Green Living | Green living tips and advice

The Expert answers:

If you go to Yahoo Green you can find some good info.

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I tend to stick to house hold stuff like vinegar lemon juice tomato sauce cola etc for cleaning as a lot more cost effective, I do buy certain eco friendly products which are more expensive, but I think it is better to do so and the more people who buy them the pricedoes come down.

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Buy organic products. (No harmful chemicals/pesticides used).
Learn about biodegradable remedies by making your own whenever possible.
Recycle (including using old clothes as cleaning rags). Write your grocery list on the back of a junk e-mail letter rather than using new paper to avoid killing more trees.
Go to health food stores that carry many of the latest “green” brands. (I buy my cosmetics at a good health store and biodegradable shampoo with most of the ingredients grown here in North America).
Drive a fuel efficient car (or a hybrid if you can afford it). Public transportation is the best if it is efficient in your area.
Buy a solar calculator rather than one with batteries to avoid filling up landfill sites with old batteries.
One lady (link below) even gave her house to “recycling” so give away before throwing it away.
Vote for politicians with clear and “do-able” green agendas.
Visit as many “green” websites as possible for new ideas. I am still amazed by how much I learn reading them.

Make your own cleaners:
http://www.greenyour.com/home/housekeeping/cleaning-products/tips/make-your-own-multi-purpose-cleaners?subject=510

Ideas:
http://home.earthlink.net/~bnvarma/Articles/Green%20House.html

Lady recycles her old house:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/08/07/ot-freehome-080807.html?ref=rss

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Http://www.europeanwear.com/acatalog/environmentally_friendly_Clothing.html

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Radiator booster
http://www.nigelsecostore.com/acatalog/Radiator_Booster.html

Biodegradeable carrier bags

Eco friendly detergents – phosphate free (reduces water pollution) low temperature efficient, sold in refillable bottles

Solar battery chargers

Low energy light bulbs

John H (no, I’m not part of the list, but I am fairly eco friendly !!!)

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Search on how environmental elements like water, air … Can tolerate and absorb a fairly large amount of pollution.

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If Copenhagen didn’t deflate the expectations of the AGWers nothing will.
The very governments they hope to initiate change, walked away washing their hands.
Like rats deserting a sinking ships, they will hope that the world will forget about this conundrum called climate change.

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Water may be frozen, melted or turned to steam with zero change in mass. Ordinary chemical reactions result in no change in mass (only nuclear reactions change mass). Burning gasoline (in a car) combines oxygen with hydrocarbons to form CO, CO2, and H20 vapor (ignoring NOx’s) and the weight (mass) of the gasoline and oxygen exactly equals the weight of the products of combustion. Eating and metabolizing ice cream does not result in a net change in mass (although a person’s weight may change because he does not exercise enough to produce sufficient CO2 and metabolic water).

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I wouldn’t worry. The “pollution” cars supposedly kill the o-zone layer with have been coming from volcanoes and other things of natural for thousands of years. The ozone layer has dealth with it just fine up until now.

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Honda Elements are built in North America…Marysville, OH to be precise. Check the Canadian owners threads on the forum at http://www.elementownersclub.com If you don’t find what you’re looking for post this question there. The EOC is a very active and helpful site with tons of information from enthusiastic owners.

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-Global warming
-Global dimming
-Deforestation
-Acid rain
-Hole in the ozone layer
-Endangered species
-Urbanisation
-Over population
-Renewable energy
-Nuclear waste
-Oil spills
-Landfill & Incineration
-Bio-gas
-Ethanol and hydrogen for fuel
-Economy vs environment
-Sustainable development

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Phuhuynh7garden says Hello!
Have a nice day!

