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Send me to Guantanamo Bay; I'm an Eco-Terrorist.


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When on a painful, 100 degree heat walk to Falls Road Carryout to get a snowball, I decided to take a detour down Coldspring Lane. I was appalled to see that at Mobil gas station, the price of regular gas was 3.99.

Some places, it has already peaked past 4.00.

My parents were seriously stressing over our utilities bills. Despite using minimal electricity, water, and all else, it was just too much. How are we going to make it through this scorching summer under these conditions?

I personally have been hanging my laundry up to dry, I'm fixing up my bike as we speak, and I've tried to use the air conditioner as LITTLE as possible.

What are you doing to get around this?

Thread name shamelessly stolen from a friend's Facebook group.

Edited by The INfamous MC
Admin edit: Fixed post mistake and deleted the double post
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Sadly, I drive diesel, and while driving to a funeral in Long Island (New York) I saw diesel prices that were $5.13 a gallon.

My agency is asking staff to reschedule for a four day work week to allow their staff to cut gas costs for the summer.

We're already trying our best to minimize electricity consumption, but with two teens at home during the week, I don't think that's going to fly too well...

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Unfortunately, I just can't live without air conditioning. -_- Though I turn the thermostat up when I go to work. I just cut other things, like entertainment. I'll get a movie from netflix, instead of going to the movies. I don't drive anywhere I don't have to. I even started clipping coupons like grandma :mad: . Working plenty of overtime helps too, as well as making sales commissions. I've been thinking of asking the boss for a raise, and now I'll have to just for this reason alone. I remember when people were angry that gas cost $2/gal, now I have to fork over $60 to fill up my 4 door sedan. :( I could be worse I suppose, I saw on ABC news that a gallon of regular in Holland is $12! That's why they ride bikes everywhere.

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Here's what I do

- Walk to places instead of getting in the car if I have to go down the street to CVS or something...or take the bus.

- Chipping in for gas when I go somewhere with friends or my significant other.

- Minimal usage of lamps in the house. All the bulbs are 40 watt. Lights are off in rooms that are not used.

- Energy efficient fans run through the apartment for the most part unless the heat is so crazy..then we turn on the AC.

- Luckily, the beach isn't to far from where I live, so...yeah, I go to the beach. XD

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My air conditioner in my room isn't working right. It spilled water all over my carpet, so I guess that's a roundabout way of saving energy by not using it. -__-

I pay $39 a month to get an MTA monthly pass through Towson U. Sure, it's not the most reliable thing in the world, but for $39, I could care less about that. Other than that, I don't really drive that much, so it works out.

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It's good to unplug things when you're not using them too. Toasters, coffee makers, cell phone chargers, video gaming systems, even TVs. TVs use a LOT of electricity when not in use, so the more things you can unplug until you need them, the better!

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Bought a V10 Super Diesel crew cab, have the A/C in my house set to 65F, running some fans, doing some baking, grilling outside, and I have every light on in my house.

Oh yeah, I'm using Aerosole hair spray to give myself a beehive.

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I drive my new moped everywhere. Gets 100 mpg and costs about $5 to fill up, and I fill it up about 3 times a week. Goes a steady 40mph, and it gets me places. If I ever want to travel, I take Greyhound.

And we're building a pool in our backyard this season. -_-

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Gas here in lovely Penn is around $4.10. Not worrying about gas prices as much as oil heating costs this winter. With oil on the rise, looks like it could end up being 5-6 dollars a gallon. With a 300 gallon tank, thats 1500 every 8 weeks or so. Not pretty!! -_-

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As long as we're talking about cutting back because of cost, I like to also think about cutting back for the planet too (and usually, this saves you money anyway!!) Take fast food for example. People don't realize how much gas they waste over the course of a week, month, year just by idling in the drive-thru. If you park and go in to take it out, you save gas money while polluting less and hey, maybe you'll burn a few calories walking in that you can fill with a french fry when you leave with your food :)

Besides that, I know most fast food places love to hand you a fist full of napkins and plastic cutlery. Personally, if I'm taking food home, I figure I might as well use my own silverware, there's no point in making more waste with plastic silverware that usually comes wrapped in plastic on top of it. So I like to tell the cashier when I get to the window that I don't need any silverware. And when they give me a ton of napkins, I don't just toss 'em, I save 'em! They're handy to keep in your glove box and if nothing else, you can bring them home and use them

It's great to learn *'cause knowledge is power*

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Peru (where I live) is one of the 3 countries that will be the most affected due to global warming. Sad thing is that most of the problem comes from the countries above (due to industrialization). So people around the world taking conscience of the planet means a LOT to countries under the Ecuador line ^^. In my case I know how to drive but I'll keep taking the bus we really do not need more pollution as it is. I'll save my driving abilities for an emergency. Recycle as well. Are there any recycling bins near the BCC? I would hate to toss something in a regular trash can when there are recycling cans available. (I've never gone there that's why I ask).

