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this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2026
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In relation to your hill: While you're entirely correct, that's absurdly small potatoes compared to industrial water use. Yes, we should be conscious of our water use and limit unnecessary overuse, but a higher priority ought to be regulating industrial use. Data centers are the obvious example of using way too much for bullshit that ain't worth the water or power. Speaking of power, we could reduce water use by power plants. Nearly all generate power by boiling water. I'm a power plant operator at a plant that happens to use reclaim water as our source water, and we purify on-site for the main process, and we have a brine concentrator and crystallizer on-site to recycle the cooling tower blowdown and remove the solids to a dumpster that goes to a landfill. Unfortunately we burn methane, so I can't say that we're green, but we at least discharge zero water into local waterways (except storm drains when it rains).
My hill: Vote with your wallet. If you really believe in something, stop giving money to companies fighting against it. I won't buy chikfila because the owners actively spend money on gay conversion camps and lobby to reverse the legality of same sex marriage. It's impossible to research every little thing before every purchase, and sometimes there's no reasonable alternative, but something like chikfila is easy to avoid. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism, but don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Little changes can add up, and doing anything even a little bit better is an improvement over not trying.
Bonus hill: Put your fucking grocery cart into the cart corral. It takes ten seconds and prevents cars from getting hit. It's kind of the simplest measure for societal decency. I don't believe in the death penalty, but what value are you contributing to society if you're too selfish to return your fucking cart?
Your hill - first two sentences absolutely, in UK so no chikfila.
www.Goodsuniteus.com is a start to seeing where your money goes. Still looking for a better alternative.
The good news is as the giant evil corporations buy up everything it gets easier to just stop buying shit in general.
Good idea, but they collect subpoenable data and nag about installing the app. Why do they need my data?
Yeah I would love to find something better. Back in the 90s we had a book that you could look stuff up in. It was designed more as a shopping guide for groceries but it was super helpful.
Wish there was something that provided insight without cost.
Love the drops-fill-buckets mindset!
Piggy backing on your comment: for folks wanting to put their money to more ethical use, here are some resources:
These are mostly US and climate focused resources since that's where I am. Would love to see other people's resources too!
From Wallet Voting by Cory Doctrow:
It doesn't mean to keep shopping at Amazon if you hate their business practices, it just means that you & your friends won't have any impact on Amazon's business policies.
Granted, you'd be a hypocrite, so definitely don't shop where you hate, but don't expect a giant corp to change.
I read that link and I'm not sure I understand Doctorow's reasoning on the subject. I typically find people that dismiss voting with their wallet fundamentally misunderstand microeconomics but either way, both points (yours and mine) are definitely not hills I'd die on.
I think the general point is that the financial hurt that I can put on a company is peanuts compared to someone with deep pockets (ie: shareholders & businesses). Even if I were to get all my friends, family and direct coworkers to alter a shopping behaviour, it's unlikely to result in any change.
On the other hand, if I were to take that same group and be able to pressure my political representatives to do something about it (as we frequently see in California), then something may change. Similarly, me quitting my job out of disgust with a non-recycling policy won't get any attention, but if I can get my union to take it up, then the company will listen.
TL;DR: a person can't make change, a group of people can.