In 1992, 12 year old Severn Suziki addressed the United Nations conference in Rio de Janiero expressing her concerns over environmental issues. Many of the UN members cried. She got a standing ovation. This one speech became a viral phenomenon. Her words are just as relevant today as they were 17 years ago, if not more so. It’s time we listen to them again.

More about Severn Suzuki:

At the age of nine, she founded the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO), a group of children dedicated to learning and teaching other youngsters about environmental issues. In 1992, at the age of 12, Cullis-Suzuki raised money with members of ECO, to attend the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Along with group members Michelle Quigg, Vanessa Suttie, and Morgan Geisler, Cullis-Suzuki presented environmental issues from a youth perspective at the summit, where she was applauded for a speech to the delegates.

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Cullis-Suzuki

See also:
Time Magazine: The Young Can’t Wait

Earth Pioneer: Severn Cullis-Suzuki spreads the word on sustainability

Severn Suzuki – a famous environmental video: where is she now?

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If you’re reading this, then you are interested in learning more about pollution and ways to reduce it. You want to know how much you contribute to global warming, and you want to understand all the ways in which your lifestyle affects our Earth. Hopefully, you also want to take the next step of doing something about it.I recommend the Institute of the Environment at Berkeley’s Cool Climate Carbon Calculator, or the Nature Conservancy’s Carbon Footprint Calculator. Have your monthly expenses, your most recent energy bills, and your car’s yearly mileage and miles per gallon ready before you start. Results are provided in tons– tons of carbon you produce and emit into the earth’s atmosphere each year.

The best calculator I found during my research is part of a site called Low Impact Living. Click on the “Calculator” tab at the top of the screen to get going. Your results display across the top of each page as you progress. The final screen provides suggested actions to “green-up” your home are presented. Checking the box for any projects you have already completed improves your overall emissions score. Check out “What is a LILI?” under your final score (mine was 37) for more information.

LILI does not calculate tons of carbon monoxide emissions per person per year. It gives a score based on a U.S. household average of 100 points, and with the goal of helping people find easy ways to reduce their carbon footprint and their score. This calculator is the most detailed and complete of those reviewed. Households that use the LILI Carbon Calculator have the option of saving their results, and improving their scores with every environmentally-friendly project they complete.

Here are links to several online Carbon Footprint Calculators, and comments on their performance:

An Inconvenient Truth: Calculate Your Impact. This calculator gives you an indication of how well you are doing compared to everybody else. It also allows you to take immediate action in reducing your carbon footprint. Unfortunately, the first question about vehicular emissions is out of date. My 2007 Nissan Versa, one of Newsweek’s Top Ten Fuel Efficient Cars, was not listed in the options. Also, the calculator only considers your transportation and home energy use in its analysis of your carbon footprint. These are important, but they do not provide a complete picture. My estimated footprint was 5.9 tons of Carbon Emissions per year, with the Altima as my false vehicle selection. The average in the U.S. was put at 7.5 Tons.

The Nature Conservancy: Carbon Footprint Calculator. This calculator lets you decide between calculating your individual impact, and your household impact. It breaks down your footprint into several sections, including recycling, food consumption, energy consumption, vehicles, etc. It is up to the test-taker to honestly represent their lifestyle habits, however. The results are calculated several ways on the last screen of the test, breaking down each section of questions by average responses. My estimated footprint was 15 tons of carbon per year. The average in the U.S. was put at 27 tons. The world average is stated as 5.5 tons. Test-takers are given several options for offsetting their carbon footprint, tips for reducing impact, etc.

The Carbon Footprint Calculator. Self-represented as “the web’s leading carbon footprint calculator,” the user must select a country, and then click through several sections, remembering to calculate each page’s answers before continuing. The test was fast, and information about offsetting emissions, changing lifestyle practices, etc were easy to access. There is a section for businesses as well. My estimated footprint was 8.6 tons of carbon each year. The average for my country was reported at 20.4, and the average for industrial nations was about 11 tons per person per year. The website also informed me that to combat climate change, the world wide average needs to be reduced to 2 tons. Wow.