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Http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/

http://environment.about.com/

http://www.globalstewards.org/issues.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_environmental_issues

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Well, since you were honest about asking for homework help, i’d suggest googling “clean coal” and go from there. Also, check the discovery, science, natgeo and green channels for documentaries on “clean coal”. Be advised there is much “clean coal” propaganda out there–put forth by the coal industry–and is factually unreliable. Your job should be to present both sides of the issue (whether clean coal is actually clean) and reach a conclusion. Hint: clean coal is anything but. Good subject matter–and good luck.

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Fdwef

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I agree cafepress is great you could also try shirts of bamboo. I just ordered two more out of their clearance area for ten dollars and with a google code they had free shipping.

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Wal-Mart, cotton is eco-friendly…what are you looking for. Linen etc is all eco friendly. Look around where you live and go for all natural fibers. Google it and

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Pink & brown sells organic clothing

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No they dont seem to work for me either, however if you want fresh smelling clothes put 1 cap of vinegar into your wash AS A PRE WASH, this kills all nasty odours that you get when you are ironng OH an forget what the washing packs say if you can wash them at temperatures above 40 then do so, germs and bacteria can still live at 40 degrees

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Http://ohmystars.net/craft/index.htm
http://www.instructables.com
http://www.thriftdeluxe.com/
http://www.craftster.org

Home

http://community.livejournal.com/t_shirt_surgery/
All great 🙂

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Vanguard sells only one alternative energy mutual fund. It is Guiness Atkinson Alternative Energy Fund (GAAEX).

They have a high expense ratio of 1.98%.

While I respect your desire to invest in alternative energy, I don’t think it will be a big money maker for you. The analogy is bowling alley stocks in the 1950s and dot-coms in the 1990s. Back then, everone loved bowling and things that were online. The problem was that the fundamentals underlying both industries was all wrong and both sectors did not live up to the hype. Such is the same with alternative energy. The issue is that coal is by far the cheapest form of energy out there, followed by nuclear, then natural gas and crude oil. Meanwhile, most green fuels are double and triple the cost of traditional fuels.

Hooray for ethanol, but it’s pretty screwed. First, it takes almost as much hydrocarbons to fertilize, sow, maintain and then harvest corn (the main feedstock for US-based ethanol). Now gasoline made from crude oil costs about $1.70/gallon wholesale. It costs about $1.50 to refine corn into ethanol. There is about $0.51/gallon is corn subsidies per gallon of ethanol. And ethanol has only 67% of the energy capacity as gasoline. So ethanol costs about double the price of gasoline before you’ve even bought the corn. In theory, we can create ethanol from cellulosic sources (i.e. Think grasses and trees), but we haven’t come up with the right enzymes to break down the cellulose into alcohol. Fuel cells? Billions upon billions upon billions went into VC funds to fund hydrogen fuel cells. Bottom line… Still more far, far more expensive than gas. More nuclear power? More natural gas plants (with their highly explosive regassification plants). NIMBY is far too powerful in a democracy for people to vote to have a power plant near their home. They always want it near someone else’s home. Wind power has promises because it can compete against hydrocarbon based power on a price basis (after including long-term operation, fuel stock and capital expenditures). However, really windy place out in the middle of nowhere where people want them are in only a few places. Furthermore, we still haven’t invented a superconductor that works without having to freeze the thing. So we use copper and its highyl inefficient transmission methods as ohms suck away all the energy.

No, my friend, people will always choose powerplants to be built in someone else’s back yard, give lip service to green energy but won’t actually buy it when it costs triple what gasoline costs. The solution is taxing oil with a huge tax to fully cost in the crude (e.g. Polution), but no politician is going to touch that with a ten foot pole until it is too late.

The world is going to consume more oil like it has for the last century and an unstoppable 2% march, like’s its done for decades and decades. More wars will be fought. When oil reach really, really high prices – where alternative energy can compete on cost as opposed to just environmentalism at a massive cost to the consumer – will alternative energy thrive. That’s when we reach the tipping point.

