Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category

Finally we are getting some rain. Oh, I know some parts of the country are getting way more than they need but for those of us in parts of the country where rain is scarce, we welcome every drop.

It’s time to think about how to capture this precious water any way we can, so that we can reuse it and disperse it in our gardens when the rain is not so forthcoming. The best way to do this I found is to use a Rain Barrel. I found this really attractive one over at the Garden Supermart, it has a Crown Planter that allows you to put a plant on top for a more attractive look than an average planter, it comes in two versions a 50 gal one and a 65 gallon one, with a spigot at the bottom, a connector with shut-off valve and a 6′ garden hose. Many more tips on Living Green can be found at the Garden Supermart.

Another way to save water during the rainy season is to have a rain sensor on your sprinkler system. So many times do I see sprinklers going on in the middle of a rain shower, what a waste. If you are not home to monitor when your sprinklers go off, a rain sensor will do that for you, so you don’t have to watch water and money go down the drain.

Collected rain water can not only be used for watering plants but also for washing driveways, cars, walkways, dogs, gardening tools. Use your imagination and I am sure you can come up with many other uses recycling rain water.

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If you are planning a trip to Europe or any other place in the world and would like to make it a green vacation, why not consider biking through your destination. Many countries are bicycle friendly but especially Europe and there are hundreds of tours that can be taken, from seaside rides to mountain top climbs. You can arrange tours that provide you with the rented bicycles. There are self-guided tours or completely guided tours depending on your budget and preference. Just Google “European Bike tours” for example and you’ll find many tour companies that will provide many choices.

Contact a travel agent that can hook you up with some cheap hotels, and one of the hundreds of bike tours available throughout Europe. Just imagine yourself on a bike through Venice, or the beauty of the Tuscan hills and vineyards. Landscapes that can only truly be appreciated on two feet or two wheels. And at the end of a fruitful ride ending up in one of the beautiful Roma hotels.

There is no better way to enjoy the sights than doing it up close and personal. There is so much that we miss while touring in a car. But I realize that we cannot possibly get everywhere we want to go on foot or on a bike. So a drive and bike plan can work when we are considering long distances. Nowadays they even make bikes that you can fold up and stick in the trunk for just that kind of situation.

Being green on vacation can be a fun adventure, it can be a healthy way of seeing the world, and it’s environmentally friendly. What better way to go.

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My previous post covered public transportation and how the gas prices of the day are pushing people to look for alternatives to driving. In this post we will cover even greener ways of transporting oneself.

Let’s look at walking. What happened to the days when people walked everywhere. We have gotten so lazy that the thought of walking to the corner store makes us break out in a sweat. We would rather spend a couple bucks, in gas, so that we don’t have to move so much. But the consequences stemming from our inactivity is catching up with us. Obesity is rampant in our society, look at these Obesity Statistics:

USA Obesity Rates Reach Epidemic Proportions

• 58 Million Overweight; 40 Million Obese; 3 Million morbidly Obese
• Eight out of 10 over 25’s Overweight
• 78% of American’s not meeting basic activity level recommendations
• 25% completely Sedentary
• 76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 yrs old since 1990

Now that looks scary to me. If we could only understand that regular physical activity is essential to good health and that simply walking can get us there, will benefit our pocketbooks, and is better for the environment too, we’d all be better off.

Another option is something a reader over at Swiss Bikes brought up to me which is the Drive and Cycle commuting option. In situations where it is too far to bike all the way but there is a possibility to drive part of the way and then bike the other part, why not take advantage of that. It kills three birds with one stone. You can take care of your daily dose of exercise, save money on gas and help save the environment.

Again this is something that is commonly done in Europe, where gas prices are double that of the US. In England for example, parking is very popular and sought after. People park their cars somewhere, pull out their fold up Swiss Bike from their trunk and ride the rest of the way on their bikes.

Those are my thoughts on greener and healthier forms of transportation.

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Next time you think about remodeling any part of your home or maybe even building your new home, Think Green first. Whether you will be putting down a new foundation or changing the Blinds in your home there is always a Green alternative. Here’s a checklist that can help jog your imagination.

