobile or mass transit. 

I am currently in one of the suburbs near Washington D.C. and I'll have to say that I prefer cities a lot more since people do have the choice to not drive and just walk. I do like driving but I only drive in NYC because I don't live in an area where public transportation is convenient. I think it is nice to look at a photo and know that is where I live. In the suburbs, I do not really have the choice due to the lack of sidewalks and all the shopping plazas.

There really is not a sense of character, history or culture associated with the suburbs. In fact, if someone was dropped into several suburbs, he/she would not be able to differentiate one from the other or even tell where they were. There are no buildings that are unique or special in architecture. I suppose a person could figure out that they are in one of the 18 states that has the Piggly Wiggly if they happened to see one..

High speed rails

In a car driven culture like the United States, will a high speed rail be profitable enough to not become defunct? Amtrak lost money on 41 of its 45 train lines in 2008. I hope Obama knows what he is talking about with his endeavor to build these throughout the country. I am assuming his proposal is to reduce our dependence on cars and buses for transportation and the possibility of oil prices spiking as this natural resource becomes depleted.

If oil becomes more expensive and low-carbon technologies are given a push because of concerns about global warming, we would be able to see an increase in travel via trains especially since flying seems to be becoming more of a hassle. China has been purchasing these high speed trains as they are rapidly expanding their train system to make travel more accessible within the country. China is about the same size as the United States too.

China, Europe and Japan have been using high speed rails for years so it is possible that this can be used as a preferred method of travel.  I think the biggest problem is due to our city layouts. Not too many cities within the United States are pedestrian friendly or public transportation friendly. Have you tried taking public transportation in Los Angeles? Its pretty awful, mostly because not enough people use it. And many cities do not have taxi cabs just roaming the streets like NYC.

In China, the Chinese are not as reliant on cars as Americans are and most cities do have their fair share of taxis for cheap prices. In Europe, the cities are extremely pedestrian friendly and the train stations are usually located in convenient places. In addition their cities have public transportation making it easy to get around. Japan also has a good public transportation system outside Toyko if you can understand Japanese.

Undeveloped countries and their garbage habits

As with every developing nation, they will go through their troubles to regulate pollution. Since there are many uneducated people in these nations, they do not know the ramifications of dumping garbage. I have seen this in Peru, Cambodia, India and China. In other developed countries such as Australia, Germany, England, Japan, garbage on the ground is hardly seen. The United States, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. It might be the cause of too many uneducated immigrants or just uneducated people.

When I was in China, I would often see people throw trash on the ground to their hearts' content. I talked to some Chinese friends about this, they replied that sooner or later street cleaners would pick up the garbage. “Besides,” they joked, “it gives the street cleaners something to do and a job.” 

That is true that under-appreciated and underpaid cleaners do eventually pick up the trash. I have seen them at work. Rain or shine, every morning they get up very early, often before 5:00 am, and pick up seemingly tons of trash and sweep the streets. Often before 7:00 am, when most people are just waking up, the streets are already clean. Nevertheless, my friends’ logic is flawed. 

If I were to arbitrarily throw trash on the floor in the home of a friend, it would be a sign of disrespect, and that friend would most deservedly give me a tongue-lashing or even show me the door, and rightfully so. In the same way, throwing trash on public ground is also very disrespectful, because public property is owned by all of society, not just by one person. In addition, littering makes an area look trashy and dirty. Sometimes it can even make a place smelly. A trashy, dirty, and smelly environment is not a harmonious and well-off one.  

I have witnessed the following situation on buses: Some people throw some garbage on the ground, and the ticket seller admonishes them, telling them to open the window and throw the trash outside! So I guess the trash bags that often hang near the doors of the buses are just for decoration.

I have also seen car drivers when driving, open their windows and throw empty cups or garbage outside. Why not just keep the trash in your car and dispose of it later? Most of the time when you buy some food or drink, it comes with a bag. Use the bag to store your garbage until you can properly dispose of it.. I have also seen people open the doors of their restaurants and just throw out dirty napkins. Basically, the thinking is as long as its not in my house, its not my problem.

