Personally, I always print my documents on both sides of the paper if possible:
[feedelite.com]
See this article. Basically, I print all the odd pages, flip the papers, and then print all the even pages. This is a prevention step from having to use blank sided scratch paper in the first place.

chensamurai

@walt.eis: But we want to become carbon negative. Wouldn't that be nice. And while it might be a bit short sighted (it if does indeed release the same amount of CO2 in the long run, which I highly doubt), but I would say now more then later we need to reduce our carbon footprint. So delaying that carbon is a great start.

jackquack

@denny: Burning leaves is carbon neutral (that is they don't produce more carbon by burning than they took out by growing). Also, composting does release CO2, it just takes longer (I read an excellent paper a few years ago on the impact of increased moisture in a forest environment - one of those impacts was an increase in the rate of carbon release).

walt.eis

@hypno_toad: On the flip side, dairy farming was introduced as an environmental measure. A cow can convert tons of unusable and storable grass into ready to consume milk. Imagine how this must have been for nomadic farmers?

For true environmental friendliness though, you need your own cows or goats and milk them by hand.

englishman

I'm my Vista machine I have all my little monitor bars, pie charts and whistles telling me everything about what my computer is up to, but its usually just a normally stable program crapping out. I totally realize its just due to running the newest version of Azurues or gaming. I was being kind of unspecific. My vista machine is my gaming rig, so its go a lot of power. Its not blue screens where I get the errors, its simply windows screw-ups. Some new game will just bring the system down. Same on the XP laptop. Its just freezing. And when I said drivers the only ones I ever update are the video drivers. Its really just too hard or too time consuming to pin down the source of any given problem. Each one could be 10 different things. I'm just grown accustomed to running a system that isn't completely stable. I can get about 3-4days of uptime, and then I'll have to restart. E-gads! Windows updates can cause system malfunctions even.

I realize how ecosystems work. As much as I would love to eliminate mosquito, birds need them, spiders need them, bats need them. But I just take a so what approach. If it can't survive when we introduce something new, then maybe it wasn't meant to be. So what if we introduce non-native species and they take over. Thats nature. Thats how the process works. I just take it as, meh, new animal to this area. It is thriving so it must be a really great match. Something would probably have come along (thousands millions of years) later to fill that niche. I wasn't suggesting we intentionally introduce new species, but if it happens then we've almost helped nature do what it does best: create the best species suited to that ecosystem.
I realize the problems associated with fertilizer and algae blooms, and thats why I would say use should be limited, but I would not agree with not using them at all. If it can produce substantially more food and feed substantially more people, then I'm for it. Human lives before animal lives. I realize we are wiping out species left and right, but I guess they just aren't well adapted enough to out current world. Maybe the next thing nature creates that is well adapted will be even cooler. I'm all for preserving species but if it does die off, yes that was a beautiful species that is now gone and future generations will never get to experience, but thats the price we pay for our invasiveness.

I am totally aware of what causes mad cow disease and it was my understanding that it is 100% feeding cow to cow. Did you guys get wind of the bruhaha up in Alberta. Long story short, a very small number of BSE cases and then the border was shut to cattle trade for more than a year (completely shut for around 18 months I believe) and it STILL isn't fully reopened to all types of cattle. It cost the industry and farmers there potential million. This would have been about 3-4 years ago. And then many would argue the border still isn't fully up again due to protectionist thinking in Washington which is in violation of NAFTA. And our markets in Asia still aren't what they used to be. The result of this disaster being that there are now much tighter controls over the possibility of cow meat ever being re-fed to cows. It can take a disaster to make people to do their job and have an agency receive proper funding. Another example would be 'The Walkerton Water Scandal" involving E-Coli water contamination and a few deaths in Ontario.
But I have no hesitation about drinking tap water. If I ate meat I would have no hesitation about eating ground beef (I say ground beef because that is supposed to be where the highest likelihood of BSE contamination is). Maybe I'm naive.
Now I'm not familiar with the state of your USDA, but if I lived there I would just hope they do their job. Because if you can't trust that they are doing their job, then how can you really trust anything you buy in a store?

jackquack

Reducing red meat is not going to impact things as much as some of the others on the list. Plus ... reducing red meat, if you continue to eat meat, will increase your consumption of other meat.

