Michael Jay Lissner

Thoreau Would Have Found This Amusing…or not

2009-02-13T17:06:29-08:00

I played around with a new site today called WattzOn.com that helps you to figure out how much energy your existence consumes on a daily basis. It’s a pretty useful site because it asks pretty thorough questions, and then reports on you vs. historical American, you vs. the world, you vs. lightbulbs, etc. Here’s my consumption of energy:

Pretty cool right? Who knew that my biggest environmental damage is coming from government? Here’s me vs. historical Americans:

So I’m doing pretty well relative to the average American, and I need to follow Thoreau’s advice about not paying my taxes. Got it.

Fiji Water Tries, Fails to Be Smart

2008-06-03T18:54:03-07:00

Well, it seems somebody is reading my blog after all. After reading my post regarding my hate of Fiji water, Fiji has responded by creating a new website that tries to lure consumers out of their minds.

I think it’s great that Fiji Water wants to lower their carbon impact, but come on folks. Talk about green-washing. This is just stupid. If you care about the environment, stop bottling water in Fiji. Actually, just stop bottling water.

The end.

Meet My Enemy

2008-05-15T22:26:41-07:00

I’d like everybody to meet my new enemy, and that of my girlfriend, who is now working against bottled water. Behold Fuji: traveler from distant seas, pillager of distant islands, waster of petroleum, and emptier of pockets.

So, not only is Fiji water expensive, but it also COMES FROM FIJI!!!! Think about that for a moment. Fiji is an island in the middle of the Pacific. Behold the planet Earth, and the island of Fiji:

Somehow, the water must get from there to here (it’s about 5, 500 miles to the bay area). Luckily, the bottle is square so they can fit a lot of it on a ship, but it must be bottled for weeks and months before it arrives here. Why are we pillaging this island? It’s madness.

The Vision

2008-04-15T22:33:39-07:00

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you are probably aware that I am a huge environmentalist. You may not clearly understand just how huge an environmentalist I am though. Lately, I have been doing some thinking about my long-term goals, and some of them are coming into some clarity:

I want to build a house and live in it.
I want my house to be made while maintaining a neutral carbon impact. If I use trees to build my house, I want those materials to be renewed before my death.
I want to stop using petroleum and coal altogether. No cars. No petroleum fed food. Only clean energy. Offsets for all things outside the realm of the above.
I want to achieve the above comfortably.

In a blog, these goals seem a little silly, but I have been thinking about variations of these for many years, and they are indeed quite serious, real goals.

That said, putting them out there in public makes me look and feel like an extremist, like a crazy person outside of what is considered the norm - outside even of the margins. I think I can do it though, and I think I need to get to work soon if I am going to feel like my life has been a success.

The first thing I need is money. More of it. Lots more of it.