Phantom of the VCR

Your VCR is costing you a lot of wasted money. In fact, about 6% of your monthly bill is from unusued appliances like your VCR. Imagine that little jerk, just sitting there all day, flashing 12:00 over and over again, and you're paying for it. You probably don't even use your VCR anymore.

Of course the VCR isn't the only enemy living in your own home draining your bank account. If you leave your computer on hibernate while you're away its backstabbing you. Coffee makers, TVs, stereo equipment, all of your friends steal electricity while they sit unused.

This phenomenon is called phantom power. It happens when a plugged-in device draws power when its not being used. Power is taken for internal clocks or displays or "instant on" features. It is estimated that phantom loads in the US equal the electricity use of Greece, Peru, and Vietnam combined.

How can you lower your electricity bill and stop the abuse of your plugged-in pals? Unplug them. Just get one of those surge protectors with the switch that allows you to switch appliances on and off when you need them or don't. Maybe it will add some annoyance to your life. But you can take the extra 6% you save and put it toward flourescent light bulbs to save even more dough on your utility bill.

Pill Popping Perch

The pills you were taking for chronic hiccuping have worked and you never even had to finish the prescription. Now what the heck to you do with all of those extra pills?

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, you shouldn't flush them down the toilet or toss them in the garbage.

A new partnership between the Fish and Wildlife Service and the American Pharmaceutical Association is aimed at educating citizens, through pamphlets, websites and events, about the threat posed by pills popped into the pot.

The Smart Disposal program provides some tips in the press release on how to keep your pills out of waterways like rivers, lakes, and seas.

1. DO NOT FLUSH unused medications. Consumers were once advised to flush their expired or unused medications; however, recent environmental impact studies report that this could be having an adverse impact on the environment. While the rule of thumb is not to flush, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that certain medications should be flushed due to their abuse potential. Read the instructions on your medication and talk to your pharmacist.

2. When tossing unused medications, protect children and pets from the potentially negative effects. APhA recommends that consumers:

Crush solid medications or dissolve them in water (this applies for liquid medications as well) and mix with kitty litter or sawdust (or any material that absorbs the dissolved medication and makes it less appealing for pets or children to eat), then place in a sealed plastic bag BEFORE tossing in the trash.
Remove and destroy ALL identifying personal information (prescription label) from the medication container.
Check for approved state and local collection programs or with area hazardous waste facilities. In certain states, you may be able to take your unused medications to your community pharmacy.

Silicon Valley vs. Houston

Several articles have come out recently that profile the growing war between Silicon Valley venture capitalists and old-fashioned Houston oil tycoons.

You'll probably recognize some of the Silicon Valley boys from the late '90s technology boom. These same guys are investing billions in new, clean, renewable energy. In the last decade they were attempting to overthrow the business and consumer status quo. This time they have the oil companies in their sights. A New York Times article published today starts with this paragraph...

• Silicon Valley’s technology investors have taken to the ramparts, threatening to tear down the oil and gas industries’ dominance with innovations that use ethanol, solar and wind.

The New York Times article goes on to discuss how these same venture capitalists are playing it safe by investing in oil technologies while pushing greener options.

Despite that small hypocricy, the fact remains that there are a lot of rich folks in California who believe the reign of the oil companies is coming to an end and they want a piece of the new energy revolution.

How does the new energy era parallel last decade's computer/internet revolution? According to Brian McConnell at the O'Reilly Network, similar pieces have fallen into place. For instance, during the late '90s, personal computing technology was becoming more accessible and cheaper to buy. Unfortunately, most of the hardware and software available was too complicated and isolated for mass consumption. Venture capitalists at the time saw the potential for a wired world where every home could have a computer that worked efficiently and allowed them unfettered access to information and products. They invested millions into hardware/software developers which allowed for increased development. The fact that I'm publishing this blog and you're reading it proves that these investments were a success.

Right now solar and wind technology has reached an efficiency climax. Solar photovoltaic arrays are able to absorb more energy than ever from sunlight which means more energy per square inch of solar panel. Scientists have developed far less expensive turbines that can be placed almost anywhere with access to the power grid. The problem with renewable energy, like the old problem of computers, is that access and dissemination is difficult. Venture capitalists have the money to help solve these issues. Perfect storm? I hope!

There are other reasons why these computer dudes from the '90s are suddenly interested in renewable energy. Both renewable energy development and computing development are material sciences. Competition in computing and energy is based on cost per unit of performance. More power from small packages means more competitive advantage. Making computer technology more accessible meant improving the packaging and the marketing. The same problem is faced by renewable energy providers. Finally, there are many brilliant minds in Silicon Valley who thrive on solving problems through technology. With the advancement of computers has come renewed demand for something totally different that these creative geniuses can sink their teeth into.

