I think I can pinpoint my beginning as an advocate for Earth when, as a photojournalism student several years ago, I photographed a neighbor's filthy, littered back yard for a class assignment.
The debris had laid scattered there for months. The day after I made those photographs, it was cleaned up. I liked to think I had been spotted documenting the crime scene and that somehow influenced the improvement.
Now, after a handful of years as a journalist -- using camera and pen -- I focus heavily on the writing side of life.
I write as a corporate communications guy by day. I tend to a blog -- iHappy -- for writings on a positive, happy life.
And I'm on my way to an all-'round obsession with efficiency and re-usability for everything.
By writing for Green Options, all facets of my life have finally merged.
Being a Missourian, it is particularly nice to see this Midwestern, conservative state step up to the green plate at times. Recently, a Missouri tax holiday was announced for the purchase of energy-efficient home appliances.</
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported:
From April 19-25, the state is waving its 4.225 percent sales tax on washing machines, refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, water heaters, furnaces and air conditioners if the new appliance is Energy Star-certified. Nine counties and just over 50 cities also are waving their sales taxes for the week.
As of the end-of-business on Thursday more than 1,000 barrels had been ordered, according to the office personnel handling the orders. A news story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch laid out the general information this way:
The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is offering its customers the opportunity to help take the burden off those creeks — and its storm water system — by purchasing 55-gallon rain barrels to collect and store rainwater that would otherwise flow into a storm drain.
I passed some time with the ladies while they were preparing western-style food for everyone: rice, beef stake, pasta and potato salad. Then they started stirring what would have to be two cakes for the dessert, and I started wondering how they’d be able to bake them, since the only cooking apparels in the big warehouse were these coal pits on the ground.
Green Toys Inc. makes ….. (drum roll) …….. green toys. Okay, you had to see that coming (for the second time). But what that means is that their toys, such as the above pictured recycling truck (12″ x 6.25″ x 7″) — and a dump truck, sand box set, jump rope and more — are primarily made of recycled milk jugs.
According to Green Toys Inc.’s Web site, it starts [...]
Frank McKinney, known as the real estate “artist,” according to his Web site, has built a 15,000-square-foot “eco-mansion.” Is that possible? I am not sure whether to look in awe at all the sleek green that money can buy, or to recoil from the notion that 15,000 feet of excess is environmentally friendly. Photos of the inside and outside of this $29 million Florida mansion are as wild for their “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous” vibe, as for anything else. McKinney calls the property Acqua Liana, and has more plans in the works:
(He) will soon commence another masterpiece, “Crystalina,” a $30 million green home reflecting South Pacific influences.
He has designed and obtained permits for the world’s most magnificent oceanfront spec home with a 9-figure price tag, that’s right, Mr. McKinney’s new creation, The Manalapan Residence, will carry a price tag of over $135 million.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu is getting behind the symbolic call for global action against climate change that is Earth Hour. From 8:30-9:30 p.m. (local time) on Saturday, March 28, major swaths of urbanized Earth will go dark in the name of unity.
All anyone has to do is sit, relax, socialize. Maybe in the dark, maybe by candle light. Whatever. It’s a World Wildlife Fund-led global party that may just offer city-dwellers the stars above, a rarely viewable pleasure for sure.
Dallas-based Centex Corporation has rolled-out a green line of home development in St. Louis, building new homes with its Centex Energy Advantage designs. The homes the company has begun building in the St. Louis metro area are considered as much as 40 percent more efficient than the typical 10-year-old home.
In a region of the United States looked upon as flyover land, usually implying it’s behind the times, Centex is claiming to be the first national homebuilder to install energy monitors in every home it builds, going forward.
The other standard features of the Energy Advantage package, as listed by Centex, are:
The manufacturing costs of solar power — or at least for thin-film photovoltaic panels — have broken below a golden benchmark, as reported by Popular Mechanics: $1 per watt. First Solar, based in Tempe, Ariz., has brought the costs down to $0.98 per watt. The company says that further cost reductions will be achieved as technological and manufacturing process potentials are reached.
But things are not all rosy since [...]
Urban food growing is not a new concept, but in recent years it has, perhaps, enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. As people look for lifestyles that return to basics — local, reasonably self-reliant, organic — many are picking up a seed packet and a trowel.
But what defines “urban” when it comes to farming, homesteading, gardening?
Spring is coming. In the Midwest, as in the other currently cold areas of the United States, that makes a difference.
As I think about expanding my own, as of yet, modest urban food and plant growing efforts, it’s a massive inspiration to review the work of the Dervaes family in Pasadena, Calif.
