I don't know whether this has been discussed much, but how can USMS support "going green," promoting and/or being supportive of being environmentally responsible for clean water to swim in as well as to drink?
Open Water swims, of course, are the perfect venues to remind us all to keep our waters clean for swimming. The Boston swim focuses on this; do other Open Water swims promote cleaner water? What do they do?
Can pool Masters swimmers, clubs, LMSCs promote being "greener"? Encouraging people to take shorter showers is one way. What are other ways?
I think it is a fine idea and good opportunity for USMS to promote this particular aspect of the environment. By the way, all the Great Lakes are down several inches, except for Lake Superior (where, at the moment, we don't have Open Water swims...but who knows, in the future???).
Jennifer Parks, Michigan Masters
A couple more random thoughts, then I'll get back to work.
In our city we have alleys. I frequently walk our dog in the alleys so I get to see what people discard. The city provides us with rollaway trash bins (50-60 gallons or so). We (a family of three) rarely fill it up to one-third full unless we have some big project around the house that generates a lot of waste. Some families in our neighborhood (nobody has more than three or four kids) fill up two of these big bins every single week. Many families have one bin that is full or overflowing every single week as well. We sacrifice (pay more than the cost of disposing of our modest amount of garbage). Others probably pay much less than the true cost to dispose of their garbage.
There is one other factor that the marketplace doesn't take into account - affluence. We in the US are the most affluent country on the planet. Paying $3 for a gallon of gas is probably a lot less painful for the average American than for the average Bangladeshi. He is thus much more motivated to make that gallon of gas last (assuming he can even afford some kind of motorized transportation). He might ride a scooter. His wife and three kids might cram onto the scooter somehow (sidecar? storage rack?) or walk much of the time. In any case, he will be much more price sensitive than we are though.
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A couple more random thoughts, then I'll get back to work.
In our city we have alleys. I frequently walk our dog in the alleys so I get to see what people discard. The city provides us with rollaway trash bins (50-60 gallons or so). We (a family of three) rarely fill it up to one-third full unless we have some big project around the house that generates a lot of waste. Some families in our neighborhood (nobody has more than three or four kids) fill up two of these big bins every single week. Many families have one bin that is full or overflowing every single week as well. We sacrifice (pay more than the cost of disposing of our modest amount of garbage). Others probably pay much less than the true cost to dispose of their garbage.
There is one other factor that the marketplace doesn't take into account - affluence. We in the US are the most affluent country on the planet. Paying $3 for a gallon of gas is probably a lot less painful for the average American than for the average Bangladeshi. He is thus much more motivated to make that gallon of gas last (assuming he can even afford some kind of motorized transportation). He might ride a scooter. His wife and three kids might cram onto the scooter somehow (sidecar? storage rack?) or walk much of the time. In any case, he will be much more price sensitive than we are though.
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