Remember a few posts ago, when I talked about how harmful plastic water and soda bottles are to the environment? Well, this is particularly true of ocean flora and fauna. In fact, hundreds of marine animals, from fowl to fish, have been found to regularly ingest plastic. Mmmmm. Plastic.
One single albatross was discovered to have the following in its stomach:
1.) A plastic pen cap
2.) A plastic tampon applicator (this will be the subject of a later post. Ladies, ditch those Playtex plastic applicators!)
3.) Styrofoam
4.) Several plastic bottle caps
5.) An entire plastic bobber
6.) One of those plastic rings that are attached to the plastic bottle caps when you first buy them
7.) Plastic tubing
8.) Oh, and a little bit of squid
Unfortunately, this is hardly an isolated incident. In fact, it is becoming more and more the norm for ocean creatures to ingest our carelessly discarded trash. So, this is where Dr. Eriksen comes in. He’s raising awareness of ocean pollution by making a huge trek on a raft full ‘o junk. So, check out the YouTube video above, visit Dr. Eriksen’s blog and educate yourself on the plight of our oceans.
What with wedding season assaulting my mailbox with invitation after invitation, I got to thinking: what’s the big deal with paper invitations any more? First of all, they’re expensive. According to the Bridal Association of America, the average American couple spends $659 on invitations and reply cards alone. That means that the Thank You cards and postage aren’t even included! Sure, weddings are special days. But are they so special that people are willing to spend the better part of $1,000 just to invite people to come?
Second, they’re a hassle. To RSVP, I have to hunt down a stamp (and than another couple of 1 cent stamps, because the post office raised their rates AGAIN) and remember to mail the envelope. Of course, although calling my friend and telling her that I’ll be at her wedding with a guest would be easier, proper etiquette dictates that I have to mail the stupid invitation back. Of course, now that I know how much they cost, it’s no wonder future brides are so anal about getting the RSVP cards mailed back.
Instead of sending paper invites, consider going the technical route. Evite has some classy wedding invitations, none of which are bad for the environment. Plus, with all of the money you save on invitations by going the Evite route, you can upgrade your booze. It’s a scientific fact that 99.872 percent of Americans would rather have a sweet open bar than a cutesy wedding invitation.
I know I’ve said it before, but this week it just seems particularly fitting. I share a dumpster with a bunch of other people in my community (I live in a town house), and earlier this week when I went to dump my trash, I was astonished at what I saw. There was a full-size bed frame, one of those basketball hoops that stands alone (you fill the bottom of it with sand) and a decent looking sofa. All in the trash!
Instead of throwing these things away, if people would first list them as “free” items on Craigslist or Freecycle, they could find good homes! I’m sure there are tons of people in your area who would your throwaway items to good use. So, before tossing anything substantial (even if it doesn’t seem that substantial to you), try to give it away. It’ll help somebody who could really use the item and otherwise probably wouldn’t be able to afford it, and it’ll keep some trash out of the landfills.
Hey ya’ll…sorry I’ve been MIA lately, but there was a family emergency and blah, blah blah. Anyway, I’m back and ready to fight global warming, pollution and everything un-green one blog at a time!
Today’s post is about junk mail. As annoying as it is for each and every one of us, think of how bad it is for the environment. Well, people are finally starting to do something about it, and a petition is circulating asking Congress to create a “Do Not Mail” registry. Similar to the “Do Not Call” registry that came about in 2003, it could put an end to junk mail as we know it.
You know how gas is like, all expensive and stuff? If you own a diesel car, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, the good people at GreaseCar can hook you up with everything you need to transform your diesel vehicle from a gas guzzling environmental disaster into an earth friendly awesome-mobile. Plus, depending on the model of your ride, you can get the complete kit for under $1,000.
Basically, if you change your car from gas to grease, it’ll pay for itself in less than a year. Pretty sweet, eh? As an added bonus, the cooking oil doesn’t even need to be fresh. You can work out a deal with a local restaurant and cruise around town for free, all while reducing the size of your carbon footprint.
Okay, so maybe it isn’t the greenest chair you’ll ever see, but it’s pretty damn close. Why? Well, there are a few reasons. First of all, it costs $319, so after making that kind of hefty investment in a set of two (or four, or six, depending on how much green you have in your bank account), you’re unlikely to let this piece of deco art end up in a landfill.
