Ten Ways Metalheads Can Celebrate Earth Day
Every day is Earth Day is the Vince Division of the MS Mansion! The environment is cool. Do your part to help conserve it.
Here are 10 very simple adjustments you can make to your every day routine that’ll help pitch in for the greater good.
1. Drink local beer.
Shipping liquid and heavy glass across the country (or across the world) uses a crapload of fuel. Plus the stuff from your area is probably better tasting and fresher anyway.
2. Smoke local weed.
Duh! That Mexican shwag has a helluva carbon footprint, and it sucks anyway.
3. Buy produce from your local farmers market instead of at the grocery store.
Yeah, it’s more expensive, but it’s also a LOT better, and it hasn’t been shipped from across the country or across the world, meaning less fuel was used in getting it to you.
4. Don’t use paper towels.
THEY COME FROM TREES, PEOPLE! A sponge or a dish towel can do the same job 99% of the time.
5. Buy digital music or stream it instead of buying physical product.
I realize not everyone will agree with this statement. But it is the environmentally responsible thing to do.
6. Refuse plastic bags at the grocery store.
Plastic bags are made from petroleum byproducts, essentially never disintegrate, are very difficult to recycle and mostly end up in our oceans (and eventually our food supply). Bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store instead; it’ll take some getting used to remembering to do so, but eventually it’ll become second nature. When you’re just buying a soda or a candy bar at the store, refuse the plastic bag they foist upon you — just carry the damn thing.
7. Eat less meat.
Don’t worry, ol’ Uncle Vince isn’t going vegan straight-edge on you… eat what you damn please. But the fact is, the commercial meat business is incredibly destructive to the environment: the same land used for grazing would be much more productive if used for growing produce, and the methane cows emit is a big part of global warming. Yeah, that’s right: cow farts are causing the earth to heat up! Crazy but true. If you care about the environment, you can’t in good conscience eat meat every day.
8. Be responsible about the seafood you eat.
It’s easy to find out where it came from. If those shrimp at the supermarket were shipped from Vietnam or Ecuador (which they probably were), best to avoid. Get something that comes from nearby instead. In addition to the carbon/shipping issue, those seafood farms are hella sketchy anyway, and use dubious and environmentally damaging techniques to farm fish.
9. Compost your food scraps.
Once you get into the habit of it it’s not that difficult: it’s just one more bin to add next to recycling and trash. Not only will all that stuff go back into the earth right near you instead of being shipped to faraway landfills (which uses fuel) where it’ll sit for decades not decomposing because it isn’t getting any air, but your trash will be less stinky and you won’t have to take it out as much.
10. If you live in the desert, don’t water your lawn.
Seriously, what is wrong with you people in California?
Oh, and as a bonus… it wouldn’t be Earth Day without Devin Townsend, would it?
