More Proof of Climate Change

It seems amazing in a way that this is even newsworthy. Yet when scientific issues become political issues the actual facts always get skewed toward whoever has the money.

However when you talk to people with the knowledge and education to understand climate change and don't have vast amounts of money on the line, they almost unanimously agree that climate change is real and represent a grave risk to the planet and our way of life.

From USA TODAY Guilty: Man at heart of climate's change Landmark U.N. report says it is 'extremely likely' man is to blame for warming climate. http://usat.ly/1ftK6bq Get USA TODAY on your mobile device: http://www.usatoday.com/mobile-apps

The Age of Stupid - Great Climate Change Documentary

Today I saw a really great climate change documentary. It was called The Age of Stupid and was directed by Franny Armstrong. It was set in the future 2055 to be exact. The premise is that the one guy is basically the last, or one of the last, human on Earth. He is reflecting on how stupid humans were to have ruined the climate and become extinct even though they clearly saw it coming and could have stopped. The great line from the movie went something like this, "Humans certainly aren't the first species to kill themselves off, but they are the first to do it when they saw it coming". He goes on to compare what happened to suicide, which really fits quite well when you think about it. 

It is basically a montage of news clips which were real, except for the ones from the future of course. One of the really interesting concepts I took away from the movie is a great way to look at the whole climate change issue. Essentially it all breaks down to how much land is needed to support the number of people in the world. This includes the land for trees to create lumber and paper, the land for stream for us to drink, etc etc etc. It all comes down to how much resources this planet has to offer and how much we are using. Clearly right now we are using more then are replenished by Earth year after year. That is working for now because this planet has so many resources, but it is quickly starting to catch up with is for two reasons.

Reason #1 what we are doing isn't sustainable


First we can't sustain what we are doing now because there are just so many of us and the number is growing. This is what it all comes down to for me. I keep going back to the fact that there are just too many of us. Like it seems no matter how basically we decide to live our lives when there are 9-10 billion of us, it just isn't going to matter. With that many people we are just going to use more then the planet can replenish every year. This means were are going to be dipping into the planet's reserves of resources every year, and at some point there just won't be any left. It's just like a financial budget. You can spend more then you make for a while, but eventually it just catches up with you. Even if you have money in the bank, if you keep dipping into it each year eventually it is going to be gone, and then it's game over.

Reason #2 what we are doing isn't sustainable


The other issue with people is the amount of energy we use every year. Not matter the form we are essentially using energy. Whether it be the food we eat, the paper we write on, the clothes we wear, the house we live in, it all consumes energy in one form or the other. It's this energy which is the resources that I'm talking about. Not only are there so many of us living our lives that we are using more energy then is created by the sun shining on the planet each year, we are also using more and more of it each year. American specifically are the worst. We have be industrialized the longest I guess so we've just gotten used to being consumers. The goal of consumerism is to keep getting people to buy more then they did last year, and it works great until you realize that the resources are finite and there is just no way around the fact that you are going to eventually run out of resources.

A really interesting fact from the movie is that if all people on the planet right now lived the way that the average American does we would actually need 5 planet Earths to sustain it all! So with the amount of people alive now, living like we do in America, we would need more land to create all those resources each year. How much more? 5 times what we have now!!! And just think with climate change speeding up the caps are going to melts and there is going to be even less usable land as time goes by. It's like a train with no breaks going down hill!

What is Green Tech?

These days I seem to hear the term "Green Tech" more and more, which is a good thing! I kind of thing of Green Tech and two things but really the definition that most people think of when the say it means the invention of new technology which will reduce green house gases and be good (or better) for the environment. 

Examples of Green Tech


So what is green technology? An example of green technology would be a new light bulb with puts out the same amount of light with less energy usage. So the new invention is going to use less energy and therefore less CO2 is going to get released to power that light bulb.

Green technology doesn't have to be what we typically think of as technology though. Even if something isn't electronics or science it could still be considered green tech, at least according to my green technology definition. New green technology could be something as mundane as a new sponge that somehow required less soap to wash the same amount of dishes. This would help the environment because the company wouldn't have to make as much soap, so the the energy involved in the manufacture and delivery of bottles of soap would be reduced.

More typically though green tech is associated with clean energy though. So a new solar panel would be a great example of what most people associate with green tech. Or lets say a wind turbine which can get more energy out of the same amount of wind would be a nice fit as well.

My other meaning of Green Tech

So for me the other meaning for green tech has more to do with fixing the issues we have caused with the environment. So the planet is dirty with oil spills, the air is full of small particles from industry, and the atmosphere is full of green house gasses. Another meaning of green technology for me is a new invention which would directly remove this mess from our environment. So maybe a machine that would fly around and filter out the particles from the air, that would be great. Or something that would extract the CO2 from the atmosphere and store it some where.

