You Can Go Green

Don't Get Bullied by the UnGreen

2012-04-26T12:56:00.001-05:00

I just read a short post about a girl who asked that in lieu of presents for her 8th birthday, people would donate to a green organization. Her friend's parents openly bullied her by telling her to her face that she was stupid for caring. A lot of kids would have forgotten about the request and slinked away in shame when faced with a public flogging like this one. This kid took her request up a notch by creating a website further advancing her cause. Way to go kid! That's the way to show those idiot parents.

I wonder how many adults would have stepped up as admirably as this kid did when faced with a similar situation? The best thing I take away from this story is that an 8 year old kid has become a role model for other kids and adults.

What Stores Are Doing for Earth Day

2012-04-20T12:49:00.003-05:00

One of the best events a store can do every year is an Earth Day event. Let me give you an example of an outstanding Earth Day event in Lubbock, Texas that brings needed exposure to the fact that we need to do more to help our world and also drums up business for Market Street.

Market Street is a grocery store in Lubbock that falls under the United Supermarkets brand. It is the most popular grocery store in Lubbock and strives to provide the best in customer service. One of the best things a grocery store can do for people is to educate them and provide goods that promote earth friendly and sustainable items.

This Saturday and Sunday, the 21st and 22nd of April, Market Street will host an Earth Day Expo between the hours of 11AM to 5PM. The event will feature samples of and discussions about organic, natural and sustainable products.

“We’re looking forward to the opportunity to provide our guests with how to be more environmentally friendly through our great product selection,” Wes Jackson, United’s chief merchandising officer, said in a statement.

Among the dozens of products to be sampled: organic grass-fed beef, Marine Stewardship Council-certified cod fillets, Full Circle All Natural Take & Bake breads and organic wines in sustainable packaging.

I Have Been Busy and Will Now Return to My Blog on Going Green

2012-04-19T12:57:00.002-05:00

I have some readers who follow my blog for new posts. A few of them have emailed me and wondered why I have not posted for awhile. My wife started having some fairly serious medical issues a few weeks back and we had to start seeing numerous doctors and undergo numerous tests in order to find out what is happening to her. During that time, it has been a huge drain on my time also to deal with insurance and business issues regarding all of her medical visits and test.

The doctors still cannot tell her exactly what is going on but, at least, they have ruled out some of things they were worried it could be. I now have more time and will return to blogging just in time for the Earth Day time of year.

I hope my loyal readers will understand and will come back and continue to read the You Can Go Green Blog.

The Ultimate Green Insult

2012-03-25T13:36:00.003-05:00

I was driving home from the grocery store this morning when I saw what I think is the biggest insult to the green movement I have seen in a while. I only wish I could have taken a picture of it, but traffic was moving and it would have placed me and the other drivers in peril. I will try to get a picture if I see it again. I will try to paint a picture using words instead.

A Hummer with very large tires passed by me just as the passenger rolled the window down to flick their cigarette out onto the street, followed by a candy wrapper. This was no ordinary Hummer either. It is jacked way up on the enlarged wheels. What does this vehicle get for gas mileage? Maybe 7 mph? Then, add to that throwing a cigarette and a candy wrapper onto the street, and you can understand that the average person would probably think the owner of the Hummer has no real interest in being green.

That would be okay too. I mean, as much as I would hope that others would adopt an Eco friendly attitude, it just is not meant to be for everyone, but what I witnessed made my blood boil. The Hummer had a bumper sticker affixed to it that proclaimed, "Be Seen Being Green." I can only guess the bumper sticker was put on by the owner as a joke or someone else put it on there as a sort of slap at the owner for being so wasteful toward the environment. Crazy, but true.

EPA Nails Clean Air Act Violator Belvan Corporation

2012-03-24T20:37:00.001-05:00

A federal judge slaps a Lubbock, Texas corporation with a large fine for violating the Clean Air Act. It is good to see corporations that harm the environment pay the price. Let's hope we see more of this kind of punishment doled out on other violators.

Federal judge orders Belvan Corporation to pay $500,000 for violating Clean Air Act http://bit.ly/GMjAVX

The Mega Bicycle Share Program in Hangzhou, China

2012-03-22T12:46:00.005-05:00

Many large urban areas are beginning to create really fantastic bicycle share programs. Modern bicycle share programs seem to be a United States phenomena because it gets the press. Of course, older countries were depending on bicycles long before the United States was and continues to do so even after the advent of the car. In China, the car is becoming an important part of the culture. Recently, China took over the second place spot in the number of cars on the road in their country. It took over Japan's place is starting to close in on the United States. The problem is that Chinese officials have not been able to build roads fast enough for the amount of cars they predict will be on the road in the next decade or two.

