What’s it like to live in an off the grid straw bale house, use solar power, grow your own food, and collect rainfall from your roof? What if your father was a famous actor turned green activist? Nick News documents the lives of kids living alternative, ecological lifestyles in their new A Kid Off The Grid television program. The show features three kids’ stories from Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in northeastern Missouri, a sustainable off the grid community, and that of Hayden Begley, daughter of Ed Begley Jr., the popular environmental celebrity.

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Despite any confusion that you might be facing, the facts on global warming are not up for debate.

It is true that there are some natural causes of global warming. However, there is no doubt amongst the world’s leading experts that the current dangerous warming trend is primarily caused by humans.

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To understand how humans cause global warming, it is important that you are aware of the link between your daily activities and the greenhouse effect. Furthermore, once you understand this, it is easy to see that you have the power to help stop global warming from getting worse.

The primary way humans cause global warming is by burning fossil fuels. This increases the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, which leads to an increase in the Greenhouse Effect.

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My jaw dropped when I first watched this video tour of a beautiful owner-built green building construction project in Oregon. This particular green building is made entirely out of cob, a mixture of clay, sand, and straw.

Meka Bunch of Wolf Creek, Oregon built this stunning cob house over a four year period. Complete with hand-sculpted furniture, shelves and nooks built directly into the walls, arched windows, and a killer custom staircase, his cob building is a divine artistic achievement.

Check out the video and photos of Meka’s cob cottage for yourself:

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Americans eat lots of meat. So much so that livestock is now one of the leading contributors to global warming, responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions as measured in a carbon dioxide equivalent.

A recent United Nations report concluded that the meat industry causes almost 40% more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world’s transportation systems — that means all of the globe’s cars, trucks, planes and ships combined.

Kathy Preston poses an important question for meat-eating Americans concerned about the effects of global warming: what are the effects of going vegetarian for just one day? Here are her astounding statistics about how going vegetarian for a single day can help prevent global warming:

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Do you want to learn more about green building and gain valuable hands-on experience by helping to build an earth sheltered home? There are several natural building internship and work exchange opportunities at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in northeastern Missouri, an off-the-grid intentional community devoted to ecological sustainability. Read ahead to learn more about one particular earth sheltered home and green building construction work exchange.

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There are many concerns about how we can prevent global warming. In every industry, whether it be transportation, agriculture, or the construction industry, there are questions about how to prevent global warming.

By building better designed, more energy-efficient, and natural homes, global warming will become less of a threat. One of the most basic necessities lacking in conventional homes is sufficient insulation.

Proper insulation will greatly reduce the need for constant home heating and cooling (and in turn, fossil fuels), as insulation will help maintain the temperature of a space. Straw bales stand out for their excellent insulative value, and for the fact that they are a totally natural and biodegradable material with minimal embodied energy.

Within the realm of natural building, many individuals choose straw bale house construction for these reasons.

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Through natural building, there are many ways to prevent global warming. Conventional suburban houses are large, poorly designed, and inefficient, and the manufacturing and construction processes are big contributors to global warming.

Natural building is a sustainable design approach that promotes low impact homes built with natural and recycled materials. I will highlight two different techniques in natural building that promote global warming prevention through increased energy efficiency.

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But perhaps you’re not sure how to go about deconstructing a house. Read ahead to find out how to safely deconstruct a home and build with reclaimed lumber, instead of destroying and ruining precious building materials.

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Do you want to limit the amount of trash you produce and help make your backyard soil healthy and productive? One of the easiest solutions to these problems is to compost your food waste. It requires little personal energy, and you will benefit from the rich compost resulting from the breakdown of your kitchen scraps.

The only thing you really need to do is create a suitable bin for your soon-to-be compost. There are alternatives to the overpriced, plastic compost containers that some garden supply stores hawk to customers. You can make your own using recycled shipping pallets for less than $20, or even free if you have some of the few necessary supplies.

