Archive for September, 2009

Every Little Bit Helps

If you’re trying to live green, you may find it very discouraging when you watch the news…or just walk around your neighborhood…and see all the other people who aren’t living green.  What good does it do the environment if one person lives green while twenty don’t? Well, that’s a valid concern, but what you need to remember is that just because there are people in your neighborhood who don’t live green, there are a lot of people who are living green, and more are embracing the movement every day. People shouldn’t be forced to go green, either.  That just creates resentment and passive revolt. So just decide to do what you can to live green, and the rest will take care of itself. So, what can you do? 1. Ride a bike to work, or walk Depending on where you live, walk to work or ride a bike.  If you’re too far away, of course you’ll need to take your car, but consider using a “park and ride” for at least some of the way.  Or take a bus or use a car pool. This seems pretty simplistic, doesn’t it?  Well, lots of things on this list will be simplistic.  But they may be things that some ...

Save Water to Save Money

In the 1970s, water used to be free.  Due to human beings’ negligence, water is no longer a free product as well as no longer pure and clean.  People now buy drinking water unless they want to drink contaminated water.  Measures must be taken to recycle resources and clean the water system before water becomes scarce. For starters, people should reduce their usage of water by taking shorter showers, which will decrease their water and electric bills.  Also, installing inexpensive low-flow showerheads and toilets will decrease water and electric bills.  Furthermore, a faucet aerator, on all faucets in the household, is inexpensive, as well.  These gadgets will reduce electric and water bills.  But the water pressure will remain high. Conserve water by using xeric gardens.  Plants in xeric gardens are native to the area and do not require much water.  In order to water them, it is recommended to use gray water.  This gray water is the water from the kitchen, bathrooms, sinks, showers, tubs, laundry, washing machines, and dishwasher.  Only biodegradable soaps are used in order to create this gray water.  Recycle this gray water by watering gardens, plants, and lawn. Use the machine washer/dryer and dishwasher after seven in the afternoon.  ...

Shade Trees and Window Shades

It’s hard to get anything done if you’re sitting in a sweltering room in your home.  But you don’t want to run your air conditioner, and although fans cost less to run than an air conditioner, they still cost money to run, too. Well, there are some things you can do to reduce the heat inside your home. First off, if you live in a house, consider planting some shade trees on the east and west sides of your home.  As long as you’re planting deciduous trees (those that lose their leaves in winter) you can even shade the south side of your home as well.  (Typically, people will heat their homes naturally during winter time by allowing the south sun to come in.  With deciduous trees, you keep the sun out during the summer, and let it in during the winter.) Plant shade trees or shrubs around your picnic table or porch, or, depending on how much land you have, plant a double row of trees to make a nice, cool soothing walkway, with perhaps a picnic table in the middle. But if you don’t want to plant trees, there are other things you can do to let the sunlight into your home, ...

Ethanol Info

I confess that I didn’t know much about ethanol until today, when I decided to actually make the effort to do some research on the subject. What had I known previously?  That for several years, gasoline had been mandated to be mixed with 10% ethanol, because it was better for the environment.  However, because of the law of unintended consequences, the use of ethanol was driving up the cost of corn (from which it was made), and causing the poorer people of the world even more misery as they were now unable to purchase it as their staple food. So, today, as I said, I began doing some research. To begin with, ethanol can be made from several substances.  In Brazil – the world’s largest ethanol producing country, they make ethanol out of sugar cane rather than corn.  Sugar cane has a 30% greater concentration of sucrose than corn, and is also much easier to extract.  In addition, the “bagasse” (the fibrous residue remaining after the stalks are crushed to extract their juice) is then used for a variety of purposes – nothing is wasted or dumped into landfills. So why does the United States make its ethanol out of corn, I wondered.  (One ...

Can Electronic Files Save the Planet?

If you were, or are, a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, you may have seen an episode where Captain Picard is relaxing in his quarters, reading a book printed on paper!  Well, he likes antiques.  But for everybody else on board the starship, they read their books on the computer mainframe, or even on hand-held devices, so that the starship could carry millions upon millions of books, with not a single tree having been cut down to provide the paper on which to prevent them. We’re at that point now.  Amazon, for example, has introduced the Kindle, an electronic book reader that can store 1,500 books in its innards.  That’s a pretty decent sized library! Of course there’s a drawback.  (There always is, isn’t there?) If you forget your book on a bus or plane trip, you’re only out about $9.  If you forget your Kindle (and people have been known to do it!) you’re out about $300!  And a Kindle, like any other mechanical device, will eventually give out, and then it’s off to the landfill with it.  Whereas, books can be recycled. Nevertheless, if you’re a reader, a Kindle or other book reader is a good thing to have.  ...