Greenie Quiz

[Conan71]

Let's review a couple of items for all of you who have jumped on the Global Warming band-wagon to see how you are doing in your own corner of the globe to help keep the air clean and environment safe:

How many of you change your motor oil at 3,000 mile intervals?

How many of you drink bottled water?

Interesting to note that most auto manufacturers used to recommend 7,500 mile oil change intervals with half that number for "severe conditions".  This dates back before advances in metalurgy and advances in anti-friction additives.  Some might still advocate a 7,500 mile interval- I'm not certain.

The 3,000 mile interval was foisted on the public by oil companies and lube stations as a way for them to increase their profits by more than doubling motor oil consumption.

Refining motor-grade oil requires more "greenhouse" emissions at the refinery level, more emissions to deliver the oil to your local Auto Zone, and more emissions for you upping the frequency of your visits to the local Auto Zone.  It also requires more emissions to take away the waste oil, and re-refine it, or is used to create even more emissions by burning it off.  If you don't dispose of it properly, it becomes an environmental hazard for animal and plant life.

Bottled water:  Petroleum by-products are necessary for the plastic containers, electricity is needed to create energy for the plastics plants and packaging plants, fuel is needed to transport the plastic bottles to the packaging plants, to the wholesaler, the retailer, and finally to your home.  Fuel is required to properly dispose of the trash- if it goes to a land-fill it will be there for a very, very long time, if it is recycled, it requires energy to recycle it.

[sgrizzle]

I change mine every 6,000 miles or so and use 100% synthetic oil.

No bottled water. Although any bottles I do use get picked up in a green bin by the city.

[deinstein]

Pointless thread. You can pick out the hypocrisy in anything. Just about everything is based on oil in some fashion, it's unavoidable. That's why many of us are pushing for more government funded money on research for alternative and cleaner energy sources.

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by deinstein

Pointless thread. You can pick out the hypocrisy in anything. Just about everything is based on oil in some fashion, it's unavoidable. That's why many of us are pushing for more government funded money on research for alternative and cleaner energy sources.

There is hypocrisy everywhere, but I believe the point is that while people complain about C)2 and gas mileage, they are ignoring the hndreds of other things car related that effect the environment.

Plus, bottled water is the worst drink related invention since the 6-pack.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I change mine every 6,000 miles or so and use 100% synthetic oil.

No bottled water. Although any bottles I do use get picked up in a green bin by the city.

I use 100% as well.  I believe when Mobil 1 was introduced, they touted it as a 12,000 mile oil with a recommendation to change the filter at 6,000 miles.  I usually run 7,000 to 10,000 on a change.  I never bought into the 3,000 mile thing when I ran straight petroleum oil since my owner's manual said 7,500 miles and I've never had a major internal engine problem on a road vehicle.  

It never was an overt thought about the environmental impact, I figure I'm already a good oil company customer and it's just another evil sales tax dodge by buying half the amount the lube station wants me to buy in a year. []

I buy a case of bottled water at the beginning of boating season.  It's the only convenient way to carry water on a boat.  I don't care to drink beer or soda in the blaring sun, so water's the only option for me sailing on a hot afternoon.

I collect the empties in a bag on the boat.  Once I have 8 or 10 empties, I bring them home, run them through the dishwasher, re-fill, and take back to the boat, I even freeze a few because they make great cooler ice.  When they are pretty ragged, they go to the green bin.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by deinstein

Pointless thread. You can pick out the hypocrisy in anything. Just about everything is based on oil in some fashion, it's unavoidable. That's why many of us are pushing for more government funded money on research for alternative and cleaner energy sources.

Point is Einstein, I drove to Oklahoma City today and when I have idle windshield time, I figure out ways to tweak people I don't identify with. [}:)]

Seriously, my point is that there are many in the enviro crowd who just want to be with the "in" crowd without truly researching what is fact and fiction and what areas of their life they can change with very minimal personal sacrifice which can really make the biggest  differences.  There are lots of people who want to be environmentally friendly who don't really have a clue there are more ways than they think there are to really make a positive impact.  Or worse yet, people who talk about it and do absolutely nothing about it.

Plastic bottles and containers (for that matter any disposible container) create waste and require a lot of emissions to get them into your belly and to get rid of the spent containers.   So do most of the farm products you buy at Albertson's.  Buying at the farmer's market during growing season is a better alternative, though not possible six months out of the year.  

If you like beef, find someone who does co-op on free-range beef in the Tulsa area, and buy half a cow on the hoof, saves transportation fuel and fuel in large processing plants, feed mills, and feed lots.  Or quit eating beef because we all know cows generate greenhouse gasses.

There's plenty of research already being done and more than adequate funds being funnelled into alt fuel research.  Only someone living in a cave or Afghanistan (same difference) over the last 30 years wouldn't know that.

I get annoyed with people who form opinions based on little more than what celebrities and politicians (and former corpulent politicians) are saying in 30 second sound bites, or the first paragraph of a news article, or buying op-ed pieces as being real news.  Not saying you are personally guilty of that.

If others on the forum are going to cram their global warming dogma down my throat, I'm going to challenge them to make sure they are really doing all they can to solve the problem they believe is real.

[rwarn17588]

I go 7,000 to 7,500 miles in my Honda Insight between oil changes (depending whether I have a big trip coming up). The owner's manual recommends this, too. And I use synthetic.

