Why?
I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make my neighborhood and world a better place to live. Sometimes I’m focused on climate change issue — big ticket items like population growth or stopping clear-cutting. But much of the time I think about how to make change happen on the local level. After years of planting trees; talking to neighbors about planting more trees and trying to figure out how to encourage more quiet and dark (less noisy things like amped up motorcycles; leaf blowers; car alarms and better outdoor lighting) — I’m coming up against something that’s confusing me. Knowing that some of our actions are going to harm ourselves and others why do we keep doing them? Here are a couple examples.
Gas-powered leaf blowers and other gas-powered lawn and garden tools.
The above graphic from AGZA (American Green Zone Alliance) really spells out the problems and solutions in this area. Given that we’ve known for years how polluting and noisy gas-powered leaf blowers are (one example) why do we continue to allow their use? And this is often something we do to ourselves. The person using the device is probably facing the most harm. Whether it’s a worker who uses a leaf-blower repeatedly, or someone using one once a year — in either case — that person is putting themselves at a health risk that is unnecessary. Join a group working on this issue.