Second, it is made out of the same kind of plastic that bullet proof glass is, so the chair is literally indestructible. Yup, you’ll be stuck with this chair for a long time to come. In fact, it’s got “family heirloom” written all over it.
Designed by Philippe Starck, the chair is unlikely to be found at your neighborhood yard sale. Called the La Marie, it is made out of one piece of polycarbonate and is truly on the cutting edge in terms of design. It’s pretty, it may or may not be comfortable (maybe you could get your grandma to sew up a cushion?) and the chair is definitely at the cutting edge of green design. Plus, it makes for a great conversation piece.
Accoring to a new ABC News report, plasma and LCD television screens are major source of global warming. Nitrogen Triflouride (NF3), a gas used to make the screens, is estimated to be 17,000 times as powerful and carbon dioxide. I don’t really want to figure out the math on this one, but that has to be somewhere in the neighborhood of the equivalent of driving your car cross country (maybe around the world? Somebody help me out here!).
Interestingly, NF3 is absent from the Kyoto protocol. When the Kyoto protocol was signed in 1997, only very small amounts of NF3 were being produced, so it didn’t make sense to write it into the agreement.
“One of my titles for this paper was Going Below Kyoto’s Radar. It’s the kind of gas that’s made in huge amounts,” said professor Michael Prather from the University of California. “Not only is it not in the Kyoto Treaty but you don’t even have to report it. That’s the part that worries me. We don’t know what’s emitted, but what they’re producing every year dwarfs these giant coal-fired power plants that are like the biggest in the world,” he continued.
Some companies just seem to be on the ball when it comes to staying ahead of the environmental curve. Pacific Gas and Electric is a perfect example. The company recently signed a long term contract with Horizon Wind Energy, which means that at least some of the power (240 gigawatt hours, to be exact) will be about as green as it comes. Of course, this is in addition to the programs that PG&E already had in place, like offering carbon offsets that go toward planting trees, using hybrid solar thermal-biomass plants and purchasing wave energy.
So, if you have PG&E, you might want to look into these programs. If you don’t, you might want to write a letter to your power company urging the organization to follow the green lead of PG&E.
Gas prices hit yet another record high today, causing the nation to collectively groan when it comes time to fill up the tank in the family ride. However, it is estimated that with the right tire pressure, we can save up to 10 percent off of the cost of gas. Why? Because the higher the tire pressure, the miles per gallon you will get on the road.
Of course, the more miles you get to the gallon, the less fuel you’ll be burning getting from Point A to Point B and the easier you’ll be on the environment. This is one of the easiest things that you can do to save yourself some money and decrease the size of your carbon footprint. So, what’re you waiting for? Go get your tires checked! Many places will do it for free, and you can help make your everyday life just a little bit greener.
Seems pretty obvious, right? I mean, why not use a reusable grocery bag instead of the paper and plastic ones that are wreaking havoc on our environment? Besides the fact that they usually cost 99 cents each, I can’t figure out why more people don’t. Anyway, here are 10 reasons that’ll have you shelling out the cash to go reusable, for good:
The average person uses 350 bags a year
In NYC alone, if each person used one less bag there would be a 5 million pound reduction in waste heading to the landfills, and $250,000 would in disposal fees would be saved
Reusable bags save more than 700 regular bags over the span of their lifetime
Carrying around a reusable bag is a sexy fashion statement. Don’t believe me? Troll around town carting a reusable bag full of stuff under your arm. You might also want to bring a stick with you, to beat away the throngs of admirers that will surely chase after you
The recipe for making the pulp for paper bags is 1 part pulp mixed to 400 parts water. It doesn’t get much more wasteful than that! Speaking of stats, here’s another one: In 1999 more than 14 million trees were cut down to produce 10 billion paper bags that were used by Americans that year
A plastic bag takes 450 years to biodegrade. Think about it, the bags you cart your food home in today will still be around in 18 generations. Are those the kind of family heirlooms you want to leave behind?
When the plastic grocery bags “photo degrade”, they end up in oceans. From there, they float around looking like delicious plankton until fish eat them. Then, fishermen catch the fish, which you buy at a grocery store and then take home in another plastic bag to complete the cycle (ta daaa!). So, think of that the next time your kid tells you that your cooking smells a little funky.
Buying and using reusable bags won’t set you back a lot of cash and it’s a total no-brainer thing to do. It’s probably one of the easiest ways to significantly reduce your carbon footprint over time.