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Wikipedia could do this better than I can, but here’s a short list

nuclear
pro-clean, fairly abundant fuel(expensive but there is a large supply), efficient
con-what to do with the waste fuel (a problem mostly sovled with breeder reactors and such) they are a potential terrorist target, verly low possiblility of a meltdown
hydro
pro-clean, sustainable
con-building dams can damage the enviroment, difficult to expand projects as many rivers are already dammed
wind
pro-clean, sustaible
con-needs windy area, expensive, can damage wildlife/ruin the view
solar
-pro-clean, sustainible
-con- expensive, need a sunny area
coal
pros-cheap, supplies should last another 200 years or so
cons-very polluting, coal mining damages the environment

The Expert answers:

Alternative energy is a term that refers to methods of generating energy that are not the usual method (i.e. Fossil fuels). There are many forms of alternative energy, but, as energy is conserved, you have to ask yourself where the energy comes from (and the answer is always “the sun”). You should always be careful when you look at energy forms, because some of them just won’t work – like the idea of putting water in your gas tank that another user has suggested (thermodynamics shows that these ideas won’t work).

The sun undergoes nuclear reactions which result in the release of photons (beams of light that have energy associated with them). Alternative energy forms just capture the energy from the sun in different ways (actually, fossil fuels also got their energy from the sun a long time ago).

Here are a few alternative energy sources and how they relate to the sun:

Bio-fuels: We can grow plants (such as algae, corn, sugar cane) which collect the photons from the sun and use the energy in the photons to create sugars. We can harvest those sugars and and turn them into liquid fuels such as ethanol.

Solar Energy: This technology directly harnesses the energy of the sun by absorbing photons through photovoltaic solar cells and which create an electrical current when they absorb a photon. Additionally, you can use the energy of the sun to thermally heat an object, which is referred to as solar-thermal energy.

Wind Energy: When the photons from the sun hit the air in the atmosphere, that energy can cause the generation of wind. We can harvest the wind energy by using turbines which spin when the wind hits them. The spinning motion is used to turn a generator which produces electricity.

Hydro-electric: When the sun hits water, it can cause the water to turn into a gas and later that gas can result in rain. If the rain occurs at a high enough elevation and gets held behind a dam, the water now possesses a high potential energy due to the energy from the sun. That energy can be turned into electrical energy by converting the potential energy of the water into kinetic energy which is then used to turn a turbine in a hydroelectric dam.

I came accross a new, proven and tested home made wind power system and solar power system which eliminates our electricity bills. It was written by a Renewable energy enthusiasts Michael Harvey the diy called Earth4energy. You can get your copy to save energy and help environment while eliminating your power bills. Get it from here: http://homemadeenergyreviews.blogspot.com/

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Solar(sun)
Windmill(wind)
Hydroelectric(water)
Biofuel(Growing plants and burining them for energy)
Geothermal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nuclear

They’re all alternative,but nuclear isn’t renewable.

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Engineering and then there are several areas you can specialize in

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Buy second hand clothes.

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Not sure but you could try Johnson and Johnson website, DuPont website and other major chemical companies websites. There is a huge push for green chemicals and I’m sure they have some information somewhere on their websites. Good luck!

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American grown cotton is not being picked or processed by children. Look for cotton items that say “Made in the USA”. Double check the inside labels on clothing to make sure it doesn’t say ‘assembled in Bangladesh’ or Guatemala or some other foreign country. Look for linen, rayon or viscose if you want a non-cotton natural fiber.

To make your own clothes: check your school, YWCA, community center or local fabric store for classes in sewing and clothing construction. Try it, it’s a great skill and you’ll have clothing as individual as you are.

But remember if you make that conscious choice to not buy certain garments for political reasons (& that’s okay if you do): remember that 67 cents in a third world community with few resources and even fewer choices may be the difference between a whole family eating for a day or two or someone going to bed hungry. And in some poor countries if a child cannot contribute to the family’s welfare they may actually be sold or given away to face a life of cruel exploitation. (There’s still slavery in Uganda & other places in Africa and Arabia, as well as child & adult sexual slavery in many parts of Asia).

