Staying positive…good news on the environment
In honor of spring cleaning, websites that sell green alternatives to common household cleaners:
The blog associated with the method line of products recently posted about an incredible art installation in Sao Paolo. Sao Paolo is home to the Tiete River, one of the most polluted waterways in the world. The artist, Eduardo Srur, has created an installation of 40′ long (huge!) plastic PET bottles along the embankments of the Tiete River to raise awareness of pollution and the need for recycling. They’re lit from within and look darn cool in the nighttime shots. I recommend checking out his ‘Art’ link - he’s got some amazing, larger-than-life stuff.
I subscribe to a great newsletter from Ideal Bite, and they send me little green tidbits every day. One of the most interesting that they sent, back at the beginning of the mowing season, is one about renting a goat to mow your lawn. Since I have wicked allergies to cut grass, I thought this sounded like the coolest idea. Only eleven states currently participate in the Goat Rental Directory, and I’m not entirely sure that all the links are accurate. But, if you know someone with a goat (hey! I do!), then borrow the goat for a while - the goat will get to eat, and you’ll have a nice lawn and neighbors that think you’re a little weird.
As far as ecological benefits, goats will eat thistles and even poison ivy, so you won’t have to suit up to mow the lawn or spray those horrible pesticides. And, you may be surprised to learn that running your gas-powered lawnmower for one hour produces as much air pollution as driving a car 100 miles, and the air pollution from the 20 million small engines sold yearly contribute one tenth of the mobile-source hydrocarbon emissions. The EPA states that grass-cutting folks spill more than 17 million gallons of fuel yearly, more than that spilled by the Exxon Valdez in the Gulf of Alaska. There’s even a handy calculator to find out how much pollution your lawnmower produces.
So, if you don’t know anyone with a goat and have no goat rental nearby, consider an electric, or even better, a reel mower. They’re cheaper than a gas-powered mower and much gentler on the environment in many ways.
Since I now live in a warmer climate, I’ve been riding my bike to work on the non-rainy days for about three months. (Unfortunately, since it’s a warmer climate, the temperature is now - mid-May - at the intolerable stage to my frigid northern blood.) My round trip to work is about 3 miles, so it takes me about 20 minutes on my bike, including unlocking and locking the bike, walking from bike rack to door, etc. Given that it takes me 10 minutes in my car, it’s not really a big time suck.
I had originally considered what I was saving in terms of gas and carbon emissions, but the Commute Solutions website has a nifty calculator that reveals all sorts of other costs, like water pollution and wear on your vehicle. So, according to their calculations, I’m saving $3.39 each time I ride my bike to work. Assuming that I’ve riden an average of two days per week for the last three months, I’ve saved $81.36 by riding my bike. I get another figure - $2.19 per day - using the SmartTrips calculator, but I get the impression they’re not adding in as many factors as Commute Solutions. Their calculator also reveals that I’m reducing my carbon footprint by 0.15 pounds each day I ride.
Overall, according to suite101.com, a bike can travel 960 miles on the equivalent energy of one gallon of gas (I’m guessing this accounts for food used for the bicyclist’s energy). Is your car’s gas mileage 960 miles a gallon? If so, where can I buy your car?! With gas prices climbing, more and more people will be biking, so even if you’re not a cyclist, keep your eyes out for them and respect their rights. And this post would not be complete without a mention of BRASS - Baton Rouge Advocate for Safer Streets - who hosted a wonderful (if overly hot) bike tour of cemetaries this past weekend. Kudos to them for all their efforts!
(And I’m back, after an overly long and mysterious absence!)
If you know anything at all about environmental issues, you likely know that disposable diapers sit in landfills for an obscene period of time (500 years!). And I applaud those hearty-stomached parents who decide to use (and wash) cloth diapers. I have no plans to become a parent, but if I did, I would be frantically looking for some alternative to cloth and disposable diapers. Well, on the EcoZone Project tv show a while back, I found the answer: gDiapers.
