Globally Green Living

Tomorrow is the big green day - EARTH DAY!!

And I just had a big Earth Day success.. Unfortunetly, my office is a culprit of using the styrofoam cups. However, we (my coworker and I who are the underground Earth Day team in the office) pitched and sold the idea to management to remove the styrofoam cups for one day - Earth Day - and encourage workers to bring their own cups in or use a reusable one the office has in the cupboard. Well - they loved the idea.. So PLEASE feel free to use that idea in your office!

I really hope to just raise awareness..

So our 2 big Earth Day goals for today are:
1) Use a mug for coffee and glass or reusable water bottle for water in the office.

2) Conserve your water usage

Learn how.. (more…)

Shower versus Bath

An average bath requires 30-50 gallons of water. The average shower of four minutes with an old shower head (pre 1992) uses 20 gallons of water. With a low-flow shower head, only 10 gallons of water is used.

Dishwasher versus Handwashing

A dishwasher uses only half the energy and one-sixth of the water, less soap too. Even the most sparing and careful washers could not beat the modern dishwasher. Also a dishwasher can get those dishes alot more clean!

Want some more fun facts? (more…)

Saturday’s song is World on Fire by Sarah McLachlan. Instead of spending a fortune on making the video, she decided to donate the money to numerous charities instead.

One of those is CARE. They help families become independent and develop sustainable ways of living by providing education and business opportunities.

Women and children often suffer from poverty so CARE focuses on them, which ends up helping whole families worldwide. Although CARE provides emergency assistance, they also promote long-term solutions. Some of these include increasing food supplies with crops and livestock as well as providing access to clean water and education.

Clean water is something that many of us take for granted but it is an ongoing struggle for others. When people only have dirty water, they’re forced to drink it and become sick.

CARE is presently campaigning to raise 10 million dollars towards helping people affected by Cyclone Nargis. The cyclone destroyed rice crops and contaminated Burma’s water.

“CARE has provided clean water, food and emergency supplies to nearly 120,000 people in 12 areas throughout the Irrawaddy Delta and around Yangon.” (Cyclone Relief Picks up Pace, PYAPON, Myanmar, May 29, 2008)

Sarah is also one of the many strong supporting celebrities of the anti-poverty movement Make Poverty History.

Other supporters include Brad Pitt, Bono, Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Emma Thompson, George Clooney, Jamie Fox, Mike Myers and more. Since much poverty is caused by damage to the environment by humans, it is possible for all of us to help repair both.

Denny Klein originally designed a water burning engine for tools like his welding torch that can burn metal in seconds. He expanded by designing a water burning engine to fuel cars.

There are plans to design a hummer for the U.S. military that can run on water or gasoline and he’s taking his patented method to other consumer markets.

Cars only require a small amount of water for fuel but not everyone has a never ending supply of water. Denny says he only needs 4 ounces of water to go 100 miles! Check out the fox news video clip called water as an alternative fuel source for more.

The featured videos today are Elton John’s Believe and Blessed. They got me thinking about future generations who we will never meet but care enough about to want to protect.

Elton John started the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992 after getting frustrated at the lack of help many people with AIDS were getting. So far, they have helped fund over 100 million dollars towards the fight against AIDS in 55 different countries.

Prevention programs are helping thousands including poor people, drug users, gay men and some who have just been released from prison. Without access to proper health care, condoms, clean needles and safe water, many are left vulnerable and risk passing down AIDS to another generation.

There is still a lot of discrimination and ignorance when it comes to AIDS but when people like Elton John step up to the plate more people might feel better about and/or be able to reach out for help. Anyone can get AIDS including women and children but it’s been so stigmatized some are still ashamed to come forward since they might be ostracized.

Believe Lyrics:

I believe in love, it’s all we got
Love has no boundaries, costs nothing to touch
War makes money, cancer sleeps
Curled up in my father and that means something to me
Churches and dictators, politics and papers
Everything crumbles sooner or later
But love, I believe in love

I believe in love, it’s all we got
Love has no boundaries, no borders to cross
Love is simple, hate breeds
Those who think difference is the child of disease
Father and son make love and guns
Families together kill someone
Without love, I believe in love

Without love I wouldn’t believe
In anything that lives and breathes
Without love I’d have no anger
I wouldn’t believe in the right to stand here
Without love I wouldn’t believe
I couldn’t believe in you
And I wouldn’t believe in me
Without love

I believe in love
I believe in love
I believe in love

Blessed Lyrics:

Hey you, you’re a child in my head
You haven’t walked yet
Your first words have yet to be said
But I swear you’ll be blessed

I know you’re still just a dream
your eyes might be green
Or the bluest that I’ve ever seen
Anyway you’ll be blessed

And you, you’ll be blessed
You’ll have the best
I promise you that
I’ll pick a star from the sky
Pull your name from a hat
I promise you that, promise you that, promise you that
You’ll be blessed

I need you before I’m too old
To have and to hold
To walk with you and watch you grow
And know that you’re blessed

This is an innovative invention that allows people to both transport water and filter it on a bicycle, bypassing the need for trucks, cars or burning fuel through heating wood to boil the water.

