Live Earth and Living for the Earth
This past week was split up by Independence Day in the middle, and was varied and unusual on either side. It was exciting, though; lots of new things here and there. And the kindling of a project that may take up a lot of the rest of the summer! Have I described something that way before? I may have; there are a lot of grand projects proposed for me to work on that end up dwindling into something more manageable. But anyways, summaries and tangential environmental ponderings below the fold.
Monday: I hadn't gotten enough sleep over the weekend, and was consequently tired and drowsy during work. Not a fun situation at all. I accomplished little.
Tuesday: I had gotten a little more sleep, so was a little more chipper. Sometime around this day I completed the flyer I had been working on about rain barrels. Everyone says it looks good, and CET may start distributing it. In summary, rain barrels are great things to get because:
A. They decrease stormwater runoff, and thus decrease erosion in your yard and nearby
B. If you use the water for garden and lawn watering, it's both wonderful for your plants, wonderful for your wallet, and wonderful for decreasing the waste in your tapwater consumption.
Wednesday: I had Wednesday off, as most people did, but I actually did something with one of my bosses. She bought a new Prius from some people up in Concord, NH (2.5 hours away), and will soon be selling her old Prius to her mother. So, I drove up with her for the purpose of driving one of the cars back down. It was the first time I'd driven a Prius (or even an automatic), so it was exciting. Cruise control is fun too.
Thursday: I happened to take my family's car to work (and felt guilty about it). Turns out, it was good I did, because I was thereby able to transport the massive ReStore mailing to the Pittsfield Post Office. Let me explain. Remember the massive thousand-piece mailing I had just completed? Well, they were stamped with our organization's non-profit bulk mail stamp in lieu of normal postage stamps. Thing is, our bulk mail permit is from the Pittsfield PO, because that's where CET's main office is. So, someone had to drive everything out there, and that responsibility fell to me. And since I had the car on Thursday, I was able to do it. It took about an hour to get there. In addition to delivering the mailing to the post office, I got to see CET's main office for the first time.
Friday: I was only at work for three hours (leaving early to go to Boston!), but I got a lot done. I met with Peggy (one of my "bosses", in charge of my hours, does marketing stuff) and Jonathan (one of the raters, does actual field work) about these folders we're going to put together and hand out for our Green Audits. Green Audits are a new program that CET is offering, which go beyond an Energy Audit to include things like landscaping and water use. I think Jonathan said that the three areas of a Green Audit are Energy, Health, and Habitat, where Health is about Indoor Air Quality, and Habitat is about water use and outside stuff. Anyways, it's fallen to me (the intern) to put into order all the various handouts that we have that might be of interest, so that if a homeowner wants more information on a topic, the auditor can just give them these flyers. So this will be one of my jobs. Cataloging, organizing, updating, compiling. Fun times.
One thing that I've been working on that wasn't assigned by anyone other than myself is this: I've been going around online, looking for lists like "Top 10 things you can do for the planet". I've been writing down what they say, and then now that I've got a lot, I've been figuring out what the most common recommendations are. Now, I'm trying to figure out what the specific greenhouse gas emission reductions are associated with each one. I know this is stuff that's already been done, but doing it yourself ingrains it more in your memory, and also, the comprehensive recommendations that list the specific reductions are hard to find, and they frequently don't cite their sources.
So here are a few that are pretty much across the board:
- Drive Less (carpool, bike, public transport, walk, shop in a single trip)
- Switch your Incandescent light bulbs to Compact Fluorescents (they have about a 2 year or shorter payback time, just from electricity savings, not counting lifespan stuff).
- Buy more energy-efficient appliances and generally use them more efficiently (look for EnergyStar appliances when you're buying new ones. turn stuff off when you're not using it. Defrost old freezers and fridges regularly).
- Turn your thermostat down two degrees in the summer and up two degrees in the winter. It saves tons of money and CO2 emissions.
- Use less hot water by installing high-efficiency showerheads and by washing your clothes with cold water. Also just use less water in general by turning off the faucet when you're not using the water coming from it, taking shorter showers, and only using the dishwasher or washing machine when it's full.
- Make sure your house, new or old, has the best insulation that it can. In a poorly insulated house, it takes loads more energy to heat and cool, because air is constantly exchanging with colder (or hotter, in the summer) air.
- Eat local, organic, and less meat. I've come to understand that vegetarianism can be a sliding scale, and we could all do to move in the direction of complete veggie-ism.
Well, that's a lot, and that's only the beginning. I'll let you know if I ever finish. Ha.
Oh, Live Earth. I hope you all heard about the global concert that just happened this Saturday. Big deal, Al Gore-initiated and whatnot. Tons of famous bands. You probably heard of it. Anyways, the word is, it was really good because it raised awareness and got a lot of people thinking and had lots of great tips and interviews in between concerts. However, there's been much criticism about hypocrisy. How much greenhouse gas was emitted to put on these events? In some cases (and this applies to the silliness about "How big is Al Gore's carbon footprint?" stuff), some increased emissions are necessary and acceptable to spread the word and wake people up. But it does make sense to question the consistency of having such an enormous event to raise awareness about climate change. Certainly the greenhouse gas emissions due the the concerts were gargantuan. I don't know. I think my overall opinion is a positive one, but I am a little skeptical. Although Spinal Tap reuniting for the event is pretty cool, in my opinion.
That's all for now. More soon.