Officials there have been busy designing alternatives for the traffic problems on the horizon. The largest bicycle sharing program was created as a result. It is in the city of Hangzhou, which is a city of about 7 million people in the southern part of the country. This city has provided 50,000 bicycles after starting out with only 2,800 only 3 years ago. There are over 2,000 service points where the red bicycles can be found. These stations are spaced only a thousand feet from each other in the city center so that it is easy to find a bicycle, use one, and drop it off so that someone else will be able to use it too.

Users praise the city for the convenience it has put into their lives so that they do not have to worry about waiting for a bus or finding parking spaces if they drove a car. The Hangzhou Bicycle Company, which maintains the program, says that it has plans to put 175,000 bicycles into place by 2020. Other cities worldwide could learn a great deal from this example.

Going Too Far Green?

2012-03-18T12:26:00.004-05:00

I was reading some articles and blogs about going green. I am always looking for other people's opinions of what green is. I ran across one blog that implores people to go back to basic living in order to go green. The premise of the blog is that nobody living in a modern society will ever be green because of all that we need to fit into society.

The writer makes a good point. The mere practice of owning a car goes so far against truly being green that this one thing disqualifies us from calling ourselves green. Even driving a hybrid or an electric car goes against true greenness according to the author. She states that the metal and the process of manufacturing all that goes into making any car consumes huge resources that create a large carbon footprint.

She makes similar arguments against houses, clothes, running water, indoor plumbing, etc. The number one argument she made in trying to get people to truly become green is to get rid of their washers and dryers and hand wash and air dry our laundry. Interesting, but unlikely in my opinion.

Here is my point. We live in a modern society and nothing short of some sort of apocalyptic war will change the way we live. Sure, I drive a car and I have a washer and dryer and even live in a nice house. I am not going to change any of that anytime soon, but I can find ways to cut more unsustainable resources than I had before I became aware of how to help the environment.

You are going to read a dozen different opinions on how to be green if you read a dozen different green sites. Yes, we need to leave our world in better condition than it was left to us, or at least no worse. Sustainability is the goal and continuing to depend on nonrenewable fossil fuels is not going to get it done. Searching for and demanding our government create avenues for entrepreneurs to find alternative methods to fuel our world with renewable resources will ensure that we do not ever need to forego our modern society's penchant for convenience.

We can never go too far green. I just don't think we need to give up everything in order to reach a sustainable world.

More Facts About Global Warming

2012-03-16T23:02:00.003-05:00

The following facts about global warming comes from some different sources, such as the World Health Organization, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and National Geographic. Some of these facts are alarming. Here they are:

1. Since 1990, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have increased by over 6 million metric tons yearly. Just about all of it is attributed to human activities.

2. The United States is responsible for almost 20% of all carbon dioxide emissions that are produced worldwide.

3. The primary gas responsible for global warming is carbon dioxide.

4. Carbon dioxide's effects in the atmosphere will linger for at least 100 years.

5. Global warming does not necessarily mean higher temperatures. It is also causing record rainfalls in parts of the world while extreme droughts are occurring in other locations.

6. Sea levels are rising at an alarming rate. Some experts claim that our oceans' water level could rise 2 feet in the next 100 years causing some places to disappear underwater.

7. The hottest decade ever was from 2000-2009. Eight of the hottest years ever were during that decade. The current decade started off with a bang as 2010 was the hottest year on record.

8. The World Health Organization says that effects of global warming, such as droughts, floods, decreased food production, and diseases from these problems have caused over 155,000 deaths worldwide.

9. A few hundred species of plants and animals are migrating north to finder less extreme heat. One report was recently made about a strain of grass that has invaded Antarctica and threatens its fragile ecosystem.

10. Urban and rural areas are both seeing warming trends at the same rate which demonstrates global warming is not caused only in regions or areas.

How is Aluminum Recycled?

2012-03-13T10:00:00.002-05:00

I get the search for how aluminum is recycled a lot on my blog. Let me try to make it as simple as I can.

1. The consumer places their aluminum recyclables in the recycling center's bins.

2. The aluminum is collected and taken to the treatment plant.

3. The aluminum is sorted and cleaned and prepared for the next step.

4. The aluminum is melted which gets rid of the coatings and ink that was on the aluminum cans and other aluminum packages.

