Building an feeding

Ordering some lego bricks is a great way to build a community.



Buying dog food is a great way to feed it.

Down The Drain - Part One

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a wedding of a friend in Traverse City, Michigan. Following yet another international move back to the states and a few months of hard work and settling back in, I was looking forward to spend a weekend in an exciting vacation location. A day after we arrived to Traverse City we decided to head out and explore the area, focusing on Old Mission Peninsula. Our first stop was the Mission Point Lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula. The lighthouse was built in 1870 to mark the gate point to Grand Traverse West Arm and East Arm bays.

The one thing that caught my attention when we got to the lighthouse was how far inland the lighthouse has been. A second glance made me realize it wasn't that far out, it was the lake that was receding from the original shoreline.

Lake Michigan and with it Lake Huron have been losing water to the ocean, to evaporation and to human consumption in great amounts in the past 20 years. Lake Michigan lost 6 feet from its average water level. A small chart in one of the rooms in the lighthouse showed the fluctuations over the past 150 years and the continuous drop at the end.

I chatted with the caretakers of the lighthouse briefly about this. Lake Michigan is one of the biggest sources of above ground sweet water in the world. Its water serve most of the Mid West. The lower the water level drops, the lower the quality of the water drops and the more scarce drinking water will become in the area. All these call for better care of the Lakes water and better conservation of it.

The honest truth is – whether we are from the Mid West or not, we can all do better to conserve water. The United States doubled its population in the past 50 years and 36 states are now facing water shortages. By taking a few small actions we can save up to 30% of our water consumption at home without making big lifestyle changes. Here are the first two steps to take to prevent some of our drinking water from going down the drain:

1. Install aerators in your faucets and showers – Low flow aerators help increase your faucets and showers' water pressure while lowering water waste. The science behind it is pretty simple, the aerators are built in a way that mixes air into the flow of the water. You will feel like you're using a lot of water while you'll be saving about 30% from what you used before. Aerators are relatively cheap and very easy to install. Spending these few dollars and two minutes of installing can save you tens of dollars and gallons of water every year.




2. Refit your toilet – Dual Flush – this is a trending change in the south west, but other countries, like Israel and Jordan have a long tradition of dual flush toilets. Dual flush valves allow you to choose the amount of water you want to use after using the toilet. You can choose the full amount for solids or 0.5-0.7 of the amount for liquids. Given that an average flush sends about 1.6 gallons of water down the drain, you can save up to 3 gallons of drinking water every day by using the dual flush valve. The prices for dual flush valves varry based on the type you need for your toilet (you might want to get a new toilet altogether). Either way, very much like the aerator it will save gallons of water and lower your water bill significantly.

What tips do you have for water conservation at home?

You're paying too much! 5 ways to lower your electricity bill

In the state of the current economy we could all use a break. Many times we are looking for new sources of cash flow or try to cut down on major expenses like going out or delaying a major buy. Here are other alternatives that can help you lower regular expenses without taking a heavy toll on your way of life. 

The following tips can give you big savings at little to no cost and reduce your electricity bills in the long run, giving you and the environment a chance to recover.

Change your light bulbs

6 months ago my wife and I moved to our current apartment. It is a very spacious 2 bedroom apartment and definitely an upgrade from our previous campus apartment. At the apartment there are 12 light bulb fixtures. 8 of them actually had 100 watts incandescent light bulbs put in by the landlord. If all the lights in the house were on at the same time, we would have used 800 Watts worth of power.

We decided to invest in 11 Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs ranging from 8 Watts in small rooms to 15 Watts in bigger rooms. Now we have more bulbs in, but if we choose to turn all of them on they would spend 147 watts - 18.5% of the previous power usage, for us that meant saving over $100 a year.

Buying CFL bulbs used to be an expense. But as demand rises, the market rules work their magic and prices go down. An average pack of 4 60W incandescent lightbulbs costs $7.99 on Amazon.com while 8 13W CFL bulbs cost $11.75 on Amazon.com. The 11 cents you pay more per bulb pays off after the 4th day of use. 

This was wonderful way for us to reduce our carbon footprint and lower our monthly expenses.

Give your fridge some space

One of these untold secrets that no one tells you when you start your adult life - refrigerators can be pretty sensitive. They need you to give them some space. It's not that they have feelings, but they have coils. Through these coils (which are usually at the back or bottom of the fridge) they radiate the heat out. Without enough space - they will heat up and work harder. So make sure your fridge has enough space to cool down. It doesn't have to be a lot - 3-4 inches from the wall should be fine. If you have things on its sides, make sure you don't stock up too much on top. After all, heat rises.

