Turns out, lawmakers and those snobby neighbors of ours don’t like the idea of residents being allowed to hang out their clothes to dry in the sun. Never mind the fact that doing so is better for the health of the planet, the health of the neighbor, and it reduces wear and tear on clothing – they think that clothing hanging on a clothesline brings down property values and is a blight on the community. But want to know what a true blight on a community is? Climate change, and all the destruction that comes with it.

See, line drying clothes saves energy, saves fossil fuels, reduces pollution, reduces need for bleaches, and makes clothing last longer so it doesn’t need to be replaced so often. In fact, there are 10 reasons to line dry your clothes if you aren’t doing so already. But what if you live in one of these communities or housing developments that says it’s against the law to do so?

You can fight the laws with the help of Project Laundry List. By encouraging your state legislators to introduce a “Right to Dry”, registering your prohibitive community on the site, and talking to your friends and neighbors about the hows and whys of line drying, you can make sure that your right to dry your clothes using the sun is preserved.

While line drying was the way everyone dried their clothes in the past (See Bring Back the Past to Save the Future) and continues to be the way in most countries, some people in this country are fighting any progress in stemming the climate change brought on by our own actions. This is one very simple step we can take to reduce the burden on our environment, so let’s work to make sure we can all freely dry our clothing outside should we choose to do so.

Photo from BigStock

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Revenge of the Electric Car is the follow-up to Who Killed the Electric Car?, and is presented 12 years after General Motors killed their EV1 electric car project. The film covers the explosive growth in the electric car industry, as companies ranging from the guy making EV conversions in his garage, to the truly innovative upstarts (Tesla Motors), and to the massive (GM and Nissan), compete to release an affordable EV for the masses.

Director Chris Paine paints the electric car industry as something of a race, as these four companies try to make the car that will become the first mass-consumed electric car. EV’s are going to be the car of the foreseeable future, as we very slowly move away from oil-burning gas engines, so the stakes are high for everyone to get in on the action right from the start. Check out the trailer for the film:

I highly recommend you take some time to watch Revenge of the Electric Car to both learn more about how electric vehicles are doing today and where the technology will be headed in the future.

Help support The Good Human! If you do your Amazon shopping through my Amazon link, a very modest sales commission is generated. This is true for any product at Amazon, not just the eco-friendly ones. Please keep this link in mind for all of your Amazon purchases, as when you click through one of them and do any shopping, it really helps keep The Good Human going. -> My Amazon.com Affiliate Link. Thanks!

We hear a lot about how much energy modern day flat screen TV sets consume, but the innocuous set-top boxes that drive them, along with their built-in digital video recorders, may be even more to blame. A recent analysis conducted by the consulting firm Ecos on behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found that “the average new cable high-definition digital video recorder (HD-DVR) consumes more than half the energy of an average new refrigerator and more than an average new flat- panel television.” Overall, set-top boxes in the U.S. consume some 27 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. This is equal to the annual output of six average (500 megawatt) coal-fired power plants and accounts for the emission of 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Part of the reason these boxes are such energy hogs is that they typically operate at nearly full power even during the two-thirds of the time when they are not actively in use driving TV screens or recording to built-in DVRs. “As a nation, we spend $2 billion each year to power these boxes when they are not being actively used,” reports NRDC.

To make matters worse, American consumers have little if any choice about which set-top boxes they get from their cable or satellite service providers. Since the providers usually own the boxes yet don’t have to pay consumers’ electric bills, they have little incentive to utilize or develop more efficient models. In Europe, Sky Broadcasting is beginning to distribute more efficient equipment to subscribers there. NRDC is urging the largest pay-TV service providers in the U.S. (Comcast, Time Warner, DirecTV, Dish Network, Verizon and AT&T) to heed the efficiency call with their own set-top box and DVR offerings.

Redesigning set-top boxes to power down when not in use is perhaps the biggest opportunity for energy savings. “Innovation to reduce power consumption when not in active use—such as has occurred with mobile phones, which also work on a subscriber basis and require secure connections—is sorely needed in set-top boxes,” counsels NRDC. Also, re-jiggering content delivery systems so that only one main set- top box sends signals to all the televisions in the house (or to lower power “thin client” boxes) could also cut down household electric bills and carbon footprints. The group adds that “better designed pay-TV set- top boxes could reduce the energy use of the installed base of boxes by 30 percent to 50 percent by 2020.”

Last year the U.S. government released new energy efficiency standards for set-top boxes within its EnergyStar appliance efficiency rating program. While this new specification is a step in the right direction, consumers have little knowledge about such options. NRDC urges pay-TV subscribers to request that their providers make available set-top boxes and DVRs that meet the newer EnergyStar 4.0 standards. The more of us that request such improvements, the likelier they are to happen. And the cable or satellite provider that can save customers money while reducing overall environmental impact may just win over an increasingly large sector of the American people that actually cares about being green.

CONTACTS: NRDC’s “Better Viewing, Lower Energy Bills, and Less Pollution”; EnergyStar.

EarthTalk is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe; Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

Help support The Good Human! If you do your Amazon shopping through my Amazon link, a very modest sales commission is generated. This is true for any product at Amazon, not just the eco-friendly ones. Please keep this link in mind for all of your Amazon purchases, as when you click through one of them and do any shopping, it really helps keep The Good Human going. -> My Amazon.com Affiliate Link. Thanks!

Blow Your Nose – Blowing your nose regularly throughout the day is one of the best ways to fight back a cold. It relieves pressure inside your head, clears out your nasal passages so you can breathe, and helps to push the virus out of your system. However, don’t blow too hard as to damage yourself or your eardrums. Blow your nose gently and often, and always wash your hands afterwards.

Get Some Sleep – Sleep can help your immune system recover from a cold. Give your body a rest by spending time reading, watching TV, or just sleeping. If you try to do too much while you have a cold, you could prolong it’s time with you.

Take Steamy Hot Showers – You can treat a cold with just a hot shower. The hot water beating on your chest can help relieve congestion, and the steam can help clear out your nose and even relieve a sore throat. They can also help to moisturize that nose you have been blowing all day!

Enjoy Hot Soups and Beverages – People don’t eat hot chicken soup when they have a cold for nothing! Hot soups and beverages (like tea) can help you stay hydrated and soothe your throat as well.

Take Zinc Lozenges – Zinc is a natural mineral that is found in all sorts of foods and seeds. It has been shown to possibly disable cold viruses from growing and thus potentially shortening the length and severity of your cold. For more on Zinc, check out ABC news.

Gargle with Salt Water – Treat that cold with some good old fashioned salt water! Gargling a few times a day with a mixture of table salt and water can help relieve a sore throat and give you some relief from the pain.

Here’s to hoping that some of these tips will help you treat a cold this season. No one likes to come down with a cold, but these are some ways you can help to minimize any disruption or discomfort that comes from getting a cold.

Help support The Good Human! If you do your Amazon shopping through my Amazon link, a very modest sales commission is generated. This is true for any product at Amazon, not just the eco-friendly ones. Please keep this link in mind for all of your Amazon purchases, as when you click through one of them and do any shopping, it really helps keep The Good Human going. -> My Amazon.com Affiliate Link. Thanks!