The key difference to me between the two is that one is something that reduces the impact of what we do to the planet and the other cleans up the effects of what we do to the planet. Both are very important and likely necessary if we are going to save the day before we ruin Earth for all of us!

Global Warming or Global Warning?

When I hear people talk about the environmental issues I have heard this term used almost interchangeably. Well not by the same people it's just that it seems half of the people think the term they are looking for is Global Warming and the other half think it's Global Warning. In most cases what the people are talking about when they use both terms is the same. It's just an unfortunate twist of the English language that they sound the same. The terms are indeed related to the same topic, but they are not synonyms.  

Global Warming


The term that most all people that use either term are looking for is indeed Global Warming. This is the green house effect which is caused by greenhouse gasses (most commonly CO2 and methane) which is causing the average temperature of the planet to rise, hence Global warming. The globe is getting hotter.

Part of the reason that it's an issue, and there is still debate about whether it's happening (BTW its happening!), is because it is warming relatively slowly. It is slow global warming in that its only a small percentage of a degree per year and year to year it is impossible to FEEL the difference. However scientifically you can measure it and see year after year, decade to decade the planet is warming. You can also see evidence around the globe. The most common example is the melting ice caps. Also keep in mind this is the average temperature. One degree of average global temperature rise is enough to have significant effects. So even if each year is only a part of a degree rise, how many years does it take to make a degree and really start effecting out lives in a major way?

Global Warning


Global warning is really just a term talking about the overall concern about global warming. In other words, the melting of the ice caps is a global warning about global warming. I think global warning was even the name of a movie about global warming, and has been used many times in movies for the same reason. Like I say, they are related terms for sure but they indeed have different meanings. It's because they sound so much alike that there is confusion. It only take a handful of people to get confused to start spreading the word.

So now you know, the correct term for the effect of greenhouse gasses is Global Warming. All the tangible results of greenhouse gasses warming out planet should be taken as strong Global Warnings.

Green Design - From the Start!

With all that is going on with the environment and global warming these days it should be obvious that we have a problem and need to get something done about it. In fairness I know this is kind of wishful thinking, and there are crazy people out there that actually think nothing is wrong, but at least there are more and more people that understand the truth these days. 

Anyway, with that said I know we aren't going to realistically drop what we are doing as a society and just start tomorrow with a carbon neutral society, even if we were all on the same page and really wanted to. The trick I think is to understand that something is wrong and at least start making steps in that direction. At least when the climate crashes to a point where it has a serious impact on our lives, or more realistically when we run out of affordable oil and it impacts our life seriously, then the landing can be softer!

Green Design


I think one big thing we could easily start doing is making products right from the beginning with green design in mind. So right when someone is conceptualizing a product, it should be part of our culture that we factor in green design. How could it use the least amount of power possible, and how could you have it make the least amount of impact on the environment (both during operation and in disposal)?

So if you are thinking about producing a new lawn mower then of course you are going to think about all the things that a person would want a lawn mower to do well. But then, right from the original planning stage, you also need to factor in how you could design it to use the least about of power (gas or electricity) during it's useful life. Next you should also be factoring in how you could design it to make the least impact on the environment when it's disposed of when that useful life is over. So maybe that means you are going to use as many parts as possible that can be recycles easily into some new product. Or maybe it means that you are going to use parts that will decompose more quickly with a lower impact on the environment. Or maybe some other totally new factor that would help with it's impact on the environment because that is the type of thought process and breakthrough that would likely extend to all products and really give us the leap forward that we need!

Existing Products


Of course we should always be trying to improve the design of existing products so that newly manufactured ones can have a lower over impact on the environment then the ones products last year. If that was a solid part of the process for all products then we could really make strides on global warming and hopefully start to turn things around.

What keeps this green design from happening more?


The major issue is that for the most part it isn't profitable for companies to incorporate these types of design factors. They have no real cost when you decide to throw our their product and for the most part they don't care how much energy you burn when using it. The exception is in a case like cars where they can use it as a selling point to get you to buy more. But that is the point after all. If the consumers don't require it then it won't ever happen. Green design factors are only going to hit the companies bottom line when consumers start including green thought into their buying decisions. I promise you companies will always respond to consumer needs and wants. If not they would stop selling their product and go out of business.

So maybe the next time you are making a buying decision, whether it be something small as part of you weekly grocery shopping or something big like a new TV or new car, try to factor in the green aspects of the product. I promise you start doing this whenever you buy something, then manufactures will too! Then we'll all be in a better place!