• In the Bathrooms, use high performing shower heads which use 1-1.5 gallons per minute/ 60% less than traditional shower heads.
• Thinking of repainting the house? Think No-VOC Paints. VOC stands for Volatile Organic Compounds which are toxic.
• Keep your attic cool by installing a radiant barrier to keep the heat out.
• If you are building new or gutting rooms, remember proper Insulation is key to energy savings.
• Taking into consideration your window coverings is often overlooked, but good Blinds or room darkening curtains can help keep the heat out and keep you cooling bills down.
• Remodeling the kitchen? How about a recycling center in the kitchen making it easy and a good habit for everyone to learn. These can usually be installed right in the cabinets. And if you want to get fancy there are even Kitchen Composters out there.
• Changing your flooring? Consider engineered wood, especially ones that use recycled materials.
• Redoing the landscape? Think water conservation in your new garden. Use indigenous plants whenever possible, and consider a drip system to compliment your sprinkler system for those areas that don’t need quite that much water. Check out Xeriscaping and also remember to capture and reuse rainwater.
• Consider a Tankless Water Heater. They heat water on demand rather keeping the whole tank of water hot constantly. A lot of savings there.
• Use Solar Energy where you can, even for heating the pool.

Please leave any other suggestions in the comments…Thanks…

http://www.smithandnoble.com/sn/home.jsp

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Every little bit that we can do to conserve helps the environment and saves money too. Here are some tips for Greening your machines.

• Power Management: he power consumption from leaving our computers on all the time, is staggering. If your in the habit of turning off the computer when you go home from the office that’s great, but we forget about the energy that is still being used when the computer is not being used, while you go to lunch, or are doing something else. “the biggest savings come from enabling Monitor Power Management (MPM) and Computer Power Management (CPM) to put monitors and PCs into low power states when not in use. This saves between $20 and $100 per PC per year, and requires little staff time and capital expenditure.” Read More
  • Tips for reducing power consumption in computers and peripherals: from EDTECH.com
  • Check your computer manual to find out how to turn on your energy-conservation settings.
  • Screen savers do not reduce energy use for monitors. Instead of screen savers, automatically switch to sleep mode or manually turn off monitors to save power.
  • Energy Star computers and monitors only save energy when power management is activated on the computer.
  • To maximize power savings with notebook PCs, put the AC adapter on a power strip that can be turned off because the transformer in an AC adapter draws power even when the notebook PC is not plugged in.
  • Don’t forget peripherals and components — printers, copiers, scanners, processors, motherboards and power supplies all have potential energy-saving features
• Bamboo, Crank and Solar Powered cell Phones: With all the millions of cell phones out there only about 10% get recycled.
  • How about a phone made out of sustainable Bamboo with a cranking charger
    • The case of the phone is totally degradable, after removing the battery, antenna and the print board it can be thrown in the compost bin. The “Bamboo” is made out of bio-plastics of renewable raw materials such as corn, and bamboo which is also a renewable resource.
    • The battery can be recharged with muscle power. It comes equipped with a cranking charger and a monochrome display for maximum efficiency. Read More
    • Check out this great Solar Powered Charger
• Energy Star Appliances: When you need to replace appliances, of course go with the Energy Star Label, it will save you about a third on your energy bill. That’s a significant savings.
• How good is your HDTV at saving Energy: Before you buy your new HDTV, consult the following chart to see how energy efficient the new TV will be. HDTV power consumption compared
• Get Paid to Recycle Electronics: There are companies out there that will pay you for mailing in old electronic devices and others have buy back program. Here is a list of a few.
  • BuyMyTronics
  • SecondRotation
  • CellforCash
  • SimplySellular
  • SellYourCell
• Mail-In Program Free of Charge: The Post Office has come out with a pilot program that allows customers to recycle small electronics and inkjet cartridges by mailing them free of charge. Check it out: USPS
• Find a Responsible Recycler: Recycle your old electronics with an Environmentally Responsible Recycler:
  • Electronics Take Back Coalition

That’s all for now…

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In honor of Earth Day: Take a few Green Steps…

Give the Earth Some Love…

Walk to work or play. With the price of gas these days, taking this step won’t be as difficult as it seemed before. Take a walk on the wild side, walk to work, the grocery store, the library, the kids school. Who knows maybe you will like it, and will continue the trend, it’s not only good for the environment, but also good for your health.