Oil tycoons have controlled the energy world for a long time. Now Silicon Valley computer nerds and rich web business people are coordinating their cash and creativity to give Houston a run for its money.

New York Times story HERE

O'Reilly Network Story HERE

Winter Global Temps Highest EVER

This is getting stranger and stranger.

The U.S. government confirmed what most people felt, this was a mild winter. In fact, it was the warmest worldwide winter ever recorded. Not to freak you out, but in addition to the warmer winter the particles that block out sunlight and keep the earth cooler are disappering.

Now many will say that although the winter was the warmest on record, it only warmed by an average of 1.3 degrees. In the icey world of the poles, a change of 1.3 degrees is monumental. Plus, many creatures are only accustomed to a very narrow range of temperature changes. When that range is affected, they begin migrating to a more comfortable place or just die.

According to the NOAA National Climactic Data Center, the average increase in temperatures per decade has been about .11 degrees. Since 1976, however, the increases have been much more dramatic.

Read more here. And please try to make some of the small changes I've suggested on this blog such as...

• Here
• Here
• Here
• Here

Counties Tackling Global Warming

States have been trending toward curbs on climat change emissions. Now counties are doing their part as well.

One such city is Fairfax, Virginia. The Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolooy is planning on spending millions to make the city's one million residents a little greener.

Some of the types of changes Fairfax is planning include: ethanol-burning buses, tax braks for hybrid car owners, more trees, and more green space. Oh yea, and plenty of "green roofs" like I described in THIS post.

Rather than pitting environmentalists against business owners, the Board plans on offering incentives to businesses who make environmentally friendly changes.

Montgomery County is another green county that requires buildings to meet strict energy saving standards. The county also gets 10% of its energy from renewable resources.

What this all means is that you can have a direct impact on global warming by working at the local level. Maybe start by attening a county or city commission meeting and suggesting small inexpensive steps like offering free trees to citizens and rebates for utility users who reduce their usage.

Read more here

Make Your Pet Green

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, just took a break to wait for new material.

If your dog is like mine, she/he is constantly being barraged by chemicals. From the flea baths to the flea prevention and all of the treatments, cleaning products, and deodorizers in between. I'm no vet, but I have to guess that dousing our furry family members in this stuff isn't exactly healthy. I want my pup to live forever, or at least as long as possible.

There is an alternative. Pet supply stores across the country are beginning to provide all natural products for dogs, cats, ferrets, tropical fish...you name it. For dogs there is additive-free food and veggie chews. You may be familiar with the "Newman's Own" brand of charitable products. Now that company is manufacturing organic dog food made without herbicides or pesticides.

This may all seem a little silly, but of course silliness ensues with pet owners. Keep in mind that there is no legal definition for "organic" or "natural" so you'll have to check the label for more information.

• Here is a link to Newman's Own Organics dog treats for little dogs at Amazon.com


• Here is a link to an all natural pet store


• Here is a link to Botanical Dog, another natural pet store

Drink Boxed Wine for the Environment!

Mother Nature wants you to drink boxed wine. Thats why she made it better for the environment than glass bottles. FINALLY, an excuse to bring boxed wine to a party. Read below for more and click the link for all of it.

The report evaluates three types of container systems for wine: paperboard containers, glass bottles, and PET bottles. The paperboard containers (which are composed of a laminate of paperboard, aluminum, and polyolefin resins) are manufactured by Tetra Pak and include the Tetra Brik™ and Tetra Prisma™. The secondary and tertiary packaging (such as corrugated boxes) used for transporting filled containers from the winery to a distribution center are also included.

The functional unit used to compare the container types is the delivery of 1000 L of wine. That’s quite the party (that’s 111 cases of bottled wine or 1332 – 750 mL bottles). According to this study we should be drinking our wine from Tetra Paks and not glass bottles if we are concerned about GHG emissions and energy requirements!! This also indicates that single-serving containers are worse (as we all should know) than multi-serving containers. However – it also means that if we do buy the wine in boxes then we need to RECYCLE said boxes.

READ MORE HERE

ESPN Sporting Eco-Thinking

For years, people who enjoy various sports have been worried about the environment. The threat of fishing, skiing, hunting, etc. going away because of irresponsible management policies would make any outdoorsman/woman furious. Some organizations, like Ducks Unlimited, have even gotten into preserving habitat by purchasing land and protecting it from development so its members have somewhere to hunt. Sports fisherman and commercial fisherman are constantly at odds because of overfishing issues. Winter sports competitions are sweating bullets over the possibility of zero snow fall in the world's most famous resort towns.

