Green Thought Thursdays: Slow Change in Speed

This is a tip or action or idea that we can all engage with to work towards living in ways that allow for more health and wellbeing for all aspects of the planet. It is about changing speeds slowly while driving!

Driving a car burns fuel. Even in an electric vehicle uses fuel, and most of the fuels used by cars and trucks around the world are fossil fuels. The burning of fossil fuels releases carbon into the atmosphere which is one of major causes of global climate change. So, every time any of us take our vehicle on the road, we are contributing to climate change. Not good. And something that makes a car or truck use even more fuel is if it is made to speed up or slow down quickly. Driving with abrupt accelerations and decelerations can use up fuel 10% to 40% faster! Not good at all!

Keeping a motor running at below 2,000 rpm will increase fuel efficiency when accelerating and coasting to a stop will increase fuel efficiency when decelerating. Photo: YourMechanic.

A solution is to gently and slowly use the gas pedal and break pedal whenever possible. By increasing or decreasing speeds gradually, a car is able to use fuel much more efficiently. So, we should all try and pay attention to gradually speeding up when we need our vehicles to move, coasting and gently breaking when we need our vehicles to stop, and being tolerant of when other drivers adopt these driving styles. Not only will this style of driving save fuel, it will also save money!

What do you think of these ideas? Do you have any other solution ideas?

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Green Thought Thursdays: Combining Stops

Once a week, I am offering up a tip or action or idea that we can all engage with to work towards living in ways that allow for more health and wellbeing for all aspects of the planet.

This week the green thought is about combining stops while driving!

When we combine multiple stops in a single outing, we will keep the car engine warm and save fuel! Photo: West Milford Messenger.

Driving a car burns fuel. Even in an electric vehicle uses fuel, and most of the fuels used by cars and trucks around the world are fossil fuels. The burning of fossil fuels releases carbon into the atmosphere which is one of major causes of global climate change. So, every time any of us take our vehicle on the road, we are contributing to climate change. Not good. And one thing that tends to use more fuel is to make individual trips to individual destinations. Doing this means that a engine starts off cold each trip, and cold engines are inefficient engines.

A solution is to combine trips. Longer excursions with multiple stops let our vehicle’s engines warm up to their most fuel-efficient temperature, and then not cool down as much before we start them again. This means that the engine will use a minimum amount of fuel for the distance we need to go and the stops we need to make. So, we should all plan our errands one after the other in a single outing. Adopting this strategy will help us all save fuel, save money, and save the planet!

What do you think of these ideas? Do you have any other solution ideas?

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Green Thought Thursdays: Eating Leftovers

Once a week, I am offering up a tip or action or idea that we can all engage with to work towards living in ways that allow for more health and wellbeing for all aspects of the planet.

This week the green thought is about eating our leftover food.

Throwing away leftovers is a significant waste of food, money, and other resources; and it contributes to the problems of landfills and climate change. Photo: National Today.

It is often hard to make just the right amount of food. Especially when cooking for multiple people, it is impassible to know for sure exactly how much each person will eat of each of the dishes being prepared for any given meal. This means that it is very common to have some leftover food after everyone has finished a meal. So, what to do with this leftover food? One option that occurs all too often is to throw the leftovers away. If this food is is thrown away, it can represent a huge waste of food and money. And it can also add completely unnecessary additions to climate change and landfills. The food that is leftover after a meal is perfectly good to eat, throwing it away means that no one will have the chance to eat it. The food that is left over also costs money to buy. Wasting that food is also wasting the money that was used to purchase it. Thrown out food ends up in landfills which use up space and resources to manage. Thrown away food in and out of landfills decomposes and release greenhouse gasses such as methane which contribute to climate change. All because food gets thrown away.

A solution? Eat the leftovers. instead of throwing leftover food away, save it by putting them in the fridge or freezer, and these leftovers can easily save for a couple of days (and sometimes much longer). By eating leftovers one day a week, the grocery bill goes down, sometimes be as much as 20%. And keeping leftover food out of landfills means that the landfills themselves have less material to deal with, and release less methane and other gasses that contribute to climate change. And they are tasty!

What do you think of these ideas? Do you have any other solution ideas?

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Green Thought Thursdays: Draught-Proofing

Once a week, I am offering up a tip or action or idea that we can all engage with to work towards living in ways that allow for more health and wellbeing for all aspects of the planet.

This week the green thought is about draught-proofing our living spaces.