According to their website and the Water Environment Research Foundation, these little miracles are flushable. They come with two parts - a washable cotton outer pant (in some really hip colors - Got Chocolate Brown is my favorite) and plastic-free, chlorine-free flushable inserts. If the idea of flushing freaks you out, you can throw them away (and even compost the wet ones!!). In compost, they break down in less than 150 days. I’m sure they take a little bit of getting used to, since the velcro closures are at the back and stirring with a swishstick is involved. Really, though, any diaper system - even the disposables - takes some getting used to and has some gross bits. Diapers are weird contraptions, but at least this particular variety doesn’t add to the enormous sum of the 38,000 dirty disposable diapers tossed every MINUTE in the U.S.
Peanut butter and jelly, that staple of children’s lunch time meals, is more amazing than you might think. According to the PB&J campaign (who knew?!?), one sandwich reduces 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions whem compared to a lunch with animal-based food. It also saves 280 gallons water when compared to a hamburger. Substitute three PB&J’s for three hamburgers in a month, and you’ll save as much water as switching to a low-flow showerhead. How? The theory behind this is about eating lower on the food chain. It’s all about the math behind the quantity of grain it takes to feed a cow that feeds us, versus skipping the cow and eating the grain ourselves. That’s a very simplified version, but you get the idea. Now, before all you ardent carnivores out there come after me with your steak knives, I’m not saying you have to give up meat entirely to achieve these ends. It’s just about reducing your meat consumption. Substitute just one PB&J (or bean burritos or vegetarian chili…) a month, and it’ll be like driving around for the day in a hybrid instead of a sedan. Little steps, people, little steps.
P.S. This post is especially for Mike, the peanut butter lover.
That scooter of cool is now even cooler. Vespa is rolling out (ick…bad pun…sorry) two hybrid scooters. One is the Vespa LX 50, and the other is the Piaggio X8 125. Unfortunately, I think they’re only launching them in Europe for now with European 220V plug-ins, and I doubt that more than a handful will make their way here since Vespas seem to have a smallish counterculture following here (and there’s always that plug conversion problem). Vespas always remind me of that song by the Who - Talking ‘Bout my Generation. I read somewhere that they wrote the song (with the stutter in it - m-m-m-my) about the kids in the 60s, I think, that used to ride their mopeds around London all hopped up on speed. What? Oh, that was a tangent?
I have been a slacker with updating! Argh! So, I’ll give you two posts today to make up for it…
This weekend, a list of hybrid automobiles, with mpg ratings for the 2007 model year cars:
(I’ve been so darn busy lately! Sorry for the lack of posts.)
It’s no secret that the S in SUVs is short for sucky-fuel-mileage. But, just how much are you saving by driving that subcompact? You can be proud to know that the average car emits 30 tons less CO2 in its lifetime than a typical SUV. And that average car will save enough energy in a year (as compared to the SUV) to power a color TV for 28 years or leave your frig door open for 6 years. !!! And that’s the average car; a fuel-efficient car saves $300 to $700 a year in fuel costs and 2 tons in greenhouse gases. And for those of you with a hybrid, even a family-sized hybrid (a sedan) is more efficient than a subcompact. A family will spend $2500-$2800 in gas on a conventional car, and only $800-$1500 a year on a hybrid.
For those of you who must drive an SUV or are stuck with one till you can afford to buy a hybrid (yeah, that’s me - it’s a small SUV tho), you can join the National Arbor Day Foundation or American Forests. A small amount of money can help to make your commute carbon neutral by donating enough to help plant trees to offset your driving. If you’re looking for a rental car, Enterprise has done its part by giving the Arbor Day Foundation a $50 million donation to plant 50 million trees. Woah!
All this info is thanks to the book True Green.
As you may remember, I undertook a mission several months ago to find a 20 oz coffee mug and wondered how many trees I was saving. Well, according to the book that I’m reading, True Green, a ceramic mug will be used 3,000 times over its life span. This results in 30 times less solid waste and 60 times less air pollution than cardboard cups, even accounting for the water used to wash the ceramic mug. Drink up!
