A website with helpful recipes for non-toxic cleaning products was sent to us from Joan at After School Care Programs. There is much you can do to clean without harming yourself or the environment. Check it out by clicking here.
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Easy Inexpensive Personal Changes
• Use less paper and use recycled paper. • Think before you print! • Use cloth towels instead of paper towels. • Use reusable bags for grocery shopping. • Don’t buy water in plastic bottles. • Bring your own mug for your coffee. • Paper cups are usually not 100% recycled. • Recycle. Recycling saves energy and natural resources. Take advantage of every opportunity to recycle you can. • Cut back on plastics. Plastics are made from petroleum. Easy Home Updates • Lower your thermostat in winter, reduce air conditioning use in summer. Heating represents about 41% of the energy used in a home. Lowering your thermostat in the winter not only saves you money but cuts the use of energy. • Lower the temperature in your hot water heater. Dropping your hot water temperature to 120 degrees saves money, energy and enhances safety for both children and the elderly. • Replace your lights with Energy Star approved models. Lighting typically uses 15% of the energy used in a home. While Energy Star lamps are more expensive than incandescent lamps, the Energy Star lamps often last significantly longer while also using 75% less energy and generating 75% less heat. • Plug electronics into power strips and turn off the power strips when not in use. Most modern televisions, DVD players, game consoles and computers still draw a small amount of power when turned off. Removing power with a power strip switch really disconnects them from the power grid saving energy and money. • Keep the lint filter in your dryer clean. The harder your dryer has to work to push air through the filter, the more energy you use. • Fill the gaps in doors and windows. Weatherproofing doors and windows doesn’t require special skills or tools. Foam weatherstrip, available at any hardware store, can be applied to a door or window frame to make a better seal and keep drafts out. Your home feels warmer and uses less energy to heat. • Clean under and behind your fridge to maintain air flow. More Complex Home Updates • Lower the flow. Install low flow faucets, shower heads and toilets where possible. Some water departments provide low flow showerheads for free! • Insulate your hot water heater. Insulating your hot water heater lowers the energy required to keep your water hot. • Insulate hot water pipes. Insulating hot water pipes keeps water in the pipes warm. You get hot water faster when you turn on the tap and you don’t lose the energy used to heat water that is in the pipes. • CoUpgrade your thermostat. Programmable thermostats automatically adjust the temperature in your house so you can wake up to a warm house and come home from work to a warm house without wasting energy keeping the house warm all day and night. • Use push or electric lawn mowers and electric garden tools. According to the EPA, gas lawn mowers represent 5% of all U.S. air pollution! Electric garden tools emit zero carbon directly and the indirect carbon from electricity generation is significantly lower than a small gasoline engine. A push mower not only keeps you in shape, it is a zero carbon device! • When buying new appliance, buy Energy Star appliances. Energy Star appliances use less energy. • Use ceiling fans instead of air conditioning. Ceiling fans can have a big impact on the feel of your house or apartment but use a fraction of the energy of air conditioning. • Collect rainwater to water your garden • Insulate your house. Walls can use blow in insulation, attic and crawlspaces use fiberglass. Insulating can create dramatic savings in energy use and carbon footprint. Some utilities offer low interest loans for insulation. • If you are replacing your hot water heater, investigate tankless hot water heaters. Tankless hot water heaters heat water instantly and save energy. Easy Inexpensive Transportation Changes • Use public transportation wherever possible. Driving a Toyota Camry 10,000 miles creates 2.67 metric tons of CO2. Riding a bus or subway on its regular route doesn’t impact its CO2 output. • Drive sensibly and maintain tire pressure. You can save on fuel and greenhouse gases by sticking to the speed limit, accelerating with traffic and ensuring your tires are inflated properly. The US Department of Energy says that for each 1-pound per square inch (PSI) drop in pressure, gas mileage drops .4%. • Combine trips, drive less. Think ahead about where you need to go and plan one trip with multiple stops to lower your driving. More Expensive Transportation Changes • Choose your next car carefully. HyBrids and plug in electric cars cost more to buy and significantly less to operate. Not only is electricity significantly less expensive than gas, the maintenance costs are lower as well. Hybrid and electric cars are especially good if your commute is in stop and go conditions. No idling engine means no wasted emissions. Plastic bag bans are spreading:
As of January 1, 2014, plastic bags have been banned in large grocery stores in Los Angeles. Nearly 90 cities and counties in the state — including unincorporated Los Angeles County — have passed similar legislation. Attempts to pass a bag ban at the state level have failed after lobbying by bag manufacturers, who claim that the pollution impacts have been overblown and that jobs would be lost. http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-la-bag-ban-20140101,0,6885512.story#ixzz2pRpjo5jS All four of the populated counties in Hawaii have passed legislation banning plastic bags at checkout counters, making it the first state in the country to pass such a ban. (There is a fifth county, Kalawao County, in Hawaii, but it is very remote and barely populated.) On the Big Island, where consumers have been paying for plastic bags at checkout lines for the past year, the ban officially begins on Jan. 17 at grocery stores, restaurants and retailers. Consumers can opt for paper bags or bring their own, reusable bags. Plastic bags will still be available for bulk items such as nuts, fish, meat, grains, and fresh produce. The islands of Kauai and Maui already enforce such a ban, with the most populated island, Oahu, set to join them in July of 2015. Many towns in Massachusetts have also banned plastic bags. They include: Brookline, Great Barrington, Manchester by the Sea, and Nantucket This video can help in understanding what tracking is. There are many pros and cons and understanding this controversial issue is difficult. This is a quick intro on the process. Fracking: The Risks, the Rewards, the Consequences.
