Going Too Far Green?

I was reading some articles and blogs about going green. I am always looking for other people's opinions of what green is. I ran across one blog that implores people to go back to basic living in order to go green. The premise of the blog is that nobody living in a modern society will ever be green because of all that we need to fit into society.

The writer makes a good point. The mere practice of owning a car goes so far against truly being green that this one thing disqualifies us from calling ourselves green. Even driving a hybrid or an electric car goes against true greenness according to the author. She states that the metal and the process of manufacturing all that goes into making any car consumes huge resources that create a large carbon footprint.

She makes similar arguments against houses, clothes, running water, indoor plumbing, etc. The number one argument she made in trying to get people to truly become green is to get rid of their washers and dryers and hand wash and air dry our laundry. Interesting, but unlikely in my opinion.

Here is my point. We live in a modern society and nothing short of some sort of apocalyptic war will change the way we live. Sure, I drive a car and I have a washer and dryer and even live in a nice house. I am not going to change any of that anytime soon, but I can find ways to cut more unsustainable resources than I had before I became aware of how to help the environment.

You are going to read a dozen different opinions on how to be green if you read a dozen different green sites. Yes, we need to leave our world in better condition than it was left to us, or at least no worse. Sustainability is the goal and continuing to depend on nonrenewable fossil fuels is not going to get it done. Searching for and demanding our government create avenues for entrepreneurs to find alternative methods to fuel our world with renewable resources will ensure that we do not ever need to forego our modern society's penchant for convenience.

We can never go too far green. I just don't think we need to give up everything in order to reach a sustainable world.

More Facts About Global Warming

The following facts about global warming comes from some different sources, such as the World Health Organization, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and National Geographic. Some of these facts are alarming. Here they are:

1. Since 1990, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have increased by over 6 million metric tons yearly. Just about all of it is attributed to human activities.

2. The United States is responsible for almost 20% of all carbon dioxide emissions that are produced worldwide.

3. The primary gas responsible for global warming is carbon dioxide.

4. Carbon dioxide's effects in the atmosphere will linger for at least 100 years.

5. Global warming does not necessarily mean higher temperatures. It is also causing record rainfalls in parts of the world while extreme droughts are occurring in other locations.

6. Sea levels are rising at an alarming rate. Some experts claim that our oceans' water level could rise 2 feet in the next 100 years causing some places to disappear underwater.

7. The hottest decade ever was from 2000-2009. Eight of the hottest years ever were during that decade. The current decade started off with a bang as 2010 was the hottest year on record.

8. The World Health Organization says that effects of global warming, such as droughts, floods, decreased food production, and diseases from these problems have caused over 155,000 deaths worldwide.

9. A few hundred species of plants and animals are migrating north to finder less extreme heat. One report was recently made about a strain of grass that has invaded Antarctica and threatens its fragile ecosystem.

10. Urban and rural areas are both seeing warming trends at the same rate which demonstrates global warming is not caused only in regions or areas.

What is Global Warming?

I have written this blog for a few years now and am proud that this is the place that a lot of people come when they want answers to some of their questions. I have written a great deal about global warming, but I have to admit that I was surprised that I never wrote a post answering the basic question, "What is global warming?"

For the best answer to this question, I turned to the New Mexico Solar Energy Association (NMSEA), which put together a nice little energy concepts primer. The NMSEA says that "global warming is the increase of Earth's average surface temperature due to the effect of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide(CO2) emissions from burning fossil fuels or from deforestation, which trap heat that would otherwise escape from Earth. This is a type of greenhouse effect.?"

The Earth's climate is mostly influenced by the first 6 miles or so of the atmosphere. If you were to see Earth from space and scale it to size, the atmosphere that matters would be about as thin as the skin of an onion. When you think of the atmosphere in these terms, you can see that we Earthlings could easily affect it.

The most significant greenhouse gas is water vapor. Even slight increases in atmospheric levels of CO2 can cause the water vapors to increase in temperature. CO2 tends to stay in the atmosphere for hundreds of years while water vapor easily condenses or vaporizes. Water vapor levels adjust to prevailing samples quickly but CO2 stays constant and becomes a controlling factor. More CO2 means that the balance the atmosphere finds results in higher temperatures and water vapor levels.

The NMSEA claims that humans have increased the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere by about 30%. That is pretty significant. These increases coincide with the increased use of fossil fuels. That is why it is thought that humans cause global warming. It is thought that, if things stay as they have been going, the Earth will reach CO2 levels that have not been seen on Earth in the last 50 million years.