Rio 20 - Another Conference

Rio 20 - June 2012

It seems like every year or so there is some big conference of nations that is supposed to be the beginning of saving the world. They usually start with a few letter and followed buy a number. G8, G20, Rio 20, etc. Rio 20 is the next of these types of conferences. The interesting twist with the Rio 20 is that it focuses not just on the environment but on sustainable development. It seems idea is that they world is going to grow in population (we just hit 7 Billion and 8 Billion is probably just a little more then a decade away). Much of this population growth seems to be in developing nations. So if we as a planet can get involved and try to get this development to happen in a green way right from the start we can at least stem some of the bad effects that developed nations went through. 

Will it end in Disappointment? 


Like I mentioned it seems that most of these conferences just end in disappointment. Part of the problem though is that they come in with such lofty goals. Like they are hoping that the leaders will come to some kind of conclusive decision on some key point. They really want it to go their way because it will really set the world in motion to being greener, even though they know all the folks with money who back all the campaigns of all these leaders are against it. What do you think is going to happen right? It seems like every time the leaders make it look like it was really close and they say they really wanted to but they just couldn't agree to some small issue and it all fell apart. What a surprise!

So far I haven't heard of any such lofty goals for the Rio 20. So from that stand point it appears its more of just a meeting without specific goals so it would be hard to classify anything as a failure. They really just are saying they are trying to launch a global conversation. Now, don't get me wrong I'm all for this, but at the same time without some kind of concrete goal it hard to see them really getting anything does except for collecting frequent flyer miles and hotel points. I sincerely wish them luck though and hope they succeed. We as a planet really need to shift our thinking and begin to change our actions. We are going to run out of oil and it is going to dynamically change how we live, especially because there are just too many people in the world to sustain without oil energy! The only real question is how early we as a population really realize we are close to this kind of crash. The early we start acting the softer the landing is going to be. If we wait until we just can't afford gas for our car anymore it's going to be a really rough go!

So for Rio 20, and any other conference with some letters and numbers for that matter. I wish you luck but then again its not folks like me you have to convince, it's the folks with all the money that pay for election campaigns!

Got Over the Look of New Bulbs!

I saw a good article on EcoGeek today about a new LED bulb. It is a very cool looking new LED technology light bulb. It's much more energy efficient and it's stats look really solid. One of the other selling points is that it looks very much like a incandescent bulb even though it's an energy saving bulb.

And it does! Look at that.

But it got me to thinking. Really who cares that it looks like an incandescent bulb? I mean the fact that it looks similar to what Thomas Edison dreamed up about a 100 years ago isn't all that important to me. Really I just want to be able to see when I walk around my basement and not hit my head on a beam or stub my toe!

In fairness I do understand why manufactures covet the old look. They are trying to get the masses to adopt the new technology. The more the new technology looks familiar the more likely they are to pull the trigger. And I am all for anything that gets people to be more energy efficient. I just wish you didn't have to sell it so hard to people just because it's something new and different.

I mean if you find something that works better then the old version and will save you money are you not going to buy it just because it looks different? Are you more concerned about what it looks like or how it works? Especially when its something like a light bulb? I mean I guess I could see the argument if it was something like a car or clothes where the look can be very important. But a light bulb is suppose to give off light. It just just look like a thing that gives off light!

So go read Who Moved My Cheese and get over the effects of change and get with the program. We need to use less energy and if there are bulbs that save money, use less energy and give off the same light, there is no reason not to get them today!

Dual Flush Toilets - Save Water - Save the Planet

One major area I talk about here on Saving Green is water conservation. There are many area that water conservation touches. Part of it has to do with global warming because newer weather patterns are taking the rain to un-populated areas and leaving populations in drought. Also there is the energy needed to pump the water to your house for use (remember that energy is required even if you have town water, you just aren't directly paying on your bill, but 's built in!). Another area is over population because more and more people are in new homes that are drawing more and more water for a reservoir that is holding less and less water.

Dual Flush Toilets


I found a really cool item that can help when it come to home water conservation and ease the issues with all of the above areas. I've actually heard about these for a little while now but when I saw a conversion kit at the end of the isle at Home Depot this weekend for $20, I knew it was just time!

So the basic concept is that you need much less water to flush urine and a small amount of toilet paper then you do solid waste. I know it sounds gross but when you get over the factor of using bathroom words, it comes down to very basic water conservation. You existing toilet is going to use the same amount of water every time it flushes no matter how much water it really needs. Typically toilets that were manufactured after 1994 use 1.6 gallons per flush (before 1994 I believe it was 3.5 gallons - Yikes!). For solid waste 1.6 gallons is appropriate, but for urine much less will do the trick.