The sweater idea is decent all depends on the climate you live in and if you live in a multi dwelling unit (If my neighbors crank up the heat, there isn't much I can do about it, other then mentioning to them it is a bit hot inside)

Coffee mug and utensils are really good considering how much that applies to everyone regardless of where you live. Imagine how many times a day you eat/drink coffee or other beverages. Just replacing your own utensils/mug ONCE a day can have a great impact!

etnie21

@jackquack: Tinkering is very detrimental to the reliability of anything. Monitoring is a good idea, but don't mess with something that's working. I can't think of the last time I updated a driver on this system. A huge reason that 10 year old NT server keeps on cranking is that I've found what works and have left it alone. Also, never underestimate the value of cooling. It's been long known that electronics run better when cooler, your PC is no exception. Also, check the voltages on the power supply with a good quality DMM. You're never going to have a stable system without a stable power supply. Just because the PS may be from a good brand doesn't mean yours is functioning properly. I had trouble with Antec PSs leaking AC into their DC rails. Maybe they'd work fine for most people, but they caused havoc with my video & audio connections to other equipment. Proper grounding (and a good grounding system in your building) makes a huge difference.

Tinkering with DNA is no different. You have far more faith in our scientists than I do. EVERYTHING is interconnected. Thinking you can change one part of the ecosystem and it not having a ripple effect, you're not looking at the whole issue. Come on down to Florida to see what havoc that line of thinking creates. The Army Corps of Engineers has totally screwed over the Everglades along with the Florida ecosystem with their various attempts to "correct" nature and introduced invasive non-native species which we're now spending millions of dollars to remove. Their "handiwork" is also killing thousands of fish with algae blooms which then float to the surface, rot, and clog up beaches and canals. Beautiful. C'mon, our own scientists still can't even agree on whether alcohol & caffeine is good or not for humans. It was just 15 or so years ago we discovered that the proper treatment for stomach ulcers is antibiotics rather than invasive surgery. What makes us think we have the capacity to judge what may or may not be beneficial to other organisms which haven't been as extensively studied? Antibiotic resistance and "superbugs" are the direct result of this type of thinking and are not just theories -- they are MAJOR and serious problems for which we really don't have any current solution for. The last time I checked, there weren't any new, promising antibiotics in the works.

"And again, I would hope that government agencies who's duty it is to protect us from such things would do their job. And the agency responsible for what animals are fed does their job as well."

Bahahahahahahaha... This just shows how little you understand about the current system. These agencies are incapable of doing what they should be, whether it be due to red tape, lack of funding, or political pressure. Look at all of the recent food contamination issues in the USA over the past year. USDA's "meat inspection" process is a total joke. Too few inspectors who aren't looking for REAL problems (who cares if there's a cardboard box on the floor, what about the salmonella in the food processing equipment?) and don't have the power to take the proper actions. There's nothing illegal about feeding livestock non-human grade feed. Much of the mad cow problem comes from feeding cows cows. Cows are herbivores, not carnivores and definitely not cannibals. It should also be noted that there's a human analogue of mad cow disease seen in some 3rd world tribes which do practice eating dead members' brains.

FLConsumer

To keep myself from throwing paper in the trash, I have a few cardboard boxes around where I dispose of the most paper. So one near the kitchen where the daily paper will go, and one in the den where printing and alike will go.
@sciencegeek: These foot pedals you speak of sounds like a great idea. I want.

jackquack

Something I've used at work which I wish I had at home: foot pedal operated faucets for the kitchen sink. Since I don't have to use my hands to turn the water off and on, I tend to use less water to perform the same tasks.

I made the switch from plastic bags at the grocery store to bringing my own reusable bags. My next project is to work on increasing the percentage of paper that I recycle. I'm not perfect but if I choose one thing to focus on per six months, eventually I'll get from awful to good. I find that if I try to do everything at once, I completely fail. This way I'm more likely to keep the good habits.

