Five Percent: Conserve a Little Energy

“Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death” read a headline in Friday’s papers. To me, this epitomizes where we are as a country: a mad dash to the store to find things “on sale” to get “holiday bargains” and a thinly veiled excuse to get what we want. In the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost?

Ok, I’ll admit that this is not a new observation made for the very first time. But I think it’s important to look at what we do, and perhaps given some of the things that may be new this year, to reflect a little on why we do them, and what they reveal about us.

Christmas is about consumption, and feeling good about ourselves as a result. Here in the US, and I suspect in some other parts of the world, it’s not about religion (Christian or otherwise). I know many, many people who have come to believe that Christmas is what the marketers would have us believe.

In other words, we have manipulated ourselves, over decades into a view of this holiday that aligns well with our true beliefs.

And so what I write about here is how we need to become aware (more…)

The Heritage Foundation published a report on Monday regarding the EPA’s decision (or should I say the supreme court’s decision) to regulate greenhouse gasses.

It may not be a surprise that Heritage Foundation thinks this is a bad and costly idea, concluding “all of this sacrifice is in order to make, at best, a minuscule contribution to an overstated environmental threat.” The report is in the context of our current economic “downturn” and suggests that the true costs of implementing the plan would be devastating.

I can’t disagree with their specific conclusion. I just disagree with their assumptions. (more…)

A while back T. Boone Pickens announced a plan to build wind farms, then solar concentrators, all built on new smart energy grid infrastructure that would run up he middle of the US. For transportation we would move to compressed natural gas (CNG) to bridge the technology gap until fuel cells and electric drive cars were ready. It’s a bold 10-year plan. It sounds pretty good. In fact, his website has folksy guitar music and pictures of wind turbines. But something isn’t right.

It sounds in many ways like what Al Gore and the We Campaign promoted last summer. And also similar to what the incoming Obama administration proposes. And each of these is a good part of what Lester Brown says we should do in his book Plan B 3.0.

All the plans are bold and put short time frames on their implementations, mostly 10 years. This alone helps people see the parallels to the 10 year program to put a man on the moon: it seemed impossible yet got done in less than 9 years.

But there’s a sort of gassy smell about Pickens’ version. (more…)

I have had a Automobile Association of America (AAA) membership since I had a car, but I just switched to BetterWorld Club — same service and price but better environmental objectives.

Have you ever read the magazine that AAA sends every month? Yeah, most of it is promoting their services, vehicle safety, insurance and all, but they also report on their legislative lobbying agenda. As far as I can see they are on the wrong side of a lot of discussions.

I am sure they are nice folks, and mean well and all, but they have a mission to advance the use of cars. Here’s a quote from a Sierra Club report:

…the organization is now a major force in pushing for more highway spending, fewer pollution controls and less money for mass transit. As investigative journalist Michael Rivlin has written, the 43-million-member-strong organization “is on the record against virtually every proposal for cutting automobile pollution.”

While that was from several years back, it’s clearly true that AAA’s direction and mine have diverged.

BetterWorld Club provides pretty much the same services, discounts, at the same cost as AAA. They offer a Hybrid discount, and they even offer roadside bicycle assistance. But instead of lobbying for automotive agendas, BetterWorld advocates for an environmental agenda. What’s not to like?

Our efforts to stop junk mail have been tremendously successful, thanks to GreenDimes. Our mailbox just has letters, a few local postcard and other things we want (almost no bills, because of paperless billing).

But every year, we get the “yellow pages” dropped on our doorstep. Actually we get a bunch of them. We never use them, so they make a direct line to our recycling bin.

One service that I didn’t know about, until I read my IdealBite email today, is a site called YellowPagesGoesGreen.Org, and which will send an opt-out request to yellow pages companies producing these books, for free. You can stop yellow pages and white pages here.

Kudos to YellowPagesGosGreen.Org (and for GreenDimes and other services like Catalog Choice)!

Some Facts about Yellow Pages and White Pages

The facts about these books, below, are not unexpected, I guess. But holy cow, it’s just such an incredible waste! (more…)

Water and energy are scarce resources; here’s a good way to conserve a little of both: a shower timer.

There are three kinds of shower timers I could find: fancy models that actually shut off the water flow, egg timers that run for about 4 minutes, and digital countdown timers. I have found a good, inexpensive choice: The “Shower Professor”.

The first type of timer is fancy: it installs between the shower water spout and the shower head and actually shuts off the water after a set period of time. They cost about $150 or more. This seems like an expensive and rather excessive method.

I tried using an egg timer. They are cute and inexpensive (around $4) but pretty limited. For one, they are set for about 4 minutes, which is the recommended time, but some may prefer an extra minute or so. I also found the model I got hard to read. In the end, I would forget it and stopped using it.

Two models of digital countdown timers are available. Both have a digital display, are water resistant, have a suction cup, and a few buttons. One made by Ripple Products in Australia has several colorful designs (star, duck, etc) for about $20. A new company (that contacted me and provided a free sample) called Shower Professor is similar, and is only $12.98 including shipping.

(And, I just noticed that TerraPass sells one called the Half a Teaspoon Shower Watch for $30) (more…)

A while back, I decided I needed to wrench myself away from the computer and see what was going on in the world; I am here now. I have traveled to Washington DC to attend “greenfestival”. Frankly, I had no idea what I might find. After the first day, I am very impressed at what I have seen and heard. And a green festival is a lot less frivolous than it might seem.

The event is run by greenfestivals.org which is a joint project of Co-op America and Global Exchange. Any event using the word “festival” makes me a little worried — I told my wife that I expected to see a lot of hemp blue jeans and other earthy-crunch stuff. I was right, but that is far from all there is to offer.

Today, I heard several talks, including one from Lester Brown, and another from Bill McDonough. They were both fabulous. (more…)

Personally, I take full credit for Amazon’s new “Frustration-Free” packaging, as it was I who came up with a list of environmental suggestions for Amazon this summer. Today they announced a new multi-year initiative. They made a fun video which shows some of the benefits.

In short: all of the incredible packaging created only to make products good for store retail are removed and replaced with packaging optimized for shipping. (more…)