25.2.10
Decadence Skiing
Last winter I first came across advertisement for one-day skiing trips. This year I heard
about colleagues and acquaintance that are considering these offers.
I won't post no link at this page, because to me these offers are immoral. Vienna is surrounded
by low hills, little usable for skiing. The nearest skiing areas are about 1 or 2 hours by car.
For a long time people seemed to be satisfied by them. Of course, they are not as big as the
resorts in Tirol. The new offers include flight from Vienna to Innsbruck (about 500km), shuttle-bus
one-day ticket for the skiing arena and the trip back, again with bus and airplane.
How decadent can you get? Normal people are considering these offers, sometimes at about 100
Euro! How can an trip like this even be possible at a that price? It's tragic that people
don't think about their impact or that money seems to be more important than care for the environment.
12.2.10
Printed in Indonesia
...or China, or Malaysia. Have you also noticed that more and more printed products are
produced in the far east: books, especially the very cheap ones, calendars, gift-cards?
Although I've read about deforestation in certain far-east countries, I first noticed books
from China about half a year ago.
What does it mean to buy these items? Again, this has at least double impact. By buying a
book like this, you most likely support deforestation, possible illegal lumbering. And of
course there is the transportation impact.
I prefer books produced in Austria, or at least Europa. Already on two occasions, I have
decided against books because they were printed outside of Europe. I was looking for presents,
found two books that were more or less alike in terms of content. My first choice was nicer
and cheaper. Then I looked at the imprint, noticed the production area and decided to buy
the other book.
There are still a lot of printers in Europe. I hope more people will decide to buy locally
and that we will not have the same development as in the industry for sports shoes.
8.2.10
How hot is your apartment?
I'm trying to economise on heating my apartment. My living room is heated to 18°C most
of the time when I'm staying at home for a longer period, although I tend to have cold fingers
and toes. (I'm using warm clothes in winter.) I don't heat my sleeping room at all. The radiators
are set to let the water dripple through at minimum rate. The temperature varies from 14 to 16°C
with 13 the lowest I have had this winter.
Do you really have to be able to stay in your apartment with only a t-shirt? Do you have to
be able to sleep without clothes? In my experience it's healthier to have moderate temperature
indoors in winter. I've only had a small cold for 2 weeks this winter, although a lot of
my colleagues and friends have been sick with a hard cold or even the flue.
Of course, you have to get used to it and there are days when I'm feeling too cold and heat up
to 19 or even 20°C. But in my opinion there is no need to heat up to 25 or even more!
It's bad for your health, your environment and your finances.
3.2.10
Lonely Island?
Holiday dreams of many: a lonely island in the pacific, beaches, sun, no sign of humans.
- Or are there?
Is it possible for humans to pollute an island that is not inhabited? I'm not talking about
air pollution or climate change. Wouldn't you expect nice, empty beaches on an human-empty island?
Well, look at this report of
Pollution on South Sokos Island.
Well, what can one do about it? Don't by plastics? Or again: by locally. If all this stuff
wasn't transported over seas, there would be less of it on the island.
19.1.10
Perfect Product
"Müsli", cereals with yoghurt is a regular part of my breakfast. For years I bought
"bio"/organic yoghurt from various supermarkets, but I was not completely satisfied. The
taste and consistency were good, but I had some concerns about origin and packaging.
A few month ago I found die Hoflieferanten in a "bio-market". In fact, I noted their products because this was the only
local yoghurt available. Now, I'm completely satisfied: It's made from whole milk and has excellent taste.
It comes in glass packaging that is collected and refunded, therefore causes minimal waste.
Furthermore, the producer is only 150km away. That's a great improvement from the 400-500km of other
organic yoghurt available in the conventional supermarkets.
In sum, what makes it perfect? Excellent taste, almost no waste and short distance producer-consumer.
12.1.10
Plane or Train?
As environment-sensible person, I'm of course against extensive aircraft-use. For now I don't want to
go into the details about air pollution of planes and impact to the environment. Let me just tell you
an example that occurred last week-end.
A friend of mine and I were invited to a stage in Geneva. I decided quite early to go by train and got
good tickets for the night-train Vienna-Zürich. (49 EUR per direction in a couchette with 4 beds)
The trains were late in both directions, but I arrived at my destinations at an acceptable time. The
train ride Zürich-Geneva and back amounted to about another 50 EUR, in total 150 EUR. I spent two
nights on the train, one in a hotel and was rested enough on Monday to go directly to work. So: A nice
week-end without the need to take any vacation.
My friend decided almost in the last minute to join me. Direct plane-tickets would have cost about 600 EUR.
Therefore she took a connection via Frankfurt for the cost of 350 EUR. The plane took of on schedule in
Vienna, my friend had to get up at 4 to catch it, though. At Frankfurt it circled for an hour, then was
diverted to Munich. After some time she was able to get on a flight to Geneva, which was scheduled to
get there at 12:15 instead of 10:30 of the original plane. But - the plane was not allowed to take off,
due to icy conditions on the runway. She was put on a waiting list for the flight at 17:00. That was
too unsure and so my friend returned to Vienna after 16.5 hours.
Of course, I'm sorry that my friend couldn't join us and for her wasted time and nerves. But this confirmed once
more my preference for the train.
8.1.10
What do you do with your old clothes? (part2)
While some responsible consumers try to find a good way to reuse their old
clothes (donation, cleaning-rags), some companies are ruthless.
Today I read an disturbing arcticle in an austrian paper about H&M New York destroying the unsold winter-collections. I also found an
english article at the Huffington Post.
For me this is one more reason not to put any money into big fashion-companies like that!
5.1.10
Home - Work
I'm in the situation that I can follow my waste-regime at home very well: I sort out the
different materials to put them in corresponding dustbins. (In Vienna we have a strictly
separated collection-system.)
Unfortunately, at work I can't separate that well. Since month I try to get my boss and
co-workers to set up boxes for paper-waste. I also suggested to get another printer that
is only used for drafts and filled with misprints. Well, so far I had little luck.
For now I settled on separating my personal waste, trying to set an example and I will
keep talking about it.