sciencegeek

@FLConsumer: I'll reply to the easy part first.
"Quality parts all around (esp. power supply)"
I'm running a ~$125 power supply on my desktop (Vista) and then the other is my laptop. My video card cost $300. The other parts are fairly standard name brand parts. Its really impossible to know the reliability of any given one. I use standard programs, most frequent ones would be skype, msn, firefox, winamp, syncback, paint.net, truecrypt, itunes, maple, word, picasa. But I play around a lot, installing new software versions whenever it comes out, and I just take that as being the problem. As usual its a combinations of things.
"Do you have any concept of the DNA replication mechanisms?"
I'm talking about variences in reproduction. Those same changes that we make in the lab to DNA can be made in nature. If we make a messed up animal in the lab, it will probably just die off because it has nothing to breed with (assuming it was changed enough to become another species), or just because it is less fit and unable to compete. But if it can survive, then what is the harm in that. Yes it may displace other native animal species, but really, thats nature.
"This also includes various hormones and steroids."
The issue of steroids and hormones being given to animals is a different issue. The tolerance of these practices is different around the world. As I said earlier, Canada (my country) has banned growth hormones. I am completely against the use of copious antibiotics since it has been hypothesized that this could easily lead to the creation of super diseases. Some would claim we are seeing such super diseases cropping up.
"food that's not meant for human consumption is often fed to animals which ARE for human consumption."
And again, I would hope that government agencies who's duty it is to protect us from such things would do their job. And the agency responsible for what animals are fed does their job as well. However, I know what kind of horrible things are fed and done to animals. Just visit the PETA website.
"Yeah, right. With that same logic, maybe $1,000,000 in $100 bills will appear in my living room tomorrow by random accumulation of the dust bunnies which I desperately need to clean."
Well if the animal created in the lab is genetically speaking 'fit', then it is entirely possible it could occur in nature in the course of millions of years of evolution. I mean, as improbable as it was, we came about. Evolution isn't the accumulation of random particles, but the slow process of change in a species into another. And whats stopping it from filling an ecological niche that a man made animal might fill if it were to survive.
p.s. I really didn't mean to include the expletive and apologize. I wish lifehacker would include an edit button, or delete button.

jackquack

@jackquack: "Like no matter how fucked up you make your animal, it could have evolved that way,"

Yeah, right. With that same logic, maybe $1,000,000 in $100 bills will appear in my living room tomorrow by random accumulation of the dust bunnies which I desperately need to clean. I'm not holding my breath that this will occur.

"Right, but thats a food product that wasn't safe for human consumption."

Only problem with this statement -- food that's not meant for human consumption is often fed to animals which ARE for human consumption. This also includes various hormones and steroids.

"5 YEARS! I can't get a week of uptime. Is this a computer you use regularly or a server? I have one vista and one XP. They crash about the same. Both were installed in August."

Quality parts all around (esp. power supply), stable drivers, stable software, and stripping out all useless modules, drivers, and software. That 5 years is for my home/business system, which runs 24/7. Also ran during all of the Florida hurricanes. At any given time, I have 100-200 tabs open in Firefox, SageTV, NYTimes Reader, Acrobat, RDP, PCAnywhere, NewsStand, mIRC, and Trillian running, in addition to any MS Office apps which might be open. Usually there's either Panotools/Photoshop/Premiere/After Effects running in the background as well. It took about a month to get this system up & running to the point that I was satisfied with it, but the result was worth it. FWIW, I have an ancient, decrepit NT server in the field which has been running since late 1996. I replace the hard drives on it every 3 years whether it needs it or not, but that's all I've ever done to it. Quality parts and drivers are the keys to success. There's a reason one power supply costs $10 while another costs $110, and it's not just the pretty black paint.

"While I agree that most probably not all that "junk DNA" is entirely junk, the body can do a lot of random switches "

Do you have any concept of the DNA replication mechanisms? I don't remember the exact number offhand, but the mechanism is far more accurate than anything man-made. Ballparking it, we're talking about 1 error out of 10^10 nucleotides duplicated, if not even better than that. While we think of things as happening randomly, I don't think such "random" events are really random.

FLConsumer

@FLConsumer: 5 YEARS! I can't get a week of uptime. Is this a computer you use regularly or a server? I have one vista and one XP. They crash about the same. Both were installed in August.
Where are you getting your data from on the calories from meat. Its also totally dependent on which crop.I would contest that it is more nutritious to produce the meat. But I'm not in the mood for research on it right now.
As to GE, you need to experiment somehow to learn what it all does. While I agree that most probably not all that "junk DNA" is entirely junk, the body can do a lot of random switches with DNA and everything remains the same. Or as far as we can tell. Sometimes you just live with a variable because it is neither beneficial or detrimental.

jackquack

@RelativeRon: Right, but thats a food product that wasn't safe for human consumption. Just like you shouldn't eat those mushrooms you find in the woods. I was talking about animals. But as to food, I am for genetic engineering research to find food products that can be grown more efficiently and in different environments to expand our capabilities to grow more food and more nutritious food. The idea in this being that it could save million from starvation. I'm slightly confused by the book you quoted. Was it the eating of the food that caused the sickness, a byproduct of the food's production, or am I totally misunderstanding what it says.
Also, it's my understanding that the FDA's mandate is to protect yanks from unsafe food.
And then to expand on my statement on animals, I just prefer to look at things in the long run sometimes. Like no matter how fucked up you make your animal, it could have evolved that way, and if it is superior it will thrive. And if we totally fuck up the world with global warming, which it looks like we are, hundreds of millions may die, but eventually the world will bounce back as it always does. You really can't destroy the world beyond repair even if you did launch all nukes at once. In another 500 million years, (the earth is estimated at 4 billion for scale) the earth would probably return to some form of its current state with an entirely new set of plant and animal species.

jackquack

@balls187: Thanks for the informative article. Nothing earth shattering in there for me, but it does confirm the need to consolidate the HDDs and possibly consider putting "Big Bertha" out to pasture. I hate to do anything considering how reliable this PC's been. Going on 5 years of nearly continuous uptime with no crashes/freezes.