5. The aluminum is transformed into very large blocks called ingots which actually consist of about 1.6 million aluminum cans.

6. The mill then rolls these ingots out so that the aluminum is more flexible and has greater strength.

7. New products are then made from the recycled aluminum. In fact, aluminum you placed in the recycling bins can be made into new products within just 6 weeks.

I hope this helps answer the question of how aluminum is recycled.

What is Global Warming?

2012-03-12T09:10:00.003-05:00

I have written this blog for a few years now and am proud that this is the place that a lot of people come when they want answers to some of their questions. I have written a great deal about global warming, but I have to admit that I was surprised that I never wrote a post answering the basic question, "What is global warming?"

For the best answer to this question, I turned to the New Mexico Solar Energy Association (NMSEA), which put together a nice little energy concepts primer. The NMSEA says that "global warming is the increase of Earth's average surface temperature due to the effect of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide(CO2) emissions from burning fossil fuels or from deforestation, which trap heat that would otherwise escape from Earth. This is a type of greenhouse effect.?"

The Earth's climate is mostly influenced by the first 6 miles or so of the atmosphere. If you were to see Earth from space and scale it to size, the atmosphere that matters would be about as thin as the skin of an onion. When you think of the atmosphere in these terms, you can see that we Earthlings could easily affect it.

The most significant greenhouse gas is water vapor. Even slight increases in atmospheric levels of CO2 can cause the water vapors to increase in temperature. CO2 tends to stay in the atmosphere for hundreds of years while water vapor easily condenses or vaporizes. Water vapor levels adjust to prevailing samples quickly but CO2 stays constant and becomes a controlling factor. More CO2 means that the balance the atmosphere finds results in higher temperatures and water vapor levels.

The NMSEA claims that humans have increased the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere by about 30%. That is pretty significant. These increases coincide with the increased use of fossil fuels. That is why it is thought that humans cause global warming. It is thought that, if things stay as they have been going, the Earth will reach CO2 levels that have not been seen on Earth in the last 50 million years.

Graphs show that the Earth's temperature levels started rising significantly around 1900 and has continued to climb since. This coincides with the fact that deforestation began in the 1800's and then a sharp increase in emissions tied to the Industrial Revolution leading up to 1900.

The NMSEA has a much more detailed explanation of what is causing global warming along with graphs. You can see the whole explanation here.

The Impacts of Global Warming are:

Many of the following "harbingers" and "fingerprints" are now well under way:

Rising Seas--- inundation of fresh water marshlands (the everglades), low-lying cities, and islands with seawater.
Changes in rainfall patterns --- droughts and fires in some areas, flooding in other areas. See the section above on the recent droughts, for example!
Increased likelihood of extreme events--- such as flooding, hurricanes, etc.
Melting of the ice caps --- loss of habitat near the poles. Polar bears are now thought to be greatly endangered by the shortening of their feeding season due to dwindling ice packs.
Melting glaciers - significant melting of old glaciers is already observed.
Widespread vanishing of animal populations --- following widespread habitat loss.
Spread of disease --- migration of diseases such as malaria to new, now warmer, regions.
Bleaching of Coral Reefs due to warming seas and acidification due to carbonic acid formation --- One third of coral reefs now appear to have been severely damaged by warming seas.
Loss of Plankton due to warming seas --- The enormous (900 mile long) Aleutian island ecosystems of orcas (killer whales), sea lions, sea otters, sea urchins, kelp beds, and fish populations, appears to have collapsed due to loss of plankton, leading to loss of sea lions, leading orcas to eat too many sea otters, leading to urchin explosions, leading to loss of kelp beds and their associated fish populations.

Something needs to be done. Worldwide, countries need to be cut emissions. A report to Congress in 1991 said that the US could cut 50% of its emissions at zero cost to the economy as a result of just using cost effective efficiency improvements, yet 21 years later, we have not done so. When will we learn? As long as our government continues to be influenced by strong and wealthy special interest groups, I doubt if we will ever get to where we need until it is too late. What a shame.

2011 Best US Cities to Live In for Clean Air

2012-03-10T18:03:00.002-06:00

The Environmental Protection Agency puts out a list each year with the Air Quality and Air Pollution Index of cities nationwide. Air pollution is based on the incidence of airborne lead, NO2, particulate matter, carbon monoxide and ozone depletion. Surprisingly, the state with the most cities listed in the top 25 US cities with the cleanest air are from New Jersey with 9 of the first 11. Virginia has the top 2 cities and California has 6 cities listed. Here is the list of the top 25 with the cleanest air. The list can be found in Money CNN Magazine, September 2011.