I have had a horribly hectic day so just sharing a quick video on this Aquaduct invention. It seems simple but it’s a great idea. As you pedal the bicycle with the water tank attached, it filters the water into another container.

It would also help prevent people from getting further back or neck injuries walking back and forth. Check it out.

As the drought continues in Southern California, The Intelligent Use of Water Summit VIII will be leading a discussion and bringing in environmental experts to discuss water conservation. They will also be dealing with strategies that relate to landscape irrigation.

The summit is scheduled for Monday December 31, 2007 from 2:30pm to 4:30pm and will take place at The Pasadena Hilton in California. (Pasadena,Calif., Dec. 28, PR)

I am in Canada and we usually have one day a week that we are allowed to water our lawn or garden in the summer, although using small containers is allowed. I don’t remember this happening too much in the past but it seems to be a regular occurrence over the last few years. It’s obviously getting drier, which is not a good sign for the climate or our water supply.

Drip Irrigation

They’re using something called the Hippo Roller with success in Africa. It’s a simple but effective invention and the barrel basically becomes the wheel with a handle attached to it. It was invented to help alleviate suffering from the shortage of water there. 5 gallons or twenty liters can be collected and transported easily in each barrel.

They also use larger barrels in their Hippo Food Security System, which involves low-pressure drip irrigation. Plants do not necessarily need a lot of water but require a steady supply of it so a system such as this is practical. It provides the opportunity for sustainable food security and is ideal when water is scarce. It would also save a lot of trips carrying water back and forth since the reservoir can hold up to 210 liters of water.

• If you would like to learn about using organic methods for natural disease and pest control Susan from Earthly Garden has an informative post about various methods.

Just a brief warning Penn and Teller star in this clip and curse a few times.

I think some good questions are asked about water such as:

“Why not just drink it out of the tap?” A taste test Penn and Teller did in New York showed 75% preferred the taste of tap water over bottled.

They also took over a trendy restaurant, printed phony water menus and served bottles with fancy labels costing up to $7.00 a bottle. The source was from a garden hose. The comments are hilarious. If you haven’t seen it check it out.

David Helvarg wrote the book “50 Ways to Save the Ocean” to show how everyone can have an impact on the ocean with the choices they make.

He reminds us of some simple things we can do such as:

• Use less plastic.

• Give up bottled water if you can. If your water isn’t safe, help insist it becomes so. It’s cheaper to protect our natural resources than it is to develop water treatment plants.

• Clean up after yourself when visiting the beach.

• Drink pop out of cans since they can be recycled.

• Use reusable bags.

• Visit aquariums and become more educated on protecting wildlife.

To learn more about protecting our wetlands, coral reefs and fish, watch David’s presentation on 50 Ways to Save the Ocean.

I often think about how much is still unknown about our planet. It is amazing the beauty and the drama that unfold while we live our anonymous lives. Knowledge is our true immaterial legacy and yet it is also as fragile as the weakest of materials. Our understanding of things constantly evolves thanks to the many people who devote themselves to expand our knowledge. Those people who think that the mathematics, the chemistry, and the physics behind any natural phenomenon are as beautiful as the phenomenon itself, as Richard Feynman put it.

And soon we will learn much more about the ocean, which is the cradle of life in our planet, and that so many times we forget or take for granted.

No, there is no river underground. In the old days people thought that underground water came from a nondepletable underground river. These days we know that that is not true. We also know that our planet holds fabulous water supplies but most of these are not readily available for us to consume. Freshwater, it turns out, is a depletable resource. When thinking about using freshwater, we must think of the different alternatives where it can be used. Does it make more sense to use it to irrigate crops, irrigate lawns, household consumption, etc. Of course, there is no right answer because it all depends on how we value each different alternative use. But how many of us think about those when we consume the water that comes out of the tap? Almost everything we consume in some way or other uses water as an input, so the demand for water is not just a direct demand for water but also a derived demand, that is a demand that is created because we demand products that use water.

Our water is in trouble, can we get it out of it?