Poll | 04/22/2009 12:00 am

In this recession, do you think there's more or less emphasis this year on going green?

Read more about: Earth Day, Environment, Money, Recession

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I’ve been very Green activist for years meaning all organic, walk instead of drive, buy local, recycle, low carbon footprint, and looking forward to total off-the-grid solar powered home. It’s the right thing to do.

By Suzanne de Cornelia on 04/22/2009 1:33 am

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I’m with you Suzanne, the more we can do to keep and restore our planet the better I feel.

By Mel Berg on 04/22/2009 5:57 am

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We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

- Native American Proverb

Earth Day

Yes, it’s that time of the year again when we forget about Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, the US banking boondoggle, and -yes - Britney Spears, and wonder what we should be doing to preserve our precious planet. We’re not in Oz anymore. Time to get real.

Some folks collect garbage by the roadside and that’s an aesthetic aid,
while others cower in front of the TV, far too afraid
to handle the truth that even their idiot box is contributing to global warming.

Many fancy themselves ecoconsumers, buying hemp clothes and green cleaners
and forget that more stuff won’t stave off the doom and gloomers.

Others - like me - want to enjoy a mauve sunset . . . or counting sandhill cranes
instead of preaching the end of the world like we’re all insane.

Yet there is something everyone can do — and it’s not too tough: unplug yourself for a day
It’s about disconnecting from stuff — to be without a car, cellphone, computer or satellite TV!
And, instead, watch the dust dance in the air or the coyotes prowl through your yard with nary a care.

Get out in nature, breathe in the fresh air, give thanks for the natural world in all of its glory. And then, do the small things that will collectively mean so much - each of us doing our part in keeping it so beautiful for the generations to come.

By joan larsen on 04/22/2009 12:28 pm

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Having been invited by the explorer Jacques Cousteau to co-author an environmental manifesto —and having seen the reaction in the public— I would say definitively that our generation is committed to preserving the rights of generations that come after us. Because of disputes regarding Cousteau’s estate, publication of the manuscript that he and I wrote was held up for a decade; further disputes in his family over who would appear on television programs effectively effaced all promotion of the work when it was finally published. At the same time, I’ve just returned to my home in Europe after a short trip to the American midwest. When word of this almost unknown book ("The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus") was talked about in Chicago-area media, I was amazed at the number of speaking engagements I received. High-school kids, giving up their lunch hour, not only listened during an assembly but lined up afterward to ask the most astute questions ever posed to me. Community groups drew hundreds of others —with ministers bringing their congregants. One person almost wept; she had read the book at her library, asked me simply to sign a piece of paper —and then told me how essential it was for parents, and even those of us who haven’t had children, to understand the urgency of our challenge. No where to dispose of nuclear waste —fish sources so destroyed that in 40 years average Americans won’t know the taste of tuna, too expensive and scarce. How encouraging that the world now realizes that action is imperative for the good of our children, and theirs.

By Susan Schiefelbein on 04/22/2009 6:23 am

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It’s people like you, Susan, that help promote the saving of our land and waters. Thank you. Last night on PBS’s Frontline, they covered the damage that has been done to our waters from run-off on the large commercial poultry farms from their vast amounts of manure and run-off from all the other chemicals that get into our waters. Not only will we not have tuna, we might not have most other fish if we don’t do something about this now. Many of these problems stem from the lack of regulation from the EPA who has been sleeping at the wheel for years. We had a beginning of pretty tight regulations and then Reagan undid them––big government bad and all that nonsense. When money is an issue, people tend to ignore what’s best for the environment, and act according to what’s best for business. With this new administration it looks as if we are back on track. I’m just hoping it’s not too late.