Finally, ESPN has caught up with its readers and has published a story on the impact environmental changes have on sports and what some groups are doing to turn back the clock on global warming.

Searing heat is turning that rite of passage of Texas high school football, the August two-a-day, into a one-at-night, while at the game's highest level the Miami Dolphins, once famous for sweating players into shape, have thrown in the soggy towel and built a climate-controlled practice bubble. Even the baseball bat as we know it is in peril, and final scores and outcomes of plays may be altered too.

This is actually a really interesting piece, especially if you're into sports. Don't fret yet though, there are ways to alter our actions so our quality of life won't diminish. How about all those rich sports stars give up their SUV's as a first step?

What do California and Michigan have in common?

I'm sure California and Michigan have a lot in common. Both states have some incredible college football teams. Both states have lakes. But most importantly, both states are getting greener all the time.

Take California's new emphasis on plug-in automobiles whose power is supplied by wind and can put energy back on the grid when not in use. Think of one complete loop of energy, all renewable. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. in California is considering plans to charge batter-powered cars at night with wind energy then buy back excess energy from drivers during the day. Night hours are generally the off-peak times when energy is cheaper and more readily available. Day time hours are demand hours. This plan would allow electricity suppliers to get back unused energy during the day to help with demand. Read more here.

In Michigan, GM is trying to shed its love affair with gas guzzling global warming nightmares. If you saw the documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car?", you remember the cute EV1. EV1 was a Saturn (GM makes Saturns) sold in California and capable of driving about 60 miles on a plug-in charge. Charging stations were installed all over the state to provide convenience for the car. For some reason GM only leased the cars, didn't sell them, and once all the leases were up, they crushed the EV1 bodies and stopped manufacturing plug-in vehicles. With that dirty piece of history behind them, GM is looking to reclaim the plug-in market. This time they are incorporating new battery technology that allows for longer driving times on a charge and blending a gasoline engine with the car so once you run out of power, you can keep going. The car is called the Volt and GM claims it should be ready by 2010. Hopefully they aren't pulling a PR stunt. Read more here.

Power from the Ocean?

Apparently all of those big waves you play in at the beach are home to energy that could be trapped just like hydro power generated from rivers and streams. Imagine gaining energy from the ocean without the risk of dumping oil in it!

According to THIS (http://environment.about.com/od/offbeatenergysources/a/ocean_power.htm) post, the sea can be harnessed for energy in three basic ways: using wave power, using tidal power, and using ocean water temperature variations in a process called “ocean thermal energy conversion”.

Ocean Wave Power
In harnessing wave power, the back-and-forth or up-and-down movement of waves can be captured, for example, to force air in and out of a chamber to drive a piston or spin a turbine that can power a generator. Some systems in operation now power small lighthouses and warning buoys.

Ocean Tidal Power
Harnessing tidal energy, on the other hand, involves trapping water at high tide and then capturing its energy as it rushes out and drops in its change to low tide. This is similar to the way water makes hydroelectric dams work. Already some large installations in Canada and France generate enough electricity to power thousands of homes.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)
An OTEC system uses temperature differences between deep and surface waters to extract energy from the flow of heat between the two. An experimental station in Hawaii hopes to develop the technology and someday produce large amounts of electricity on par with the cost of conventional power technologies.

The technology is very expensive at this point but inevitably will become more affordable. In the meantime, some groups have already started building ocean powered generators in Seattle, New Hampshire, and New York City

Disposing of Toxic Cleaners

A few posts ago (this post actually) I explained the best way to clean your house without using toxic chemicals. There are a lot of inexpensive natural product combinations that will do all the work of chemical cleaners without turning your home into toxic waste dump.

I ran across this Q&A on disposing all of those unused chemical cleaners you're going to replace with natural alternatives. Where do they go? What should you do? Umbra Fisk of www.grist.org has your answer...

Dear Umbra,
Now that I've caught the environmental bug, I don't know what to do with the toxic cleaning products (e.g., Ajax) that I have on hand. As a bulk buyer, I've got 5 to 6 bottles in my garage. Is it better to use them up, throw them away, or just have them stay put in my garage?
Jill MillerPleasanton, Calif.

Dearest Jill,
Do not leave them in your garage! Home storage of unused toxics inevitably leads to irksome problems. I speak for all those who have had to clean up someone else's leftover household cleaners, gardening chemicals, paint stripper, what have you. The smallest problem might be that you decide to move, and in the hurry and bustle of preparing you (naturally) can't be bothered to specially dispose of a few containers of Ajax or 2,4-D so they go in the trash can. A worse problem would be that you grow old and so do the containers, they sag, leak, lose their labels, and the responsibility for cleaning them up passes to a new person who must wrassle them to the proper trash zone without harming themselves. Deal now, not later.