In these cities, the air quality is rated highly, and pollution levels are below the U.S. average.

The first number listed next to the city is the Air Quality Index and the second number listed is the Air Pollution Index

1 Fredericksburg, VA 100.0% 83
2 Richmond, VA 100.0% 94
3 Marlton, NJ 100.0% 96
4 Medford, NJ 100.0% 96
5 Evesham, NJ 100.0% 96
6 Moorestown-Lenola, NJ 100.0% 97
7 Mount Laurel, NJ 100.0% 97
8 Moorestown, NJ 100.0% 98
9 Cinnaminson, NJ 100.0% 98
10 Lumberton, NJ 100.0% 99
11 Delran, NJ 100.0% 99
12 Elko, NV 100.0% 105
13 Findlay, OH 100.0% 176
14 San Anselmo, CA 99.0% 83
15 Mill Valley, CA 99.0% 84
16 Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, CA 99.0% 84
17 Larkspur, CA 99.0% 85
18 Corte Madera, CA 99.0% 85
19 Morton, IL 99.0% 86
20 Washington, IL 99.0% 86
21 East Peoria, IL 99.0% 86
22 Pekin, IL 99.0% 86
23 Tiburon, CA 99.0% 86
24 Anacortes, WA 99.0% 102
25 Billings, MT 99.0% 106

National Geographic Sustainability Cutting Their Carbon Footprint

2012-03-10T13:09:00.001-06:00

I am always on the lookout for companies who are attempting to reduce their carbon footprint. National Geographic does a good job of presenting what they are doing to reduce theirs. One of the most interesting methods they have used is to quit selling bottled water in their buildings. I just posted an article telling how much energy is used creating the plastic water bottles and how much of them end up in the landfill. It is enormous and is one of the easiest ways each of us can cut the world's carbon footprint. Another method of cutting their carbon footprint is to work with suppliers to cut theirs. I believe that this is one thing that major corporations can do to help our environment. By simply pressuring their suppliers to get in line, they will be making an impact both directly and indirectly and that is a good thing.

National Geographic Sustainability -- Our Carbon Footprint:

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How Much Energy is Required to Make Plastic Water Bottles?

2012-03-09T07:45:00.003-06:00

Let's face it. Drinking bottled water is about as anti-green as it gets. If you consider yourself to be a friend of the environment, yet you still buy bottled water, you need to see exactly how much energy is required to make those plastic water bottles. It is staggering and will hopefully change your mind the next time you think about buying a case of bottled water.

The Beverage Marketing Corporation states that over 31 billion liters of water was sold in 2006. Other reports state that the number has risen near 34 billion liters since. No matter what study you look at, bottled water is sold in enormous numbers. Here is the rub. Most of the bottled water is sold in polyethylene terephthalate (PTE) bottles which require around 900,000 tons of plastic. PET is produced from fossil fuels such as natural gas and petroleum.

The energy required to make PET plastic is eye opening. It takes about 3.4 megjoules of energy to make a one liter plastic bottle, its cap, and the packaging that is on the bottle. In order to make enough bottles for the more than 30 billion liters of water consumes around 106 billion megajoules of energy. The Pacific Instutute estimates that a barrel of oil contains around 6,000 megajoules, therefore requiring 17 million barrels of oil to produce enough plastic bottles for 1 year's production of plastic bottles.

That is not the only cost to our environment. One ton of PET produces about 3 tons of carbon dioxide in the manufacturing process. Producing one year's supply of plastic bottles creates around 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.

This next statistic from the Pacific Institute is even more jaw dropping. In addition to the water that is sold in the plastic bottles,the production process takes twice as much water than what is in the bottle. So, for every liter of water sold, there are 2 liters gone.

Add the energy costs of transporting and the cost to the environment for the huge number of bottles that never make it to the recycling center and you can see that plastic water bottles are impacting the environment in ways that cannot do anything but leave an ugly stain on the Earth for future generations. This is no way to provide a world that can sustain itself.

If all of this does nothing to alter your decision to not purchase bottled water, let's take a look at how different it is from the water you get out of your tap. In the United States, bottled water and tap water is regulated by separate entities. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates bottled water. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates the quality of tap water. The Safe Drinking Water Act sets the maximum contaminant levels for approximately 90 contaminants that might be found in drinking water and 15 secondary maximum contaminant levels. This is all set by the EPA. The bottled water industry is not regulated by the same standards.

