Easy Things You Can Do To Help Stop Global Warming
Posted by Laird on Nov 2, 2008
Easy Things You Can Do To Help Stop Global Warming
You may not realize it, but there are many easy things you can do to help stop global warming. In recent years, it has been discovered that temperatures have risen approximately 1°F higher than the average. Over the next decade, we could see temperature increases up to 6 degrees higher. Small increases in the Earth’s temperature could result in a drastic change in the climate. This has the potential to impact the sea level in the oceans of the world, changes in the productivity of crops, changes in the air that we depend on, and the water we drink may also experience a change. In addition to this, our overall health and the standard economy will be drastically affected. This is why it is essential to know and understand that there are easy things you can do to help stop global warming.
1. One of the first things that you can do to contribute to preventing global warming is to start with your own home. Take a look at the lighting. Are you still using those standard bulbs? If so, it is time to pull them out and replace them! Go to the store and buy energy efficient bulbs and put them in all of your sockets. It has been estimated that for each bulb that you replace to the energy efficient type, you are saving approximately one hundred pounds of one of the major contributors to global warming – carbon!
2. The next thing that you can do is not only easy, but fun as well! Go to your local garden store and pick out a nice tree that will grow to be large and strong. Then, take it home and plant it! Trees help provide oxygen, and they also work to absorb all those nasty carbon dioxides that are in the air. In turn, they use it to convert into a source of energy. If you plant the tree near the home, you will find that it will eventually provide shade. As a result, you will save money on the costs to cool your home!
3. Next, you should focus on reusing the products that you purchase as much as possible. For example, if you have a bottle of bleach, and it is getting low, add some water and keep using it! It may not be as strong, but it will be just as effective! You should also focus on purchasing products that are recycled from other products in order to save money and reduce the amount of carbon that is emitted into the atmosphere.
If you work to follow these simple steps, you will be ensuring that the atmosphere receives as little pollution as possible from fossil fuels and other materials that are used to provide electricity, water, and the items that you purchase at the store. The important thing is to remember that you can make a difference in the world. This is especially true when it comes to global warming. These are just a few of the many easy things you can do to help stop global warming.
Fuel firms go green to bulk up profits.
Posted by Laird on Oct 19, 2008
Fuel firms go green to bulk up profits
Fuel companies are bulking up their diesel and their profits with harmful biofuels. Some firms are adding twice as much of the plant based fuel as required under Government rules, despite growing evidence that its production is pushing up food prices, destroying rainforests and killing wildlife.
BP is using palm oil, a “green” fuel blamed for endangering Orangutans in Indonesia where farmers rip out forests and lay fuel crops plantations in their place. Under the Government’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, suppliers have to mix 2.5 per cent biofuel into their fuel.
But tests carried out by Green peace reveal the level is twice that. Biofuel is cheaper than fossil fuels, especially at the moment with oil prices at a high level. Shell are selling diesel with 4.9 per cent biofuel. BP is selling 4.8 per cent biofuel mix.
BP defended its use of palm oil, saying it backed industry moves towards making it sustainable.
RECYCLE CDs FOR CASH
Posted by Laird on Oct 16, 2008
RECYCLE CDs FOR CASH (UK)
Turn your unwanted CDs into cash and help the environment at the same time. Thirty million CDs end up in landfill every year (ever wondered who goes around the world counting them?), So why not make some cash out of your instead? We’ve found you a great website that will pay between 25p and £3 per CD, and you can sell up to 250 at a time. It’s completely free to use, all you have to do is enter the barcodes of your CDs and the website will make a cash offer for each one, Once you accept the offer, they’ll send you a prepaid padded envelopes(recycled of course) to post your CDs and as soon as they’ve been checked you’ll receive payment. It’s also great fun to dig out all those embarrassing not so golden oldies and giving them just one last spin :) So get selling HERE
Amazing Plastic Bottle House
Posted by Laird on Sep 29, 2008
It’s no secret that our obsession with plastic bottles is turning into a bit of an environmental crisis, and no wonder, in the US alone 70 million bottles are purchased every day, yet only a measly 10 million are recycled. So, it’s good to see someone doing something useful with the bottles instead of adding to the giant mounds of garbage threatening to suffocate the planet.
Artist Jasmine Zimmerman has created a translucent sun dome from hundreds of empty recycled bottles, and intends to travel through various boroughs of New York with it to spread the word about reusing and recycling.
Jasmine says, “This year, Americans will drink more than 30 billion single-serving bottles of water. In the course of our busy lives this year, we will throw out more than two million tons of polyethylene terephthalate plastic bottles – an unintended byproduct of our everyday convenience.”
consumption D.Day 2008.