Earth Day Footprint : Want to know what kind of a footprint you are leaving on this earth? Check out the Ecological Footprint Quiz over at Earthday.net, and here is a version of a Ecological Footprint Quiz for Kids over at Kidsfootprint.org

Buy Local but watching what you buy is just as important: If your food comes from afar, you can be sure that energy was spent to get it to you, but also the type of food you eat can make a difference… Check out this article over at GreensSAHM.com ” it’s not so much where your food comes from, it’s what you’re eating.”

Read Green and Make Some Money while your at it: Intriguing book by author David Bach discussed over at TheGoodeLife.com covers 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth (and Get Rich Trying)!

Save Gas: Don’t Turn Left: Huh????? Groovy Green has a story on how UPS saves gas…UPS-No Left Turns Allowed

It’s not all about “Good Energy Policy” : Follow the reasoning of the “No Impact Man” for whether Individual Lifestyle Changes will make a difference.

Get rid of those water bottles: give up convenience for the environment. Here are 5 good reasons to give them up on Earth Day… from LighterFootstep.com

Lose those Hazardous Chemicals : Learn to identify hazardous chemicals and replace them with greener, healthier ones that do the job just as well. Clean Green to Stay Healthy and Save Money

Earthday is the perfect day to start a garden, an Organic Garden at that. Here are some great tips for doing just that.

Put the Three R’s to work: How about Reduce,Reuse, and Recycle. Salvage Yard finds are a great place to start putting some Green Style in your home…

Noise Pollution: Imagine a world without noise. GreenLivingTips.com makes some great points on the effects of Noise on the Environment. Make Earth Day your No Noise Day…

Anything you and I can do, will help…

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Earth Hour Goes Global

Today is the day

Join the rest of the world

When millions of people turn off their light

On March 29th at 8pm

join the movement against Global Warming

by turning your lights off for one hour

Turn out for Earth Hour

Earth Hour Lights Out America

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Everyone loves to spend time outside and living green. And when our experience is in line with nature, it is all the more enjoyable. Even in our own little haven, our garden, we must conduct ourselves in a way that preserves and reduces any impact we have on our resources and our little environment.

When gardening , the predominant thought should be, if it didn’t come from the earth, it shouldn’t be going in the earth. In other words, pesticides and fertilizers are really poison to the earth and the ground water. They are manufactured chemicals that, yes, might make your grass greener or makes those pesky pests go away, but what are they doing to the earth under your feet and do you realize that all those chemicals eventually end up in the ground water.

The same goes for the hardscapes that we use in our gardens. Using products that have a minimal effect on the environment, like Sunbrella Outdoor Cushions on your patio furniture, choosing the right decking that uses recycled materials, and finding different uses for objects that would otherwise end up in the landfill is important.

Here are some steps we can all take to get closer to Living Green in our Garden:

• Reduce the area that you use for a lawn, lawns are water hogs.
• Plant more native and drought tolerant plants.
• Collect rain water.
• Learn to Compost, and use that to enrich and fertilize your soil.
• Use Mulch to help maintain moisture in your plant beds.
• Group plants together with the same water needs.
• Learn about using Beneficial Insects, instead of Pesticides
• Put old objects to new uses in the garden.
• Remember the 3R’s, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, also apply to gardening.
• Use recycled and environmentally materials in your hardscapes.

http://www.cushion.com/

green gardening organic gardening sunbrella water conservation

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Don’t forget about Lights out America, and Earth Hour

March 29th 8-9 pm, turn out your lights, for just one hour!!!

Join the World…

Earth Hour Lights Out America Lights out movement

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In case you haven’t heard yet, Lights Out America and Earth Hour are events that started last year where many cities throughout the U.S. and the world turned off their lights simultaneously for one hour. It was a great success and a trend has begun.This year the event will be happening on the same day, March 29th world wide…If you would like to join the Global Lights Out Movement, all you have to do is turn your lights off for one hour on March 29th, from 8-9pm, wherever you are.

Check out all the cities involved: Is your City Involved?

Sponsor a candlelight dinner at home or better yet your favorite restaurant, invite your family and friends. Make it fun… Make it every year, make it more often…

If you’d like to get more involved in this and other projects, Sign up at Earth Hour, Join the world…

Tell your friends…send them this link: Join Lights Out Movement.

