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Is Renewable Energy Technology Really Available To Homeowners
June 22nd, 2009
With the rising energy costs and effects of global warming so prevalent today, many people are wondering if there is truth to the concept of renewable energy technology. There also appears to be confusion between alternative energy technology and renewable energy technology. Alternative energy encompasses all renewable energy sources, but includes things like nuclear power and energy from municipal waste. These are carbonaceous examples. Renewable energy technology focuses on energy that is replaced as it is being used, such as solar energy and wind energy.
With that clear, are there truly benefits on a home or small business level to renewable solar technology? Absolutely. Truthfully, by utilizing renewable energy technology on a home level you can save yourself thousands of dollars each year. Renewable energy technology has gained popularity in recent years and it has become increasingly easy to meet your home’s energy needs with just a little handyman work. With the information available about renewable energy technology, it is possible to build renewable energy products, such as a windmill or solar panel, on your own. Do-it-yourselfers are saving huge amounts of pocket change by building and installing these systems themselves. If you have the money to invest in a commercial professionally installed system, in general these are more efficient, however, savings can still be realized, and at a much faster rate, by researching and building your own renewable energy systems.
Renewable energy technology is advancing with each day. Solar electrical systems have advanced from giant roof panels to thin layers of film that are twice as conductive and work with less sunlight. There are now solar powered charges for cell phones, batteries and other small household items. Windmills have been made more aerodynamic for greater action and electricity generation. Renewable energy technology can even be seen along today’s highways as small solar/wind operation stations powering signs and lights.
The truth is renewable energy technology is working and you can put it to work for you in your home or business. With growing popularity and more consumer use, renewable energy technology could minimize our effects of global warming, help alleviate financial stress and create a world less depend on fossil fuels.
Tags: Going Green: True Tales from Gleaners, Scavengers, and Dumpster Divers
June 22nd, 2009
Never mind the Ph.D. and middle-class trappings– Laura Pritchett is a Dumpster diver and proud of it. Ever since she was old enough to navigate the contents of a metal bin, she has reveled in the treasures found in other people’s cast-offs.
For Going Green, Pritchett has gathered over twenty writers to tell their personal stories of Dumpster diving, eating road kill, salvaging plastic from the beach, and forgoing another trip to the mall for the thrill of bargain hunting at yard sales and flea markets. These stories look not just at the many ways people glean but also at the larger, thornier issues dealing with what re-using–or not–says about our culture and priorities.
The essayists speak to the joys of going beyond the norm to save old houses, old dishwater, old cultures, old Popsicle sticks, and old friendships–and turning them into something new. Some write about gleaning as a means of survival, while others see the practice as a rejection of consumerism or as a way of treading lightly on the earth.
Brimming with practical and creative new ways to think about recycling, this collection invites you to dive in and find your own way of going green.
An Eco-Babe's Guide to Greening It
June 22nd, 2009
Living green does not have to be tedious and boring. It’s an exciting foray into the lifestyle of the future; a future of lush natural fabrics, refreshing essential oils and a planet with abundant healthy ecosystems and clean air. Living green does not have to be all about tree hugging, unless you want it to be. If you’re a hair dyeing, manicure loving, and Manolo wearing babe, you can be just as green as our deadlocked, yoga doing, and granola loving sisters! Living green is not about changing who we are, it about adjusting how we are.
Together, we will learn about ways to green our:
Menstrual Cycles
Beauty Regimes
Eating Habits
Wardrobe
Homes
Cleaning Habits and Supplies
Trash and Waste
Workplaces
Babies (diapering, feeding, clothing, and furnishing)
and much more!
An Eco-Babe’s Guide to Greening It
June 22nd, 2009
Living green does not have to be tedious and boring. It’s an exciting foray into the lifestyle of the future; a future of lush natural fabrics, refreshing essential oils and a planet with abundant healthy ecosystems and clean air. Living green does not have to be all about tree hugging, unless you want it to be. If you’re a hair dyeing, manicure loving, and Manolo wearing babe, you can be just as green as our deadlocked, yoga doing, and granola loving sisters! Living green is not about changing who we are, it about adjusting how we are.
