Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h / t Steve Milloy; The New York Times commends the efforts of low-carbon pioneers who reject personal hygiene to save the planet from Covid-19 and climate change.
See less people. Take less showers.
Some people said they bathed less during the pandemic. Unless someone complains, they say they intend to keep the new habit.
From Maria Cramer
May 6, 2021
Robin Harper, an administrative assistant at a Martha’s Vineyard preschool, grew up taking a shower every day.
“It’s what you did,” she said. But when the coronavirus pandemic kept her indoors and out of the public eye, she started showering once a week.
The new practice felt environmentally virtuous, practical, and liberating. And it stayed.
“Don’t get me wrong,” said Ms. Harper, 43, who has returned to work. “I like showers. But it’s an off my plate thing. I am a mother. I work full time and there is one less thing to do. “
…
Parents have complained that their teenage children don’t take daily showers. After the UK media reported a YouGov poll found that 17 percent of Brits had given up daily showers during the pandemic, many Twitter users said they did the same.
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/06/health/shower-bathing-pandemic.html
Obviously, if you give up washing for the planet, you will need to investigate other carbon-intensive aspects of your life.
Stop using toilet paper
Why do we hoard when experts believe that rinsing with water is more hygienic and environmentally friendly?
April 3, 2020
By Kate Murphy
Ms. Murphy is the author of “You Don’t Listen: What You Miss and Why It Matters.”
While the coronavirus pandemic affects us all differently depending on where we live, our financial situation, and our basic health, the difficulty of finding toilet paper is a universal matter.
The panic buying of toilet paper has spread around the world as fast as the virus, despite there have been no supply disruptions and the symptoms of Covid-19 are primarily respiratory rather than gastrointestinal. Groceries are still easy to find in many stores, but nothing to wipe off once completely digested.
This is all the more puzzling when you consider that toilet paper is an outdated technology that infectious diseases and intestinal specialists believe is neither efficient nor hygienic. In fact, it dates back to at least the sixth century when a Chinese scholar wrote that he “did not dare” use paper from certain classical texts for “toilet purposes”.
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/opinion/toilet-paper-hoarding-bidets.html
If you flush every time you use the toilet, you are obviously violating the first commandment not to wash. So better keep rinsing, to say the least once a day or less.
But what’s the point of sacrificing your personal hygiene if your air conditioning system kills your CO2 savings from an explosion of fossil fuel refrigerators or heaters?
Fortunately, President Biden is helping the really dedicated people give up their air conditioners.
EPA to limit strong greenhouse gases
The Biden government is moving quickly to limit fluorocarbons, the global warming chemicals used in air conditioning and cooling systems.
By Lisa Friedman
Published on May 3, 2021
Updated May 5, 2021
WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency decided on Monday to drastically reduce the use and production of strong greenhouse gases, which are central to cooling and air conditioning. This is part of the Biden government’s broader strategy to slow the pace of global warming.
The agency proposed regulating fluorocarbons, or HFCs, a class of man-made chemicals that are a thousand times more effective than carbon dioxide at warming the planet. The proposal is the first major step the EPA has taken under President Biden to tackle climate change.
The move is also the first time the federal government has set national limits for HFCs, which were used to replace ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons in the 1980s but which have proven to be a major driver of global warming. More than a dozen countries have either banned HFCs or have some restrictions.
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/03/climate/EPA-HFCs-hydrofluorocarbons.html
My only question: does the personal stench lower reproductive success rate for people who follow NYT’s advice? Or do they use the smell to identify other believers and mate with each other?
Whatever the answer, let’s just say I have no plans to get on a New York City subway during rush hour anytime soon.
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