@jackquack: There is far more nutritional value (calories) in 1 lb of meat than there is in 4 lbs of veggies. I'm also NOT a fan of genetically modified foods. Cross/hybrid breeding's fine with me, but don't go in there and mess with the DNA. We don't even know what our own DNA is for yet, let alone other organisms. I highly doubt the "junk DNA" as science calls it, truly is useless. The body's quite efficient and wouldn't go through the effort to make something it doesn't need.

FLConsumer

@jackquack: Getting more into genetic engineering would side-track this discussion (green living, reducing carbon output). Briefly, there is LOTS that can go wrong, environmentally, medically, and more. People have already died because of GE. Here is an excerpt from [www.seedsofdeception.com]
Chapter 4: Deadly Epidemic
In 1989, first dozens, then thousands fell sick. About one hundred people died, others struggled with paralysis, unbearable pain, and debilitating symptoms. Authorities eventually tracked its cause: contaminants produced in one company's genetically modified variety of the food supplement L-tryptophan. This chapter describes the evidence implicating genetic engineering as the cause of the epidemic and the efforts by industry and the FDA to divert the blame. Current regulations are so loose, they would allow that same type of deadly supplement onto the market today.

RelativeRon

@RELATIVERON
Regardless, whats the giant problem about a new genetically engineered species escaping. Its almost just like evolution. A new strain, that if superior will successfully reproduce, and if inferior will die off. Really, nature will just takes its course and all will be well.

jackquack

If you have a blog (I know a lot of us do), you can use a printer specific stylesheet to save paper when people print articles from your blog:

Save Paper with CSS @media print

engtech

@EEEFRESH
I never know who to trust now. I hear from some scientists there isn't a great divide among scientists at all. Its all b/s thrown in the wind to make people think there is a debate when really the issue is settled. Thats what I have come to believe. The book is The Weathermakers.

jackquack

@BALLS187
Woohoo for living in Canada where we don't allow growth hormones. or so I was once told. I think it was from a farmer at the Calgary Stampede.

jackquack

@SETHOM
I apologize. In my own mind I consider organic to only mean fertilizer free. I know thats not generally accepted. I do strongly disagree with pesticides as there are other ways of controlling insects such as using deterrent plants and animals.

jackquack

@RELATIVERON
I can't seem to find anything either way. I just see the word developed on the wikipedia pages. I was just remembering what I heard from a radio program. Here is the article on what he did: [en.wikipedia.org]

jackquack

@ EEEFRESH
You are missing a very important point. Producing 1 pound of meat takes about 4 pounds of crop. Or something like that. So it is MUCH more arable land efficient to grow the crop.

jackquack

@jeff303: LOL @ used batteries

@FLConsumer: [www.tomshardware.com] is an article about powersaving. And between the P4 and Core2 Duo, the power consumption is pretty significant, not to mention the C2D being a much better processor able to do more in shorter times compared to p4's.

balls187

@jackquack: You must mean hybrid breeding. Genetic engineering did not even begin until the 70's, and didn't get rolling in ag much until the 90's. Look it up at wikipedia. I'm way against GE. Imagine a super salmon that gets loose, ruining the food chain. Ag seeds are living things that want to reproduce, and mutate, and... It's a whole issue. This book is good: seedsofdeception.com.

RelativeRon

My wife and I run a small cloth diaper company (I won't promote the business here) but I wrote in to say that we are very firm believers in cloth diapers (all 3 of our kids were cloth diapered), and there's quite a few others out there that feel the same way. I've looked over quite a few studies similar to the one posted above, and although the actual environmental impact comes out close to the same in most run of the mill studies, don't forget that they are also generally testing in the studies with chlorine bleach, and standard laundry detergents, which create water and sewage issues. If you use alternatives such as biodegradable detergents, lose the bleach and use oxygen bleach instead (Oxy-clean), you stand a greater chance of helping with the environmental impact. Also, you can also donate your used cloth diapers that are still in decent shape to useful charities such as Miracle Diapers which extends the life of the cloth diapers even further. Other alternatives are using prefolds (the flat ones) as rags for dusting, etc. (they last forever). So there's lots of things you can do.