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 04/22/2009 9:03 am

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I watched Frontline last night, as well…..as part of a discussion group. Yesterday, Erin Brokovich was in my area, to help out a town nearby, that has been given the run-a-round for 10 years, by the EPA, regarding ITS water…runoffs from coca-cola and Pharma has done as much damage to our Super-Fund declared area (we have TWO superfund sites, one for water, one for air), as Tysons’ chicken has done to the Chesapeake Bay….About 2 years ago, we met with the EPA about 5 blocks from my home….regarding our issue…a chemically toxic piece of land, in the middle of a neighborhood, that was abandoned by an international manufaturing company, who when they closed down, failed to clean up their mess. The company has been gone for years—-but there were no fences surrounding the property, no signs to say it had barrels of chemicals sitting around and that it was dangerous——while children in the neighborhood used the vacant land as their playground. I was given opportunity to speak—-and they were very quiet when I finished…almost embarrassed to look at me….all they had to do was look at me and see the consequences of the poisoning of America. After the audience finished their applause, one of the 3 EPA people on the panel, told us that Bush had SEVERELY cut their budget, that their hands were tied….but they were going BACK to the International company, to tell them once again, that they MUST clean up the land, and that they could not leave the poisons, as they wanted to, in the neighborhood, they would have to spend the money and take care of it the way they should have at the outset. Money IS more important than life, to the old school companies….BUT!!!! Bush is no longer in office! to ‘protect’ them! yeah!

By Patty E on 04/22/2009 9:44 am

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Thanks, Patty, you are another one of our citizens who not only cares, but acts.

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 04/22/2009 10:54 am

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I think going green is great however only a select few are able to afford the upgrades it takes to go green. I dont have the luxury of walking to work as I live an hour away from my work…Why is going green so expensive when its so good for our Earth, make it more affordable and you would have more people upgrading their homes and driving hybrid cars.

By C Hardy on 04/22/2009 7:00 am

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Hi C, I agree the upgrades are expensive! Maybe if more people who could afford it were doing it, the prices would go down as they always do when something is in demand. My Hubby and I have an extra Christmas club account we save money in all year and then buy a "green" upgrade. Last year it was an on demand hot water service, the year before a wood stove, this year money is being saved for solar panels to knock off some of the cost of electric (especially since the price caps are due to come off soon) Next year probably more solar or even a wind turbine…who knows? The wood stove has saved us thousands already. Chopping wood sucks but I pay my nephews who are football players and they get a workout from stacking and chopping, lol We pay $500.00 to a saw mill in October and get a tri axel dump full of all of the stumps and unusable parts that would have been left to rot. Neighbors and friends also give us the hardwood from trees they have to cut down due to storm damage and etc. This heats our home all winter. Sure beats a 300.00-400.00 a month gas bill! :o) Little by little you can do it, a hybrid car is far off in the future for me unless the prices fall but I am doing what I can afford. The on demand hot water has already paid for itself. :o)

By Heidi W on 04/22/2009 9:48 am

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I had my first lightbulb go out on me, on Monday. In 2004, I bought those swirly energy saving lightbulbs for everywhere in the house……Sam’s carried them, and displayed them next to a meter that measured and compared the energy used between the lightbulbs we all used, and the newer, swirlys——that is all I needed—-I bought for all three floors of the house, even for my lamps…..lets’ see….5 years with only one lightbulb burning out—-I think it ended up CHEAPER to go green, in the long run—-at least on the lightbulbs.

I too, as someone previously mentioned, went green a long time ago with several areas—-food, organic gardening, cleaning products—-and to be honest with you—-it is cheaper to buy vinegar and toothpaste, than it is to buy a chemcally derived cleaning product….car-pooling has allowed me to use less gasoline, and everyone wants to do that to save gas for themselves…I learned last week that my Electric/heating bills this past winter were half that ($260 max) of my ‘one -occupant’ neighbors’ house, ($550 avg per month) behind me, and they close off half the house in the winter—-but I have double paned windows with storms on top of them—-they work outside the home, someone is home all day and all night here…. I had insulation blown into the attic, and the sides were all checked and passed——My house was built in 1926—-so no one can suggest that I have the newest and the latest in building materials, that would allow me super-duper energy efficiency…. at the outset, you have to put out money—-but not a lot for lightbulbs, or a garden, or storms from a discount box store—-but I have been ‘payed back’ by the investment many times over—-and it has only been 5 years!

