Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

This one is old, but in honor of Blog Action Day, here are some thoughts about "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle."

It seems that people think about recycling a lot. Frowns come out when there's no recycling bin for the soda cans or copier paper.

But "Reduce" is not so much on peoples' minds. Reducing usage of resources is almost equivalent to saying, "Don't buy stuff." If you can do without it, don't buy it, and that saves resources. Then you don't even have to figure out how to reuse it or recycle it because you don't have it in the first place.

Make do with what you have already.

Make do with less.

Drink tap water instead of soda or bottled water. (No can or bottle to recycle.)

Repair your car or bike, don't get a new one.

It's not very much in line with what seems to keep our economy afloat, but it's better for the environment.

Taken to an extreme, though, it would be best for the environment if we all just sat in the dark and didn't ever do anything or go anywhere. So, I don't think it will go to that extreme.

How far to we have to go for things to be OK? What is OK? No more global warming? No more species going extinct?