The Carbon Counter website and Personal Calculator. This gives you a choice between estimating your footprint, and getting an exact calculation, via tabs above each section of the test. There are only three sections. My score was 10.72 tons of carbon emissions each year. This website places the U.S. average emissions at 16.64 tons per year, and the world average at 4.4 tons. The site recommends that I donate approximately $16.00 a month to projects that reduce CO-2 in the environment to offset my footprint.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Individual Emissions Calculator. This website provides some interesting facts about the average response for each question, based on the number of people in your household. It also calculates the amount of carbon emissions for each answer you provide. The calculation did not take multi-vehicle households into consideration, and the results were for my entire household, rather than my individual contribution to global warming.

The University of California, Berkeley Institute of the Environment’s Cool Climate Carbon Footprint Calculator. This is my favorite calculator. It shows the average number entered in each space, and takes a moment to calculate the number you type in for each answer. It does not take organic food methods into account, but seems more exact than the other calculators. Final calculations show the world average for each category, the U.S. average, the average for other households like mine, and finally the calculations for my individual household. The Cool Climate Calculator tells me that my household emissions are 45% of other households like mine, but that we emit 220% more than the global average. My emissions are also calculated out in barrels of oil, and in acres of forest. You will want to click on the button to “find out what’s in each category” before you enter your budget calculations.

If you’ve located a detailed and helpful Individual or Household Carbon Footprint Calculator that I didn’t review here, we’d love to learn about it! Write your own Factoid, and share important information online.

Original article: What is your carbon footprint? – written by StaciB on Factoidz

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Bamboo: The Miracle Crop From the Past and a Hope for the Future. Bamboo is being used in a number of innovative ways. Both old and new which include of course food, building material, environmental uses, decorative and functional objects of everyday need. This material is multi-functional, fast-growing and renewable. If ever there was an environmental product that could call itself “green” it would have to be bamboo.We’ve probably all seen these images before, bamboo lashed together to form complicated vertical scaffolding. Lighter than steel and stronger than carbon fibre, this eco-friendly product is coming of age. We shall be seeing more and more of this versatile plant used in innovative ways in everyday life in the years to come.

Scaffolding

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The above actually looks more like a Borg Cube from Star Trek: The Next Generation than a building scaffolding, but it is very stunning all the same.

Bamboo Bicycle

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More and more uses for it are being created, even bamboo bicycle frames. One of the earliest bicycle frames made from bamboo goes back to 1896! This is being rediscovered and people seem to enjoy seeing these unusual bikes.

Skateboards can benefits from the use of bamboo. Currently, skateboards are constructed with layers of resiliant hardwood sheets and toxic epoxies for strength. When the skateboard reaches the end of its useful life, they are discarded. The toxic materials of epoxies, varnish and shellacs are released into the environment. A bamboo skateboard would be compostable. No pollution, no toxic materials.

Other innovative uses for bamboo include furniture, baskets, blinds and other window treatments, placemats, musical instruments, eating and serving utensils and a very satisfactory substitute for hardwood flooring. Typically, commercial bamboo is grown and harvested over a three year cyclic period. A hardwood forest may take decades to be renewed, if ever. Often after a hardwood forest is exhausted, faster-growing softwoods are planted in their place. Trees like oak, ash, beech and hard maple are dwindling due to the demand for hardwood products. Bamboo is a renewable alternative, -not to mention an effective carbon sink as well.

Bamboo Forest in Los Angeles

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Common to Asia and the tropics, this hard hollow-stemmed grass can be grown in many different climates. There are even species of bamboo which can be grown in cold weather climates to the north including every Province in Canada!

There are many different types of bamboo; some are more for green decoration such as sound barriers and property border decoration than for intensive uses such as scaffolding and construction.

IKEA Bamboo

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Often found in ‘Big Box’ and other stores with home garden centers, one can get smaller versions of bamboo for the home. Usually, these are called “lucky bamboo” and often they are grown into intricate shapes and designs, trellises and braided or twisted like ornate bonsai trees. These are easy to grow and require virtually no care. There are hundreds of species of bamboo found throughout the world in a variety of climates, from tropical to dry dwelling species. These miniature bonsai for the home are some of the most common.

Sliced Bamboo Shoot

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Wow if this doesn’t look like some kind of funked-out pineapple! You just know it tastes good! Bamboo is one of the fastest growing materials on Earth, growing two possibly three feet per day has been recorded! Bamboo grows almost as fast as sea kelp, making it potentially very useful food source also. The fast-growth suggests a good use would also be for animal feed as well, renewable in short term. As a food source for thousands of years, bamboo has a rich history of uses, it was used in the construction of the Wright Brother’s first airplane, Edison’s light bulb used filaments or bamboo and the modern day use of bamboo pulp for erosion control on riverbanks and floodplains has proven to be quite useful.