I think the hardest part for people when talking about using cloth diapers is washing the solid waste into the toilet before you put them into the bucket. That's the primary reason people choose to use disposables over cloth diapers. Convenience.

thinkdreams

@massysett: What you're forgetting is that cows can graze on land that is otherwise unsuitable for agriculture, thereby increasing the effective land area we have for meat production. Not to mention "hostage" cows don't eat grass anyway - they usually eat a mixture of corn, soy, antibiotics, and used batteries.

jeff303

@sumocat: I was only kidding, sumo. I eat bunnies, too.

Also, in regards to global warming: It's a controversial and highly politicized issue, and there are many respected scientists who believe humans have had little, if any, impact on the global climate. You don't hear their side very often because its not PC, but there are plenty of them out there.

Don't get me wrong...I'm all for conservation and living responsibly. I just take issue with militant hippie-types who refuse to hear both sides of a story.

eeefresh

@balls187: I've pondered consolidating the hard drives. 3 HDDs is about the fewest this system can use because of the simultaneous operation of the various video encoders. Is the Core2 that much more efficient? For the most part, the proc is idle with the encoder cards doing most of the work, exception being when I'm doing some heavy Photoshop/Panotools/After Effects, which isn't all that often.

I'd do the exercise bike thing, but at 4% bodyfat, I don't want to lose what little ass I have!

On the peanut butter, some of the grocery stores here make fresh peanut butter right in the store, in the deli departments. And yes, the ingredients are peanuts, oil, salt, and sugar.

FLConsumer

@FLConsumer: Just look at getting greener energy options, like using solar power, or wind energy.

Definitely moving to Intel Core2 procs will help, and replace your 6 HDD's with 3 x 500MB HD's will reduce your power consumption.

You could also hookup an exercise bike to charge batteries and burn some of those hostess cupcakes off :P

balls187

@aeneas: Agreed. However, in the above article, there is *NO* mention of buying *LOCAL* produce, so I don't think you can "ignore" transportation impacts.

@massysett: I'm not forgetting anything. I understand that there is food requirements to raise farm animals. My point was that just flat out cutting out red meat doesn't necessarily do anything to help the environment, if you end up buying more produce being shipped from across the country.

@sumocat: Uh disagrees about what?

@jackquack: Agreed. Just eating organic isn't a good solution, partly for the same reasons I outlined above. What good is it to eat organic, if the organic food comes from 1/2 around the world? Further more (at least in the US) organic labeling has very little meaning. My biggest concern (which leads me to eat natural products) is all the chemicals used inside food products. Try picking up a jar of peanut butter. The ingredients ought to be: Peanuts, Salt, Sugar (maybe), Oil, but in many brands you get a lot of otherstuff. That's not cool. Another problem is that meat is pumped full of hormones and antibiotics, and no one really knows what effects that will have on people in the long run. Sure the meat industry says it's okay, but thats like asking a fox to count your chickens.

The only point I wanted to really make was "cutting out red meat is better for the environment" was too general of a statement.

Not that it matters much, but my girlfriend is a Vegan, and I eat very little red meat (and was a former vegetarian), so I'm not this super pro-meat guy.

balls187

@Steve Hollasch: I will admit that I do have a pre-water-restrictor Speakman showerhead which I absolutely adore. I've found it takes forever to get shampoo out with the piddly 2.5 gallon showerheads. I'm not sure how much water really comes out of it, guessing about 4 gals/min. I look at it as one of my vices, figuring that if I'm saving 40 gallons for each load of washing I do and saving up to 2.6 gallons per flush, and 10-15+ gals going to water the plants from the AC & dehumidifier, I'm still saving water, even with my guzzling showerhead. Even if I take a 15-30 minute shower, I doubt I'll be using 80 gallons (what it takes to fill my tub) and amount of relaxation is the same. It's also more efficient than using the shower spa w/ 6x 2.5 gallon showerheads.

FLConsumer

@Ben Hirsch: If you're using a front-loading washing machine (rather than the terribly inefficient top-loading), washing is always better. No more petrol products being used to make nappies, no non-biodegradable nappies going to the dump.

Being a vegetarian for most of my life, I'll admit that I've pretty much been forced to eat meat to get the protein my body needs. After 25+ years of being a vegetarian, my body just couldn't get the protein it needed from the vegan options. I went to multiple dieticians, including vegan ones, but the ultimate conclusion was that it was either the cows/chickens die or I do. That said, while the idea of eating meat was initially quite revolting (I'm still not sold on fish), I have become rather fond of good steaks.

