Living Green at Your Vacation Home

July 17, 2010 | By In living green | Comments(0)

During the week you do all the right things to encourage a green lifestyle. You diligently separate your garbage, recycle what you can, add to a backyard composter, use energy saving lightbulbs and use a programmable thermostat. Then, the weekend comes and off you go to your lakeside cabin and all of this green thinking goes out the window. Out come the paper plates, you crank up the electric heat, BBQ twice a day and throw all your recyclables into the garbage.

Green living, means thinking green whether you’re at home, at your weekend getaway, or even on holiday in Hawaii. Here are some tips to help keep you on the straight and narrow, even when you’re on vacation.

Use biodegradable detergent in your dishwasher and washing machine. A good rule of thumb is to find products guaranteed to break down in less than 30 days. When washing clothes, use cold water and use the clothes line for most drying.

Cut back on the barbecuing (even a little), to reduce CO2 emissions. Keep in mind that propane pollutes less than charcoal.

Save fuel by planning your meals and shopping only once on your trip. In fact, try to do your shopping on the way to your weekend getaway. Keep the reusable shopping bags in your car so you don’t forget them.

Wherever possible, buy produce from local growers at farmers markets or roadside stands. Often small stores will carry food from local sources. Once you start looking, you’ll be amazed at how many products are produced locally. Some farms even keep gardens going part way through the winter.

Just because you’re on holiday, doesn’t mean the disposable plates and cutlery have to come out. When you do use them, choose the biodegradable varieties.

Install water saving showerheads up at the cottage and opt for a dip in the lake instead of a bath everyday.

Use energy efficient CFL’s or LED lighting. Use motion lights outdoors to cut back on usage.

Use recycled toilet paper and bring up extra towels to replace paper towels. In fact, take a tip from Martha Stewart and keep a rag pail in your kitchen for quick wipe ups.

If your getaway is a regular escape, consider installing a composter for your organic waste, otherwise, capture it in a pail and bring it home. Bring extra containers for your recycling as well.

Get blinds or heavy currents and close them while you’re away to keep the heat in and the cold out. Use a programmable thermostat to regulate the temperature and not waste energy while you’re absent.

Consider installing solar panels for a supplemental source of energy.

When furnishing your getaway with appliances, look for those with Energy Star rating.

Is your vacation home located in a wet area? If so, you may want a rain barrel to capture some of that valuable water for your plants.

This second home is your relaxing getaway, you’ve got no one to impress here. Let your grass grow longer or replace some of it with mulch or native plants. Set your mower to three inches and mulch the cut grass.

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Global Warming Interrupted But Eat Raw Bugs Anyway

June 26, 2010 | By In Global Warming | Comments(0)

If humans had already colonized Jupiter, Neptune and Mars, it would certainly be all our fault. In fact, the United Nations Planetary Climate Change Council would be receiving the Nobel Peace Prize right about now. Their scientific statement would refer to Jupiter, Neptune and Mars as being in danger of man-made, irreversible, global climate change due to green house gas emissions.

It would be said that all scientists in every nation would be in agreement concerning a dubious future for each of these planets with humans as the cause. There would be no skeptics or doubters. Any dissenting opinion would be dismissed and ridiculed. Of course, there would still be time to save these planets from climate change holocaust, if humans would only change their behavior.

The problem for the proponents of man-made global warming is that planets, like Jupiter, Mars, and Neptune, do not have any known inhabitants. So, humans cannot be responsible for the global climate change occurring on each of these four planets today. Just think about that for a moment. Global warming and climate change occurring on planets in this solar system that cannot be connected to any man-made cause.

Of course, the warming of the Earth during the last century is absolutely man-made if you listen to many of the devoted disciples of global warming. However, isn’t it somewhat presumptuous to assume that humans have the power to control global climate change on Earth? Isn’t it is also presumptuous to assume that global climate change is not part of a long term planetary cycle and that even the sun does not play a major role? No, the true believers of man-made global warming are devoted to a cause. Their cause is to save the planet from a global warming holocaust in the next century brought on by the release of CO2 emissions caused by the reckless consumption of man.

While many planets in our solar system are warming without any human intervention, the Earth has been experiencing dramatic cooling. Last year, dramatic global cooling was measured by all four agencies that track the Earth’s temperature (the Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, the Christy group at the University of Alabama, and Remote Sensing Systems Inc in California). It is now estimated that the Earth cooled by about 0.7C in 2007 which is the fastest temperature change on record. In addition, the global cooling trend has continued into the first five months of 2008.

Of course, faced with the current cooling trend, past climate predictions of global warming for our immediate future are suddenly at risk. In fact, as global temperatures fall, the 0.3°C global average temperature rise which had been the prediction for the next decade by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will soon have to be revised and explained. Already, some scientists are coming up with a possible reason to keep the true believers faithful to the cause. It is a sort of global warming interrupted rationalization because many researchers now expect a “lull” for up to a decade while natural variations in climate apparently cancel out the increases caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

So, it now could be a much colder decade ahead even as the world continues to fight man- made global warming. Meanwhile, it will be increasingly difficult to explain to one billion starving people across the planet, that there is a global food shortage while nations grow corn to use as bio fuel to counter man-made global warming, even though the planet is in fact dramatically cooling.

However, a recent edition of Time Magazine has a recipe that may prove helpful to avoid world starvation while saving the environment at the same time. In another of their many stories on the environment and society, the magazine has a feature on eating insects. A video featured at Time.com actually shows people how to cook them.

Eating insects means the world would consume less meat. Eating less meat would result in less carbon emissions which would result in relief from man-made global warming. Time.com will show you how to cook beetles, grasshoppers, silkworms, and centipedes. Of course, eating the insects raw would use less energy and be even better for the environment.

If you want to listen to the proponents of man-made global warming, just forget the fact that other planets in the solar system are warming dramatically without any human inhabitants. Also, disregard the fact that the Earth is currently experiencing a dramatic cooling trend. So, fight to save the planet from global warming by ordering your new heavy winter coat and continue to advocate growing corn for use as bio fuel.

To the true believers of man made climate change, the next decade may be global warming interrupted but for the good of the planet people should be eating raw bugs anyway. The truth is that all of this man-made global warming hysteria continues to make very little common or economic sense to me.

James William Smith has worked in Senior management positions for some of the largest Financial Services firms in the United States for the last twenty five years. He has also provided business consulting support for insurance organizations and start up businesses. Visit his website at http://www.eWorldvu.com
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