Blogs

To say that our newly elected president Barack Obama is environmentally conscious is an understatement. His platform revolved around creating green jobs, becoming energy independent as well as energy efficient. On Barack Obama's official website I found some key goals that our new president is planning to achieve.

Organic food is a controversial topic, with debate about its regulations and whether the cost is worth it. Even the definition of what organic food is can be under discussion. However, the basis for what they are stands as such: organic foods follow specific standards which include exclusion of pesticides and artificial fertilizer from the food growth process, as well as not being contaminated with waste, radiation, or food additives.

Step 1: Choosing Planting site and Location

This is an important first step. The reason why this step is first is because everything you do might depend on where you are going to plant your tree. For example, if you want to plant a tree in a park, you first need to find out who manages the park (is this a city park, state park, private, etc.) and ask their permission to plant a tree.

They might say "yes, you can plant a tree but we can only plant certain kinds of trees" - for example some parks will only plant native trees (trees that have historically grown in the area) or they might have a tree planting plan that identifies historically grown in the area) or they might have a tree planting plan that identifies the type of trees to be planted. Or, you might be planting a tree near power and telephone wires so in selecting a tree you would want one that would not grow tall or fast (a dogwood tree for example). You might even want to replace a tree that has been destroyed by lightening or killed by disease. Replacing the tree with the same kind of a tree would be nice.

Greenhouse gases are gases in an atmosphere that absorb and emit radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect.these gases will kill us all Greenhouse gases are essential to maintaining the current temperature of the Earth; without them this planet would be so cold as to be uninhabitable. In our solar system, the atmospheres of Venus, Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause greenhouse effects.

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation.

Global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the 100 years ending in 2005. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that most of the temperature increase since the mid-twentieth century is "very likely" due to the increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations. Natural phenomena such as solar variation and volcanoes probably had a small warming effect from pre-industrial times to 1950 and a small cooling effect from 1950 onward. These basic conclusions have been endorsed by at least 30 scientific societies and academies of science,including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries. While individual scientists have voiced disagreement with these findings, the overwhelming majority of scientists working on climate change agree with the IPCC's main conclusions.

The simple answer is that driving in a relatively fuel-efficient car (25-30 miles per gallon) usually generates fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than flying. In assessing the global warming impact of a trip from Philadelphia to Boston (about 300 miles), the environmental news website Grist.org calculates that driving would generate about 104 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2)—a leading greenhouse gas—per typical medium-sized car, regardless of the number of passengers, while flying on a commercial jet would produce some 184 kilograms of CO2 per passenger.

Ok, now this thing is cool. Plug in any device in your house, appliance, computer, TV, you name it to the Kill-a-Watt. Find out how much electricity it is drawing when it is turned on, and also when it is turned off. You might be surprised at what ‘vampire’ devices you currently sucking your blood money. It even gives you reading in dollars so you don’t have to do a lot of math.

For those of you not keen on taking the bus, not interested in the high expenses of a rental car, and not ready to commit to a monthly car or lease payment, check out Flexcar. We recently signed up in the Seattle area and plan on doing a more detailed review of our first couple of experiances with the system over the next month. So far, so good. They even pay for the gas, and if you happen to be the one to stop and fill the tank, they even pay you for your effort. At about $6 per hour (depending on the car, and your city) which includes gas, I’m not sure how you can beat it.