We’ve probably all heard of that urban legend of a form of torture allegedly used by the Japanese in WW-II where a prisoner is staked over a grove of new bamboo shoots. As the bamboo grew it pierces the body and snakes its way around ribs, other bones, to emerge on the other side of the body.

On the television program “MythBusters” they attempted to replicate this visage using a ‘crash test dummy’ fabricated with lifelike materials that emulate the firmness and density of the human body and yes, the growing bamboo shoots did in fact pierce the faux body with enough penetrative force to ply its way around and in between bones. This ‘myth’ was determined to be entirely plausible, that growing bamboo would indeed grow tortuously (and terminally) through a human body if so staked to the ground. Ouch!

Delicious Stir-Fried Bamboo Tips

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-Still seeing that demonstration from MythBusters in my mind, I’d rather eat bamboo and not be fed to or impaled by it. Mmm, -no sharp edges and doesn’t this looks delicious OMG Yum! Every day, bamboo feeds millions possibly billions of people around the world. This fast-growing crop should be utilized more, cultivated where it can used for food, building material and shelter to take the pressure off of existing local sources that do not replenish as quickly.

Bamboo Shoots at Base of Larger Tree

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In some forms of bamboo, flowering cycles are infrequent and can last for many decades and even longer than 100-120 years, flooding an area with its seeds and expanding its range during this time. It is suggested that saturating the area with its flowers and seeds in unison will ensure its survival, even in a predator-filled environment. No matter how much bamboo the predominate predator or predator species eats, there will always be an over-abundance that get to reproduce and grow. This is just a theory and one that is disputed because the flowering cycle is so much longer than the longest lifespan of its predator, which goes against the basics of this theory. -Why would nature build-up a local specie population for a hundred or more years with an abundant food supply then undergo a massive die-off as a means of ‘population control?’ This is the entire basis for the theory, which as stated does not explain the century-plus long cycles. That is the main reason this theory is believed to be inaccurate, the duration of this cycle. There is something else going on with this.

Either way, when then the flowering cycle ceases for that specie that variety of bamboo die off everywhere, despite geographic location. This seems to be like an ‘internal clock’ going off, perhaps something global having to do with the position of the sun in the equatorial plane of the galaxy that we do not understand? Or perhaps the bamboo releases some death pheromone that causes all other bamboos of that specie to respond in kind, a release that spreads the signal to the winds of the planet like nightfall descending? When this happens of course, a region that depends upon bamboo for food, building and housing material faces a crisis of lack of raw material for a lifestyle acquired. The 30-35 cycles of bamboo fruiting and increases of rat populations and plagues of typhus and bubonic plague in the Bay of Bengal region are closely tied to the flowering and fruiting of bamboo, followed by the die-off cycles of the local bamboo populations.

Bamboo Grove Walkway

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A beautiful walkway adorned with growing bamboo. Shade and protection from the sound and effects of city living, bamboo is so versatile and appreciated. It is difficult to believe that bamboo is really just a specie of grass.

Pit Viper in the Bamboo Grove

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Yes, even in Eden there are snakes. Found in Asia, India and China, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, the venomous pit viper can be found. There are 35 different species recognized and being eaters of rats and other small mammals, times of plenty in bamboo groves that mean more rats also favors more snakes.

Bamboo and the Giant Panda

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And last but not least, bamboo is the primary food of the panda. Bamboo comprises about 99% of the Giant Panda’s diet, with fish, bird eggs, oranges, bananas, wild yams and honey are on the menu when encountered in the wild. In case you were wondering, the type of bamboo used for making hardwood floor tiles is the not the same type of bamboo that panda eat.

I can imagine what a quasi-centennial solar variation die-off of bamboo would mean to the small population of remaining pandas in the wild. Hopefully, there are enough species of bamboo with different flowering/fruiting season to accommodate these black and white bears of central and southwestern China. Pandas and bamboo are inexorably linked, -they need each other.