I don't buy the whole "carbon footprint" thing, nor do I believe a damn word Al Gore says (regardless of whether I agree with his political views). Once Al Gore starts to practice what he preaches, then I'll give him a listen. I'm down to $0.40/day of electricity, 20+ year old Florida home, air conditioning at 76F whenever I'm home. That's with 2 entire sides of my home being retractable floor-to-ceiling glass panels. Planning on going 100% solar over the next few months. Water usage is down to practically nothing. My Old washer used 55-60 gallons/load, new one uses 9-14 gallons/load. Old toilets used 3.5 gallons per flush, new ones use 0.9-1.4 depending on the...ahem..load. Sinks now use 1 gallon/minute and are sensor-activated. AC & dehumidifier condensate is stored and used to water my garden and some of my lawn. I'd love to do something with greywater (shower + washing machine water), but there's no practical way to do it here without tearing the house down.

Really, the key to living greener isn't making radical changes in your lifestyle, it's being wiser with what you use/consume. Truly beneficial "green" options will make good sense. Buying carbon offsets? Bullshiat. Buying locally whenever possible? makes sense. Using less? makes sense. Using energy/resource efficient appliances/fixtures/cars? makes sense.

As an aside, does anyone know of an internet forum dedicated to efficient computing? My %#$%$# computer now uses up to 65% of the electricity my home uses. Current system is a P4 2.8GHz hyperthreaded, 3GB RAM, 1.6TB HDD (6 hdds), Matrox G550 display card, Matrox RT.X rendering/capture card, 2x Happauge PVR-250 MPEG encoders. Power supply is a Seasonic Energy+ (~85% efficient) supply, case is an Antec P180, only using 2 fans. I don't want to lose functionality.

FLConsumer

@thisluckyguy: honestly, whenever I group shower it always takes longer than if we'd just done it individually.

engtech

@eeefresh: "I once read an ag report that said something like 22,000 rabbits, deer and other creatures are killed each year by wheat combines. So...I'll keep eating meat for the sake of the bunnies." -- Assuming it is better to eat millions of animals for the sake of those 22,000, shouldn't you be cutting out wheat instead?

sumocat

Funny, I've just gone around and *removed* faucet flow restricters and aerators from several of my newly remodeled faucets. One kitchen faucet had no fewer than THREE restrictions in flow. I also removed the restrictors for my island sink faucet and laundry room faucet.

Restrictors such as this are just plain dumb when installed on faucets that spend a significant portion of their use filling up containers such as sinks, buckets, or bathtubs. If I need two gallons of water for a task, then taking three minutes to do it instead of one is useless and conserves nothing.

My secret to conserving water? STOP TREATING FAUCETS AS ON/OFF SWITCHES. If you're washing your hands, turn the faucet on about 1/3rd of the way. I rinse dishes with the water running at a thin trickle -- try it and you'll be surprised how little water it takes to rinse away soap. Same with washing your hands. If you turn the faucet only partially on for most uses, you'll conserve water at EVERY sink.

Steve Hollasch

@Nicole Marie: Not just the franchises. My favorite local coffee shops give a discount of ~50-60 cents for bringing your own mug. (This is Austin, though, so YMMV.) Best Christmas present I ever got was a travel mug and a $25 gift certificate for the coffeehouse across the street from my work; I didn't have to buy my own coffee until March.

Eddie C.

Going vegetarian isn't necessarily better for the environment. As demand increases, so will soil erosion and the use of fertilizer and pesticides. Sure, you could only buy organic, but most Americans aren't willing to pay twice as much for organically grown produce that is often smaller than the genetically-enhanced varieties.

I once read an ag report that said something like 22,000 rabbits, deer and other creatures are killed each year by wheat combines. So...I'll keep eating meat for the sake of the bunnies.

eeefresh

@Balls187
Organic produce is a mixed blessing. I was really into organic for a while, but then I started thinking about how inefficient it can be. You can produce a lot more food if you do not grow organic. And I don't think many people can argue the world needs less food. But then again it might be more sustainable and thus more efficient in the long run since there is less potential damage to the environment.