It’s easy for your teachers to make political judgments about real people they’ve never known in difficult circumstances they’ve never experienced — what your teacher might spend on fair trade coffee in a year would probably feed a family of four in most third world countries. It sounds like you are getting a big dose of anti-American propaganda as part of your curriculum. “Evil America” provides the majority of humanitarian food aid and emergency relief around the world, (even to North Korea who hates us). Did you know that America has also been the leader in providing funding and medications for HIV/AIDS treatment in Africa?

Here are some eco-friendly clothing lines:
Super cool Tom’s shoes are eco-friendly & they give away a pair of shoes to a needy child every time a pair is purchased. (Regular and Vegan):

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There are a lot online. Eco friendly clothes are becoming a trend these days….

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Green genes in chicago

http://www.green-genes.com/

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See
http://www.enr.gov.nt.ca/_live/pages/wpPages/soe_environmental_awareness_education.aspx

http://canadianbiodiversity.mcgill.ca/english/ecozones/taigashield/taigashield.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiga
especially section 5 – threats.

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First of all you must become a role model by exhibiting a practical solution for our global energy problem. Once it is recognised as a solution, then others who see it will believe and would like to know how it is done and then a club will automatically start. Have a look at the practical solution that has been recognised and honored by the World Bank with a certificate and a knowledge grant:

Solar energy is green energy, clean energy and it is freely available during certain hours of the day and during certain months of the year. It all depends upon how we make use of this infinite energy.
Example: many of us misuse electricity during day time for LIGHTING the interiors of our homes even though free, bright and clean solar energy is available just across our windows and doors, when the sun is shining. Switching on the bulbs during day time is a criminal waste of costly electricity. The bulbs also contribute CO2 and global warming.

Example of savings of electricity that can be effected – one bulb/tube light of 40 volts burnt for 6 hours during day time (whether at home or offices or business complexes), consumes about 8 units of electricity in a month. If this ONE bulb can be switched off during day time, by 100,000 people, we can save 800,000 units of electricity in a month and in six months, when the sun shine is available, we can save 4,800,000 electricity units.
Supposing more than one bulb is switched off, use the above formula to calculate the savings and also how many thousands of tons of CO2 emission can be saved. That is the power of volume.

I am not asking you to live in darkness. Many of us need that one burning bulb to keep our interiors bright because we would have kept our doors and windows shut for various reasons like security, wind, dust etc., but still we need that burning bulb for reading etc.

I have a simple solution for giving you free energy for lighting your interiors. I am not talking about energy that is required for kinetic purpose like running a fan, oven, geyser etc., I am talking about that simple light that brightens the interior of your home. My following solution does not involve any nano technology or billion dollar investment. Anybody can do it with a little innovative mind.

SO, LET US “BRING HOME THE SUNSHINE AND LIVE IN A BRIGHTER WORLD”. How?

When the sun is shining outside your windows, locate the spot where maximum hours of sunshine will be available. Take a plastic chair, a pillow, a few pieces of waste thermostat or cardboard and a mirror measuring 1′ X 2′; open one window, keep the chair in the sunshine, pillow on it and the mirror on the pillow. Keep adjusting the angle of the mirror till such time that the deflected sun shine gets inside your home and hits the white ceiling and fine tune the same by keeping small pieces of card board behind the mirror to maintain that angle. LO, AND BEHOLD, YOUR ROOM IS BEAUTIFULLY LIT UP WITH NATURAL LIGHT FROM THE CEILING – FREE FOR YOU.
This is a practical solution for a global problem and everybody can become innovators for helping the world reduce global warming and to get free lighting with the help of infinite solar energy by switching off as many bulbs as possible. Think of the benefits that would accrue by way of savings in terms of investment to generate that many MW of electricity, how much of fossil fuel, coal or water that would be used for generating that much of electricity, investment on machineries, transmission cost, labor, etc. Etc. And also how much of CO2 can be reduced, they have nth value.
Please publish this simple solution or send it to as many people as possible.
This solution has been awarded a Certificate of Honor and a knowledge grant by the world bank – project U-SEE # 585 of IDM 2007 competition. Browse,
For further details and FAQs, mail to vasanthmysoremath@gmail.com +918214243319 / 9845950440

