Green Living Tribe - Part II - Page 5

[KimProbable]

I just wanted to post that I saw these guys on Canada AM today. I didn't catch the whole thing, but there's a form on their site that you can print off and bring in to your retailer. There's also a little calculator on the page which allows you to calculate how many plastic bags you'd be saving in a year if you had reusable bags. 1000 bags for my family alone in one year. Yikes!

I have my own bags but I'm still not used to them. They're often left in the trunk.

[EnviroBecca]

I noticed yesterday that Giant Eagle, the major supermarket chain in this area, is now selling reusable bags for 99c.

[calicocj]

I am so excited :

I'm going to see Al Gore and his Inconvenient Truth presentation tonite!!!

Woo Hoo! I just wanted to share here, since yall would understand how excited I am...

My office is helping put the event on and so we were able to get tickets (the general seating ones sold out in like an hour), and I can finally get excited bc my boss promised they wouldn't take our tickets away at the last minute to give to the big wigs attending (my biggest fear)

I hope it is good!

[flowers]

Originally Posted by calicocj

I am so excited :

I'm going to see Al Gore and his Inconvenient Truth presentation tonite!!!

Wow! Good for you! That is going to be so rad! Live it up for us and share afterwards!

[Keeta]

Subbing! :

[Eli's_mommy]

Originally Posted by calicocj

I am so excited :

I'm going to see Al Gore and his Inconvenient Truth presentation tonite!!!

Woo Hoo! I just wanted to share here, since yall would understand how excited I am...

My office is helping put the event on and so we were able to get tickets (the general seating ones sold out in like an hour), and I can finally get excited bc my boss promised they wouldn't take our tickets away at the last minute to give to the big wigs attending (my biggest fear)

I hope it is good!

Have an awesome time! That'll be really cool.

So you guys. I hate my diva cup. I finally broke down and bought one and I don't like it It makes my cramps about 10 times worse. Has anyone else experienced this?

[eco_mama]

Just wanted to announce that we bought our first "human" powered lawn mower today!! We love it! It works great!

[Keeta]

Originally Posted by eco_mama

Just wanted to announce that we bought our first "human" powered lawn mower today!! We love it! It works great!

We have one, too, that we love! One piece of advice: keep your blades sharpened! This makes the difference of loving life or wanting to set your yard on fire.

[eco_mama]

Originally Posted by Keeta

We have one, too, that we love! One piece of advice: keep your blades sharpened! This makes the difference of loving life or wanting to set your yard on fire.

k. and what do you use to sharpen them?

[calicocj]

I just wanted to report back -

Al Gore was amazing, even more so in person than in the movie! His presentation had some updated items and he made jokes and told funny stories all the way through... I have to say, he is very very funny!

OT - He is also thinner in person than on tv, and I guess the saying about the camera adding 10 pounds is true

It was very good and there was a lot of energy in the crowd and a lot of students held rallies and events before the talk...

Anyways, if you have an opportunity to see him do the presentation, DEFINITELY GO!!!

[flowers]

Wow! Great to hear. I am so glad to had a great time.

[Cajunmomma]

Joining the tribe! Is anyone having a wee bit of trouble with a partner who doesn't see quite as much need for green?

[lilylove]

Yes, my dh is not nearly as green as I am. I do all the work involved in being green. Like laundering our cloth products, composting, finding ways to reduce our electricity and gas consumption etc..... He goes along with most of it. He does get annoyed with some things though. He really doesn't understand why I won't buy paper plates and cups or other disposable products.

[RaRa7]

Public Water-need advice

Hey mamas-
not sure if this fits here but this is where I lurk EVERY day and feel comfortable! (if you have advice on where to x-post that would be helpful)
So-
We have had well water since we bought this house. We recently had to pay $1300 to get access to public water(the entire town did) However, we haven't "hooked up" to it yet. We still pay $45 every 2 months but don't use it.
Anyway, they are saying we now MUST hook up. Granted the well water isn't the best (we do have a great filter though) as we have a nuclear power plant nearby as well as ADM (one of the world’s largest agricultural processors of soybeans, corn, wheat and cocoa. peee-yew!) and a munitions dump.
SO my question to you all is this:
Which water do you think is better??????????????????????????Should we fight this?