In study after study, it has been demonstrated that the contaminants in tap water and bottled water seldom differ. The television show 20/20 did a taste test and a contaminant test with bottled water and tap water in New York City. They found no difference in contaminants and the taste test was interesting. Almost everyone who took the test were bottled water drinkers. These people claimed that they drink bottled water because the tap water does not taste good and is full of germs. The funny thing is that one of the waters in the test was picked by most people as tasting bad. It was not tap water. In fact, tap water tested just as well as the bottled waters.

This was an unscientific test but it just demonstrates how ridiculous the bottled water claims are about how natural and clean they are. The 20/20 piece did say that one of the bottled waters that claims to be spring fed and natural actually comes from the Detroit River, which is where tap water comes from too.

If you absolutely have to have "special" water, at least buy reusable 5 gallon jugs and a water dispenser for your home. Purchase an aluminum water bottle, fill it up, and carry it with you. If everyone did this, the savings for our environment would be mind boggling. Well over 50% of all plastic bottles sold end up in our landfills and these bottles will not decompose. The harm to the world from one year's supply of plastic bottles is bad enough but adding billions of bottles each year just compounds the problem.

I am calling on you to change this one habit. The Earth will thank you for it.

School Boys are Very Green Minded

2012-03-08T14:30:00.002-06:00

A lot is said about what group is, or is not, the greenest. We would all love to be in a group that is considered to be the most green minded of all, but alas, one group is way out ahead of all the others and they didn't even try to attain the title. Believe me, they have far more important things on their minds than being green, but it's their single practice of greenliness that sets them apart from the rest. What could that possibly be?

School boys are, in my opinion, the greenest group of all because of their practice of not wasting water by flushing the toilets and urinals in their schools. Go into any elementary, middle, or high school and check out the boys' restroom and I think you will see that the majority of the toilets and urinals are full of yellow water from not being flushed.

I have taught school for over 30 years and I never use the teachers' restroom. It is more convenient to use the boys' restroom which is just across from my classroom. I was thinking, just today, how green minded the boys in my school must be as I noticed that, of the 5 urinals that line the wall, 4 of them had been used without being flushed. This is about normal for this restroom too, and has been the average over the many years I have taught.

Just think how much water is being saved by not flushing. If every boy flushed after using the restroom, the amount of water being used would be astronomical compared to present uses. Many boys will use a urinal that was unflushed without flushing first, so that just adds to the savings.

Of course, I write this in jest but it is a savings that I bet a lot of you never thought about.

What Products Are Recycled the Most?

2012-03-08T09:35:00.002-06:00

You would think the answer to what products are recycled the most would be easy to answer, but it is not. Do the research yourself and you will find a number of articles with different answers. I found over a dozen different answers to this question but narrowed down to the 3 best in my opinion.

One organization, Scientific American rated the most recycled products by the percentage of used items that are recycled. According to their study, the 3rd most recycled items are aluminum cans. They claim that 50% of all aluminum cans are recycled. The number 2 item recycled by percentage is office paper. Surprisingly, 70% of all computer and office paper is recycled. The number one most recycled item are lead acid batteries from vehicles. Not surprisingly, 99% of all lead acid batteries are recycled. Of course, there are millions more aluminum cans recycled than car batteries but this is one study on the most recycled products.

A second study was conducted by Smart Planet. They list the top 10 most recycled products as follows:

1. Computers

2. Batteries

3. Televisions

4. Paint

5. Aluminum Cans

6. Motor oil

7. CFLs

8. Glass

9. Fluorescent lamps

10. Christmas trees

I am not completely sold on this study because I doubt that computers are recycled at a greater percentage or a greater number than batteries or aluminum cans but I do believe the items in the top 10 are representative of the most recycled items.

The study that I found to be most believable was one reported on by the Livestrong organization. They grouped their list into categories. According to Livestrong, plastics are the number one most recycled products. Plastics include water bottles and plastic sacks. The numbers of these items that are recycled is enormous but the number not recycled is just as large.

The second category of most recycled items is glass and that is followed by aluminum and steel. A 4th category paper and includes office paper, cardboard, and newspapers. The final category listed by Livestrong is computers and cell phones. You probably notice that car batteries is not mentioned.

You can see that the answer to this question is not as simple as it appears but, if you look at all 3 studies as a whole, the same items keep jumping out. Of course, we could do better, but it is encouraging to see the high percentages of each group of recycled products.