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I dont know

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Prove or Disprove a specific issue is occurring.
–
No anecdotes. No stories. Show the maps, math, numbers, dates, etc.
–
Show a change that occurred due to an specific incident.
–
Example: On a particular date, the Arctic Icecap was this size and (choose) island was this size. NOW, the Arctic Icecap has changed to this size and the (chosen) island has changed to this size.

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Http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithosphere
This link might help you develop and idea for your assignment

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Well, Bush admits that America is addicted to fossil fuels but a pusher doesn’t want the addict cured of the addiction.

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– Japan… The fact is Nuclear power is not safe or clean

Umm. Actually the events go along way to proving that nuclear power is clean and safe. Consider that forty year old plants were hit with an earthquake five times the strength they were designed for and yet they still shut down safely. The generators came on like they were supposed to when grid power was cut. Then the tsunami hit and the generators were wiped out. However, the battery backup still worked for the designed eight hours. The problem happened when no new generators could be put in. Even so the problems have been minimal–media scare mongering for ratings not withstanding.

Here is an informative article describing the situation:
Fukushima Nuclear Accident – a simple and accurate explanation

And here is where you find current, factual status information:
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html

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I’m in the UK but the market in the US has had a massive effect on our financial situation here, When US mortgage lenders lent money to NINJA’s (No Income No Job, No Assets) on property of non standard constuction (Trailer Park type homes) they knew it was a risk, however a lot of this debt was sold off to other financial institutions around the world, when interest rates started to rise and people started to default on their borrowing and repossesions rose, UK banks found that the only assets that they had were on unmortgagble properties, which leaves them with a lot of bad debt, this in turn has a direct effect on the banks ability to lend to it’s Uk customers, and as each financial institution does/did not know how much bad debt each one of them had it limits the flow of money between them and seizes up the system, so thats why there has been the problems with Northern Rock, HBOS and Bradford and Bingley.
Ive not heard on our news about Australia being in trouble but certainly, Iceland, Germany and some banks in Italy so far.
If we hadnt had Tony Blair kissing George Bush’s Ass for 10 years then maybe the UK wouldn’t be in such a bad way now!
Vote well next month USA please!!

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He likes our money going to other countries so they can build super nice cities and have jobs so what’s wrong with that said that what you want ??????

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You know, I was never so deeply into hardware but my interests were in language and grammar. I felt so left out. I WAS left out. All the groups saying you’re too smart for them, people snickering?
I was lucky because I had a close knit group of friends who didn’t care that I loved English and History instead of other stuff. The point is that if you start acting like a friend, people will become your friends. It all starts from you. If you’re not okay with yourself yet, no one else will be either. If you like something someone else likes as well, go and talk about that.

But then again, it’s hard. When you really love something, that’s what you love.
You can’t have everything, but doesn’t anyone there in your school like programming?
No one likes games? No one likes computers?
Just don’t be too techy. I wish I had more advise for you but I went through the same thing, especially on the dating, even though my trouble was with boys.

Keep your chin up. And keep doing what you like to do.
Eventually you’ll meet people who like you because you like programing and hardware.

(BTW, with the girl with the AP classes, try texting, messaging, or giving a small gift, like an eraser, to make her laugh!)

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Can you tell what is wrong with energy independence aside from the fact that there are people lobbying for it?

What is your solution, keep burning oil until we run out and our economy collapses because of it?

