Sunday, April 29, 2012

Flex-Fuel Humans

Flex-Fuel Humans
Wow this is a cool blog article.

It works off of energy in and energy out of the human existence/cycle.

Eating lower on the food chain is, of couse, far more energy efficient!

But the article takes it much further. We are what we eat. What we eat can be efficient or opulent. Right?

Monday, April 23, 2012

How Green Are You? (quick Green Questionnaire)


How Green Are You? | Parade.com

Earth Day Questionnaire.

Great Earth Day. Planting and Sowing...  Try this simple questionnaire to see: How Green are You? Parade.com: How Green Are You?

Pretty good questionnaire. I'm not as green as I should be.  I drive too fast, for example.

Couple questions were a little fuzzy.  I didn't like the rationale on the Light Bulb questions.

See how you do.

Only takes a couple minutes. 

Maybe it will lead you to some Earth Day resolutions you made yesterday.

Good luck.

Think Green.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Earth Day Number 4 (of 4). Transportation & Telecommuting


Number 4. Transportation & Telecommuting. Consider alternatives before you drive some place. Smart phone “apps” let you do all kinds of comparison shopping without driving an inch. Consider carpooling. Most jobs can be done via telecommuting, at least occasionally. The savings are 5 to 10 times the price of the gas involved when consider the costs to the employer, employee and the environment.

ToDo: Telecommute occasionally if your job allows it… Work to get your employer to allow it (only about half have such an option). There are about $20,000 to $30,000 in telecommuting savings for a Full-time equivalent (FTE) employee.)

A quick summary of statistics related to telecommuting research can be found at Commute Zero.
 “If all those who drove or carpooled who had the ability to telecommute actually did so, the time savings would be equal to 470,000 new jobs in the economy.” Stated differently, might be that if they all worked (another job) to replace the lost time in commute they would represent about a half million FTE workers. 

Wow!.

About half of the workers in the US could telecommute at least occasionally. About 25% could telecommute full time, but only about 11% do.

Earth Day Number 3 (of 4): Energy Efficiency (EE)


Number 3. Energy Efficiency. The savings for energy efficiency at home (and at the office, church, etc) can easily be 20% to 35% with a fractional investment. Ring up the local power company to schedule an energy audit. With very inexpensive fixes like duct tape, caulk, programmable thermostats, and timers, the utility savings can easily be $30 to $100 per month. (Payback in a couple months.)

ToDo
: Buy a couple Compact Florescent Light (CFLs) bulbs and start to use them in place of the most frequently used incandescent light bulbs. CFLs (and LEDs) cost more but they will save $30 to $40 in electricity over the life of the bulb. (Save 5-15% on utilities, payback 2 to 8 months.) Oh, make sure to buy the special versions if the light is adjustable on a rheostat.

ToDo: Get (and program) a programmable thermostat. Adjusting the thermostat 1 degree warmer (and 1 colder in winter) can result in about a 10% savings. 


It makes you wonder. If your power company suddenly charged you an extra $1,000 or $2,000 per year, you would break out the shotgun and go have a talk with them about it. Right? (Well, maybe not the shotgun, but ...) 

But virtually everyone everywhere can take $1,000 to $4,000 off of their annual bill, starting within one month. AND, that savings would be realized for years. Forever, really, if you continue to pay attention to the WATTS.

And we are all not doing this.... Why?

Earth Day 2012 | Earth Day Network

Earth Day 2012 | Earth Day Network:

A Billion Acts of Green and COUNTING!!!...

Mobilize the Earth.

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Friday, April 20, 2012

Earth Day Number 2 (of 4): Reduce, reuse, recycle (rethink)


Number 2. Reduce, reuse and recycle. You actually want to add rethink here. Something as simple as using water bottles saves hundreds of dollars per year, per person. You simply buy one or two water bottles and use them for years… refilling from fountain or tap water that is essentially free.
ToDo: Buy (BPA-free) Water Bottles and start using them instead of bottled water and sodas. (A couple dollars invested results in up to $100 savings per month.)

Earth Day Number 1 (of 4) Wellness... Gleaning feeds the needy | Highlands Today


Gleaning feeds the needy | Highlands Today: "Gleaning feeds the needy"

Earth Day... Basic four things to do. Right now.


Number 1. Health and wellness. People can’t be healthy, and they certainly can’t be productive, if they don’t have the basics of health and living conditions. Just drinkable water and basic sanitation is a critical issue. This combined with the lack of basic nutrition results in major health and wellness issues for approximately 2 billion of the world’s population.

ToDo: One of the things that can be done here is to go on missions to developing countries to help them learn and develop the sanitary and development skills. You will want to develop your own survival skills first in a programs such as the HEART program at Warner University.
ToDo: Consider helping with composting, urban gardens and gleaning projects. Gleaning, as mentioned in the bible, is where volunteers are allowed to go through the fields after they have been harvested to pick the edible -- but not necessarily pretty -- fruit and vegetables. (See Gleaning For The World (www.GFTW.org), End Hunger (www.EndHunger.org), gleaning in Florida (this article). 


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