Together, we will learn about ways to green our:
Menstrual Cycles
Beauty Regimes
Eating Habits
Wardrobe
Homes
Cleaning Habits and Supplies
Trash and Waste
Workplaces
Babies (diapering, feeding, clothing, and furnishing)
and much more!
Go Green And Live com
June 22nd, 2009
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Added: June 20, 2009
How summer's rapidly rising gas prices could affect you
June 19th, 2009
div class=image style=float:right;padding-left:8px;img alt=gas prices a year ago height=300 src=http://l.yimg.com/a/feeds/us/grn/green_driving_directions/gasprices-bl.jpg width=400/br /emGas prices on the Massachusetts Turnpike almost br /exactly a year ago. Bad old days are here again. br /(Photo: /ememSvadilfari / /ememFlickr/emem)/embr /br //divpThe emLos Angeles Times/em headline says Gasoline Price Surge Comes at Bad Time./ppSez you./ppGasoline prices a href=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gas15-2009jun15,0,1361076.story target=_blankare headed north at the fastest clip ever recorded/a, so fast that economists are saying it could imperil the economic recovery. Nobody wants that. /ppBut there is more than one way of looking at this phenomenon. The environmental economy, also known as the survival of our planet, will be imperiled if we can’t get the electric vehicle (EV) revolution off the ground and gas-guzzlers off the road. And the only thing that will definitively kill that transition is low gas prices./ppLast summer, $4 a gallon gas delivered a nearly instant, almost mortal blow to SUV sales. When a href=http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/eia-the-rise-and-free-fall-of-gas-prices target=_blankthe price plunged to $2/a, there was a small but noticeable shift back to bigger vehicles, but the sales figures were complicated by a href=http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/with-lower-gas-prices-truck-sales-rebound-but-its-complicated/ target=_blankthe huge discounts the retailers put on their big boat-anchor trucks/a. People were feeling pretty desperate at the time, as this amusing video makes clear:/ppembed allownetworking=internal allowscriptaccess=never type=application/x-shockwave-flash src=http://www.youtube.com/v/zSaZ5v1eW5Icolor1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcfhl=enfeature=player_embeddedfs=1 allowfullscreen=true width=425 height=344/embed/ppNow, just as the summer driving season is getting underway, prices are way up again, rising more than 17 cents in the last two weeks. The national average on Friday was $2.66 a gallon, and I saw $2.80 all over the place today. In San Francisco and some other places in California, it’s over $3 already. This is just the way it happened last year./ppThere’s no particular reason for prices to soar right now: analysts are somewhat baffled, because there’s neither a big recovery stoking demand or a supply crisis./ppI’m not just speculating about how consumers are likely to behave. A recent Kelley Blue Book study shows that 87% of new-car buyers expect gas prices to rise sharply, and more than 60% say that rising gas prices have either caused them to change their minds or made them think about vehicles they normally wouldn’t have considered. They also said they might go from a V-6 to a four-cylinder engine, or from a large sedan to a mid-sized one. And 73% said they plan to change their spending habits if gas prices were to go much higher./ppSo gas prices are a big driver, and people won’t seriously consider buying green cars in any numbers (early adopters will always go for them) unless they need relief at the pumps. Unfortunately, gas prices fluctuate so much they send consumers on a wild ride, not sure what to buy. And sometimes that means they just stick with the guzzler in the garage./pp /ppstrongMore from The Daily Green/strong/pullia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/save-gas-47031702?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=blogmag=tdg10 Easy Ways to Save Gas Money/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/micro-cars-mpg-460409?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=blogmag=tdgThe Hottest New Cars Prove Small Is Beautiful/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/fuel-efficient-cars-47102201?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=blogmag=tdgThe Most Fuel-Efficient 2009 Cars and SUVs/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/natural-swimming-pools-460908?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=blogmag=tdg23 Breathtaking Natural Swimming Pools/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/shipping-container-homes-460309?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=blogmag=tdg45 Amazing Homes and Offices Made From Shipping Containers/a/li/ulpemReprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc /em/p
