I’ve always enjoyed watching sunflowers at different times of the day. It’s interesting how they move, toward the sun when it’s bright and inward when it’s not. Until reading this Thursday Thought quote, though, I didn’t understand that they were teaching us something.
Be cooler in summer and save up to 25% annual energy costs. Get summer shade by planting deciduous shrubs and trees on the south and west sides of your house. When you want the warmth (in the winter), the sun peeks in through the north and east.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
When boiling water, cover the pan. This prevents evaporation and makes the water boil faster, thus saving both water and energy.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
Keep your AC unit cool. Loosely cover the condenser or window-mounted unit (don’t restrict air-flow, which will increase electricity use); put an awning over it; or plant a tree that will shade the unit. Any of these measures can save energy and up to 10% on your AC costs.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
Learn how to atop junk mail at Eco Cycle. Meanwhile, recycle it and newspapers. Each mature tree this saves will consume thirteen pounds of carbon dioxide per year. And the energy saved by recycling a single ton of paper can heat your home for six months.
[For more easy, eco-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/ view/7000, choose a format, and download to your computer or ebook device.]
Doing some last-minute shopping for a computer for your college student? Look for an eco-friendly one that saves money. Buy one of the new energy-efficient models with a fan that doesn’t run constantly. If just a moderate number of us did this we’d cut computer energy use in half and save $5.5 billion.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
So many of us don’t give a thought to avoiding the use of and/or recycling of paper. Which was once part of a tree. Here’s why I care:
According to the Univ. of Indiana, each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!
You probably do pray sometimes when you don’t recognize it as actual “prayer.” Even atheists pray.
Sometimes I come across something I think is a beautiful way to look at things. I found this on the Facebook posting of a friend and want to pass it on to you for today’s Thursday Thought.
Everybody knows you can’t run a city, county, or state totally on renewable energy. Well, maybe not everybody. In response to Sierra Club’s “Ready for 100 Campaign,” 46 cities, four counties, and one state have committed themselves to achieving just that. And 6 cities are already doing it.
Who are those cities? How did they accomplish this daunting task? As they say in the old movies, READ ALL ABOUT IT…go to Here are the 6 cities in the U.S. running on 100 percent renewable electricity.
Here’s a bit of seeming contradiction that I think is a brilliant idea: the Kentucky Coal Museum is installing solar panels on its roof. It will save them money. Even better, it’s part of Kentucky’s attempt to replace coal as its primary source of energy. Read about this at the USA Today article.
In fact, the coal industry is dwindling, not just out of environmental concerns, but because of corporations’ bottom lines. Coal is too expensive to produce when alternative energy sources are available to cash in on.
Coal miners are losing jobs, and families are suffering as a result of that. They need to be retrained and hired in the energy jobs of the future, not kept in unhealthy, unsafe underground mines.