Dual Flush Installation


So I bought the kit for twenty bucks. It claimed that I could install it in 10 mins with no tools. Well I won't say that is really true but it was very basic. I ended up using a screwdriver and a pair of pliers (I also used a battery powered sawzaw but that was just because I didn't want to waste time carefully taking out the old handle and I knew my kids would think it was really cool :).

You just take out the old flapper and handle. Follow a few basic steps and pop in the new mechanism and flush button. Read the directions and do a few basic and quick adjustments to make sure it's flushing how you'd like. Wa La!

There is one round button split into two. The top is for a "quick flush" and the bottom is for a "full flush". Simple as that. In the short run I probably used more water because my kids kept testing/playing with the new flusher. But starting tomorrow we are going to really save some solid gallons.

How Much Will I Save?


They don't give specific stats as to how much the quick flush uses vs the full flush. Although like I say a regular toilet uses 1.6 gallons so I would guess the full flush is the same. I would also ballpark that the quick flush is about half that. Which means every time someone in my family uses that bottom compared to the old flusher we are saving about .8 gallons. Think about how many times you toilet gets flushed in a day. That savings is going to add up!

I have a drilled well so for me the big money savings is the savings on my electric bill because my well pump will kick on less often. But also from a planetary standpoint that is quite a bit less water I'm going to be pumping out of the ground each year.

The box claims that the average family of four will save 15,000 gallons per year if they install this on their most used toilet in their house. They also say that is enough water to be equal to stacking water bottles 45 miles high!

New Dual Flush Toilets


This technology is really catching on. Recently I stayed at a Marriott in Baltimore, MD and noticed they toilet was a dual flush. You can also pretty commonly now buy new toilets with dual flush technology as well.  If you are going to by buying a new toilet anyway then you should pull the trigger on the new technology. Your water/electric bill will be lower and you'll be doing your part to save the planet.

Population and the Environment

One of the big things I always seem to come back to when I am looking into all the bad things that are going on with our environment these days it that there are just too many humans! Humans do lots of bad things for the environment but one of the major issues with this is that there are just so many of us. If there were far fewer of us then the bad things we do would have a much smaller impact. 

With that thought in mind I was very interested with an article I saw in the Oct 31, 2011 article of TIME called Head Count, which talked about how the world population just hit 7 Billion, and what impacts it is having. Mainly it was a lot of interesting facts that relate to this very topic. I'll give you a few here, they are really interesting stuff!

1. In 1804 the world Population was 1 Billion. So in just over 200 years the world population has gone from 1 Billion to 7 Billion!!!

2. The world population is expected to go to 8 Billion in 14 years, and then 9 Billion in 18 years after that. Yikes!

3. In the history of the world there has been approximately 108 billion humans. That means the 7 billion alive today represent 6.5% of the total history of human population. That is a lot of humans on one planet at the same time!

4. If you put the world's current population in a population density equal to that of NYC, we would all fit in an area the size of Texas. This was actually kind of comforting in a way for me. I mean 7 Billion is way too many, but it put it in perspective that it didn't feel quite so big.

5. 19% of the world's population lives in China. It's scary to think China is one of the emerging industrial countries, and they all ready have rules in place to reduce population growth. That is scary!

6. 50.4% of humans are Male. I just thought it was interesting how balanced this was.

7. 73% of the worlds population doesn't use the internet. I get it when I think about it, but this was very surprising when I first read it. We need to increase this number so more people can read Saving Green :)

8. The US is the third most populated country at 310 million, behind China at 1.3 billion and India at 1.2 billion.

Electricity Monitor - How to Keep Track and Save

I talk here on Saving Green a lot about how to save electricity (and power in general for that matter). Most of this stuff I talk about is ideas on ways to change your routines and habits in a way that would reduce you usage. This however is a way to track how you are doing and potentially change your usage based on solid stats that relate specifically to you and your home.

I'm talking about an electricity monitor, which is a little gizmo that you plug into your wall and then plug something into it. It will then tell you how much power you are using for that item. The key with these is they show you absolutely how much power you are using for each item you use. So you might not think your TV and all the electronics that go with it are really using that much electricity but when you put your power strip into it you are likely going to be surprised. Might make you think twice about leaving everything plugged in while you are aren't there. Or for that matter you might even watch less TV!