Original article: Bamboo: The Miracle Crop From the Past and a Hope for the Future – written by thestickman on Factoidz

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1. Preserve Nature and Make a Sustainable Future for Man on Earth

“Save the Environment!” — That’s the urgent call in our day and age. Unfortunately, it means changing the way we live and the things we use. Even so, more and more people are adopting eco-friendly ways because it makes sense in more ways than one.

When it comes to home improvement, you can also be eco-friendly. Not only will you do your bit for mother earth but you’ll be doing yourself a favor too. Eco-friendly products and materials can lower some of your ongoing costs. Let’s not forget that it’s a healthier solution too. Here are some ideas how to make eco-friendly home improvements:

1. Renovating The Bathroom

Change your toilet to a dual flush model. There are two knobs on these toilets. Each knob uses different amounts of water to flush your waste. You can select if you need “more” or “less” water to get the job done. This way you can conserve water. There’s also pressure assisted toilets. It uses compressed air to make flushing more efficient. Unfortunately it is loud and noisy.

Change to a low flow, eco-friendly shower head. A conventional shower head uses about 6 gallons per minute. The eco-friendly one uses 1.5 – 2.0 gallons per minute. You can reduce water usage drastically with this change. Don’t worry, the new shower head models don’t compromise your water flow. You can still enjoy strong water flow. Some even come with different streams for you to choose from.

2. Improve Energy Consumption

Harness the power of solar energy. Looking to replace your water heater? Choose a model that is solar powered. There are many other solar powered gadgets that you can use in your home. You can also install solar panels. Getting them may be expensive but they will save you money in the long run.

Change your incandescent light bulbs to LEDs. They are highly efficient and last a long time (around 100,000 hours). With it you can lower your energy consumption by 80-90%. Some people may suggest CFLs but they contain mercury. Disposing it is not very environmentally friendly. LEDs are mercury free.

How about replacing your windows with energy-efficient ones? They can help reduce the cost to heat, cool and light your home. During the winter months, double paned windows work better to prevent heat loss than single-paned windows. Thus, they provide natural insulation. Even the type of window frame you use can make a difference. Wood, vinyl and fiberglass are fantastic insulators. Have you heard of low-e glass (low-emissivity glass)? It’s a special surface coating that will help keep your house warmer during winter and cooler during hot days.

3. Change Your Flooring

Cork flooring are ideal for those looking for a natural type of material. It is durable and uses non-toxic adhesives. When you walk on it, you’ll feel comfortable. It comes in many colors and designs making it a stylish alternative.

Carpets can be a health hazard as they harbor dust mites and dust. But there’s a green option for you: carpet tiles. They are made from recyclable materials. Installing and cleaning is easy. It doesn’t use harmful adhesives so it doesn’t emit toxins into your home. There’s a wide variety of styles for you to choose from. These type of carpets are gaining in popularity.

4. Put On A Fresh Coat Of Paint

Brighten your home with a new coat of paint. It’s the simplest way to change the look of your house. When you go paint shopping, look out for brands that use low-VOC or zero-VOC. Check that it doesn’t contain formaldehyde, ammonia, or acetone. Unfortunately, these eco-friendly paints can be quite pricey. That’s why some D.I.Y. people have opted to make their own natural paint. Yes, there are recipes out there that show you how to make your own paint. There’s another natural alternative which is milk paint (also known as casein paint). It is safe and durable. It is said to have it’s own character. Meaning, it’s finishing may be different from what you expected. You can make it yourself or buy it. If you plan on buying it, make sure it’s real milk paint. It should be in a powder form and will spoil in a few days after you’ve mixed it.

I’ll be honest with you, some of the time when you choose to go eco-friendly, it will cost you more upfront. However, you have to think about long term benefits. Yes, you may have to pay more now, but the renovations you make will save you money in the long run. Many of these home improvement suggestions are eco-friendly solutions because they save on natural resources such as energy, and water. For others, like tips 3 & 4 the benefits and savings may not be so easily quantified, but they will make a difference to your health and well-being.

It really is a win-win-win situation: save the earth and save your pocket and your health.

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There is nothing like the warming, comforting heat of a wood burning stove on a cold winter day. The cracking and snap of the wood as it catches fire, the mesmerizing flames, and the soothing aroma of soup simmering on the stovetop. I used to think that wood fires were not environmentally friendly. But in fact, they are a carbon neutral heat source. It’s also really easy to use your wood stove for cooking, almost like a slow cooker, and for heating a kettle which of course just saves on energy.