Or "How Global Warming Works." If you only have a minute, check out this site for short, quick ways to get the picture. Click here for the videos: How Global Warming Works
With the announcement from the EPA about pushing for more carbon emission controls by pressing ahead with enacting the first federal carbon limits on the nation's power companies, it is important now more than ever for all of us to understand where our electricity comes from and how our power plants are powered. Sustainable Duxbury is proud and excited to present this very enlightening documentary at this time. (Click here for an article from the New York Times and the Boston Globe about the current push by President Obama and the EPA.)
It has been brought to our attention from one our members that there is an insecticide currently available that is a danger to honey bees and possibly many birds.
"If you read the labels on all insecticide products that contains neonicotinoid, it gives a big list of insects that it kills, BUT, it does not list BEES, or any beneficial insects, or HUMMING BIRDS! It has been discovered that some bee friendly plants purchased at home improvement stores had been pretreated with neonicotinoids, a pesticide which has been found to be deadly to bees. The synthetic pesticides are absorbed into the tissues of the plants and it is thought that it might be contributing to Colony Collapse Disorder in bees. So in an attempt to help the bees by planting flowers they love in our yards, we may be hurting them. The article encourages people to start their own plants or buy from organic growers. Please read the full article here: http://news.discovery.com/earth/plants/bee-friendly-plants-may-not-130814.htm " This American Life has done a great job in investigating why Climate Change and man's influence on it is such a "hot" topic and why we all duck and jump to avoid the collision when it is brought up. Their presentation, Hot in My Backyard which aired May 17, is one of the best we have heard that explains why the discussion about climate change is difficult and helps explain the view of doubt that still shrouds this very important issue. Listen here. In the first part, reporter Julia Kumari Drapkin tells the story of Colorado’s State Climatologist, Nolan Doesken. Doesken has long believed the humans are driving climate change, but never connected it to his own life. Even after several years of some of the most devastating weather his state has ever seen, Nolan considered climate change a worry for the future. Then, last year, he watched as his state experience some of the most extreme weather it ever has. For the first time, Nolan felt like he was looking at what the future would be like where he lives. He felt scared. Julia tells the story of how this has all changed Nolan, and changed what he’s saying to the people of his home state. In the second part, Producer Ben Calhoun tells the story of a former Congressional Representative from South Carolina, Bob Inglis. Inglis is a conservative Republican who once doubted climate science. After he looked at the research, he changed his mind, and decided to speak out. In 2010, he was mocked by people in his own party and trounced in by a Tea Party-backed candidate. Since then, Bob has dedicated himself to the issue even more — and he’s now trying to create a conservative coalition for climate change action. In the third part, host Ira Glass tells the story of writer turned activist Bill McKibben. McKibben is trying to reinvent progressive politics when it come to climate change. He’s attempting to create a divestment campaign modeled after the successful campaign against apartheid in South Africa. The campaign is designed recast the discussion of climate change with fossil fuel companies as the villains. A milestone has been reached. The atmosphere has passed 400 parts per million of carbon. According to Time Magazine science editor, the most important step to take is reduce the amount of coal we burn for energy. The US leads the world in burning coal. We must go to greener sources of power, solar and wind. It is now more important than ever.