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Peru (where I live) is one of the 3 countries that will be the most affected due to global warming. Sad thing is that most of the problem comes from the countries above (due to industrialization). So people around the world taking conscience of the planet means a LOT to countries under the Ecuador line ^^. In my case I know how to drive but I'll keep taking the bus we really do not need more pollution as it is. I'll save my driving abilities for an emergency. Recycle as well. Are there any recycling bins near the BCC? I would hate to toss something in a regular trash can when there are recycling cans available. (I've never gone there that's why I ask).
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Hi, I'm an eco-terrorist.

I just got back from a 5200 mile road trip in a Ford Cargo Van. It took $85-95 to fill the thing each time. Surprisingly, I found gas prices relatively stable for the last 2 weeks. They were mostly hovering around $3.82 a gallon from MD to AZ and back.

This is one and only time I'll say this... Thank you Bush, without the rebate I couldn't have made this necessary trip.

Edited by crbcntr
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  • 3 weeks later...

I wish I could bike to work, but I can't due to the distance and the stupid drivers in NJ. I'll get clipped within a week of riding if I did that. Unfortunately there's no cut backs on the work week for us. For my gas/electric bill I usually don't have it go that high during the summer. I recently replaced as many bulbs as I could with energy efficient ones and I don't crank the AC unless it gets into the 90's and the humidity's bad. I normally open windows and have a couple of ocillating fans going for circulation. Seen a significant drop in my bill when I do that. Plus on the AC when I have it on I set it at 70 degrees now (used to have it at 60 since I'm a cold weather guy) and I turn it off when I leave my place. Keeping it on constantly bit me in the ass one month over a year ago when I moved here. I got used to cheap hydroelectric power from back home! From Oct through May my electric bill is actually lower because I never really had to crank on the heat. I let the heat from my neighbor below me rise up and do the job. :P

With gas and the ripoff situation that happened recently in NJ I'm glad I get my gas on base. We don't have full serve so we can pump our own gas and the prices are a few cents lower, but that's getting up there too. Even though I drive a four door Buick it actually gets good mileage on the freeways and keeping up the maintenance on it helps.

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As long as we're talking about cutting back because of cost, I like to also think about cutting back for the planet too (and usually, this saves you money anyway!!) Take fast food for example. People don't realize how much gas they waste over the course of a week, month, year just by idling in the drive-thru. If you park and go in to take it out, you save gas money while polluting less and hey, maybe you'll burn a few calories walking in that you can fill with a french fry when you leave with your food :P

Besides that, I know most fast food places love to hand you a fist full of napkins and plastic cutlery. Personally, if I'm taking food home, I figure I might as well use my own silverware, there's no point in making more waste with plastic silverware that usually comes wrapped in plastic on top of it. So I like to tell the cashier when I get to the window that I don't need any silverware. And when they give me a ton of napkins, I don't just toss 'em, I save 'em! They're handy to keep in your glove box and if nothing else, you can bring them home and use them

It's great to learn *'cause knowledge is power*

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Over here in the Tacoma/Seattle area, we've got a pretty good bus system. Unfortunately, time constraints and my work schedule make using it a little more difficult. I do, however, carpool to work with my sister. We cut down on gas use that way.

Gas is a bit more expensive here than the average. I paid $4.19 per gallon at Costco last Saturday and thought it was cheap. (shudder at the thought... :wacko: ) It took $77 to fill my mini-van last week, but the mini-van (Dodge Caravan) gets better mpg than my husband's Taurus.

We switched all our lighting to LED and flourescent a couple years ago. Saves energy and money. I hardly ever have to buy light bulbs!

Recycling has always been a fact of life for me... I remember spending time with my grandparents crunching and bagging cans to take down to the recycler back during the 70's. Now we don't even have to think about it. All the recycling goes together into bins that the city picks up and empties just like they do the garbage cans. Black is garbage; brown is yard waste; blue is recycling. I also use the recycling bins at the airport where I work.

We try as much as possible to condense trips by combining errands together. We conserve paper use by buying one newspaper and passing it around. I take my travel mug with me when buying drinks and use cloth bags when shopping.

But we still end up using too much energy running all the computers in the house... ^_^

peace

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  • 2 weeks later...

I can't say I try extra hard to save money or be green. ^_^ Even though I'd like to.

I am pretty much a house wife right now so my day consists of cleaning/cooking for my lovely fiance, and applying for jobs or writing. I do help him budget. Right now fuel isn't so bad for us. We don't have to drive far for anything (except our families live 50-60 miles from us). His job is 1.7 miles from our house. If we don't go to visit family (and our friends live close) a tank of gas can last us 2 weeks. ^_^

I do love the air conditioning. But if I get cold it goes off. I don't use the oven much in the summer (heats up the apartment), and if I am not in the room I turn off the lights - don't mind sitting in the dark anyways. I unplug appliances in the kitchen not in use, but I'll admit it. We have 2 PCs always running. A media center with PC, PS3, Wii, Stereo system, and LCD HDTV always on. >.<

Yeah, I could be doing better...

Edit: Oh yeah, we do use those light bulbs that are energy saving and last forever! We hardly ever change a light bulb! :)

Edited by Samiki
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