Sustainable Living from Creators Syndicate

Carbonless Cooling: Hints From Around the World for 07/08/2008

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Climate change has brought warmer temperatures and searing heat waves across swathes of the United States. Many electric utilities have just raised their rates considerably, making air conditioning a luxury that most of us can’t afford. Other cultures have perfected many ways of dealing with the heat. Here are a few low-tech ways from around the world to keep cool this summer without addi ...

Updated: Tue Jul 08, 2008

Cutting Our Emissions in Half by 2030 for 07/15/2008

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Buildings are responsible for approximately half of all U.S. energy consumption and carbon emissions annually, and are growing faster than any other sector, according to the U.S. Green Building Council. Forty-three percent of total U.S. carbon emissions and 76 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption occurs in buildings through heating, cooling, lighting, hot water and appliances.

I ...

Updated: Tue Jul 15, 2008

'Transitioning From Fossil Fuels' for 07/22/2008

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"I don't remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously. Our economy is in terrible shape and getting worse, gasoline prices are increasing dramatically, and so are electricity rates. Jobs are being outsourced. Home mortgages are in trouble. Banks, automobile companies and other institutions we depend upon are under growing pressure. Dist ...

Updated: Tue Jul 22, 2008

Worldwide Environmental Cleanup is in the Bag for 07/29/2008

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Nothing says wasteful quite like the plastic shopping bag. They are used for average of 15 minutes, the time it takes for a person to haul their purchases from the store, to the car, to home. Once its brief life is over, it usually winds up as garbage because it costs more to recycle a plastic bag than to produce a new one.

More than 200,000 plastic bags are dumped into landfills every m ...

Updated: Tue Jul 29, 2008

It's Time to Dump Disposables for 08/05/2008

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Summer barbecues often mean paper plates, plastic forks, disposable cups and overflowing garbage cans, evidence of a growing problem in the United States.

We Americans produce more than 4 pounds of garbage per person each day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. This adds up to 29 pounds per week and 1,600 pounds a year.

What happens to all that trash?

Most ga ...

Updated: Tue Aug 05, 2008

Consider an Alternative to Gasoline Power for 08/12/2008

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Gas prices and global warming are driving Americans to consider investing in alternative-fueled vehicles. Before you buy your next automobile, you might want to take a look at greener vehicles that will soon be available in our country.

HYBRID HISTORY

In 1999, Honda Motors Co. Ltd. Introduced the Insight, the first mass-produced, gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle sold in th ...

Updated: Tue Aug 12, 2008

Search On for Means to Remove Carbon From the Atmosphere for 08/19/2008

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Nearly one year ago, Richard Branson, billionaire head of Virgin Airways, announced a prize of $25 million for anyone who could devise an effective way of removing 1 billion tons or more of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year for at least a decade.

Since Branson announced his Virgin Earth Challenge, many scientists and inventors have come up with imaginative solutions to the clim ...

Updated: Tue Aug 19, 2008

Eat Local to Avoid Salmonella for 08/26/2008

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Recent salmonella scares have many people wondering how safe their food system really is. Tomatoes, finally vindicated after the spring salmonella scare, have been replaced on the notorious list by hot peppers.

Commercially grown produce passes through many hands on its 1,500-mile journey from grower to grocer. How many of those hands were washed? How was that food grown? When you start ...

Updated: Tue Aug 26, 2008

Too Much Of A Good Thing for 09/02/2008

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The use of antibiotics is a good thing. They have saved countless lives and allowed us to increase our life expectancy dramatically.

Yet the living organisms, the microbes, that antibiotics were invented to battle have been around much longer than humans. Unlike antibiotics, they have the ability to evolve.

In recent years, dangerous microbes have grown more and more resistant to ...

Updated: Tue Sep 02, 2008

Green Lawns are Hard on the Environment for 09/09/2008

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Lawns are big business in the United States, with American homeowners spending millions of dollars and many hours manicuring the lawn. But are these showcase thatched patches an environmental hazard?

Water is in short supply, yet 30 percent of East Coast water usage and 60 percent of West Coast water usage goes to watering lawns. Americans pour 10 times more chemicals on their lawns than ...