Green not Greed

2012-03-06T13:21:00.001-06:00

I have become very outspoken about this lately, but I feel that we are at a crossroads and cannot ignore it. America's corporations have started giving a lot of lip service to green living, or sustainability. I find it admirable that some companies don't just talk about it, but are doing something about it too. What irks me is that there are still a great many companies that look at green and see greed instead. What I am talking about is the practice of greenwashing.

Greenwashing is when a company will put a spin on the PR given to a product that makes it appear to be environmentally friendly when, in fact, it is not. I find this to be completely reprehensible and about the only reason I can find that a company would practice it is because of greed. They know that many people will buy a product that is touted as green over products that are not, even if they have to pay a few cents more. Deceiving well meaning people through the practice of greenwashing is, well, just wrong.

In one of the most egregious examples of greenwashing I have ever found, a marketing firm that specializes in environmentalism conducted a study that found that almost all of the environmental claims made by companies are either misleading or completely wrong. They claim many reasons for greenwashing but did not cite a single company as a greenwasher. In fact, the entire study apparently was nothing more than an attempt to push the very company they were hired to manage by badmouthing all others. This is about as sneaky as greenwashing gets, but it permeates our society because of the single entity that corporations scramble for - GREED!

Do you have an example of greenwashing you would like to share? Email me at bruce@bruzzbuzz.com and I will share them with my readers.

Enter the Siemens 2012 We Can Change the World Contest that Promotes Sustainability

2012-03-06T12:35:00.002-06:00

Discovery Education and Siemens is offering a great contest during the 2012 school year. If your students have worked on an environmental project this year, this might be the perfect time to give a challenge like this a try. It is for grades K-12 and is split into three different groups. It is a project based competition and the prizes are scholarships, trips, and other things. This really looks like a competition that a great many schools could get into. It promotes science and that is always a good thing and it promotes sustainability which is even better. The links are below:

Discovery Education:

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Why the Change at You Can Go Green?

2012-03-05T12:52:00.003-06:00

I had a loyal reader email me and made an observation about what they perceive is a subtle change in my approach at You Can Go Green. He said that I used to encourage people to go green by taking baby steps and working up. He said most of my posts centered around the theme of learning to go green by doing the easy things and then taking on the more difficult ones. Now, he says that I seem to be more "fanatical" in my approach. It seems that the last couple of months have had me going off on Walmart and other corporations and attacking politicians as well as focusing on the Environmental Protection Agency.

He is probably right to some degree. It is obvious that the individuals who make up our world seem to care more about saving our world than the big corporations or our political leaders do. Corporations and politicians have learned to double speak and spin everything so much that they have forgotten how to actually do something. By something, I mean anything. It seems that our leaders have evolved into nothing more than talking heads who are more concerned with looking good than actually doing good. That has me plenty worried and it should have you plenty worried too.

What worries me most is that all of the "little guys" efforts toward green, or sustainable, living may not be enough. Our politicians and corporate leaders, who seem to be in bed together most of the time, do not seem to care about sustainability more than profitability. I guess the only way that our movement will truly succeed is when sustainability truly can be shown to be profitable. When, and if, that day comes we will live in a world that will be guaranteed to be safe for our future generations. I am not holding my breath though.

Use Coca Cola to Help Start a Compost Pile

2012-03-03T22:01:00.001-06:00

I just happened across this short article that tells us how Coca Cola can be used when building a compost pile. Apparently, it can be poured over your compostable materials and the sweetness will attract micro-organisms and the mild acid of the soda will also help break down organic material destined to become compost. Pretty cool!

Use Coca Cola to Help Start a Compost Pile

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Sustainable Living - What is It?

2012-03-02T18:37:00.004-06:00

We are starting to hear about sustainable living, or sustainability, more all of the time. The media seems to have quit using the term "green living" as much as it used to. Instead, they have begun using sustainable living more. Walmart uses it all the time in their many public relation posts. So, just exactly what is sustainable living? Let's take a look.

Sustainable living has been defined as a lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual's or society's use of the Earth's natural resources and his or her own resources. People who practice sustainable living try to live in ways that are consistent with sustainability. Sustainability basically means the capacity to endure. It means to have the responsibility of long term maintenance of our Earth so that it will endure. For instance, our wetlands and forests must be sustained in order for our Earth to stay healthy.

Let me state this is the simplest terms I know. Sustainable living means that we need to learn to take care of our Earth and find a balance to do it. Sustainable living means that we need to make sure that future generations have an Earth that is healthy and sustainable for its future generations.