There are many makes of these types of devices these days but one of the first and still most popular is called the Kill A Watt. The idea is that if you know for sure how much each appliance is using for power you can find the really big drawers of power and avoid them. Or in some cases you might even want to get rid of them and replace with new more efficient options. Cost is always a factor but if you find that you are using so much more power then you would with a new one, then sometimes a new appliance will pay for itself in the first year! These are the kind of decisions a Kill A Watt will help you discover and make.

The other effect one of these electricity monitors will have it similar to that of folks who wear a pedometer. They say that people who wear a pedometer that keeps track of how far you walk, tend to walk more in a day, simply because they are conscious of how far they are walking. So they do better simply because they are now keeping track of it.

The next cool step in all this electricity monitoring is going to be down the line when all the appliances we have, have their own IP address. Then we could have an app on our phone that would show how much each item is using, in real time and over time. Once you have real time easy to access feed back that's when you'll see something that really has the power to change the way we use electricity.

Even further down the line is going to be smart appliances that actually talk to the power grid. So in the summer time if it's really hot out and the power grid is getting maxed out, then the grid can talk to your appliances to save power for a while until the load dips and can return to normal. For example you might be running your dryer and the grid is maxed out. The grid will talk to your dryer and tell it to keep running but turn off the heat for a while. If it does this for many houses in the area it can get through the tough stretch and then turn the heat back on. Impressive right? Then next piece of this is when a power plant is maxed out and an auxiliary plant will have to come on line. Sometimes there isn't anything you can do to avoid this. However it is most wasteful when the auxiliary plant is just barely needed. Again the same theory could be put in place. Turn off items in households that aren't mission critical at the moment and get through the surge and avoid having to do anything with the auxiliary plant at all! Now that is Green!

***UPDATE***

While doing a little research about electricity monitoring I came across this little gem! It is similar in theory to the Kill A Watt but it monitors the power your whole house is using, IN REAL TIME! It looks like you don't need any special electrician skills. Just basic clips at your power box that anyone can clip on. Then it transmits to a base station you can keep in a convenient location. I am definitely getting one of these babys!!!

Teaching Kids to Save Energy

I'm sure you all remember you old mad standing in the door you just walked out of saying something like, "Close the door! I'm not paying to cool the whole neighborhood!". What's funny about that whole statement is that back in the day when you father was yelling that at you electricity was very cheap. Even if you account for thing being cheaper back then electricity was still very cheap. You could run all the lights in your house for the whole month and still only owe a couple bucks.

These days there is really two facets to teachings kids about saving energy. One there is the fact that you want to pay less for your monthly utility bills. Two there is the global warming angle to teach them about as well.

Paying Less For your Monthly Utilities


Since your kids don't pay the bills they don't really care if they use a little more electricity. If you catch them young in life you can hopefully instill that being wasteful is bad, but that is the best you are really going to do until they have a place of thier own. My kids are still young and are in the range where I can get their attention by teaching that wasting is bad. But as they get older I'm thinking about reducing their allowance based on how many kilowatts we use on each month. I haven't decided what the exact parameters are going to be but it'll be something basic like this. There will be a baseline weekly allowance, let's say ten bucks. I'll then look at the bill and decided where we should be at for monthly usage. If that's how much we use for a give month then each week of the following month they'll get their ten bucks. If we use less then that then they could each a bonus up to say $12 bucks. If we use more then that it'll either cut back to $7.50, or if it's really bad then it could be $5. I'll lay out all the rules at the beginning and even show them how to read the meter so they can check where they are at mid month. It'll save me money, and they'll learn the value of a dollar at the same time. Especially for something so tough as a utility bill that they aren't going to have to pay.

Dealing with Global Warming with Kids


They are aspect to teaching kids about saving energy is the effect of their actions on global warming. We always talk about doing the right thing so that out kids will inherit a clean Earth. But this is even more direct because it's what the kids themselves are going to be doing to affect the kind of world they are going to live in.

So I would talk to the kids about all the effects that are all ready happening. Melting glaciers, change of habitats, loss of land, stronger hurricanes, moving weather patterns, etc. Then you can talk about how much the decisions they make with energy effect global warming. You can even do the math. So if you see them leave a light in their room on all day while they are at school, then you can do the math and figure out exactly how much carbon they caused to be released into the atmosphere today. Then use the method above to potentially cut into their allowance. That one two punch should really open their eyes!

Water, Water, No Where!

I hear about it all the time these days, both on the news and in documentaries warning about the future. We are running out of drinking usable water! While it would be nice and simple if there was just one reason for this, there really are multiple reasons. 