Posted by Laird on Sep 28, 2008
The Earth will pass a bleak mile-stone on Tuesday. It will be the date this year, by which we humans will have used up more of the world’s resources than it can replenish.
It will be two weeks earlier than last year, according to the WWF. Guess who’s leading the over-consumption? Our good friends the USA - and ourselves.
Arctic energy reserves “may spark polar war”
Posted by Laird on Sep 28, 2008
Arctic energy reserves “may spark polar war”
Oil and gas reserves under the Arctic ice cap could trigger a polar war, it is claimed.Russia, Denmark, Norway, Canada, and the U.S. all have interests in large tracts of the region, under which lie untapped energy resources. With the ice caps melting, access to the reserves will be easier, sparking a rush for ownership, says Jane’s International Defence Review. Even Britain is claiming a right to the wealth as the island of Rockall in the North Atlantic is part of the British Empire. Current difficulties in Arctic exploration mean There is “no imminent threat of a conflict” but “towards 2020 the omens are less encouraging”, says the latest issue of Jane’s Review
PEAK OIL are we there yet?
Posted by Laird on Sep 22, 2008
This is one of those un-answerable questions, Due to two major factors:-
1; Most oil producing countries class their known held oil reserves as a state secret.
2; Large oil companies will manipulate their oil reserve figures to gain the best future market price per barrel (in other words you cannot believe a word they say)
This makes all predictions on the date of “Peak oil” as a best guess game.
But there is no question (all are agreed) that the “Peak discovery of oil” was in the mid 1960’s.
The available figures for 2006 show that for every 1 barrel of new oil discovered that year, we used up 5 barrel out of our known of reserves!!!Also most new oil found will be harder to harvest plus the new discoveries are mainly classed as dirty oil (higher refinery costs).
Interesting article from “wolfatthedoor.org”.
For years, the experts have been warning of the dangers of oil depletion. They have been accused of crying wolf. This time, the wolf really is at the door.
The Real Danger
Everyday in the news, we hear of the threat of climate change. There are international conferences, television documentaries, books galore. Leaders meet regularly to discuss the issues and define programs. Yet, while climate change is undoubtedly a serious problem, the most dangerous aspects are not likely to threaten us for several decades and even then will be ambiguous in their results, bringing hazards for many, benefits for some, and little effect for a few. But there is a danger whose consequences will be far more destructive and which will hit us much sooner. It is a danger that will affect everybody, rich or poor, wherever they live in the world. It will require enormous financial and scientific strides to defeat, strides which the world’s governments show few signs of taking. It is a danger which, quite feasibly, could lead to the end of our industrial civilisation. It is the danger of peak oil.
I recently asked a question on a website about the financial dangers of peak oil and one reply ended with this:
“I remember being told twenty years ago that there was only twenty years of oil left. We are now being told again that we have twenty years of oil left. I wonder if we will be told the same thing in another twenty years!”
This is typical of the level of misinformation around about peak oil. Few people seem to be aware of it and many of those who are consider it a problem for the far future. I suspect that most people asked about “how long oil will last” would place the time hundreds of years in the future. If you don’t already know, ask yourself this question:
Using the known amount of available oil and the present rate of consumption, how long would it be before all that oil is used up?
This is known as the R/P ratio in the oil business (the first bit of jargon). It may surprise you to know that in the BP Statistical Review for 2007 (using data from 2005), the length of time is 40.5 years. So, any person under the age of about thirty or forty would be likely to have to face a world without any oil. The reality is not so simple as this but unfortunately the situation is far worse. Peak oil is not about when we run out of oil but, rather, when the production of cheap oil starts to decline. And, as we shall see, that is much closer than we think.
So weather we like it or not this really the time to start seriously thinking about making some changes re: our own domestic power sources, both wind and solar are the best option for most of us. (Governments and big business will have to deal with the larger national & global issues )
Green Web Hosting
Posted by Laird on Sep 8, 2008
Green Web Hosting You Can Feel Good About
Solar Energy Hosting is the conscious solution for green web hosting in an age of global warming and climate change. By using a green Energy Host your website is hosted using solar energy- the energy powering your site comes directly from the sun! This is better than “Carbon Neutral” because it does not involve the purchasing of Carbon Credits. By hosting your website with a Solar Energy Host, you are making a real difference in reducing climate change.
Here are two links to solar powered green hosters.