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Composting is not only a great way to fertilize your garden, save money by making your own natural fertilizer, but most importantly you are keeping all this stuff out of the landfills, which is becoming a problem in cities all over. It is in our best interest to learn how to composts, it’s part of the Three R’s of recycling.

If you are an avid gardener you understand the value of composting. But most of us regular folks who just dabble in gardening once a week, haven’t taken the time to fully understand what composting can add to the environment and keep away from the landfills.

Here are some of the benefits of composting:

• Using composting helps improve the structure, texture and aeration of soil, and helps in improving water retention in the soil.
  • Clay Soil : If you have Clay soil you know very well how hard it is to handle. It’s is extremely hard soil composting can help break up clay soil.
  • Sandy Soil: With sandy soil you know that the water just slips through, composting can help retain some of that water.
• Composting provides food for the microorganisms which help keep soil healthy and balanced.
• Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus are produced by composting which eliminates the need to be adding other amendments to the soil, especially keeping out chemicals.
• Almost any organic material is food for the compost pile.
• Easy, just takes a little time investment.

For more information on how to start your own composting bin check out these resources:

• Compost Guide: A complete guide to composting
• U.S. EPA- Basic Information on Composting

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As I was stumbling around the net yesterday, I came upon the story about the arson on the Street of Dreams development. It really made me sick. Sick to think that someone can be so engulfed in their own thoughts and beliefs that they would think that doing what they did is acceptable and will further their cause somehow. Do they not realize that they did more harm than good to the environmental cause. They might have made happy the few extremist crazy enough to do the same, but the average person who believes in protecting their environment will condemn their actions.

Violence gets you more violence, that’s all. If a person or group believes so fiercely in their cause enough to commit violence to get their point across, then let them claim their actions. By hiding in anonymity only shows how much of a coward they are and how little their cause deserves to be examined.

Every instance of violence diminishes the importance of the cause that they are trying to bring to light, in the eyes the average observer. Instead of trying to force your views down the throats of others, invite them for a drink, sit them down and talk to them. Convince people that your way is best. Change the laws, vote the law makers out, do protests, petitions, referendums, get the word out, go online, go on TV. But if violence is all you know, then expect no more sympathy than Osama bin laden gets. A terrorist is a terrorist. Do the rest of us environmentalists a favor, and stay home.

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Will your Candidate be Green enough? Do you know how they stand on the issues? Here’s a peek…

John McCain

• Believes that climate change is real and that greenhouse gases are damaging the environment, but even if the science cannot prove it, doing nothing is not an option.
• Introduced Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007 .
• Committed to using Nuclear Power, conservation, and new technologies.
• Would sign a Global treaty but has to include both India and China.

Hillary Clinton

• Would develop new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, focusing on global deforestation.
• New mission for Department of Energy would be to move in the direction of energy independence towards solar, wind, bio-fuels, hydro-power, geothermal, and other renewable sources.
• Market based cap and trade system to reduce carbon pollution, including efficiency and fuel economy standards, to lower the U.S. contribution to Global Warming below the 1990 levels by 80%.
• Opposes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
• Fund new research by taking away subsidies from the Oil Companies and putting that money to work in the Alternative Energy Field.
• Believes turning the focus on Green Building and Alternative Energy could create millions of jobs for the American Economy that could not easily be outsourced.

Mike Huckabee

• Whether or not Humans have caused Global Warming or not, believes it is our responsibility to leave the planet in better condition for future generations.
• Would pursue all areas of alternative energy including Wind, Solar, Clean Coal, and Bio-diesel.
• Would put limits on Greenhouse gas emissions.
• Supports drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
• Supports increasing offshore drilling.
• Would create a profitable market for alternative energy by making the government the biggest user.

Barak Obama

• Would implement an economy wide cap and trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Proposes a new International Global Warming Partnership.
• Plans to introduce a National Low Carbon Standards (LCFS), to speed up the introduction of low-carbon non-petroleum fuels.
• Create a new Technology Transfer Program within the Dept. of Energy, who’s mission would be to export climate-friendly technologies to developing countries.
• Incentives to maintain forests globally and manage them sustainably.
• Domestic incentives that reward forest owners, farmers and ranchers for planting trees, restore grasslands and undertake farming practices that capture carbon dioxide.
• Believes the cap on emissions would create a market for Clean Technologies.
• Reduce our dependency on foreign oil.

