Media & news

 I wash my clothes a couple of times a week. I use cold water, because I don’t wash large loads and, at times, put the whites and colors in together. My Mom told me using cold water helps to reduce fading. I recently read an article that says my washing routine is environmentally friendly because I am reducing the use of fossil fuels and cutting carbon emissions by at least 864 pounds per year. That is equivalent to planting 0.37 acres of forests, according to The American Cleaning Institute. I am climate friendly – finally.

In Allyson Chu’s May 12, 2024 article, Why You Should Embrace Using Cold Water, Almost All the Time, published in The Washington Post, she states, “Water heating is responsible for more than 10 percent of both residential energy use and consumer utility costs, the biggest share after air conditioning and heating according to the Energy Department.” Ms. Chu states, “Hot water settings are only really necessary for sanitizing or if your clothes have grease on them.”

The article also says showering or bathing accounts for roughly 17 percent of water used in American homes, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Steamy showers consume nearly half the hot water used in a home. Cold showers use less energy than hot showers (science). The original article stated that Jennifer Amann, senior fellow at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, suggests people take cold showers instead of hot showers because cold showers use less energy. Apparently, Ms. Amann must have actually tried a cold shower, because the article was corrected to reflect that she really meant that letting the shower or bath run to heat up was a waste of water and energy (deeper science).

However, Ms. Amann says we should rethink washing our hands with hot or warm water for the same reasons. Cold water can have benefits for our skin, she says, especially for those with drier skin or eczema. As far as washing dishes, Ms. Amann says, “Don’t use hot water, that is just a waste.” (My Mom would be appalled. She said dishes needed to be washed in hot water.)

An article by Kiley Price, published by Inside Climate News on March 31, 2024, titled The Show Must Go On, discussed the impact climate change has on outdoor events, putting concertgoers, sports fans, and any other outside-event enthusiasts at higher risk, according to experts (deeper, but undocumented science).

The article continues with a litany of events where severe weather interrupted concerts, subjecting “droves of fans covered in glitter and body paint” to weather-cancellations or shortened programs. Almost 100 people were injured in a hail storm in Colorado, more than a dozen people at an Ed Sheeran concert were treated for heat-related illnesses, and a 23-year old girl fainted and died at a Taylor Swift concert in Brazil. However, the article doesn’t mention any problems with alcohol and drugs that have followed music concerts for decades (Ms. Price should have been at Woodstock in the 1970s when everyone was stoned and scared of global cooling).

Ms. Price recognized the music industry contributes its share of emissions from transportation to and from the events and the venues’ energy-guzzling sound and light systems. But, Heather White, an environmental scientist and founder of the nonprofit One Green Thing, is quoted, “The electronic music festivals are drivers of culture change. We have to have these living laboratories, where people can see zero waste at a concert, because without culture change, big policy solutions are not going to work. (“I guess I get it: climate change must be reduced because the show must go on for us to have “big policy changes.”)

Another article published by Inside Climate News onJune 2, 2024, reports that German activist and environmental engineer, Wolfgang Metzeler-Kick, and four other activists are on an extended hunger strike until German Chancellor Olaf Scholz provides a statement, “…asserting that the climate crisis is an extreme danger to human civilization, reiterating the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s target of holding warming to 1.5 degrees, acknowledging that the world has already exceeded the emissions limits required to stay on the path to the goal, and that German government must radically change course now to mitigate the impacts of climate change.” Thus far, Chancellor Scholz has not made such a statement, and Mr. Metezler-Kick has not eaten.

A fellow activist, Marlen Stolze tearfully described Mr. Metezler-Kick’s condition as dire and begged Chancellor Scholz to issue a statement to save Metezler-Kick’s life. Strangely, she didn’t encourage Metezler-Kick to just eat something to save his life.

 Climate change activists publish articles like these daily to emotionally move society towards eliminating fossil fuels or encourage huge changes to lifestyles based upon their beliefs. If we don’t do it, they refuse to eat.

The issues behind the climate change debate are serious – for no other reason than unnamed experts cited by The New York Times estimate at least $1 trillion a year will be required to help developing countries build out clean energy projects and cope with climate disasters. No successful business makes investments that large without first doing detailed cost-benefit analyses and coordinated planning with precise targets. Only governments and activists pushing this nonsense throw so much money around on such little evidence, but at least I am doing my part – I am climate friendly.

I hope you have a good month.