But the one thing I am all for is genetically engineered, since its GE that has saved India from a possible famine around 1970 by a man named Dr. Norman Borlaug. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for this. Its known as the green revolution. It was the introduction of Short Stalk Grain that practically saved that country. The problem had been that the grain being grown was very tall and thus a lot of energy went into the stalk of the plant and not into the grain. By creating a plant that grew with a shorter stalk, the plant was able to put more energy into the grain and less into the stalk. Production doubled in some places.

jackquack

@balls187: What you are forgetting is that a cow eats an enormous amount of grass in order to give you your red meat. A free range cow eats just as much as a hostage cow. Much more land under cultivation is used to feed animals than is used to directly feed people. If you want to cut your land footprint, produce flown in from far away beats a local free-range cow anyday.

massysett

I read an article in Wired (the Al Gore cover) which suggested that cloth diapers are actually JUST AS if not MORE wasteful than disposables because of all the laundry loads you would have to do to clean the dirty ones. I suppose as an infant gets older and goes less, reusables might be the better option.

Ben Hirsch

@balls187: The United Nations disagrees: [www.un.org]

sumocat

I don't take my own utensils TO work, I take the utensils FROM work! I don't buy plastic utensils for camping/picnicking/summer parties at home. I hang on to those utensils from work events and/or coworkers give me their unused extras when they order take-out. (Most of those people would just throw them away if I wasn't taking them) I haven't bought disposable utensils in years and have saved hundreds of them from going straight into the garbage dump.

MiddleGeek

I have to slightly disagree with "Reduce Red Meat" to live greener. That's simply an misstatement of the facts.

If you give up red meat, and eat plants, where do those plants come from? If you're grocery store is getting produce from Mexico, South America, New Zealand etc, how do you think they get transported?

The real key is to shop for products that are locally grown, products with minimal packaging, in season. It's okay to eat meat, especially if it's free range, organic and not the ultra drugged up corporate farm garbage served by mcdonalds.

Go to farmers markets, and try to buy only local produce.

Sure it doesn't fall under the "easy" catagory, but simply cutting out red meat doesn't do much.

balls187

@RETAILWHORE:
Although there may not be much of an environmental gain using cloth over disposable with one baby, as soon as those same diapers get used with a second child, you are making a difference, both environmentally and to your pocket book!

I really like the poop composter, and should see if we can make use of an idea like this in our coop.

porter235

@thisluckyguy:
My wife and I showered together up until we had kids. Then when we were transitioning my son from the baby tub to the real tub one of the confort suggestions was to get in with him so I tried that and it turned out he liked showering over bathing so I shower him with me now, he likes to play under the water while I shower.

enine

I can't believe someone hasn't mentioned this...
"Save water, shower with a friend"

thisluckyguy

The other great benefit to bringing your own coffee mug or insulated thermos to the café is that many of them (at least the franchises) will give you a 5 to 10 cent discount. Peet's Coffee & Tea does this, as do many cafés on college campuses. It's not a huge amount of money, but could add up if you buy coffee several times a week.

Nicole Marie

For bringing your own utensils... I recommend the titanium spork! I always have it in my "go bag". It can be found at ThinkGeek or at many camping supply retailers (like REI).

One utensil to rule them all!

Insomnic

Don't even do that much work with leaves. Use a mulching mower. If you follow the manual of the mulching mower you should buy a new blade at the beginning of each year anyway so at the end of the year just mow over all the leaves and sticks. I've been doing this years and all the neighbors want to know what I put on my lawn because its the nicest looking around. I never put anything on it, just mow up everything and let it turn to soil.

enine

Regarding meat, here is a web page called "How to Win an Argument With a Meat Eater", which is from "Diet For A New America" by John Robbins. [www.vegsource.com]

That book was published in 1998, so I'm guessing the stats need updating. Still this is an excellent collection of ideas.

I looked at the book at Amazon. One reviewer made these useful comments.
"Possibly the most controversial subject matter would be John's environmental statistics. Even many vegetarians feel that John is too one-sided on this and try to distance themselves from John for this reason. ... However, even taking more conservative numbers, such as the 450 gallons of water per pound of beef, (instead of John's 2,500 to 12,000 gallons per pound,) even the conservative number is many times less efficient than vegetables. And the vegetables are much more healthy too. So, even conservative numbers are damning enough.
In John's latest book, he give more information as to why he feels the conservative numbers are faulty. And I feel that John makes a credible case for his position. But in the end, it doesn't matter, the conservative numbers are bad enough!
Even so, I'd still say that some of the material in Diet for a New America is dated. If you haven't read it yet, skip it and go for The Food Revolution."

RelativeRon

An eco-friendly way of dealing with fall leaves
Four years ago I moved from the big city to five acres in the country. I soon discovered that many country folk have a nasty fall habit: they burn their leaves. At least in this part of the country it seems to be the universal method for fall yard maintenance. Given the current state of climate change burning leaves is a real no-no. As an avid gardener I've always made it a point to compost leaves so that all that organic matter is returned to the soil which completes the natural cycle.