Source: CNN.com: Elections 2008

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Yep you heard right, the “Doomsday Vault” as it is referred to because it is a place where millions of seeds from over 100 countries will be kept in case of a doomsday scenario. If in a disaster, a collection of seeds is destroyed in its natural habitat, then there would remain a alternate source. Not a bad idea, considering the history of humanity.

The chosen place for this earth saving vault is called the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, located in an Arctic mountain near the town of Longyearbyen , on the Island of Stpitzberger, in Norway. It consist of 3 chambers, that have been dug 400 feet deep into the permafrost . The seeds will be kept at a temperature of minus -0.4F degrees or minus -18C degrees. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

The project’s intent is to preserve the earths crop diversity in case of a natural or man-made disaster. There will be thousands of varieties of seeds from over 100 countries deposited in the vault, including some that are not currently being commercially used but that may be of use when and if earth conditions change. Even in the event of drastic Global Warming and Arctic ice melt, it is believed that the facility can keep the seeds safely frozen for at least 200 years. The belief is that some of these seeds will be able to live and grow for thousands of years.

Source: Times Online

doomsday vault environment global warming norway vault seed vault

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If your into Living Green how about working Green. Here are some great links to sites with available Environmental/Eco/Green Jobs…Check it out…

Job Opportunities

The following Earth Share member groups and affiliates offer listings of jobs and/or internships on their websites:

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• Earth Share of Georgia

• American Forests
• American Rivers
• American Farmland Trust
• The Conservation Fund
• Conservation International
• Defenders of Wildlife
• Earth Day Network
• Environmental Defense
• Environmental & Energy Study Institute
• Environmental Law Institute
• Friends of the Earth
• Izaak Walton League of America
• Land Trust Alliance
• National Parks Conservation Association
• National Wildlife Federation
• The Nature Conservancy
• The Ocean Conservancy
• Pesticide Action Network
• Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
• Rainforest Alliance
• Rocky Mountain Institute
• Scenic America
• The Sierra Club
• Union of Concerned Scientists
• U.S. Public Interest Research Group
• World Wildlife Fund

Other Online Environmental Career Resources

The Environmental Careers Organization
GreenBiz.com Joblink
Environmental Jobs and Careers
Environmental Career Opportunities
Idealist.org Action Without Borders
Care2.com Eco-jobs
Green Dream Jobs

“Earth Share, a federation of America’s leading non-profit environmental and conservation charities, promotes environmental education and charitable giving in workplace employee giving campaigns. For more tips and to find out how your workplace can help the earth, visit www.earthshare.org or call 1.800.875.3863″

Living Green

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From the makers of the $2500 dollar Tatanano, better known as the “People’s Car”, will also come the “MDI Air Car” which runs on compressed air. How about air for an alternative energy…

Guy Negre from MDI Industries in France is the inventor of the “air-powered technology” and has given Tata Motors, the Indian based auto manufacturer exclusive rights to manufacture and market the MDI car and it’s new technology in India. Tata will be the only large auto manufacturer to be given the rights to build the cars. He hopes to get investors to build smaller plants throughout the world.

This is thinking beyond the “Green Car”. This is the kind of thinking that Bill Gates was talking about in his speech about “Creative Capitalism” at the World Economic Forum, where companies don’t only concentrate on the bottom line but find ways to sell to and work with local communities to improve the quality of everyone’s lives, especially the poorest.

By building smaller plants, selling directly to consumers and sourcing 80% of the parts locally, it would:

1. Keep the cost of the car to a very affordable price of around $5000 dollars.
2. Create many jobs worldwide, not just at the plants but also by the sourcing of parts locally.
3. Cut emissions down from having to ship parts from long distances, saving on greenhouse gases.

The car would be made of Fiberglass composites weighing only about 770lbs and there are two possible types of engines:

• Mono: runs on compressed air in Urban Settings.
• Duel-Energy: which has a Hydrocarbon Fueled Burner which means more power and longer ranges. Can use Bio-Fuel or Petroleum based fuel.

The compressed air can be refilled at air pumping stations in about 3 minutes or at home with it’s own on-board compressor in about 4 hrs.