Most motor oil engineers, I've read, are really reluctant to go further than 7,500 miles. It's not because the oil will go bad. It's because the oil simply gets dirty by that time.

[inteller]

Civic GX maintenance intervals are upped to 10k miles because natural gas isnt as harmful to engine components.

[cannon_fodder]

Bottle water is one of the biggest wastes in America.  The energy to pump, bottle (including creating the bottles) and ship water that can just as easily be poured from a filtered tap is just sad.  Not to mention the money wasted.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

Bottle water is one of the biggest wastes in America.  The energy to pump, bottle (including creating the bottles) and ship water that can just as easily be poured from a filtered tap is just sad.  Not to mention the money wasted.

Fiji brand bottled water.  Shipped half-way around the globe to a country that has a sh!t load of water on hand.

[Hawkins]

quote:
Bottled water:  Petroleum by-products are necessary for the plastic containers, electricity is needed to create energy for the plastics plants and packaging plants, fuel is needed to transport the plastic bottles to the packaging plants, to the wholesaler, the retailer, and finally to your home.  Fuel is required to properly dispose of the trash- if it goes to a land-fill it will be there for a very, very long time, if it is recycled, it requires energy to recycle it.

Yes, but you see the problem we have here in Tulsa is that our tap water is loaded with chemicals and junk to clean out all the chicken litter from the Arkansas poultry factories.

Here's a little experiment you can do right in your kitchen:

Completely boil down a cup of tap water in a bowl on your stove. Afterwards, you will notice a thick residue of white powder remains at the base of the bowl-- so thick that you can write your name in it, like a layer of dusty chalk.

Do the same with a bottle of Ozarka. You will notice maybe a teaspoon-sized area of white powder remains, and is barely present.

Now, which water would you drink?

[rwarn17588]

That's a crap test, Hawkins.

That white stuff is called minerals, which are present in all water and as natural as the sunshine. Even in those cool mountain streams.

I lived on a farm and used well water from an excellent source. If you boil the water, you get powdery stuff in the bottom, too.

If the City of Tulsa's water wasn't safe, we'd hear about it. About half of Oklahoma's municipal water supplies don't match standards. But guess what? Tulsa's does.

http://www.cityoftulsa.org/CityServices/Water/Quality.asp

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by Hawkins

quote:
Bottled water:  Petroleum by-products are necessary for the plastic containers, electricity is needed to create energy for the plastics plants and packaging plants, fuel is needed to transport the plastic bottles to the packaging plants, to the wholesaler, the retailer, and finally to your home.  Fuel is required to properly dispose of the trash- if it goes to a land-fill it will be there for a very, very long time, if it is recycled, it requires energy to recycle it.

Yes, but you see the problem we have here in Tulsa is that our tap water is loaded with chemicals and junk to clean out all the chicken litter from the Arkansas poultry factories.

Here's a little experiment you can do right in your kitchen:

Completely boil down a cup of tap water in a bowl on your stove. Afterwards, you will notice a thick residue of white powder remains at the base of the bowl-- so thick that you can write your name in it, like a layer of dusty chalk.

Do the same with a bottle of Ozarka. You will notice maybe a teaspoon-sized area of white powder remains, and is barely present.

Now, which water would you drink?

Here's a lesson for you:

That residue is calcium, magnesium, chlorides (not chlorine), and bicarbonate minerals, not primarily chicken stool or chemicals used to remove it.  

The dissolved solids in water are expressed as parts per million, or for the really small amounts parts per billion.  1ppm means there is one pound of a dissolved solid per million pounds of water (119,904 gallons). 1ppb means there is one pound of dissolved solid per billion pounds of water.

South Tulsa water generally has about 140 to 180 ppm of total hardness (usually about 10-15% is magnesium, the rest is calcium).  IOW, there's about 125 to 160 pounds of calcium per million pounds of H2O in south Tulsa water.

About .5 to 1ppm (one half to one pound of chlorine per million pounds of water, water is 8.34 pounds per gallon) is the only additive used to disinfect the drinking water after it goes through a clarifying process and enters the distribution system.  Ozonation is also used in some municipalities.  It's relatively benign at that level and if you leave a glass of water out on the counter top for a couple of hours, the chlorine content is virtually nil.

There's nothing wrong with the city water.

Ozarka, if I'm correct is mineral water.  Buy some distilled or deionized water and you will find no residue because distillation and R/O remove most or all minerals.

[RecycleMichael]

I think chicken poop in my water helps my tomato plants. I feel good about that.

Chicken poop for the soul.

Just kidding. Tulsa tap water meets every standard. It may have a funny taste a couple of times a year, but it is completely healthy.

I agree that bottled water is the devil. It has used up non-renewable resources, added millions of bottles to our landfills every day and wastes energy shipping it in from places like Fiji.

[Conan71]

Amazing isn't it, RM?  The U.S. has arguably the best water treatment and waste water facilities in the world and yet millions of people are paying a buck to buck fifty for the equivalent of something which costs about $.006 coming from the tap at home.

One of my friends had told me a few months back that if everyone quit drinking bottled water the price of gas would drop .05 to .10 a gallon.  I think it's hyperbole and urban myth, but makes for good cocktail party conversation anyhow.[]

Some of the waters are "drinking water", no special process just tap water in a bottle.

Just curious if Clueless Al drinks bottled water?