Graphs show that the Earth's temperature levels started rising significantly around 1900 and has continued to climb since. This coincides with the fact that deforestation began in the 1800's and then a sharp increase in emissions tied to the Industrial Revolution leading up to 1900.

The NMSEA has a much more detailed explanation of what is causing global warming along with graphs. You can see the whole explanation here.

The Impacts of Global Warming are:

Many of the following "harbingers" and "fingerprints" are now well under way:

1. Rising Seas--- inundation of fresh water marshlands (the everglades), low-lying cities, and islands with seawater.
2. Changes in rainfall patterns --- droughts and fires in some areas, flooding in other areas. See the section above on the recent droughts, for example!
3. Increased likelihood of extreme events--- such as flooding, hurricanes, etc.
4. Melting of the ice caps --- loss of habitat near the poles. Polar bears are now thought to be greatly endangered by the shortening of their feeding season due to dwindling ice packs.
5. Melting glaciers - significant melting of old glaciers is already observed.
6. Widespread vanishing of animal populations --- following widespread habitat loss.
7. Spread of disease --- migration of diseases such as malaria to new, now warmer, regions.
8. Bleaching of Coral Reefs due to warming seas and acidification due to carbonic acid formation --- One third of coral reefs now appear to have been severely damaged by warming seas.
9. Loss of Plankton due to warming seas --- The enormous (900 mile long) Aleutian island ecosystems of orcas (killer whales), sea lions, sea otters, sea urchins, kelp beds, and fish populations, appears to have collapsed due to loss of plankton, leading to loss of sea lions, leading orcas to eat too many sea otters, leading to urchin explosions, leading to loss of kelp beds and their associated fish populations.

Something needs to be done. Worldwide, countries need to be cut emissions. A report to Congress in 1991 said that the US could cut 50% of its emissions at zero cost to the economy as a result of just using cost effective efficiency improvements, yet 21 years later, we have not done so. When will we learn? As long as our government continues to be influenced by strong and wealthy special interest groups, I doubt if we will ever get to where we need until it is too late. What a shame.

2011 Best US Cities to Live In for Clean Air

The Environmental Protection Agency puts out a list each year with the Air Quality and Air Pollution Index of cities nationwide. Air pollution is based on the incidence of airborne lead, NO2, particulate matter, carbon monoxide and ozone depletion. Surprisingly, the state with the most cities listed in the top 25 US cities with the cleanest air are from New Jersey with 9 of the first 11. Virginia has the top 2 cities and California has 6 cities listed. Here is the list of the top 25 with the cleanest air. The list can be found in Money CNN Magazine, September 2011.

In these cities, the air quality is rated highly, and pollution levels are below the U.S. average.

The first number listed next to the city is the Air Quality Index and the second number listed is the Air Pollution Index

1 Fredericksburg, VA 100.0% 83
2 Richmond, VA 100.0% 94
3 Marlton, NJ 100.0% 96
4 Medford, NJ 100.0% 96
5 Evesham, NJ 100.0% 96
6 Moorestown-Lenola, NJ 100.0% 97
7 Mount Laurel, NJ 100.0% 97
8 Moorestown, NJ 100.0% 98
9 Cinnaminson, NJ 100.0% 98
10 Lumberton, NJ 100.0% 99
11 Delran, NJ 100.0% 99
12 Elko, NV 100.0% 105
13 Findlay, OH 100.0% 176
14 San Anselmo, CA 99.0% 83
15 Mill Valley, CA 99.0% 84
16 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, CA 99.0% 84
17 Larkspur, CA 99.0% 85
18 Corte Madera, CA 99.0% 85
19 Morton, IL 99.0% 86
20 Washington, IL 99.0% 86
21 East Peoria, IL 99.0% 86
22 Pekin, IL 99.0% 86
23 Tiburon, CA 99.0% 86
24 Anacortes, WA 99.0% 102
25 Billings, MT 99.0% 106

National Geographic Sustainability Cutting Their Carbon Footprint

I am always on the lookout for companies who are attempting to reduce their carbon footprint.  National Geographic does a good job of presenting what they are doing to reduce theirs.  One of the most interesting methods they have used is to quit selling bottled water in their buildings.  I just posted an article telling how much energy is used creating the plastic water bottles and how much of them end up in the landfill.  It is enormous and is one of the easiest ways each of us can cut the world's carbon footprint.  Another method of cutting their carbon footprint is to work with suppliers to cut theirs. I believe that this is one thing that major corporations can do to help our environment. By simply pressuring their suppliers to get in line, they will be making an impact both directly and indirectly and that is a good thing.

National Geographic Sustainability -- Our Carbon Footprint:

'via Blog this'

How Much Energy is Required to Make Plastic Water Bottles?