If we destroy the Earth as we make an obscene amount of money, that is not right. If we make an obscene amount of money but do it in a way that balances the environment, the economy, and is socially good for everyone, we have practiced social living. Of course, making an obscene amount of money and giving billions of it to the corporate leaders is not really taking care of the world's people so I find it difficult for most corporations to ever practice sustainable living.

Walmart has said a lot lately about how they are moving toward sustainability. I find that hard to believe because of the huge number of goods they sell that are from China. We know that China does not practice social stewardship in their manufacturing practices (sweat shops). Walmart has done some good but sustainable living means more than just doing some good. It means to practice stewardship of our Earth in all areas which includes not taking advantage of already disadvantaged people.

I believe that green living and sustainable living are pretty much synonymous. It is just the evolution of a movement that has been trivialized and has had a lot of double speak by greenwashing corporations and Wall Street advertising agencies. It really is time for those of us who truly care for the world and the world's people to take a stand and not let these special interest groups trivialize this.

The Green Room from Walmart - Is It Just Marketing?

2012-02-26T14:53:00.002-06:00

Walmart recently started a major advertising push to get people to visit their new Green Room blog. In fact, it is such a major push that it is probably advertised right here on my blog. They claim that together, we can create a more sustainable world to help people live better. Here are some of their latest blog titles:

Fighting hunger and improving nutrition go hand-in-hand

Share the Love with Fair Trade Certified Valentine's Day Gifts

Why Wait? Sam's Clubs Combat Deforestation with Sustainable Palm Oil

Raise a Glass and a Lighter Bottle for Sustainability

I am the first to admit that these are some great titles and the thought behind them are even better, but I wonder just how serious Walmart is about sustainability. Is this just another more veiled attempt at greenwashing. Greenwashing is fairly common nowadays as corporation will tell us just how much they are doing for the environment when they are, in fact, more than likely hurting it.

I don't think it is any secret that Walmart's popularity was at an all time low about the time they started telling us, through PR notices, that they were setting out to be more green. Over a period of time, their approval ratings started to improve. Is it possible that this Green Room blog is just another step to improve the public's perception of them?

One person recently commented that he doubts that the millions of products that Walmart sells that are produced in China had anything to do with sustainability. I tend to agree. If Walmart really wants to become a leader in sustainability, why don't they do something about that? They won't because the leaders of Walmart probably have the bottom line in mind much more than how much they are helping the environment.

I wonder how you feel about Walmart's Green Room PR push? I would love to hear your comments and you can send them to me at bruce@bruzzbuzz.com.

Trying to Find Green Products Can Be Difficult but Green Nest Helps

2012-02-21T21:23:00.005-06:00

There have been times when I try to find products that I need but that are also green. Try doing a search online for some of the things you want for your home and it can just be a huge confusion. That's why I was excited to find a website that offers products of all kinds that are all green. That place is Green Nest. Green Nest was founded by Lisa and Ron Beres. Their hope is to provide you with products that will transform your health and well being.

The products that you can find on Green Nest are such things as air purifiers, air test kits, HEPA vacuum cleaners, shower filter heads, bath filters, drinking water filters, whole house filtration, organic shower curtains, organic mattresses and bedding accessories, organic robes and sleepwear, organic baby clothing, crib mattresses and more. They also have green cleaning supplies, green gifts, non toxic building supplies, books and CDs about green topics, home tests, pet stuff and so much more.

As you can see, if it is a hard to find green item, you can find it at Green Nest. Lisa Beres began this compnay in 2003. She was an interior decorator but felt run down all the time. She started researching and found that her home had so many toxic materials in it that she had to do something about it.

She found that the air inside our homes and places of business, or nests as she calls them, can be 2 to 5 times more polluted than outside air and that we spend up to 90% of our days in our homes or places of business. She also found that many of the man made chemicals we use in our daily lives were contributing to her hormonal imbalance. All of this lead her to become a Certified Baubiologist which means she studies how buildings impact life and the living environment. With her interior design talent and her new found certification, she decided to merge the two and create Green Nest, which will help you to be more healthy in your indoor environment.

There is so much more to her story but I found it to be interesting enough to feature it here at You Can Go Green. You can check out this great site by clicking through on this link or any of the other Green Nest links in the article.