Global Warming and Drought


Intuitively you might think that the one thing that global warming is good for is reduction of drought. I mean the polar caps are melting so that has to create more water and less drought right? Well that's not actually the case. Yes the polar caps are melting and the ocean is going to rise. But we don't drink salt water unfortunately which is where that water is going. The oceans rising isn't going to increase the level of water from the sources where humans get their water. Inland lakes and streams aren't going to rise because the oceans do.

What Global warming is really doing is shift around where the water is because it is changing water patterns. There are literally areas where lakes and rivers were counting on for decades (and longer) for drinking water that are just drying up. Just look at the drought in Texas this year. It's wasn't just a week with no rain. It affected them this whole summer and continues to do so. They are having to sell cattle at a loss because they can't afford to provide them with drinking water. It's either sell them early or let them die!

Increasing Population


You might have heard on the news recently, as a planet we just hit 7 billion (yes that's with a B!) human population level. This means that while global warming is reducing the amount of water available for drinking, we are doubling the amount of water we use over the last few decades. That is a formula for disaster!

When it comes right down to it, yes it's partially the way that we all live, but really all the environmental problems have a lot to do with the fact that we all live! There are just way too many of us to be comfortably sustained by this planet. We need to find smarter ways of using the resources we have left so that we can get as much bang for our buck as possible while there are so many of us. We also as a planet should really be putting some thought into how we might want to reduce our population over generations too!

What Can We Do to Solve the Water Shortage?


The good news is that while the water supply situation isn't good right now there are some things we can do to reduce it's severity. There was a great article in Time a few weeks back talking about this very issue (Droughtbusters). They list a few great ideas for how to help reduce the water shortage. First was expanding the use of water treatments plants that convert sewage back to usable drinking water. It sounds horribly gross but I've heard of this before and apparently we do indeed have the science to make it happen and end up with completely drinkable water with no trace of it's former life as sewage. My only concern here is that I've heard recently that many if not all sewage treatment plants don't have the capability to remove some items that weren't even considered decades ago when they where conceived and built. Mainly these are the pharmaceuticals that we are all taking. Some of them are expelled in out waste and would end up back in the drinking water having who knows what kind of affect on us! I'm sure if the treatments plants are planned to filter these items as well it wouldn't be an issue in the future though. So as long as that little hitch can be handled then I'm all for it.

The next way they talk about reducing the water shortage is seawater desalination. This is a great idea in theory the trick is that it tends to be very expensive to do and is really only feasible for those cities that lie close to oceans. Even if a city in the mid-west was willing to pay for a desalination plant the cost of piping that water from one of the coasts would make it unfeasible. Apparently the cost of desalination is coming down because of new technologies though so it will likely be a more and more feasible piece of the puzzle moving forward. And I suppose if the coastal city lean hard on desalination as a solution then that's more water for the inland cities from traditional sources.

Rainwater harvesting is another great option that they suggest. Many folks like to water their lawn and flowers to keep them looking nice. That is great but as the world water shortage because a real daily hardship on the population as a whole it'll become evident that having your front lawn look nice should be a much lower priority then being able to bath and drink water. This is something I'll definitely be looking into this summer. It can be as simple as a rain barrel that sits at the bottom of your downspout from your roof gutters. Then you use that to water your plants and lawn. I do remember reading online that there are roofing materials that should be used that are non-toxic if you are going to try to consume the water your collect from your roof. Depending on rainfall in your area this can really save significant water usage.

Incentivizing conservation is another suggestion. If a municipality has the resources to offer this it can make a real difference. Whether it's giving a rebate for installing appliances that are water efficient, or rain collection set ups, or even removing the grass lawns all together, it really will reduce the amount of water needed. Of course this is going to be offset by the increased demand because of population growth, but every little bit is going to help!

So yes the over all population and population growth is a major drain on all resources of this planet and water is no exception. In lieu of actually reducing the population over generations though, we need to find a way to both increase the water we have access to (desalination and rain collection) and reduce the amount we use (conservation though more efficiency and simply reducing the assumption of how much water we need - like taking a shorter shower or having smaller lawns).

How the Occupy Wall Street Movement Relates To The Environment

Occupy Movement

A few weeks ago the Occupy Wall Street movement started. I have to admit that at first I didn't really take too much notice. I didn't really know what it was and what it was about. That seemed to be the read on the whole thing in general at first, but impressively the protesters stuck with it and pushed long enough for people to start looking into what they were doing. 

It turns out that while they may not have a 100% concrete mission statement, they are basically fed up with 1% of the population of the US making most of the annual income. Of the the last couple decades this disparity has widened greatly and it's causing many of the financial issues that we all see today.