And if we want a short term solution, it would be to regulate the speculation on oil futures which is driving up the cost of oil past the issues of supply and demand.

If we get rid of all regulations on drilling, we might save 20 cents on gas per gallon 10 years down the line, so it is neither a short term or a long term solution to the problem, just a feel good measure to make it seem like congress is really doing something when it’s not.

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You will have to because they can make it a law which will force you to do whatever they think is good for you. The EU knows what is good for you better than you do. They are your nannies.

Since the bulbs are not as bright, you need more of them, which defeats the purpose. I use them only in multi-bulb fixtures or for lights that I want to leave on for a long time. Regular incandescent bulbs are best for reading. The energy efficient bulbs give off a high volume of low intensity light, regular bulbs give off a lower volume of higher intensity light.

Some lights have to be left on for safety and crime prevention, adverts get business. When ways are found to produce power that costs no more than present methods or is cheaper, then those ways will be used. Any attempts to legislate alternatives will likely result in more costly energy, which lowers the standard of living, causes unemployment and hurts people.

One way is to grow biofuels, using genetically engineered plants, but the nuts say no to genetic engineering. Tidal power is subject to storm damage and changes the environment. Wind power farms are ugly. Solar power arrays are ugly and change the environment. Hydroelectric dams change the environment. Fossil fuels damage the environment. Nuclear waste endangers the environment. The environmental nuts are opposed to all alternative power on a scale large enough to support our civilisation.

Their answer is to have fewer people, fewer things and for all to live in harmony with nature in a pastoral world. My answer is to continue to do what is needed, economise whereever feasible and keep trying to provide energy in better and cheaper ways so our civilization will continue to advance.

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Sure sounds like it doesn’t it. She’s riding on her celebrity bus and she needs to get off before it goes over the cliff.

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Actually, in contrast to the “warmies” who post here on a regular basis(they are SO predictable), the discovery of large amounts of natural gas in the US is good news. So called “renewable energy sources” like wind and solar are not viable due to the high costs, and poor technology which makes them very inefficient. Nuclear energy is an excellent means of generating electricity, however the current administration would never allow a new nuke plant to be built in the US, and good old Harry S. Reed has made sure there is no waste repository in Nevada, although he recently lost a lot of influence in the state of Nevada, when he suggested that all the legal brothels should be closed…he said this in his address to the Nevada State Assembly, to an audience of state legislators, reporters, and concerned prostitutes who work in those targeted brothels…one of the more cynical, likely conservative reporters, stated that Reed was likely the highest paid whore in the room at the time…I am not sure I would agree totally, but he would certainly be near the top of the income curve for that profession.
Conversion of existing vehicles to CNG is both possible, and economically feasible, unlike what another answerer stated, and very likely to happen, and as CNG becomes available at the gas stations, we will see larger numbers of those vehicles on the road. Most of the large truck manufacturers already make comparable CNG engines so the cost of freight by truck would be relatively easy to convert, as the vast majority of the over the road trucks are replaced on a 5 year schedule, and the costs of a CNG engine are comparable to the diesels, and the mileage is comparable, but the operating costs are significantly reduced, so that could happen fairly quickly as the CNG became readily available at truck stops.
Overall, it definitely changes the basis for discussion regarding peak oil.

The Expert answers:

I don’t and never did. The hottest year on record is 1934, the third hottest year on record is 1921, if people look at history they will see that what is happening now is normal. Some of the global warming supporters have tried to convince people that the hottest years on record have occurred in this past decade but that is false.

Artgurl, no, you’re wrong: Funny you threw 2007 in there, the rest of the libs proclaim that 1998 is the hottest year on record, make up your minds.

Http://articles.latimes.com/2007/aug/15/science/sci-temp15

If NASA says it is the hottest year on record I am going to believe them, not some liberal blogger. There are 200K more links just like that from reputable sources stating that 1934 was and is the hottest year on record.