How summer’s rapidly rising gas prices could affect you
June 19th, 2009
div class=image style=float:right;padding-left:8px;img alt=gas prices a year ago height=300 src=http://l.yimg.com/a/feeds/us/grn/green_driving_directions/gasprices-bl.jpg width=400/br /emGas prices on the Massachusetts Turnpike almost br /exactly a year ago. Bad old days are here again. br /(Photo: /ememSvadilfari / /ememFlickr/emem)/embr /br //divpThe emLos Angeles Times/em headline says Gasoline Price Surge Comes at Bad Time./ppSez you./ppGasoline prices a href=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gas15-2009jun15,0,1361076.story target=_blankare headed north at the fastest clip ever recorded/a, so fast that economists are saying it could imperil the economic recovery. Nobody wants that. /ppBut there is more than one way of looking at this phenomenon. The environmental economy, also known as the survival of our planet, will be imperiled if we can’t get the electric vehicle (EV) revolution off the ground and gas-guzzlers off the road. And the only thing that will definitively kill that transition is low gas prices./ppLast summer, $4 a gallon gas delivered a nearly instant, almost mortal blow to SUV sales. When a href=http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/eia-the-rise-and-free-fall-of-gas-prices target=_blankthe price plunged to $2/a, there was a small but noticeable shift back to bigger vehicles, but the sales figures were complicated by a href=http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/with-lower-gas-prices-truck-sales-rebound-but-its-complicated/ target=_blankthe huge discounts the retailers put on their big boat-anchor trucks/a. People were feeling pretty desperate at the time, as this amusing video makes clear:/ppembed allownetworking=internal allowscriptaccess=never type=application/x-shockwave-flash src=http://www.youtube.com/v/zSaZ5v1eW5Icolor1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcfhl=enfeature=player_embeddedfs=1 allowfullscreen=true width=425 height=344/embed/ppNow, just as the summer driving season is getting underway, prices are way up again, rising more than 17 cents in the last two weeks. The national average on Friday was $2.66 a gallon, and I saw $2.80 all over the place today. In San Francisco and some other places in California, it’s over $3 already. This is just the way it happened last year./ppThere’s no particular reason for prices to soar right now: analysts are somewhat baffled, because there’s neither a big recovery stoking demand or a supply crisis./ppI’m not just speculating about how consumers are likely to behave. A recent Kelley Blue Book study shows that 87% of new-car buyers expect gas prices to rise sharply, and more than 60% say that rising gas prices have either caused them to change their minds or made them think about vehicles they normally wouldn’t have considered. They also said they might go from a V-6 to a four-cylinder engine, or from a large sedan to a mid-sized one. And 73% said they plan to change their spending habits if gas prices were to go much higher./ppSo gas prices are a big driver, and people won’t seriously consider buying green cars in any numbers (early adopters will always go for them) unless they need relief at the pumps. Unfortunately, gas prices fluctuate so much they send consumers on a wild ride, not sure what to buy. And sometimes that means they just stick with the guzzler in the garage./pp /ppstrongMore from The Daily Green/strong/pullia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/save-gas-47031702?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=blogmag=tdg10 Easy Ways to Save Gas Money/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/micro-cars-mpg-460409?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=blogmag=tdgThe Hottest New Cars Prove Small Is Beautiful/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/fuel-efficient-cars-47102201?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=blogmag=tdgThe Most Fuel-Efficient 2009 Cars and SUVs/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/natural-swimming-pools-460908?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=blogmag=tdg23 Breathtaking Natural Swimming Pools/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/shipping-container-homes-460309?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=blogmag=tdg45 Amazing Homes and Offices Made From Shipping Containers/a/li/ulpemReprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc /em/p
How to detect misleading ads
June 19th, 2009