The more I find out about the whole Occupy movement the more it seems to make great sense and I'm behind them. I think I could write quite a bit about what they are fighting for now, and why it's so important. This blog those is more focused on the environment, green, and saving money and then planet. The interesting thing though as I got thinking about it is how involved these two areas are. The occupy protesters are pushing back against the top 1% income earners. These 1% earners are typically the major owners of the largest companies in our country. Typically it's these companies which are polluting out planet and have the largest vested interest in keeping and rules from changing to stop them.

So while the focus of the Occupy Movement isn't on cleaning up the planets, they are directing their efforts on many of the very same people who are fighting against environmental regulations which would help slow global warming. Depending on how successful this whole Occupy Movement ends up being (and I'm not totally sure how to define success at this point) I feel like the green folks will get along quite nicely with the occupy people.

I heard an interesting thing mentioned on a radio show this morning. I was flipping channels so I can't tell you the name of the person who said it unfortunately, but he said he is really hoping that the tea party nonsense is coming to an end, and maybe this Occupy Movement will be the new Tea Party. In that they will take the country by storm, open some eyes, excite the base, and be a new party with some actual power to do good and start to really get something done.

So if you found this blog you might not be looking to specifically find financial balance, as you can see, you probably should be. Let's get behind Occupy and get things all moving in the right direction, for all of us!

Pollution Facts

Years ago when we thought of pollution we always thought about smog. The smoke that was pouring out of the smoke stacks on top of factories. Or maybe the CFC's coming out of hairspray that was making a hole in the ozone layer. All of that is true but there are more and worse kinds of pollution that we really need to be aware of these days. Here are the pollution facts.

It is indeed bad to see the smoke pouring out of smoke stacks on factories but not for the reason that we all though. We used to worry about the particles that cause soot and smog and breathing issue. These are still an issue, but the bigger culpret in that smoke is the CO2 that is being release into the atmosphere and causing global warming. This environmental pollution is the worst kind because it is having the largest effect on the planet. Environment pollution of any kind is obviously not a good thing, but CO2 is really killing us!

There are many types of pollution in this day an age. I personally think we need to worry most about air pollution, assuming you include our whole atmosphere in "air". I mean I worry about the particles in the air that cause breathing and other issues, but as you can tell the the greenhouse gases that bother me the most of all. Air pollution causes are really all around us. Factories are a big contributer, but everything from the cars we drive to the heat in our house are a part of the problem. Unless you are getting energy (in whatever for for whatever use) from solar, wind, or some other sustainable source you are causing air pollution. If you don't believe me, do some research and find all the pollution information you can. You'll find I'm right.

Plastic Pollution

Another form of pollution that really bothers me is plastic pollution. Not only does the process of making plastic bottles and products release harmful chemicals to the environment, but they are also bad for us. Drinking "healthy and clean and fresh" bottled water is literally killing us. The BPA in the plastic is leaching out into the food in those containers and we are drinking it right up. BPA mimick estrogen in our bodies and is having all kinds of effect on us as a population including increase cancer rates and early developmental issues. There are of course other undocumented and untrackable health effects because BPA is considered safe by the FDA, which is a sham, but don't get me started on that. On top of all those issues there is plastic pollution. As if it wasn't enough that producing the bottles is bad for us, and not enough that drinking/eating from the containers is bad for us, but then a large number of them eventually make their way to the ocean. There is literally and island of plastic garbage that floats around in our ocean. Because the water current remain basically the same in our oceans, in the areas where they loop in a circle the plastic floats and just collects. If you haven't seen this before Google plastic pollution facts. It's depressing!

Information about pollution can be found online and in many documentaries, but once you see if face to face it just sucks the life out of you! There are so many issues that are covered up or not noticed that I could write a very long pollution essay! We all say we are going to do something, and often we mean it, but good intentions aren't going to fix this planet. Do something!

Sustainable Definition

Oil Just Isn't Sustainable

So what does sustainable mean. You hear about it all the time talked about in the same breath as green topics and global warming. The sustainable definition is to say that what ever is sustainable can be done over and over with no necessary end. That may sound confusing because what in the world can be done over and over without ending at some point eventually in the future?

Well let's think of a few things that ARE NOT sustainable, but many people thing they are. The biggest one is the use of oil to power the world. Oil is a result of fossilized animals from millions of years ago dieing. They bodies were decomposed and because of the pressure they were under the energy that it took to grow their bodies was eventually converted into oil. Oil is very dense in energy mainly because it's the result of solar energy which was converted into animals millions of years ago and then compressed underground. This process not only took a very long time (again, millions of years) but it happened under very specific periods of environmental heating which occurred on Earth only a couple of times. So to get oil you need millions of creatures to die, have them decompose for millions of years, in conditions that are pretty rare on Earth. We are lucky that so much oil was created during these periods of Earth's history, because once man discovered oil they quickly because addicted.