By Patty E on 04/22/2009 10:00 am

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Patty, Those compact fluorescent are great, I replaced all of my light bulbs inside and out of the house, plus added solar landscape lights 4 years ago and none have had to be replaced yet. I save on average $45.00 a month as compared to the old lightbulbs. Hanging clothes out to dry instead of using the dryer helps too, sheets always smell so nice when they are hung by my roses to dry in the summer. :o)

By Heidi W on 04/22/2009 10:30 am

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dear Heidi, i’m curious as to how you get your towels soft hanging them to dry. we have the washoe zephur come thru there and dry everything out pretty quick. but my towels are stiff as boards no matter what i do to them. i doubled the fabric softener (but that seems to me to defeat the purpose of being environmentally healthy if your adding double the toxins to it to make it soft) and it didn’t help a bit. anybody have any ideas? i cannot stand hard towels so i still use the dryer. but the clothes come out buttery soft and warm just like the dryer and if you put them up just the way you want them to be folded on the line there are no wrinkles.

By Nancy Pea on 04/22/2009 11:53 pm

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Hi Nancy,

I was told not to use the fabric softener on the towels if you are going to line dry, it supposedly makes them more absorbent and affects the softness. I had that problem too, nothing like crunchy towels huh?

I tumble dry them for about ten minutes to dry them slightly then line dry them the rest of the way, 10 minutes in the dryer is better than 30. :o) Or tumble them for ten minutes when they are still a bit damp from hanging on the line. The higher quality towels (higher thread count) don’t seem to get as crunchy. Someone else told me to put a tablespoon of white vinegar in the wash water to soften the water, but I haven’t tried that yet. My Grandmother used to hang clothes and sheets out in the dead of winter! I never bothered to find out how she kept her towels so soft. I wish I would have asked her, but it never crossed my mind at the time. Why should she hang them out when she had a perfectly good dryer? Guess we are going to have to learn things all over again. :o)

By Heidi W on 04/23/2009 5:44 am

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i use twenty mule team borax (which is supposedly pure) to counteract the hard water. i also did some towels without fabric softener also. still solid as a rock. lol. but i always use vinegar in my wash as it’s a great disinfectant (it eliminates pet and human urine and feces) and whitener most of the time. it cannot do it all by itself. but the borax does help and is a natural water softener. i will try that idea. b/c frankly i have been bad since i got the dryer and the warmer weather has started. i have problems being out in the sun so mostly i just dry the clothes in the dryer (bad me). i guess when this little bad weather we have coming this weekend is over i will hang them again and see how it does with tumbling for 10mins first. thanx heidi!

By Nancy Pea on 04/23/2009 2:20 pm

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I installed those too, when they first came out and not one has blown, yet! However, now the newest and best is LED bulbs. They’re about $30/each here, but well worth it.

I cannot hang my wash outdoors to dry, or I sneeze my way to medical care (a sharp MD caught what I was doing, as the reason for a "serious seasonal allergy." Hence I hang dry indoors, too but use the dryer for sheets/blankets, etc. My utilities are very low - I had my insulation increased to R82 when I moved in to this home, then also added 5 more return vents, and enlarged 2, as well. I’d have one of those in every closet if I could. ;-)

I insist always, since 1969 that rooftops are white, or close to white - my friends had a bloomin’ fit when I had a wood shingle roof (with 5 different levels and peaks on it) painted white, but those bills went down!!!! I also use a strip for electrical applainces and turn them off at night, and when I leave the house for more than 2 days, as well as put the water heater on "Vacation" mode, and a programmable thermostat takes care of the rest. I also collect water in the shower that runs while the hot is "coming" in - and my shower head lights up red when the water’s hot enough to dip in for the shower.

Now, to find sensibly affordable wrap and ‘bags’ for small food storage amounts; presently, I use Lock-N-Locks, or Tupper, but frankly, I never want anything from my home going into our lakes or oceans. That grieves me terribly. I adore water!

By C jay on 04/24/2009 12:51 am