The same CAT technology (Compressed Air Technology) lends itself to other applications such as trucks, buses, forklifts, tractors, electric generators, boat motors, and aircraft.

The beauty of the technology is obvious, it’s good for the environment, but the beauty of the idea of this man, is that it not only helps mother earth but it’s also good for it’s people, in may ways.

Source: ENN: Thank Caron for Air Cars

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The cheapest energy source for you car is Hydropower hands down. With the price of oil hovering around $93 dollars a barrel and the majority of our cars running on gasoline, we’ve become so dependent on oil that it’s no wonder that we are all feeling the pinch. The average gallon of gas is running at around $3 dollars in the U.S. and over $6 in Europe.

Weekly US. . Retail Gasoline Prices, Regular Grade

Dollars per gallon, including all taxes

 

				Change From	Change from
	01/28/08	02/04/08	02/11/08	Week Ago	Year Ago
US	2.977	2.978	2.960	-.018	.719
East Coast	3.025	3.005	2.977	-.028	.788
New England	3.061	3.035	3.008	-.027	.795
Central Atlantic	3.069	3.043	3.015	-.028	.786
Lower Atlantic	2.981	2.967	2.940	-.027	.789
Mid West	2.922	2.962	2.942	-.020	.718
Gulf Coast	2.875	2.872	2.851	-.021	.760
Rocky Mountain	2.914	2.941	2.935	-.006	.794
West Coast	3.086	3.055	3.060	.005	.524
West Coast Less Cal	2.979	2.967	2.977	.010	.600

 

 

If the technology that could run cars on these energy sources were there, the cost equivalent to the energy output of a gallon of gas would be as follows:

Power plants measure energy in kilowatt-hours (kWh), and one kWh is equivalent to 3,413 Btu, or about 3 percent of the energy in one gallon of gasoline. Source: Discover Magazine: Alternative Energy

 

It would really pay to the spend the time and energy to develop Hydropower and other Water Powered Alternative Energies like HHO for cars.

cheapest energy hydropower living green

bibi

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6 Degrees of Separation: It’s a small World after all.

Living green Pays…

I watched part of the National Geographic Show called “Six Degrees”, which ponders the question of what would happen in the world if the temperature were to rise by 1,2,3,4,5, or 6 degrees, and it got me thinking about how much of this is already happening. Everyday some extreme weather event happens somewhere in the world, and it will be chronicled here on this weekly series. It will be interesting to see if there are patterns, or just flukes.

From the National Geographic Site:

• One Degree of Warming
  • At one degree of warming, the Arctic is ice-free for half the year, the South Atlantic—typically void of hurricanes—experiences coastal hurricanes, and in the western U.S. severe droughts are plaguing residents.

• Two Degrees of Warming
  
  • Polar bears struggle to survive as glaciers increasingly melt away. Glaciers in Greenland begin to disappear, while coral reefs are vanishing.
• Three Degrees of Warming
  • The Amazon rainforest is drying out and El Niño’s intense weather pattern becomes the norm. Europe repeatedly experiences searing summer heat that has rarely happened before.

• Four Degrees Of Warming
  • Oceans could rise, taking over coastal cities. The disappearance of glaciers may deprive many of fresh water. Northern Canada’s agriculture could boom and a Scandinavian beach could be the next tourism hotspot. A part of Antarctica could collapse, causing water to rise even further.

• Five Degrees Of Warming:

  • Uninhabitable zones could spread, snow pack and aquifers feeding big cities could dry up, and climate refugees could run in the millions. Human civilization could begin to break down with this drastic of changes to the climate. The poor would likely suffer the most.

• Six Degrees Of Warming
  • At six degrees, the oceans could be marine wastelands, the deserts could march across continents, and natural disasters could become common events. The world’s great cities could be flooded and abandoned. This could be “the doomsday scenario.”

