New Green ThoughtsSaving the environment one word at a time

Many people lauded the move of the Seattle city government when they banned the use of plastic grocery bags and implemented a 20 cent bag tax for those who would choose to buy the non-biodegradable contraptions. This forced residents to bring reusable cloth bags to groceries and stores leading to a marked decrease in garbage collected from the shops and households in the city.

The plastic companies are fighting back though. Calling the new city resolution as something that violates the law, the companies are now trying to get the courts to allow the bag back to the grocery without having to be slapped with a 20 cent tax.

When one thinks about green energy, Africa is not exactly one of the first places that people think about. All of this will soon change.

In 2012, Kenya may very well ascend to the higher echelons as one of the greenest countries in the world in terms of using clean energy. Benefited by some of the world’s best wind velocities, the Sub-Saharan nation facing the Indian Ocean is set to have at least 365 wind turbines running within the next three to four years. When completed, the turbines on the northern part of the country at Lake Turkana will generate energy equal to 25% of the country’s current energy requirement.

The project is being funded by the African Development Bank (ADB). Kenya is by no means the first country in Africa to try and go green. Ethiopia has likewise tried to harness the power of the cross-continental winds by putting up a wind farm that currently supplies 15% of the nation’s energy requirement.

The United States is once again leading the world in terms of new wind energy installations. Though wind energy only accounts for 2% of the entire energy provided for the country, wind energy has been the leading type of energy generating facility in the US in the past four years.

Texas leads all states with approximately 7,100 megawatts of power from wind energy. There are thirteen other states who have at least 500 megawatts generated from wind energy. Likewise, the states of Iowa and Minnesota are already depending on wind energy for at least 10% of their energy requirement.

It seems like the economic forces are forcing Americans to go green.

The Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq are considered by many historians and anthropologists as the two bodies of water that were responsible for the mighty Mesopotamian civilizations in the past millennia. These two rivers formed a great area called the Fertile Crescent that allowed for the flourishing of crops despite the arid and inhsopitable terrain around the regions.

Ironically, due to the diversion and rerouting of the rivers to create more irrigation for other farms outside of the Fertile Crescent, it seems like that the future of the once fabled region is now in peril. Experts are now predicting that the Fertile Crescent will be gone within the next 100 years. And with it, disapperars years of tradition and history.

At this point in time, our cars and factories are running on fuels made from crude oil derived from the remnants of organisms that died out millions of years ago. If ExxonMobil can have its way, they would rather have our wares running on algae!

The petroleum giant just launched a major project with Synthetic Genomics to come up with a line of algae fuel that could in turn be used to power cars and power plants in the future. The project has a staggeringly huge price tag of 600 thousand US Dollars. The concept is fairly simple, they left the algae in vats and waited for the organisms to produce oil. The oil can then be harvested and processed into commercial-grade oil.

Care for our bodies is important and for most people, turning to the usual herbal and body wash products available in the market is common practice. Surely, among the needs to be identified today is how green or eco-friendly they are as far as production and materials use is concerned. Fortunately, actor Brad Pitt has taken the initiative to co-sponsor such efforts by introducing an eco-friendly body wash called the Aloe Vera Biodegradable Liquid Body Cleanser.

The cleanser is the first complete 100 percent eco-friendly product from the beauty company. One hundred of the net profits from its sales will benefit JPF Eco Systems, a foundation by Kiehl’s and Brad supporting global environmental initiatives. It will retail for $16.50 per bottle and is expected to raise at least $1 million for charity.

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So for the people looking for something good for the body which is also for a good cause, watch out for this liquid body cleanser. It is something you will surely appreciate and aid your body in getting much needed relaxation and cleansing.

We have seen the evolution of the standard urinals towards the much publicized waterless urinals. Especially focused on the commercial places, men can go to the comfort room without worrying about flushing it and contracting germs in the process. If you will notice it normally says that “This Urinals save 60,000 gallons of water” and so forth. Quite impressive if you talk about conserving water through constant flushing of toilets.

And now the drawback. How about the women? How will they experience the waterless urinal technology if they don’t have one especially made for the female population? This is perhaps one thing waterless urinals failed to consider. Just like men, women go to the urinals as well so how are they to conserve water if they use the standard toilets that have to be flushed to avoid the stinking smell of personal waste?

In all, it seems that this is a critical drawback as far as catering to water conservation for all. Women cannot experience the intent of conserving water with this limitation. In fact, how can the developers do it while at the same time making sure that unwanted odors do not smell while conserving water at the same time?

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For some people, perks or rewards are perhaps the best way to entice them to comply with certain standards these days. Emphasizing on eco-friendly practices is certainly something that many people can do and to reward the folks who have really taken the call for recycling by heart, here is something interesting you may find totally rewarding:

Recycling may be getting easier each year, but let’s face it: People are lazy. That’s why bottles get thrown into trash bins when recycling bins are a foot away. It’s also why technology ends up in landfills, when it could be deconstructed for its perfectly good parts. Four programs are trying to change that by offering armchair environmentalists cold, hard cash to recycle their stuff.

You can check out these four programs where you can convert trash to cash. For sure this is something that will get the attention of people, especially in these trying times of financial crisis.

(Source) Yahoo Finance

It seems that fuel prices increase daily and one of the normal practices of the usual commuter and car owners would be to fill up their gas tanks before the new price would take effect. But would it be wise to do so? You will save a couple of gallons and in effect feel that you have saved yourself a lot. However, is it still feasible considering that daily increases seem to be compounding and the average motorist would eventually have to fill up their vehicles with gas after some days.

As far as lining up and filling up your car with gas, it seems impractical at this point. Oil price increases will not stop and are a reality. We all want to save each penny as much as we can but with crude oil escalating like crazy, you just have to deal and live with it.

Oil resources are scarce these days. It makes you wonder of the time in the 1970’s where gasoline shortage was apparent. Today, 38 years from that fateful event, here we are again. And the best solution is just to adjust in the best way we can. Here are some tips you can try out. Some may be familiar but it never hurts to remind you just in case.

1. Limit your Trips. Don’t go on side trips unless it is necessarily important
2. Turn off engines when parked. We normally get lazy to turn off and on the engines when we are in a still position. Save a little bit by turning off the engine.
3. Use public transport. If you don’t have anything important to go to, use public transportation. You can really save a lot on gas and spend more on fares.
4. Join the clamor for alternative fuel. There are alternatives such as LPG and bio-diesel. While their reliance is still in doubt, try and study and even join in the clamor for them.

There is also one big recourse and that of which is to shift to hybrid and electric powered vehicles. The price may be steep but a one time investment may be sufficient in savings in the end.

When it comes to cleaning out the trash, it is no longer as simple as putting your waste on the usual garbage bags or cans. You should know by know how to segregate your waste by putting in one spot the biodegradable stuff from the recyclable ones. Normally, this is a practice that is being called on today for the reason that people have grown tactless of knowing the important of knowing which waste goes to where.

For most people, this is not important. Garbage collectors are there and the common way of thinking is that they will do the waste segregation for us. We just have to get real. With billions of people throwing away trash everyday, the least we can do is to do this ourselves. We are normally encouraged to use color coding to identify which garbage bags should be disposed in the right way. That is the least we can do and the effort is really geared more towards helping us above everything else.

We just need initiative. Waste is waste and to help clean the environment means to know how to properly get rid of waste and place the reusable ones in the proper way to which they should be cornered.

We can see today the ill-effects of our lackadaisical approach. We are truly having waste problems and this does not concern only one continent. If everyone would do their part, segregating and helping put waste in its place, then perhaps this is one way of helping preserve the environment and leading by example in the process.