You can understand why we could get so easily addicted to a resource like oil. It is so energy dense that we can use it to do so much. It's what had drive the rapid growth of our society over the last 150 years or so. There is so much energy in a barrel of oil that for one man to do the same amount of work that a barrel of oil can do, it would take them months. So one man can work tirelessly for months, or you can pump one barrel of oil out of the ground. What's not to love.

Well, environmental impacts of burning oil aside just for the moment, the trick is that there was so much oil that humans never thought of it as something finite. But, if you haven't thought of it before, think of it now, oil is going to run out. No more oil is being created way down under the surface of Earth. Whatever is there is there and that's all we get. So every day we pump millions of barrels of oil out of the ground.

Think of it like that free drink you got at the bar on your birthday last year. Sure it was huge and that straw seemed tiny. And each time you took a sip it seemed like the level in the drink didn't even really go down. But eventually after drinking it for hours, it was gone. Nothing was left in your glass. Oil is the same way. We are just sipping it out when you compare it to the total that was originally there. But we have been doing it for over a 100 years now. And in the last few decades the demand of it has gone through the roof and we all want more stuff in the industrialized nations, and new emerging nations start to become industrialized. It's a double whammy. We are all ready taking way too much of what is left if we really did want it to last, and each year we take significantly more then we did the previous year.

So I got a little off topic there, but because oil is going to run out, it is not sustainable. In other words, we cannot sustain what we are currently doing in the long run.

An example of something that is sustainable is wind and solar energy. Realistically the wind is always going to be blowing here on Earth. Once you build the turbines, you can keep using the energy for as long as you can keep your consumption below the amount they can produce. The same goes for solar. Once the panels are built and installed, as long as you don't need more then you can produce then you can keep doing it indefinitely.

Global Warming Facts: It's Real Folks!

Wikipedia's global warming definition is the follwing: Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its related effects.



Global Warming Pictures

 The effects of global warming are all around us everyday. You see many of the obvious one everyday on TV and they are dramatic and an enormous problem and that's why they get so much attention. The reduction in the polar cap is a big one you see all the time, which huge chunks of glaciers falling into the ocean as it recedes. Another dramatic shot is pictures of glaciers from the same vantage point today and 20-40 years ago. Day to day you don't notice that kind of thing but when you look at those kind of global warming effects over time you really can see the damage that is being done.

There are many that will argue that this is not a man made problem or even doubt that there is a such thing at global warming. Folks get with it! If you read scientific paper which are not funded by large corportations ALL of them say that the temperature of our planet is rising. Not only are they rising but they are rising very quickly. These are the global warming facts!

Not only is it the higher temperature, it's the speed at which it is risking that is the scary part. If you look at the ice cores and fossil records we can tell that the Earth has been hotter before but never has it warmed this quickly before. This very quick rise in temperature directly coincides with man discovery of oil! There is simply no doubting that global warming is real and caused by us!

What causes of global warming you ask? The very short answer is, humans. To be a little more detailed though it the increased consentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, etc) in our atmosphere. They are called greenhouse gases because they allow the rays and heat from the sun to enter Earth's atmosphere but do not allow them to escape. The effect of these global warming causes over time is to increase the temperature of Earth.

So if you are looking for the casues of global warming then you are really looking for what is causing more green house gases to be released into the atmosphere. These are human activities that release carbon dioxide and methane. Essentially this is burning things that contain carbon. Coal, wood, and oil are the big ones. Methane pound for pound has a much larger greenhouse effect but you always hear about carbon dioxide because it is so much more abundant then methane. For a while the folks who are against doing anything about global warming were arguing that cow farts were much worse for Earth then buring oil. It made for great news story lead-ins. Like all the arguments against global warming though the facts are warped to make their point. Yes a pound of methane in the atmosphere will reflect more heat back down to Earth then a pound of carbon dioxide. That is true. But there is just so vastly more carbon dioxide being released then methane that the arguement just doesn't make sense. It's the same as saying that a big dog bite is worse for you then a kitten scratch, which is obviously true. But they fail to mention it's one dog and one bite, but it's 10 billion kitten scratches all at once. The dog bite will hurt, but the kittens are going to kill you.

So if for some reason you are still on the fence about global warming then read up on it. Just make sure you know who is writing the global warming articles you read. Many doubter articles are written but groups that sound legit but are really just fronts for big business and folks that have a vested financial interest in not combating global warming and the end of our planet!