Draughts are annoying. Having air moving through our homes reduces the control we have of the temperatures of our living spaces. This means that during the colder seasons, draughts cause cold outside air to flow into a building while the air that has been heated flows out and that heat is lost. And the opposite is true in the warmer seasons with draughts bringing hot air into buildings that have been specifically cooled, and that cool air is lost. This means we all tend to spent more energy and money in heating or cooling our homes than we have to. This extra heating and cooling contributes to our carbon footprints and so contributes to global climate change.

Applying sealing tape along the edges of window frames is one way to reduce draughts. Photo: Zameen.com

One solution is to draught-proof our homes. Draught-proofing is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to save both energy and money. And this is true of any type of building. Sealing window frames, adding weather-stripping to doors, and even filling gaps around pipework can all help seal the homes we live in and reduce the need for extra heating or cooling.

What do you think of these ideas? Do you have any other solution ideas?

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Green Thought Thursdays: Bulk Foods

Once a week, I am offering up a tip or action or idea that we can all engage with to work towards living in ways that allow for more health and wellbeing for all aspects of the planet.

This week the green thought is about buying bulk foods.

Food often comes in various amounts of packaging. This packaging takes resources to make, especially if it involves plastics. Then, once the food has been consumed, that packaging often ends up in landfills where it can persist for a very long time, especially if it involves plastics. Producing the packaging, transporting the packaging, disposing of the packaging. All these steps contribute to carbon emissions and increase the daunting problem of how to handle garbage.

Bulk foods are available in many grocery stores. Photo: Food Network.

One solution is to buy bulk foods. Buying foods in bulk uses less packaging. This means that foods purchased this way contribute less carbon to the atmosphere and less material to landfills. Buying food in bulk also saves money. Bulk foods are generally between 30% and 50% cheaper than their more heavily packaged counterparts. So, buy bulk foods and save your money and your planet at the same time!

What do you think of these ideas? Do you have any other solution ideas?

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Green Thought Thursdays: Refrigerators and Freezers

Once a week, I am offering up a tip or action or idea that we can all engage with to work towards living in ways that allow for more health and wellbeing for all aspects of the planet.

This week the green thought is about refrigerators and freezers.

We can all take steps to make our refrigerators and freezers more efficient. Photo: House Integrals

Our refrigerators and freezers are on all the time and they use a lot of energy. In fact, since these appliances are some of the few household items that truly never turn off, they can account for as much as 7% of a households energy bill! And in many cases, these appliances are not running as efficiently as they can. Of course, to produce the energy to keep our foods cold requires the burning of fossil fuels which contributes to climate change.

The solution is to take care of our refrigerators and freezers. Here are a few suggestions. 1) Replacing older appliances with modern, energy-efficient models will quickly pay for themselves with lower energy bills. 2) Keeping about 4 inches between the back of the fridge and the wall means that air can circulate and dissipate the heat these units produce allowing them to run more efficiently. 3) Letting hot food cool down to room temperature before putting it in the refrigerator means that the fridge does not have to use the extra energy to cool warm food. 4) Defrosting freezers once a year will help them run more smoothly and also allow the space inside them to be used to maximum effect. 5) And, of course, keeping the fridge and freezer doors closed keeps the temperature inside cold, again prevents the appliances from using extra energy to re-cool after warm air slip in through open doors.

What do you think of these ideas? Do you have any other solution ideas?

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Green Thought Thursdays: Pumpkins

Once a week, I am offering up a tip or action or idea that we can all engage with to work towards living in ways that allow for more health and wellbeing for all aspects of the planet. Last week we talked about house plants.

This week the green thought is about pumpkins (in honor of Halloween!).

A collection of lighted Jack-o-lanterns ready for Halloween. Photo: Merriam-Webster.com

Growing pumpkins is a big deal in the USA. Over a billion pounds of pumpkin is grown each year. A lot of these end up canned as pie filling, and a lot become jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. Growing all these pumpkins has some serious implications on the environment. One is the use of pesticides. Since many insects and fungi like pumpkins, growers use quite a bit of pesticide to prevent infestations. Transporting food is another issue. Moving pumpkins around the world means the burning of quite a bit of fossil fuels. A third issue is the decomposition of jack-o-lanterns once Halloween has passed. The majority of the pumpkins that are carved into jack-o-lanterns end up in landfill after Halloween. As they decompose in landfills, they contribute to the release of methane which is a powerful greenhouse gas. All of these issues raise problems that we should all be aware of when carving pumpkins this Halloween.

Luckily, these problems have solutions! Buy organic pumpkins. Buy pumpkins that were grown close to where you live. Eat the pumpkin flesh and seeds. Compost the pumpkin or simply bury it in the garden. All of these actions reduce the environmental impacts of pumpkins and allow for a greener, healthier Halloween for all of us and the planet as well.