Here is a tip for more easily managing fall leaves that is based on moving them rather than burning them. If you've got a big yard in a rural setting chances are you have a place where you can store a big pile of leaves for the winter so that they have a chance to decompose and not be in your way. The method is simple and requires a tarp and a rake. If you've got two people a bigger tarp will work better. Simply lay the tarp down and rake the leaves onto it. When you've got a huge pile fold the tarp over forming a big leaf taco and drag it to your compost or out of the way area. Repeat until finished. That's it. You'll get some exercise and will add zero emissions to the atmosphere.

Using this method is as fast as burning and much faster than bagging leaves or raking them into a wheel barrow. It may not be as fast as one of those fancy lawnmower-based leaf mulcher/vacuums but it produces zero pollution. Gas mowers are terribly inefficient at burning gas and produce gobs of CO2 (Carbon dioxide), much more than a car, because they do nothing with the emissions produced... they just spit it all out. So the gas mower/vacuum method should be avoided.

denny

Aerotor FTW. I'm always willing to spend more to save energy. I have two bulbs left to switch to compact florecent, I'm already a vegetarian, don't own an animal (man or beast) or car, brew my own coffee. These are some of the best methods I have ever seen. Some really innovative and smart solutions. However, I'm an appartment dweller so the composting and heating are out of my control. Meals are eaten at home, but I may extend this your own utensils to take out.
Speaking of eating out, bringing your own doggy bags to restaurants is a good suggestion. And another old one in the reuse category is bring your own shopping bags. I use Ikea's big blue bags which are super large, strong and work great.
Does anyone think they would be able to make a external hard drive script for a XP/Vista user? I use the method of turning it on and off, but sometimes I do forget about it.
Another suggestion would be to really pump up those power saving settings built into your computer. Is it really a problem if they monitor shuts off 5 minutes after no use? Also, often forgotten are speakers and printers which when not in use still use power.
Another faucet innovation that I have seen once, is a funnel like device which you can feed water back into while you are trying to adjust the temperature of the water flowing out of your faucet. It just recycles the water.

jackquack

These are good suggestions, but I wanted to point out that an extended study by the British Environment Agency, which had been touting cloth diapers as superior to disposables, has shown that there is little difference in the environmental impact of cloth versus disposable diapers.

Here's the link: [news.bbc.co.uk]

The other concern, that of chemicals present in disposables, is an issue that might be of concern to parents. It is also a good idea to know how cloth diapers are cleaned, in terms of commercial chemicals (if using a service), or of the contents of the parents' own cleaning method, if cleaned at home.

retailwhore

Does anyone have figures on the red meat / vegetarianism eco-impact numbers?

Could have sworn I came across something last week that said eating meat was a more effective use of energy than vegetables.

engtech

There are cloth diapers with flushable and compostable liners, and I love them. You can flush or throw away the poopy ones, compost the wet ones, and then wash the covers when they finally get skanky. I think it's the best of all worlds.

As for composting pet waste - yikes, this is problematic. Pet food is not regulated like human food, and pets, being carnivores, can have really nasty pathogens in their waste. That's why pregnant women aren't allowed to touch litterboxes. Spreading this stuff in your garden is not a good idea. If you really want to compost it, bury it in a really deep hole far, far away from water sources and never touch it again.

dolbonner

Careful! Composting pet waste is a no-no. Dog poo contains harmful bacteria and pathogens such as parasitic roundworms, tapeworms and hookworms. This is dangerous even if you don't use the compost for edibles.

Also, dog waste is high in nitrogen so it significantly affects the ratio of carbon to nitrogen ratio, which significantly affects the decomposition process. (The bacteria and fungi in compost digest or "oxidize" carbon as an energy source, and ingest nitrogen for protein synthesis.) There are ways that pet waste can be safely composted but it is difficult to replicate on a small scale such as the project listed.

ChromeSishi

@jackquack: I guess I'll have to write to all the authors of those papers in Science etc and tell them they're wrong then. :-)

Seriously - the net effect is the same. The only way to be carbon "negative" in nature is (going from memory here) is to somehow cause more erosion of silicates. If a plant absorbs carbon it's going to release it sooner or later.

walt.eis

The easiest way to live greener in my opinion? Tell other people to live green! Do what you can yourself, and as you get used to doing one thing differently, make another change. With each change you make in your lifestyle, talk to at least one other person about it and try to convince them to do the same. A war can't be won by just a few strong soldiers.

kottoler.ello

@walt.eis: Right, I do know that, I guess I was just... I don't know. Its called the carbon cycle. I was just trying to make a point I guess about delaying the release of carbon until our society improves maybe.

jackquack