Guide to cleaning your  fridge coils

Thou shalt cleanst thy coils 

If you really love your fridge (and you should, it feeds you on a daily basis), you should clean its coils about once a year. It's not a fun or easy job , but it will make the fridge consume much less energy and will be less likely to break down. 

Now each fridge has its own temperament, so it's hard to determine how much money and carbon you'll save on these actions, but according to my research, it will be a significant amount.

Give your air conditioning some air. 

Two other sensitive appliances that you should be kind to in order to save power are Your air conditioning and your dryer. Your AC- whether it is central air or a unit, demands cleaning its filters every 3-6 months. It will make the AC significantly more power efficiant as well as provide you with stronger airflow. 

If you have central air, it's important to clean the grates every time you clean the filters. If the AC works well but have no way to throw the hot/cold air out, the engine will heat up and demand more power to cool itself down. 

Don't smother your dryer.

Now honestly, how often do you wait until the second or third cycle to clean the dryer's filter? Well, don't wait for it. Clean the dryer's filter every time. It takes a second and helps you, your bills and the environment. It is also wise to give your dryer a little bit of space as well, if possible, and make sure all that hot air is coming out of the room. 

Cleaning the dryer's vent is just as important as cleaning its filter. Some of the lint gets stuck in the vent and clogs it just like cholestrol does to human arteries. For your dryer sake (and your own) make sure to clean the vent regularly. 

The ultimate way of saving energy on a dryer is not having one. This works for very specific weathers (where we live we don't have one because it's sunny most of the year and never freezes). But understanding that not everyone lives in a "laundry friendly weather", if you have to have one, at least be kind to it. It will return the sympathy. 

That's it for this week! Do you have any tips on improving electrical efficiancy in your home? Post it in a comment and we'll add it to the list giving you full and fair credit! 

Hello World! Or... what's left of it... - A Fresh Start

About five years ago, during one of my breaks in college, I had taken upon myself a very presumptious project - to make the world a better place one blog post at a time. 

I was finishing my first year of Political Science studies and was just done writing a paper about the Kyoto Accords and the diplomatic accurances around it. Specifically, I focused on the United States refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocols despite the fact that its leaders were the main architects of the agreements. As I was doing research about the international talks for an environmental agreement, I learned that there are many grassroots movements around the world that are working to implement the core values of environmental living. These values and the actions behind them, for the most part, can be explained in both liberal and conservative terms. Moreover - many of the call-for-actions that these movements were simply logical on a very individualistic level and not just on a community level. 

Bujagali Falls, Uganda

The more I've learned about how we as individuals can effect the world around us, the more I wanted to share those insights with others. And that's how the idea for this blog came about. I decided I will write one blogpost each day about one single action that one can take to make one's individual world a little better and more friendly to the environment. I've set myself a very high bar - producing 1001 Green Tips for a Better World. 

Being a college student, of course I had dropped the project when break was over and I had only gotten to Tip #24 (Don't Reload - Recharge)... 

I have never left my passion for living a more environmentally friendly life though and kept learning about different ways I can make my world better just by doing something different. Many times I have seen that making these changes would also benefit me economically and emotionally. 

In recent years I have been involved in social media promotions for several non profits that I support and work for. During that period I have learned many important lessons about blogging. Many of which showed me that regardless of me dropping the ball on my pretentious project, it would never have succeeded in its initial format. My posts were too short  for Search Engines to pick up; I was posting daily, which means people wouldn't subscribe to receive my posts by email; I wasn't giving any visual aids; Etc... etc... 

Taking all these technological lessons and environmental lessons in mind, and getting inspired by my wife's blog on minimalism, I believe that I am ready to start over. This time with a more measured progression. Instead of daily posts I will do my best to put up a new post every 7-10 days. The posts will discuss different topics and ideas about how to make small changes in your every day life to improve them and your local environment. All posts will be open for discussion , comments and suggestions and I hope I will learn even more from them.  In fact, I would live to know your thoughts about this current post.

So there we go! I look forward to seeing what this blog develops into. 

Tip # 24 - Don't Reload - Recharge

Purchase rechargeable batteries and a battery recharger (some battery rechargers will also recharge regular alkaline batteries).

Solar powered battery recharchers are available online



To read about ways to get the best out of your rechargeables - check this link out