Updated: Tue Sep 09, 2008

An Old Ally Returns for Fight Against Global Warming for 09/16/2008

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In 1944, during the height of World War II, American gardens produced up to 40 percent of all the vegetables consumed nationally. It was considered each American's patriotic duty to have a Victory Garden, and many a vacant lot was commandeered to grow squash and corn. People everywhere were plowing up their lawns, planting their back yards and setting out containers on apartment rooftops and pa ...

Updated: Tue Sep 16, 2008

The Language of Carbon for 09/23/2008

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

As you inhale, probably without notice, you are breathing the same air that circulated through the lungs of paupers and kings, presidents and refugees, dinosaurs and trilobites. We breathe oxygen that was once dissolved in the oceans, once exhaled from a tree, and probably passed through the lungs of our children and ancestors as well. We inhale oxygen, and exhale carbon dioxide.

Carbon ...

Updated: Tue Sep 23, 2008

Solution to Global Woes Could be Local for 09/30/2008

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

We are all suffering from the recession, but some communities are suffering less than others. In communities with a strong localized economy, there is less fluctuation, and more money flowing from local business to local business. These communities tend to have a higher quality of life, lower crime rates, and a friendlier and more neighborly attitude. What makes these towns different? They thin ...

Updated: Tue Sep 30, 2008

Recession Is Not All Gloom and Doom for 10/07/2008

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Is it possible that Americans might be poorer but happier in times of recession than in times of plenty?

The National Opinion Research Council at the University of Chicago tries to quantify how happy Americans are with a yearly poll. Since 1950, the number of Americans responding that they were "very happy" has steadily declined. Between 1970 and 1994 it dropped 5 full points, ...

Updated: Tue Oct 07, 2008

Home Energy Audit for 10/14/2008

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

With stocks plummeting, home heating prices soaring and a recession in full swing, many people look toward winter with fear and trepidation. One of the best ways to alleviate this fear is to take a positive action like conducting a home energy audit.

Almost half of our energy use goes into heating and cooling our homes. We already pay an average of 20 percent more in home heating costs, ...

Updated: Tue Oct 14, 2008

Time to Perform a Do-It-Yourself Home Energy Audit for 10/21/2008

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Having a professional energy audit, and taking the auditor's advice, is the best way to lower your utility bills this winter. If you can't find an auditor, or live in an apartment or condo, here are ways you can perform your own audit.

It's as easy as walking through your home with a lit candle or incense stick. Hold it near the edges of windows, doors, and electric outlets. The flame or ...

Updated: Tue Oct 21, 2008

Energy Efficiency is Good for the Bottom Line for 10/28/2008

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Did you know that your business could actually be more profitable if it became more efficient? Rising energy costs and decreasing profits mean tough economic times, but also an opportunity to save money by becoming improving efficiency.

If your business's energy bills are $800 or more per month, you could save money by having an energy audit, and taking the auditor's advice. I'm the dire ...

Updated: Tue Oct 28, 2008

Green Heat for 11/04/2008

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

What is the greenest way to heat? For most of us, it is sunlight, but for others, it may be wood or even fryer oil! With renewable energy, you pay for 20 years' worth of heat (or more) upfront, but yearly operating costs are minimal, and fuel costs do not fluctuate wildly, as fuel oil, coal and natural gas costs do.

Geothermal is the greenest of them all if you are heating and cooling a ...

Updated: Tue Nov 04, 2008

Locavore Thanksgiving for 11/11/2008

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Right now, many of us are planning our Thanksgiving dinners. You have a big decision: to sit in front of a meal of imported ingredients grown around the world, in places the Pilgrims never set foot, or skip the supermarket and source all the ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner from local farms, mills and growers.

Eating local embodies the spirit of the first Thanksgiving, when Puritans a ...

Updated: Tue Nov 11, 2008

Honoring the Hands That Feed Us for 11/18/2008

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Thanksgiving is a holiday built around food. We gather and gorge, sometimes acknowledging the hands of the cook, perhaps thanking the divine, but rarely do we honor the hands that feed us.

Growing the food that feeds our country is one of the most thankless and low-paying jobs a person could have. In 2002, the median net income for a U.S. farmer was $15,848, while hired hands and migrant ...

Updated: Tue Nov 18, 2008