Today’s wood burning stoves are more high tech than the ones your grand parents had. They provide greater comfort convenience and efficiency. They are efficient because more heat is released per pound of wood, and less pollution.

Some things you’ll want to look at before you get your wood stove are:

• Where do you want to put the stove in your home?
• What size would best fit your needs?
• Are you using it to heat the space completely or just to supplement?
• Do you want a cast iron wood stove or soap stone wood stove?

The wood stoves available today are beautiful and efficient when used properly.

Here are some tips to heating your home effectively with wood burning stoves.

• The wood must be carefully selected. Cost and overall heat production is something that we all must think about. The dryer the wood the hotter. So it is best to use properly dried hardwoods (i.e. oak, maple, beech, ash). I also recently found out that pine, normally a softwood, once it has reached about 40 years old turns into a hardwood, and has the same burning properties as hardwoods.
• Start with a small fire at first this gives your chimney time to warm up and draft properly. A big, roaring fire in a cold chimney will produce a lot of smoke and put a lot of stress on the stove. A handy tip is to crumple up some dry paper and place it on top of your kindling, then light it before you light the tinder under your kindling. This will warm the air in the chimney sufficiently to provide an updraft which helps your fire get started. Try it, it really works.
• You have to keep your wood burning stove clean. Throw the ashes out regularly. This keeps the air flowing right inside the firebox. I’ve found that it helps to leave just a thin layer of ash in the bottom, I’m not sure why but for my stove at least, it helps the fire get started.
• Keep in mind that your wood burning stove isn’t a garbage disposal unit. Only burn the right wood, make sure that the wood has not been treated with chemicals that could be released during the burning and harm you. That means no painted or stained wood. Be sure that if you are burning timber off cuts that they are not tantalized treated timber, the kind that’s treated for outdoor use, as arsenic is often used in this process.
• You will want your wood to burn completely and efficiently, and to do this, the stove must be loaded correctly. The best way is to keep logs stacked along the bottom toward the rear of the firebox, with the paper, kindling or embers toward the front where the air comes in. Do not pile wood up to the very top, leaving space between the top log and the secondary air tubes.
• A wood burning stove produces a lot more heat than you can use. A soapstone stove can store the extra heat, to stretch out, and make the heating cycle more even. Soapstone wood burning stoves produce 100% more BTUs that a cast iron or steel wood stove, using the same amount of wood.

Wood burning stoves can be a beautiful and energy efficient addition to your home. Wood fires are a very dry heat, so if you have a humidity problem where you live, they could be an ideal solution.

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For years, safety experts have been telling us to flush unused prescription medications down the toilet. We were told that it was very dangerous to keep these products lying around. They could be injested by someone other than the person for whom they were prescribed or worse yet, taken by small children or used as recreational drugs. Flushing them down the toilet was considered a safe and effective way to dispose of these unused or outdated prescriptions.

Today, there is a battle of sorts between the environmentalists and the Federal Goverment. The Federal Goverment says to flush controlled substances down the toilet to keep them out of the hands of drug addicts. The environmentalists say “Never flush drugs down the toilet”.

Experts are now finding that flushing drugs down the toilet is not as safe and harmless as we might have thought. There is growing concern that these drugs are causing serious environmental harm. Sewage and wastewater treatment plants are not designed to filter out these drugs and they are ultimately being discharged into the ground and surface water. It has also been shown that the antibiotics being disposed of in this manner are killing the beneficial bacteria needed to operated the sewage system processing plants. But imagine what it’s doing to the beneficial bacteria in your gut as well.

A study done by the United State Geological Survey back in 1999 showed that 80% of our streams contained compounds found in common medications. I’ve also read articles stating that there are measurable levels of birth control substances found in tap water, but it’s thought that most of this comes through the urine of women taking birth control drugs. Perhaps this could be a factor in the increasing rate of fertility problems experienced by those in the so-called ‘1st world’ countries.

Listed below are some tips on how to dispose of medications properly.