div class=image style=float:right;padding-left:8px;img alt=Woman in store / iStockPhoto height=200 src=http://a323.yahoofs.com/ymg/the_conscious_consumer/the_conscious_consumer-866116471-1245344588.jpg?ymMdAcBDlRVZBy_a width=300//divpHow do you know if an ad is telling the truth? It’s not always easy, but there are certain clues you can look for to determine if the claims an ad is making are legit or if a marketer is purposely trying to mislead you into thinking a product is healthier, safer, or greener than it truly is. /pp /ppHere are some ways to determine if advertising claims are fact or fiction: /pp /pstrongWords matter./strong Look for specific rather than general claims. The following words are essentially meaningless because they are too vague and/or there aren’t any standard definitions for them: Natural,eco-friendly,green,free range,non-toxic,fragrance free. Visit Consumer Reports’ a href=http://www.greenerchoices.org/home.cfmEco-labels center/a to find out which labels and terms you can trust.   br / br /Meaningless claims are ubiquitous in the marketplace. For example, about a href=http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleart_aid=9856233 percent of food and beverage products/a launched last year made some kind of natural claim. When shopping, it’s safer to look for specific attributes such as made from post-consumer recycled paper or formaldehyde free.p /ppstrongLook for proof. /strongChoose products with claims that can be verified or that have been certified by a third party. These products have been vetted by an independent agency to ensure that they meet certain standards. Some credible logos to look for include a href=http://www.energystar.gov/Energy Star/a, a href=http://www.fscus.org/Forest Stewardship Council/a Certified, and a href=http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetchTemplateData.do?template=TemplateAnavID=NationalOrganicProgramleftNav=NationalOrganicProgrampage=NOPNationalOrganicProgramHomeacct=nopUSDA Organic/a. /pp /ppThe U.S. Federal Trade Commission recently a href=http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/06/10/ftc-cites-kmart-tender-dyna-e-for-false-green-claims/charged K-Mart and other companies/a with making
deceptive and unsubstantiated biodegradable claims on some paper products. The FTC is expected to update its outdated a href=http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/grnrule/guides980427.htmregulations for green advertising claims/a sometime this year. Hopefully consumers won’t have to read between the lines quite as much if the government cracks down on misleading claims. /pp /ppstrongDig a little deeper./strong Oftentimes misleading ads will highlight one beneficial aspect of a product, but purposely ignore other less desirable attributes. Organic yogurt may be free of synthetic hormones, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily your healthiest option. Some organic yogurts have more sugar in them than ice cream. /pp /ppPaper may come from a sustainable forest or contain recycled content, but if it’s bleached with chlorine it’s not your most environment-friendly option. It’s hard to find any product that is 100 percent squeaky clean, but you should at least know what you’re paying for. /pp /ppCheck out TerraChoice’s list of a href=http://sinsofgreenwashing.org/findings/the-seven-sins/The Seven Sins of Greenwashing/a for other tips on sniffing out misleading advertising. /pp /ppIf you’d rather have someone else do your homework for you, then visit these two websites: a href=http://www.goodguide.com/GoodGuide/a rates food, toys, personal care items, and household products based on environmental, social, and health attributes. a href=http://www.greenzer.com/Greenzer/a collects product and merchant info from across the Internet to create a score for each product it features on its site./pp /ppWant to see some of the most egregious misleading ads? View a full sampling, post your own examples, and vote for the worst offenders at the a href=http://www.greenwashingindex.com/Greenwashing/a Index. Or, check out a href=http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/great-greenwashed-advertisingHuddler’stop picks/a./pbr /pemEnvironmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a a href=http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/green/forms/consciousconsumerblog.htmlquestion or suggestion/a for potential use in a future column. Her book,/em Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life emis available on a href=http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Green%2C%20Greener%2C%20Greenest%3A%20A%20Practical%20Guide%20to%20Making%20Eco-Smart%20Choices%20a%20Part%20of%20Your%20Life:3005209514;_ylt=AsLkIJyzfMD4G3Gl2OYYt_gbFt0A?clink=dmps/lori_bongiorno/ctx=mid:1,pid:3005209514,pdid:1,pos:1,spc:14489115,date:20081009,srch:kw,x:Yahoo! Shopping/a and a href=http://www.amazon.com/Green-Greener-Greenest-Practical-Eco-Smart/dp/0399534032/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1228865081sr=8-1Amazon.com/a./em/p