[corwinegall]

Originally Posted by lilylove

Yes, my dh is not nearly as green as I am. I do all the work involved in being green. Like laundering our cloth products, composting, finding ways to reduce our electricity and gas consumption etc..... He goes along with most of it. He does get annoyed with some things though. He really doesn't understand why I won't buy paper plates and cups or other disposable products.

dp is all good and green (except he plays electric guitar ) My mom is another story...we built a full apartment for my mom, so she's here but has her own household. One day she asked me if ds had seen "An Inconvenient Truth" and went on about how important it is for him to see it... then two minutes later starts talking about how she's starting to use paper plates and forks because she's tired of doing dishes. : I think she's lost it.

Lisa

[kimberlychapman]

I'm way behind in computing, especially here, so I think I've missed stuff but no time to go back right now...

Lawnmowers: we've had a no-power push one as long as we've owned the house. We decided it was stupid to get a powered one for such a tiny lawn (because what the heck is anyone doing with a big lawn in Vegas anyway, during a drought?). But it was hard to find!

We're ultra-bad about sharpening...as in, we haven't yet, and we've had it for five years. So it still works fine, but it'd probably be less effort if sharper.

I do have the sharpening attachment for my Dremmel. Just no time to figure out how to use it. But that's one option, if you know someone with a Dremmel tool.


Here's what I really came to post today...info on tax goodies for green stuff:

http://www.sierraclub.org/greentaxes/


Oh, and in that discussion of not wanting to turn the computer off, I ended up feeling guilty, wondering if I was making excuses like SUV drivers do, so although we still can't turn off the server or the DVR, I've started shutting off my computer every night. I run out to turn it back on before doing morning bathroom activities, so it's booted by the time I can get there anyway. We'll see what kind of power impact there'll be on the next bill. Oh, and I'm shutting off the monitor entirely when not using it during the day, but I still have the CPU on because I have my ebay pages all open for quick checks through the day. The drives do power-down, though. And I've ordered a new computer that will have far superior power-down capabilities, not to mention an efficient power supply and the lower-power Core 2 Duo. So we'll see how that affects things...

[kellid]

Originally Posted by Cajunmomma

Joining the tribe! Is anyone having a wee bit of trouble with a partner who doesn't see quite as much need for green?

I've been lurking forever trying to learn, but the bit I do, my dh undoes in 2 seconds. I'm the one that does all the cleaning and he doesn't complain until he sees I might have made the product and then all of a sudden he questions how clean things are. : I've been cloth-ing on the sly too, but I think he's on to me. Only because I had to tell him so we wouldn't have any more fights over "who didn't change the tp roll when they were done"...........hmmmm, that would be YOU. He said, "that is sooo gross". It does make it hard, I don't mind the extra work, it's the mental weight of not being on the same page that gets heavy. So I will keep lurking and keep trying.

[ladywolf]

Yahoo!!! I am getting to commute to work on my bicycle!! I am getting to commute to work on my bicycle!!! (and my husband has been taking his motorcyle instead of his truck!!)

[lilylove]

I am putting together a fact sheet for a discussion topic on green living for a mother's group meeting. I thought I would post what I have to share, and hopefully if anyone has any facts that I could add they could let me know : I would really like to add facts on the enviromental effects of conventional/factory farming. I would like to provide information from easily identified sources.

Here is what I got so far...........

Why Live Green?

In 2005, U.S. residents, businesses, and institutions produced more than 245 million tons of garbage. That's roughly 4.5 pounds of garbage per person per day. EPA

At about 35 percent, paper and paperboard products constitute the largest portion of the garbage. EPA

Nearly 25 percent of the garbage is compostable material. EPA

The U.S. releases approximately 144 metric tons of mercury to the air every year. EPA

10 percent of American women - roughly 7 million women - already have so much mercury in their blood that if they became pregnant, it would pose a threat to the developing fetus. CDC

Coal fired power plants currently emit 68,000 pounds of mercury a year. EPA

In many urban areas, motor vehicles are the single largest contributor to ground-level ozone, a major component of smog. Ground-level ozone is the most serious air pollution problem in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states. National Safety Council

Cars also emit several pollutants classified as toxics, which cause as many as 1,500 cases of cancer in the country each year. Auto emissions also contribute to the environmental problems of acid rain and global warning. National Safety Council

Thanks

[calicocj]

Saw this link yesterday and wanted to pass it on:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/environment/

Sandy, you could also include some items from this in your fact sheet... a lot of people get hit w/ info about environmental issues and go straight "from denial to despair" - but having ideas that actually have an impact (and usually save you as a consumer money) gives a good take home message. That sounds like a neat idea to do with your group - let us know how they like it!