May 10, 2013 Heat-Trapping Gas Passes Milestone, Raising Fears By JUSTIN GILLIS The New York Times The level of the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, has passed a long-feared milestone, scientists reported Friday, reaching a concentration not seen on the earth for millions of years. Scientific instruments showed that the gas had reached an average daily level above 400 parts per million — just an odometer moment in one sense, but also a sobering reminder that decades of efforts to bring human-produced emissions under control are faltering. The best available evidence suggests the amount of the gas in the air has not been this high for at least three million years, before humans evolved, and scientists believe the rise portends large changes in the climate and the level of the sea. “It symbolizes that so far we have failed miserably in tackling this problem,” said Pieter P. Tans, who runs the monitoring program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that reported the new reading. Ralph Keeling, who runs another monitoring program at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, said a continuing rise could be catastrophic. “It means we are quickly losing the possibility of keeping the climate below what people thought were possibly tolerable thresholds,” he said. Virtually every automobile ride, every plane trip and, in most places, every flip of a light switch adds carbon dioxide to the air, and relatively little money is being spent to find and deploy alternative technologies. China is now the largest emitter, but Americans have been consuming fossil fuels extensively for far longer, and experts say the United States is more responsible than any other nation for the high level. The new measurement came from analyzers atop Mauna Loa, the volcano on the big island of Hawaii that has long been ground zero for monitoring the worldwide trend on carbon dioxide, or CO2. Devices there sample clean, crisp air that has blown thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean, producing a record of rising carbon dioxide levels that has been closely tracked for half a century. Carbon dioxide above 400 parts per million was first seen in the Arctic last year, and had also spiked above that level in hourly readings at Mauna Loa. But the average reading for an entire day surpassed that level at Mauna Loa for the first time in the 24 hours that ended at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday. The two monitoring programs use slightly different protocols; NOAA reported an average for the period of 400.03 parts per million, while Scripps reported 400.08. Carbon dioxide rises and falls on a seasonal cycle, and the level will dip below 400 this summer as leaf growth in the Northern Hemisphere pulls about 10 billion tons of carbon out of the air. But experts say that will be a brief reprieve — the moment is approaching when no measurement of the ambient air anywhere on earth, in any season, will produce a reading below 400. “It feels like the inevitable march toward disaster,” said Maureen E. Raymo, a scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, a unit of Columbia University. From studying air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice, scientists know that going back 800,000 years, the carbon dioxide level oscillated in a tight band, from about 180 parts per million in the depths of ice ages to about 280 during the warm periods between. The evidence shows that global temperatures and CO2 levels are tightly linked. For the entire period of human civilization, roughly 8,000 years, the carbon dioxide level was relatively stable near that upper bound. But the burning of fossil fuels has caused a 41 percent increase in the heat-trapping gas since the Industrial Revolution, a mere geological instant, and scientists say the climate is beginning to react, though they expect far larger changes in the future. Indirect measurements suggest that the last time the carbon dioxide level was this high was at least three million years ago, during an epoch called the Pliocene. Geological research shows that the climate then was far warmer than today, the world’s ice caps were smaller, and the sea level might have been as much as 60 or 80 feet higher. Experts fear that humanity may be precipitating a return to such conditions — except this time, billions of people are in harm’s way. “It takes a long time to melt ice, but we’re doing it,” Dr. Keeling said. “It’s scary.” Dr. Keeling’s father, Charles David Keeling, began carbon dioxide measurements on Mauna Loa and at other locations in the late 1950s. The elder Dr. Keeling found a level in the air then of about 315 parts per million — meaning that if a person had filled a million quart jars with air, about 315 quart jars of carbon dioxide would have been mixed in. His analysis revealed a relentless, long-term increase superimposed on the seasonal cycle, a trend that was dubbed the Keeling Curve. Countries have adopted an official target to limit the damage from global warming, with 450 parts per million seen as the maximum level compatible with that goal. “Unless things slow down, we’ll probably get there in well under 25 years,” Ralph Keeling said. Yet many countries, including China and the United States, have refused to adopt binding national targets. Scientists say that unless far greater efforts are made soon, the goal of limiting the warming will become impossible without severe economic disruption. “If you start turning the Titanic long before you hit the iceberg, you can go clear without even spilling a drink of a passenger on deck,” said Richard B. Alley, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University. “If you wait until you’re really close, spilling a lot of drinks is the best you can hope for.” Climate-change contrarians, who have little scientific credibility but are politically influential in Washington, point out that carbon dioxide represents only a tiny fraction of the air — as of Thursday’s reading, exactly 0.04 percent. “The CO2 levels in the atmosphere are rather undramatic,” a Republican congressman from California, Dana Rohrabacher, said in a Congressional hearing several years ago. But climate scientists reject that argument, saying it is like claiming that a tiny bit of arsenic or cobra venom cannot have much effect. Research shows that even at such low levels, carbon dioxide is potent at trapping heat near the surface of the earth. “If you’re looking to stave off climate perturbations that I don’t believe our culture is ready to adapt to, then significant reductions in CO2 emissions have to occur right away,” said Mark Pagani, a Yale geochemist who studies climates of the past. “I feel like the time to do something was yesterday.” More in Environment (2 of 39 articles)Environmental Review to Delay Two Engineered CropsRead More » One of Sustainable Duxbury’s goals is to engage Duxbury High, Middle and Elementary school students in building a more sustainable environment in our town and our region. An example of a meaningful collaboration with the Chandler school took place recently. Chandler School kindergarten teacher Ms. Myrsini Smith has been teaching students in her morning and afternoon classes about protecting our environment. Ms. Smith invited Sustainable Duxbury to join the February 7, 2012 classes to talk about what happens to plastic bottles after they have been used. Former Sustainable Duxbury chairperson Janis Owens and Board member Marion Thayer responded to the request by developing a short presentation that included describing the life cycle of plastic bottles. With the aid of posters, pictures and hand-on activities the students learned about how they can help with recycling plastic products. Owens and Thayer developed a fun activity that asked the students to find the recycle symbol on various kinds of plastic containers, which they did with lots of energy and enthusiasm. Owens and Thayer also brought numerous photos of items that are made of recycled plastic such as sneakers, clothing, bags and more. For more information about Sustainable Duxbury please contact co-chairs Fenna Hanes at fennahanes@yahoo.com or Mike Wilson at mikewilson62@verizon.net. |
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