I don't vote for using them up, either. Replacing harmful cleaning supplies is truly a way to healthify your home. I boldly coin a word: It's like funkify your life, only more practical. Healthify and eco-fy your home. Should I back up a step and review the problems with household cleansers?

Many of them contain ingredients that are harmful in our immediate personal environment, including hazardous to small children and animals, irritating to eyes and skin, or an inhalation danger. These include everyday products like Drano, bleaches ... honestly, I don't use the stuff, so I'm hard-pressed to come up with brand names, but the problems are right there on the package. Read the labels and believe the Danger, Caution, and Warning fine print.

Hopefully everyone knows not to combine products containing bleach and ammonia, as together they create a horrible choking gas, chloramine. Even household cleaning products that are relatively fine for humans can include ingredients harmful to the environment, such as phosphates in detergents or things made from petroleum. Also, when we replace these items with something less toxic, we must remember that less toxic does not mean "edible" or "leave within reach of children." If you would like to know more, I as always suggest my local Washington Toxics Coalition's accessbile, research based publication.

When ridding ourselves of household cleaners, if only a small amount remains, we can sometimes flush it down the drain along with plenty of water, because wastewater treatment plants are ready for it. Check with your town or city to find out what sort of restrictions they have. If we have bought in bulk and have six remaining containers, which does not qualify as a small amount, we should consult our local waste-management company. Use the phone book, the company's website, or if we know not where to begin but we know our zip code, Earth911.

The likely outcome is a trip to the household hazardous-waste site, which will probably accept cleaning products. In some places the hazardous site is mobile, in others it's a fixed location at a transfer center. Don't get stuck worrying that driving to the hazardous-waste site -- and thereby spewing emissions -- is worse than dumping hazardous waste in household garbage. However, to lessen your impact, I would suggest pooling together with your neighbors to take a large amount of rejected cleaners, a good opportunity to spread the Healthify Your Home message. Check with the collection site first to see if you can bring another person's waste or if there are limits on how much you can bring. Another option, I suppose, is to see whether any neighbors or nonprofit groups have a use for your leftovers, although that doesn't help our bigger goal of getting rid of toxics.

Since it sounds like you're freshly round the eco-cleaning bend, remember that a good all-purpose cleaner works wonders, and you can make your own alternatives too. And of course, good for you for making this positive change and eco-fying your home.

Linguistically,

Umbra

100th Post!

Of course I realize that this blog is less than a grain of sand in the vast desert that is the blogosphere. However, I've been pleasantly surprised by the interest this site has received by folks seeking intuitive ways to incoporate greener living into their life.

I selfishly started this blog as a way to educate myself on practical techniques to intergrate environmentally conscious behaviors into my everyday routine. Since then, myself and many others have learned together how to reduce our energy usage, improve our recycling routine, decrease our consumption impact, and stay up-to-date on the political environment that greatly affects the actual environment.

Thanks for visiting again and again. Theres more to learn about our world and our best life in it.

Bulls and Bears Go Green

Apparently Wall Street is beginning to feel the economic benefits of being environmentally aware. THIS Newsweek article profiles some of the evolving policies of Wallstreet investment firms including refusing loans for companies who aren't integrating conservation into their corporate strategies.

In one example, Goldman Sachs advised a client to compromise with environmentalists during the purchase of energy giant TXU Corp., a Texas utility with a bad environmental reputation. This resulted in the cancellation of construction of 11 coal power plants and investment of hundreds of millions of dollars into renewable energy. As the public sours on fossil fuels, the clients will thank Sachs.

And just for fun HERE is a link to a story on America's Greenest Buildings which profiles the growth of sustainable construction in the commercial real estate industry.

If you want to start greening up your workplace, go HERE for EPA tips on hosting an environmentally friendly meeting. You could reduce paper waste by using electronic files as much as possible, printing on both sides of paper, using recycled paper and recycling leftovers.

Clean Fertilizer?

Its difficult to find organic fertilizer. Some estimate that only about 5% of the total fertilizer market includes organic varieties. That's a sad number when you consider the chemicals in most fertilizers and just what impact they have in the lakes, rivers, streams, and oceans we all love for recreation and drinking water.

A new brand of organic fertilizer has just come out and it takes eco-thinking to a whole new level. TerraCycle organic fertilizer not only uses all natural ingredients to feed your plants, it even uses recycled soda containers to hold the stuff. All this smart thinking led to a zero impact seal of approval from the organization, Zerofootprint.

Its great to see a company making money and saving the environment at the same time. You can buy their fertilizers here. And read more about other organic fertilizer companies here.