What do you think of these thoughts and the solution? Is this a step you will take? Do you have any other solution ideas?

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Green Thought Thursdays: Carpooling

Once a week, I am offering up a tip or action or idea that we can all engage with to work towards living in ways that allow for more health and wellbeing for all aspects of the planet. Last week we talked about spaying/neutering our pets.

This week the green thought is about carpooling.

Driving causes a lot of problems. Some of these problems arise directly from cars. Smog, chemical air pollution, burning fossil fuels, noise pollution, time spent in traffic, money spent buying gas, and money spent buying cars are just a few! Other problems are indirectly associated with cars. Repairs to roads as a result of high traffic, creating materials to build all the cars needed, the fossil fuel used in transporting cars to market, and the fossil fuels used in transporting fossil fuels to gas stations are just a few of these.

Carpooling individuals. Photo: King County.

One partial solution is to carpool. Carpooling is when multiple people share a ride in the same car. This means fewer cars on the road which would help alleviate the direct an indirect issues listed above. It also opens some doors to people to do not, or cannot, drive by providing them is an way to reach places of employment that might be impossible without a car. There are drawbacks such as extra coordination of pickups and dropoffs and also the need to find multiple people who all live close to one another and also work close to one another. However, the benefits are huge and certainly outweigh these costs.

What do you think of these thoughts and the solution? Is this a step you will take? Do you have any other solution ideas?

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Green Thought Thursdays: Plant Milks

Once a week, I am offering up a tip or action or idea that we can all engage with to help reduce waste, use less materials and energy, help conserve species or habitats, and/or generally work towards living in ways that allow for more health and wellbeing for all aspects of the planet.

This week the green thought is about plant milks. Milk from cows is great. It has a lot of protein, a good source of vitamins, and has a lot of calcium and other nutrients that are very helpful to staying healthy. However, cows milk has some serious drawbacks. The biggest one is that it means keeping a lot of cows! Raising and maintaining cows requires a lot of resources from space to water to feed. On top of consuming all those resources, the cows themselves release a lot of greenhouse gases. All of this makes cows milk (and really any animal milk) pretty costly for the environment.

Plant milks can come from a range of different plant species and offer excellent alternatives to cows milk. Photo: Science Meets Food.

One solution is offered by plant milks, and since #WorldPlantMilkDay is on August 22 this seems like a great time to discuss these alternatives. Almond milk, oat milk, rice milk, and so many more options are available in most grocery stores, these days. This has not always been the case, but it means that we all have options! Plant milks require a lot fewer resources to produce as compared to animals milks in part because they cut out a huge step. To produce animal milk, plants have to be raised to feed the animal that produces the milk. By simply getting milk from plants, that removes the entire animal step. So, plant milks offer tons of health benefits, cause much less pollution, they eliminate any issue of animal cruelty, and they help reduce a driver of climate change by releasing much less greenhouse gas! All terrific for the human body and the environment! So, lets all go and experiment with the various plant milks and add them into our diets.

What do you think of these thoughts and the solution? Is this a step you will take? Do you have any other solution ideas?

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Green Thought Thursdays: LED Light Bulbs

Once a week, I am offering up a tip or action or idea that we can all engage with to help reduce waste, use less materials and energy, help conserve species or habitats, and/or generally work towards living in ways that allow for more health and wellbeing for all aspects of the planet.

A selection of LED light bulbs of various shapes and sizes. Photo: This Old House

This week the green thought is about using LED light bulbs. Generating light in our homes can take a fair bit of energy and that means it may produce a fair sized amount of greenhouse gases. Each incandescent light bulb produces approximately 4,500 lbs of CO2 each year. Fluorescent light bulbs are better but still produce around 1,051 lbs of CO2 each year. However, it incredibly useful to be able to flip a switch and have light fill our homes! So, we all need to figure out how to get the light we need, but with the smallest possible impact.

Luckily, LED light bulbs are a very good alternative to the other types of light bulb. They are widely available, come in many shapes and sizes, and have much lower energy costs to use producing just around 450 lbs of CO2 each year. By the way, LED stand for light-emitting diode which is a semiconductor diode that glows when a voltage is applied. Not only do LED light bulbs use only about 25% of the energy of other bulbs to produce the same amount of light, but they have a much longer lifespan. So, if we all switch to using LED light bulbs in our homes, it can have a very significant impact on energy use in the USA.

What do you think of these thoughts and the solutions? Is this a step you will take? Do you have any other solution ideas?

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