Green hosting 1
Solar Backpacks and Luggage
Posted by Laird on Sep 6, 2008
Solar Backpacks and Luggage - Green Gadget of the Year
Solar bags are some of the coolest green products out there, and they make a great gift, too! Compare and choose which one best meets your needs and your taste. The name says it all, the Voltaic Backpack Solar Powered Backpack is a daypack that host several small solar panels on the back of the bag.
The idea is that the Voltaic Backpack Solar Powered Backpack can charge your small electronics such as MP3 players, cameras, etc as you travel. You can also switch the sun jar completely off to save power. Keeping the lantern in bright sunlight for 8 hours you will supply it with power for 3 hours. If you need it fully charged then you should keep it in the sunlight for 30 hours.
Plastic Soup
Posted by Laird on Aug 23, 2008
PLASTIC
Durable, versatile, lightweight, hygienic, cheap and strong: synthetic plastic is arguably one of the most useful inventions of the last century.
It is essential in medical equipment, technology and thousands of devices which have increased our standard of living. But those very same attributes of durability and cheapness make plastic one of the most pervasive forms of waste on the planet.
Evidence of our failure to deal with plastic rubbish is everywhere, from bulging landfill sites and countryside litter in the UK to a toxic plastic “soup” swilling around the middle of the North Pacific, thousands of miles from continental land.
Island groups such as Hawaii and Midway which, by their location in the Pacific should be pristine, instead are awash with plastic, killing seabirds, turtles and other marine life.
The UN Environment Programme estimates that there are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter in every square mile of ocean on Earth. Some marine scientists believe that microscopic plastic fragments in the ocean can soak up pollutants which may then get passed up the food chain into fish and, ultimately, humans.
Nationally we throw away 58 billion items - 1.5 million tonnes - of household plastic packaging a year, according to the government-funded Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) and it’s growing annually by 2-5%. Considering that most plastics are lightweight, that’s a mind-boggling volume of rubbish, especially as it does not include non-packaging plastic waste (as government figures do not exist for this). In theory, most household plastics can be recycled but in practice, most local authorities only offer the facility to collect and recycle plastic bottles. A handful do collect all plastics but they are few and far between. Unless you’re very, very disciplined - and most of us frankly aren’t - then you’re quite likely to end up by throwing more [food] away.
These make up a third of household plastic packaging waste so even if every single bottle was recycled (currently 35% are), the majority of our plastic rubbish would still be destined for landfill or incineration.
It’s something that annoys consumers admits Paul Davidson, plastics sector manager at Wrap. “Plastics packaging waste in particular is a very visible part of the waste stream and it’s also growing.
“Ironically as we become more successful at recycling generally, what’s left in the bin tends to be just the plastic. So more and more people are looking in their bins and saying there’s just bits of plastic here why can’t I recycle them?”
The situation will improve in the next three to five years, he adds, as UK recycling plants are developed which can handle trays, tubs, pots and punnets as well as bottles. Under-packaging - worse?
Everyone has their favourite over-packaging bugbear be it the infamous shrink-wrapped coconut or bananas packaged singly on polystyrene trays. But the other extreme leads to food waste, which has a far greater environmental impact than excess plastic according to Dick Searle, chief executive of the UK Packaging Federation.
Identifying types of plastic “A lot of packaging is designed to lengthen the shelf-life of the products that are being sold so if you take it out of the packaging there’s a good chance that it will actually not last as long. “And unless you’re very, very disciplined - and most of us frankly aren’t - then you’re quite likely to end up by throwing more [food] away.”
Meat is a prime example, he says, with so-called “modified atmosphere packaging” - gas-filled supermarket packs which delay deterioration - meaning that packaged cuts last as much as two weeks longer than the same product bought from a butcher.
Plastic-free wagon
And yet we used to manage without all this plastic. In the 1950s, less than five million tonnes of plastic was produced worldwide, today it is close to 100 million tonnes. The clink of glass milk bottles on the doorstep has been replaced by the purchase of two-litre plastic bottles at the supermarket. Chocolate bars were once packaged in foil and paper; packed lunches used to consist of a homemade sarnie in some greaseproof and an apple.
But our lifestyles have changed too - we no longer shop for groceries every day, many more women go out to work and fewer meals are eaten or prepared at home. If plastic in general, and plastic packaging in particular, is all about facilitating our current way of living, will we have to return to the labour-intensive shopping patterns of previous decades.
When solarwind blog contacted a random selection of household named companies
the two stock answers we received from their customer care Depts.
1.Our large packaging gives us a larger shelf presents.
2. Our large packaging make our product harder for shop lifters to conceal
and steel our products.
Go figure!!