The EPA Makes a Wild Claim About the Green Culture

2012-02-20T20:07:00.005-06:00

I am always looking around the web for inspiration for things to write about for my going green blog and I found one very quickly when I came across the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Go Green web site. Right there on their home page is the following statement:

"America is shifting to a "green culture" where over 300 million citizens are embracing the fact that environmental responsibility is everyone's responsibility."

I hate to nitpick and I don't want to make a big issue out of this but I sincerely doubt that over 300 million American citizens are all shifting to a green culture. Have you watched Gold Rush on television lately. I can assure you that the guys who strip the hell out of land to find a few ounces of gold have not shifted to a green culture. These guys destroy everything in sight and have no intentions of returning the land to anything resembling nature's beauty when they leave.

How about the big oil businesses? Even though they tell us how environmentally responsible they are, do you think they are? Have you heard the crap coming out of BP's commercials about how they returned the Gulf Coast to a better than before state? Look, these big boys only care about one thing and that is an obscene amount of profits and anyone who thinks they truly have shifted to a green culture are just kidding themselves.

I have wanted to vent on these two companies for awhile and I was never sure how to do it to make an impactful statement. That is why I decided to do it in light of the EPA's statement. I just want people to want to help the environment in small steps that add up to huge steps worldwide, but then I see some of the environmental destruction that still goes on and it makes me sad. Thanks for letting me vent and I hope you will too.

What Causes Acid Rain and What Are the Effects of It?

2012-02-17T12:14:00.000-06:00

Acid rain is actually a broad term that refers to a mixture of wet and dry deposited material from the atmosphere that contains higher than normal amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids. It can come from both natural sources such as volcanoes or decaying vegetation and from man made sources. Those man made sources are primarily emitted by sulfur dioxide(SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) that results from fossil fuel combustion. About 2/3 of all fossil fuel emissions in the United States come from electric power generation that relies on burning fossil fuels like coal.

Acid rain will occur when these gases react in the atmosphere with water, oxygen, and other chemicals that form various acidic compounds. The result is a mix of mild sulfuric acid and nitric acid. When power plants and other sources release sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, the wind can blow the compounds for hundreds of miles.

Acid rain can cause lakes and streams to become acidized and contribute to the damage of trees at high elevations. Those trees most often affected are red spruce trees because they are usually above 2000 feet above sea level. Acid rain can also damage building material and paints and is one of the more common causes of damage to national monuments.

Acid rain looks just like any rain and feels and tastes like it too. The harm to people is not direct and the EPA claims that walking in it or swimming in an acid lake is no more dangerous than walking or swimming in clean water. However, they claim the pollutants that cause acid rain, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, do cause damage.

These gases will interact in the atmosphere to form fine sulfate and nitrate particles and these are what cause the damage to people's lungs and hearts. The Acid Rain Program was supposed to lower the levels of bad particles in the air and is supposed to bring about health benefits estimated to be valued at about $50 billion. Those benefits are due to decreased mortality, hospital admissions, and emergency room admissions. It will be interesting to see if these numbers are attained.

Environment Friendly Obama Cuts EPA Funding in Proposed Budget

2012-02-15T12:45:00.002-06:00

Let me state right up front that President Obama stated that he would be an environment friendly President back when he was running against George W. Bush. Some of the promises he made was that he would include labor and environmental standards in all trade agreements, improve water quality, restore the Great Lakes, fund proposals to help fish and game survive the climate changes we are experiencing, support wetlands funding, protect forest service land from more roads, and other wide ranging appeals. Now, Obama proposes cuts to the EPA's budget by 1.2%.

I think it is important to understand that Obama's proposal is more than likely dead on arrival, but I do find it rather interesting that he, who claims to be a friend of the environment, has made the cuts that he did. If you are an Obama supporter, you might say that the cuts were less than cuts made to other programs. If you are against Obama, you will probably say that any cut to any program just reinforces that Obama has wrecked the economy beyond the damage that was done before he took the Presidency.

What point am I trying to make? I am just trying to say that we live in a climate of extreme partisanship. I do not think that Obama can do anything to please everybody and will always anger a fanatical group of right wingers. I also think that if Obama were to be defeated that the same song and dance will take place with the left. In the meantime, the environment, the military, the economy, the "fill in the blank with whatever you care about" will suffer.

The only thing we as individuals can do to help our environment is to make the small changes we each have control over. We can also speak out and put pressure on our government officials to enact whatever change is necessary to create a better world, but you might as well not hold your breath because this pendulum will continue to swing from one side to the other without ever falling into the middle and staying there.

I have vented and I await your attacks. Thank you for listening and I welcome your comments.