When you throw something you want onto the ground, you are behaving like a baby or a spoiled brat. That is what a baby does: throw things it doesn’t want onto the ground. Because it doesn’t know any better. Now spoiled brats just do whatever they want, whether they know better or not. When they don’t want something, they just throw it on the ground, and let others do the work. Now I am sure that most of the people who litter in China are neither a baby nor a spoiled brat. So why act like one? 

Recent reports have shown that the waterways of China are extremely polluted. Regardless of the number of people picking up trash, some of the trash will end up in the waterways. The government should attempt to enforce those who just throw trash on the ground to keep it clean. Besides, China is all about having face and impressing foreigners. The World Expo is around the corner. With all the foreigners coming into Shanghai, they should start "teaching" the citizens not to throw trash on the ground.

Too many bags!

I'm not talking about designer bags because I know all you women out there will say that they can never have too many bags. The bags I will speak about are plastic bags from the super markets, book stores, etc. I am sure many of you have over a ton of these bags and cannot seem to reduce them. Mostly these bags are probably used as garbage bags throughout your home.

I believe a couple of months ago, NY tried to pass a law to charge a 5 cent tax on plastic bags. I do not recall seeing anything in the news about this being passed but I think we should all try to do our part and either reuse our bags or use cloth bags when going to the supermarket. This has already been a common practice in the San Francisco Bay Area for a bit where environmentalists are all over the place. Even in Shanghai, they are attempting to become greener and have passed a law that forces supermarkets to charge a fee for plastic bags. It is quite common to see cloth bags being used or given out by clothing stores so that people could reuse them and at the same time help them advertise.

Wash your hands with toilet water

The US keeps promoting a greener earth to other countries. One of those ways may be to save water. A low-flow toilet kit, or a dual flush toilet are great ways to reduce your water consumption, but here’s another toilet mod that will help you save some water, and give your guests something to talk about. This has been in Japan for quite some time now and even though I find that the Japanese are very wasteful with the amount of packaging it uses, they do find ways to save in other areas.

The toilet lid sink takes water that would normally go straight down into your toilet and first routes it through the sink spout at the top so you can wash your hands after you flush.  That may sound gross, but let me clarify.  When you flush the toilet, the waste goes down the drain and then the clean water from your reservoir tank refills the bowl.  With the sink add-on, the clean water from the reservoir first goes through the sink and then goes down into the bowl.  This extra step won’t reduce the amount of water your toilet is flushing but it will allow you to use that water twice, cutting out the use of your sink all together after taking care of business. I have not seen this in the US yet but with water becoming more scarce, it could be something that we should look into.

Undeveloped Haiti continues to suffer

It is always devastating when such a huge earthquake hits and destroys buildings. However for a country that is underdeveloped and has a lack of infrastructure already, it is even harsher. It seems like the latest estimation is 50,000 dead. Based from the pictures I have seen, the city of Port-au-Price has been almost completely demolished. With no equipment to dig through the rubble, it seems that even more people will die as they are buried awaiting for help and equipment to arrive. Currently, people are using their bare hands to dig through the collapsed buildings.

Aside from the earthquake of 8.0 magnitude, it seems Haiti has not have had any breaks lately. Aside from their political instability, they have had many environmental concerns. Most of their land has gone through soil erosion. Before its independence, Haiti exported more wealth to France than the combined total of France's other overseas dominions. The value of its exports even exceeded that from the North American colonies to England. It is in this past that Haiti's land degradation has its roots. Haiti is located on the western third of the island of Hispaniola. Although 50% of the country's land surface produces agricultural crops, only about 10% is suitable for irrigation and mechanized farming. Much of Haiti's agriculture takes place on steep slopes where, each year, farmers abandon about 15,000 acres of land to erosion. In addition, they were hit with a huge hurricanes in 2004 and 2008 that further stripped 98% of its forest cover due to deforestation and caused flooding throughout the country.

Please help out and donate some money to help the cause. Be careful of any scams as in this world it is unfortunate that people will take advantage of a the sympathy from people. Some of the places to donate are as follows:

• Americares 
• Unicef 
• Doctors without borders