Let's face it. Drinking bottled water is about as anti-green as it gets. If you consider yourself to be a friend of the environment, yet you still buy bottled water, you need to see exactly how much energy is required to make those plastic water bottles. It is staggering and will hopefully change your mind the next time you think about buying a case of bottled water.

The Beverage Marketing Corporation states that over 31 billion liters of water was sold in 2006. Other reports state that the number has risen near 34 billion liters since. No matter what study you look at, bottled water is sold in enormous numbers. Here is the rub. Most of the bottled water is sold in polyethylene terephthalate (PTE) bottles which require around 900,000 tons of plastic. PET is produced from fossil fuels such as natural gas and petroleum.

The energy required to make PET plastic is eye opening. It takes about 3.4 megjoules of energy to make a one liter plastic bottle, its cap, and the packaging that is on the bottle. In order to make enough bottles for the more than 30 billion liters of water consumes around 106 billion megajoules of energy. The Pacific Instutute estimates that a barrel of oil contains around 6,000 megajoules, therefore requiring 17 million barrels of oil to produce enough plastic bottles for 1 year's production of plastic bottles.

That is not the only cost to our environment. One ton of PET produces about 3 tons of carbon dioxide in the manufacturing process. Producing one year's supply of plastic bottles creates around 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.

This next statistic from the Pacific Institute is even more jaw dropping. In addition to the water that is sold in the plastic bottles,the production process takes twice as much water than what is in the bottle. So, for every liter of water sold, there are 2 liters gone.

Add the energy costs of transporting and the cost to the environment for the huge number of bottles that never make it to the recycling center and you can see that plastic water bottles are impacting the environment in ways that cannot do anything but leave an ugly stain on the Earth for future generations. This is no way to provide a world that can sustain itself.

If all of this does nothing to alter your decision to not purchase bottled water, let's take a look at how different it is from the water you get out of your tap. In the United States, bottled water and tap water is regulated by separate entities. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates bottled water. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates the quality of tap water. The Safe Drinking Water Act sets the maximum contaminant levels for approximately 90 contaminants that might be found in drinking water and 15 secondary maximum contaminant levels. This is all set by the EPA. The bottled water industry is not regulated by the same standards.

In study after study, it has been demonstrated that the contaminants in tap water and bottled water seldom differ. The television show 20/20 did a taste test and a contaminant test with bottled water and tap water in New York City. They found no difference in contaminants and the taste test was interesting. Almost everyone who took the test were bottled water drinkers. These people claimed that they drink bottled water because the tap water does not taste good and is full of germs. The funny thing is that one of the waters in the test was picked by most people as tasting bad. It was not tap water. In fact, tap water tested just as well as the bottled waters.

This was an unscientific test but it just demonstrates how ridiculous the bottled water claims are about how natural and clean they are. The 20/20 piece did say that one of the bottled waters that claims to be spring fed and natural actually comes from the Detroit River, which is where tap water comes from too.

If you absolutely have to have "special" water, at least buy reusable 5 gallon jugs and a water dispenser for your home. Purchase an aluminum water bottle, fill it up, and carry it with you. If everyone did this, the savings for our environment would be mind boggling. Well over 50% of all plastic bottles sold end up in our landfills and these bottles will not decompose. The harm to the world from one year's supply of plastic bottles is bad enough but adding billions of bottles each year just compounds the problem.

I am calling on you to change this one habit. The Earth will thank you for it.

School Boys are Very Green Minded

A lot is said about what group is, or is not, the greenest. We would all love to be in a group that is considered to be the most green minded of all, but alas, one group is way out ahead of all the others and they didn't even try to attain the title. Believe me, they have far more important things on their minds than being green, but it's their single practice of greenliness that sets them apart from the rest. What could that possibly be?

School boys are, in my opinion, the greenest group of all because of their practice of not wasting water by flushing the toilets and urinals in their schools. Go into any elementary, middle, or high school and check out the boys' restroom and I think you will see that the majority of the toilets and urinals are full of yellow water from not being flushed.

I have taught school for over 30 years and I never use the teachers' restroom. It is more convenient to use the boys' restroom which is just across from my classroom. I was thinking, just today, how green minded the boys in my school must be as I noticed that, of the 5 urinals that line the wall, 4 of them had been used without being flushed. This is about normal for this restroom too, and has been the average over the many years I have taught.

Just think how much water is being saved by not flushing. If every boy flushed after using the restroom, the amount of water being used would be astronomical compared to present uses. Many boys will use a urinal that was unflushed without flushing first, so that just adds to the savings.

Of course, I write this in jest but it is a savings that I bet a lot of you never thought about.