1. Take the medications you are prescribed for the full length of time. Often, especially in the case of antibiotics, when we feel better, we stop taking the medication. A full course of the prescribed medication is often required to completely cure the problem for which they were prescribed. Stopping short of the full course of antibiotics can contribute to the evolution of ’superbugs’, by leaving the more resistant ‘bugs’ alive. Having been exposed to the antibiotic, but survived, they evolve to become resistant to that antibiotic.
2. Do not dispose of medications down the toilet unless the label specifically instructs you to do so.
3. Drugs can be disposed of in household trash, but they must be taken out of the original container and then mixed with trash that would make them unapppealing to children and pets. They should also be unrecognizible by undesirables who may go through your trash intentionally. Put the drugs in a plastic sealable bag, empty can or other container to preven them from leaking out of the garbage bag.
4. Labels should be either removed or scratched out so they are unreadable. This will help to protect your identity and also the privacy of your personal health information.
5. Check to see if your pharmacy has a drug disposal program. Many pharmacies are now offering these services to the public as a community service.
6. Check with your local hazardous waste collection officials or recycling center to see if they have a special collection.
7. Any prescription and over-the-counter medications including cold remedies, medication samples and vitamins should be included in these disposal precautions. Medicated ointments, lotions, inhalers as well as prescriptions prescribed by veterinarians should also be included.
8. Never give your unused prescription to neighbors or friends. Medications that may be fine for you to take could be dangerous to another person.

The disposal of controlled substances such as narcotics pose a special problem. Pharmacies are required by law to keep controlled substances under lock and key. If controlled substances are presented for a medication disposal program, they must be kept locked up until disposed of. Currently there is legislation being reviewed in Congress that will amend the Controlled Substance Act. This will establish guidelines that will allow for the take back and disposal of these controlled substances.

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1. 12 Ways to Save Water in Your Home

When it comes to living more sustainable and making a difference towards the problem of global climate change, every little thing you do counts. So here are some tips for small, easy changes you can make in your kitchen that will help to reduce your energy consumption and lessen your environmental footprint.

1. Only fill your kettle with as much water as you need. The more water you boil, the more energy that’s required, and if that water isn’t going to be used, you’ve wasted the extra energy it takes. Remember some of the water is going to escape as steam, so if you want a cup of tea, just add a cup plus a tablespoon or so more.
2. If you’ve just boiled the kettle and you have extra water left over, use it in soups or for boiling vegetables instead of using cold water from the tap.
3. Put lids on your saucepans when cooking. This conserves heat and lets you cook at a much lower temperature. Simmering in a covered saucepan will cook your food just as quickly as rapidly boiling it in an uncovered pan.
4. When cooking on the stove top or in the oven, turn off the heat 5-10 minutes before you normally would but leave the food in the oven or on the element in a covered saucepan. Your food will continue cooking because of the heat trapped inside the pan or oven and the heat that’s still in the elements.
5. If you tap water takes ages to run hot, heat water in the kettle instead for doing the dishes or using in recipes.
6. Open and close the oven door as quickly as possible. Every time you open it, the temperature drops by about 20 degrees.
7. Run your dishwasher only when it’s full, on the economy cycle. If there is food left on plates, etc rinse them under cold water before putting them into the dishwasher, especially if they will be sitting for while before you turn it on. Avoid rinsing in hot water as that alone can use as much energy as a full wash cycle.
8. When washing up by hand, use as little water as possible and don’t leave the tap running when you’re rinsing. The best thing to do is to have 2 plastic bowls in the sink, one with hot soapy water and the other with clear rinse water to dip the washed dishes into.
9. Check the seal on your refrigerator to make sure it’s working properly. If you can close the door on a piece of paper and run it around the edge, you need to replace the seal. Also be careful not to fill your fridge too full, especially with items in the door trays as this can prevent the door from closing properly.
10. Turn off all appliances at the wall when not in use. The amount of energy used by always-on clocks, lights and LEDs is significant.

The trick is to make a conscious effort to implement these simple tips, until you have replaced your old habits with these new, energy-saving habits.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that because you have to engage in activities that use excessive amounts of energy at work, that there’s not point in turning your appliances off at home. Every change you make towards a more sustainable lifestyle, no matter how small, makes a difference. In fact, changing the things you do have control over helps to offset the damage done by those things you don’t have control over.

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For those of us who want to lessen our impact on the environment the issue of transportation can be a tricky one. If you live in a city that’s bicycle and pedestrian friendly, or has a good public transport system it’s easy to transition to these alternative forms of transportation. But the further you live from your place of work, or if you have to travel a lot as part of your work or you simply live in a city that doesn’t make it easy or safe to use these alternative forms of transportation, another possible solution could be to buy hybrid vehicles.