The Expert answers:

Plastic refers to a number of materials not neccesarily made from petroleum based raw materials. Starch and protein can be converted in a relatively simple industrial process into a plastic that is then extruded, molded and formed into different shapes that have similar properties to ‘plastic’ items. To be biodegradeable the material needs certain conditions (adequate moisture, nitrogen, micorganisms, pH etc) to get the process going otherwise it could just sit there.

Http://www.bioplastic.org/Biodegradable-Bioplastic.html

The Expert answers:

There are lots of eco-friendly programs that avoid adware and do not allow bad practices.

Eastern Mountain Sports which you can find on Share a Sale for example has eco-friendly products and the Affiliate Manager doesn’t allow any of that nonsense.

Share a Sale also has a green section in their interface for eco-friendly products.

The Expert answers:

AfterGlow cosmetics are great, they don’t test on animals and it is all vegan and organic. It is also HEALTHY for your skin. Its just a little expensive.

Home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d7lr0X44hM – See it in Action

Physicians Formula is also great! You can find at Target
http://www.physiciansformula.com/en-us/category.html

My favorite for all cosmetics that aren’t make-up, is Lush.Com too because it has all your lotions and soaps that are eco-friendly.
They both have brushes, but they are gorgeous brushes at Target called EcoTools. I have them. They are like buying MAC for 80% off!
Http://www.parispresents.com/EcoTools_s/36.htm

The Expert answers:

The most eco friendly thing you can do is not buy things. I wouldn’t replace a bulb until it burned out. My logic is if I use it a lot it will burn out so I will save money by replacing it with a CFL, if it takes 5 years to burn out, I didn’t use it much, so I wasn’t wasting much energy. Look at the consumable items you use, those are items you have to buy every week or month. Try to replace them with reusable items or at least recycled content. For example I use cloth towels and napkins in my kitchen, but sometimes I have a need for paper towels, so when I buy them I get recycled paper, same with toilet paper and tissue. If you are still in school you can get everything you need made from recycled content.

I big on conserving and reducing waste. I look for ways to conserve energy, make use of natural light, make my home energy efficient etc. I find that food waste can be cut dramatically with a little planning, I pay attention to packaging and buy very few processed foods. I plan a menu and shop with a list. I buy local and organic as much as possible and use the bulk bins for a variety of items.

Many of us automatically buy clothes at certain times of year, yet we have more clothes than we need. I have a clour scheme to my wardrobe, so it all coordinates and I only replace things when they are worn out. So, for example I have 5 pairs of jeans, I will never have more. I decided that is enough to last me a almost 2 weeks without doing laundry. That is still probably more than I need. So before you shop count how many items like jeans, shirts etc. To see if you really need any more. Also look at the color of items that you have but never wear and don’t buy anything without trying it on and looking at yourself in the mirror.

The Expert answers:

There are a number of reasons why a self-interested public business will serve its best interests by investing in eco friendly products:

1) societal approval – having a great reputation as a corporation is very good for business. Having a bad reputation is bad for business. Example being walmart where they have been hurt financially by their bad reputation b/c many people refuse to shop there. Think about how toyota’s reputation improved after launching the prius hybrid. This not only translates to high sales of its hybrids, but also higher sales of all of its products!

2) great for recruiting employees – especially younger employees under 40, who really want to work for a company that is eco friendly. Many of these folks will be the most talent folks so anything a company can do to improve its image will help it recruit the best employees.

3) eco friendly is more accepted in europe. An eco friendly product will do very well in many european and overseas markets where consumers want this.

4) eco friendly usually means sustainable by definition. Meaning unlike other types of products, there should be no problems securing these basic materials for production. Compare this to petroleum, which has very high cost variability and an uncertain future.

5) government regulatory environment. Some eco friendly processes that reduce carbon emissions may eventually help the company to save lots of money if the us government passes a carbon cap and trade scheme, as has been done in europe.