Feb 1-12 /Extreme Weather Events:

• La Paz, Bolivia: President Evo Morales declares a State of Emergency after weeks of flooding, lead to 60 death so far and 43,000 people finding themselves homeless.
• China:Millions of Chinese on the way back to work will have to once again brave transportation problems amid more bad weather on the horizon. On the way to Chinese Lunar Year Celebrations with their families, hundreds of thousands got caught in the heaviest snow storms in 50 Years, which caused major power outages and transport gridlock as millions were on their way home for the celebrations.
• U.S.: Tornados sweep the south in th US, killing 52 people. More than 50 tornadoes touched down as a series of rare winter thunderstorms rolled through the region late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
• Tajikistan: An ex-Soviet Republic has to ration the electricity supply to it’s capital, Dushanbe, because a sever freeze has paralyzed it’s power grid. Winter temperatures that usually hover around 32 degrees F, have dropped to 4 degrees below zero F. Rationing in the city has gone down to 10 hrs a day, and in the outlying areas to 90 minutes per day. “ The cold has iced over a river feeding the lake that drives the Nurek hydroelectric power plant, with an impact on supplies right across the country. Wells and other sources of water supply have also been disrupted.”
  
• Afghanistan: Cold Snap Kills 760 in Afghanistan along with thousands of livestock in what is believed to be the heaviest snowfall in 30 years.
• Tonga: A freak storm dumps a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours on the South Pacific Island Nation of Tonga. Up to 11.38 inches of water rained on parts of the main island of Tongatapu.

Source: TerraDaily.com

6 degrees of seperation environment extreme weather global warming living green

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Xeriscaping is a way to garden using a minimum of water and energy. The following techniques are a must in dry-weather climes, but also provide useful guidelines for environmentally conscious gardeners everywhere.

Group plants by their water needs. When possible, put high-need plants in naturally wetter areas of your property. Test your soil. Add organic matter when necessary - maybe from your own compost pile - to increase your soil’s water-holding capacity. Limit your lawn. Grass is a water hog, so limit the amount of lawn in your yard. For those plots that remain, try varieties that don’t use much water. Mulch. Cover plant beds with composted leaves or grass to help retain moisture. Plant native species. Plants that have evolved in your area’s climate are more naturally adapted to its water conditions.

Grow Green & Save Water Facing a drought this summer? Live in an arid region? You can still cultivate that green thumb! Consider xeriscaping, which involves gardening in a way that uses less water than traditional landscaping. By choosing plants that are drought-tolerant or native to the area you can save water and have a yard that is easy to maintain.

Mix compost or peat moss into the soil before planting to help the soil retain water. If your yard is sloped, reduce water runoff with terraces and retaining walls. Limit the amount of area devoted to grass. Plant ground covers, native shrubs, and add rock gardens. Choose from among the many types of low water-using trees, shrubs, flowers, and ground covers. Many need watering only in the first year or two after planting. Install drip or trickle irrigation systems in areas that need watering. These systems use water efficiently and are available at garden centers. Use mulches like pine needles, shredded bark or leaves in a layer three inches deep to keep soil moist, smother weeds, and prevent erosion.

	Leave a Healthy Footprint! Thanks to our Wear, Share, & Show You Care partnership, your purchase of Earth Footwear is good for you AND the environment! For each purchase registered online, Earth Footwear will donate $1 to help support Earth Share. Visit http://earthshare.earth.us to learn more!
Earth Share, a nationwide network of America’s leading nonprofit environmental and conservation charities, promotes environmental education and charitable giving in employee workplace giving campaigns. Click here to find out why hosting an Earth Share campaign is a good idea for your workplace and the world.

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According to Wikipedia, Carbon Offsetting is the practice of paying for emission reductions to take place elsewhere instead of reducing one’s own emissions. A variety of Offset methods are used, and while Tree Planting is thought of as the most common because it was one of the first, Renewable Energy, Energy Conservation, and Methane Capture are also available.

Carbon Offsetting has practically become part of life as more and more people and companies become more aware of the damage we are imposing on the earth and try to find ways to lessen the effect of their emissions. Unfortunately it has become a business and often times Offsets have become a cheaper and more convenient way than trying to reduce one’s own Fossil Fuel consumption. Instead of trying to find ways not to emit Greenhouse Gasses, or reduce Fossil Fuel Consumption we use buy offsets because it’s easier.

After being accused by British Media of being a hypocrite for flying out to the United States to receive an Environmental Award, Prince Charles put on his thinking cap and came up a green alternative to attending the World Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi by 3D Hologram. That’s what I call reducing your footprint.

Are Carbon Offsets really the way to a greener, cleaner earth or are we just buying our way out of our responsibilities, so we don’t have to feel guilty.

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