What exactly is a hybrid car?

Primarily, a gasoline-electric hybrid car is a combination of an electric car and a gasoline-run vehicle. To make things clearer, it is first necessary to distinguish the characteristics of those two kinds.

A gas-powered vehicle is equipped with fuel tanks, which gives gasoline to the engine. The engine operates the transmission, and the transmission operates the wheels.

Meanwhile, an electric car is equipped with a set of batteries which gives electric power to a motor. The motor then operates the transmission and the wheels.

Now the hybrid car is a mix of the two. The reputation of hybrids is that they add to the car’s mileage with fewer emissions usually coming from cars run by gasoline, while eliminating more or less the disadvantages that comes with electric cars.

Motorists usually take three considerations in mind when judging the usability of a vehicle. These are:

• It should run at three-hundred miles at least between fuel stops.
• Should be easily refueled, in the minimum amount of time.
• It should catch up with the other vehicles zooming on the road.

The thing is, a gasoline-powered car has all these features, but it produces lots of emission plus the mileage is poor. On the other hand, an electric car gives off almost zero pollution, but the speed is relatively slow, and can only run 50-100 miles between battery charges.

What are the parts of hybrid cars?

1. Gasoline engine: Compared to the engine of other cars, hybrids use smaller ones and is more technically advanced in order to maximize fuel and lessen emissions.
2. Fuel tank: This serves as the device for hybrids to store energy for the gasoline engine.
3. Electric motor: The motor present in hybrids is a study in sophistication. It can serve as both generator and motor.
4. Generator: Much like an electric motor, but its only purpose is to provide electrical power.
5. Batteries: Acts as the storage device of energy for electric motors. The advantage of hybrid car motors is that they can charge the batteries with energy as well as get energy supply from them.
6. Transmission: Acts the same as conventional car transmissions.

There are two ways in combining the energy sources found in hybrid cars. The first one is the parallel hybrid, which is equipped with a fuel tank that provides gasoline to an engine, and a battery set that supplied energy to the electric motor.

The second one is the series hybrid. In contrast, the generator is powered by the gasoline engine, and the generator is capable of either energizing the batteries or provide power to the electric motor that starts up the transmission.

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Clean running water, an absolute necessity to our very survival, is also incredibly handy around the house. So handy, in fact, that most of us use it wastefully at least part of the time. As our growing population strains our water resources and infrastructure to the limits, costs for providing water will escalate. We can minimize those costs by employing a few simple water conservation methods in our homes.

We benefit in many ways by cutting down on household water use. Using water wisely by taking short showers, for example, or running only full loads in the washer or dishwasher results in additional savings by using less energy and less detergent.

By practicing water conservation at home we encourage our children to accept that natural resources are not in endless supply – a reality their generation will be forced to accept – a reality our generation too often chooses to ignore.

Saving water at home helps reduce or eliminate costs for infrastructure such as new or upgraded reservoirs, water treatment facilities, or sewage treatment plants. These are huge expenses which are passed on to homeowners through municipal taxes.

Enough said. Here are 12 ways to save water in your home:

1. Check for leaks. If you have a water meter, read it before and after a two-hour interval when no one is using any water. If it doesn’t read exactly the same, you have a leak somewhere in your house.
2. Find and fix leaks. Replace washers on dripping faucets. A drip rate of one drop per second wastes 1,000 liters per month (about 3,000 US gallons per year). Toilets are another common source for leaks. Check by putting a few drops of food coloring in the tank. If the color appears in the bowl after about half an hour, you have a leak. Replace worn parts. They’re cheap and the repairs are easily done.
3. Toilets are responsible for 30-40% of household water use. Avoid flushing unnecessarily. Don’t put anything down the toilet except toilet waste. Don’t be afraid to let it mellow if it’s yellow. Tissues, dead spiders, hair balls and other assorted trash belong in the garbage can, not the toilet.
4. Replace older toilets. The current standard is 1.6 gallons per flush. Toilets 10 years old or older may use anywhere from 3.5 to 7 gallons per flush.
5. Take shorter showers. If you don’t have a low flow showerhead, get one that uses less than 2.5 gallons per minute. You’ll never notice the difference. In fact, if you have low water pressure, you’ll get a better shower with a low flow showerhead. Some models have a control to let you easily stop the flow while you suds up, then resume for rinsing. What a great idea!
6. Turn down one tap rather than turning up the other one to adjust water temperature. It’s just as effective and uses less water.
7. Don’t let the water run while brushing your teeth or shaving.
8. Put aerators on all the faucets in your home.
9. Run only full loads in the washer or dishwasher, or adjust the water level for smaller loads. Choose water-efficient appliances. Front-loading washers use about a third less water than top-loading. Some washing machines are available with a suds-saver option that drains wash water into your laundry tub to be reused for another load.
10. Start a compost pile in the yard to avoid wasting water by using a kitchen sink disposal.
11. Keep a jug of water in the fridge for drinking so you don’t have to run the tap waiting for the water to cool. If you’re on municipal water, this practice has the added advantage of reducing the chlorine content as some of the chlorine escapes from the water into the air while it sits in the jug.
12. Collect the water that would otherwise be going down the drain while you’re waiting for the hot water to reach your faucet. You can use it for watering plants or cleaning.

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1. 4 Tips for Eco-Friendly Home Improvements
2. Easy Ways to Make your Home More Eco-Friendly
3. 11 Ways to Lower Your Summer Electric Bills

For years we have been taught that a good night’s sleep is a healthy habit to have. A good 7-8 hours of sleep means that one third of our life should be spent in bed. Recent discoveries have found that while sleeping 7-8 hours a night is healthy, sleeping in a bed may not be such a healthy idea. While our faces are plastered into a pillow and sleeping on a new mattress, we may be literally gassing ourselves to death.

Toxic Chemicals in Pillows

Pillows are often made of Styrofoam which contains polystyrene. This petroleum-based chemical has been known to cause symptoms of fatigue, difficulty sleeping, nervous disorders, menstrual cycle problems, alterations in blood cells, chromosome and lymphatic abnormalities and possibly has carcinogenic effects on humans.

It has been shown that in subjects tested for styrene, a full 100% were found to have styrene in their fat cells and they couldn’t find a single lactating mother who didn’t test positive for these chemicals in her breast milk.

In addition to polystyrene, pillows are known to contain polyurethane foam and polyethylene. These fillers are made by combining some very toxic chemicals to make polyfil, the major component of the pillows we use today.

Recent published information showed that the plastic bottles we are using for baby formula and drinking water are leaching chemicals out into the contents of the bottle. This raises the question as to whether these chemicals are also being released into the air surrounding our pillow and mattress while we sleep.

A company called Chem-Tox has done extensive studies on the effect that petroleum based products have on humans. The number of human ailments such as cancer, asthma, infertility, and neurological problems that have been tied to these chemicals is growing larger and larger. The alarming rise in autism over the last half century raises questions as to the link between these chemicals and this syndrome.

Toxic Chemicals in Mattresses

As of 2007, all mattresses are required to contain enough Fire Retardant to withstand being subjected to a 24 inch blowtorch flame for a total of 70 seconds. It has been estimated that 90% of all mattress manufacturers use a highly toxic brand of fire retardant because it is less expensive to use. In addition, manufacturers have switched from filling mattresses with natural products to using toxic synthetic petroleum based products as fillings in an effort to save money.

Studies are showing that sleeping on these mattresses, night after night, year after year is increasing our risk of developing a host of health problems. By the time a child is 5 years of age they have spent thousands of hours exposed to these chemicals in their mattresses and pillows. It’s a scary thought.

Modern foam mattresses are made of a toxic soup of nearly 60 different chemicals. The flame retardant solution used on mattresses contains antimony, boric acid (the stuff used to kill the persistent cockroach) and DECABROMODIPHENYL OXIDE.

Any type of sofa bed, crib, fold-out bed, futon and mattress made of synthetic materials must contain a flame retardant, but nowhere is the safety of these chemicals made readily available to consumers.

Chemical Free Mattresses

Organic Wool
Mattresses

Beware of a company that advertises that it produces a “green” mattress. Sometimes they add natural products in addition to the standard toxic foam and call it green. Due diligence is needed before you make a mattress purchase. Do a lot of research to be sure your mattress is safe and free of harmful chemicals.

Where to buy organic wool mattresses

Buy Organic Wool Mattresses

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2. 13 Ways To Go Green
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