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By now you are aware that there are many ways to prevent global warming, but I would like to focus on things that you can do to help stop global warming on your way to work. First, it is useful to know exactly how Americans are commuting to work to realize just how much improvement can be made to make commuting more energy-efficient and less of an environmental impact.

And as the human population continues to grow, it will become an increasingly desperate race to find more effective modes of transport.

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Last week I talked about how to live simply and decrease your carbon footprint living in a tiny house. Even better than buying a tiny house is making your own, and Michael Janzen is blazing a trail with his free tiny pallet house. Not only is his house made out of recycled shipping pallets, it isn’t costing him anything to build. And lucky for us, he’s sharing his plans so you too can build your own tiny free house.

You can save money, sharpen your DIY skills, and further decrease your environmental impact by following Janzen’s example of building a free pallet house.

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But unfamiliar to many gardeners are perennial vegetables — vegetables that do not require annual plantings, and provide fruit, leaf, and shoot year after year without constant replanting effort.

Most familiar is perhaps asparagus, but there are dozens of other perennial vegetables, and taking advantage of these varieties will save you time and energy throughout your gardening years, in addition to promoting a healthier garden ecology.

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“Tiny houses” are starting to enter mainstream consciousness, due in large part to new companies dedicated to manufacturing and promoting tiny homes, especially Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. And for good reason, too: one of the most effective ways to decrease your ecological footprint is to buy a tiny house. For obvious reasons, a tiny house requires little energy to build, and less energy to keep comfortable. There’s also the benefit of not maintaining extra unused space. Ultimately, you can live more simply and happily in a tiny house.

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Congratulate yourself for wanting to learn about the main cause of global warming. Not only does our species create huge problems that are beyond the ability of other animals to create, but we have the fortunate ability to analyze them and work to bring an end to their consequences. You are actively engaged in that process.

Humans cause global warming with our unique ability to capture and use energy from stored energy sources. No other animal can start fires or build gasoline engines.

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Are you interested in a hands-on straw bale building experience? As you know, there is no better way to learn than by doing. Red Earth Farms is an 80 acre, off-the-grid intentional community based in northeastern Missouri, composed of individual homesteads. Members strive to live ecologically - this means, of course, that members use natural building materials in their homes. Mark Mazzioti is one such individual building a straw bale house, featuring a pasive solar design, post-and-beam framing, and a cement-free rubble trench foundation. Mark, an experienced natural builder, is seeking interns for the upcoming 2009 building season. Here’s his strawbale house and natural building internship information:

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As you recover from your day of Thanksgiving feasting, you might be curious as to whom you should really thank for your day off from work or school day of celebration. There are many stories, myths, and misinformation surrounding Thanksgiving history. Equally significant are the many strong emotions and opinions evoked this holiday, including everything from the feel-good and sense of hope, to doubt and downright condemnation of the infamous feasting day.

But there’s a little-known truth about Thanksgiving that you may not realize. The real reason we celebrate the fourth Thursday of every November as “Thanksgiving” is because of a journalist, not the pilgrims.

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Repeatedly, you’ll hear or read the same suggestions as to what you can do to prevent global warming. Big media sources typically suggest very simplistic things like changing your light bulbs to compact fluorescents, buying a hybrid car, or unplugging appliances when they’re not in use.

But you want to make a real difference.

You are not content with the mainstream media’s advice, because you know that there are bigger things to be done, more dramatic actions to be taken to stop climate change from wrecking further havoc upon our precious ecosystems. Here I will share with you some of those bigger solutions that big media won’t tell you.

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Earthen plasters provide a beautiful, soft, and an organic finishing touch to your home, whether they be a straw bale house, cob building, wood cabin, or even plain old sheetrock walls. A simple natural plaster can be mixed from ingredients straight from the earth, including sand, clay, and fibers such as straw, cattail fluff, or even cow manure.

It’s a simple process and a creative one, too: you can let your imagination shine through earthen plaster with its vast sculptability and its variety of application.

Read on to learn more about making and applying earthen plasters!

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When mention of an “earthen floor” is made, one might imagine a dusty, drab dirt floor. Earthen floors are far from this, however; instead they are very elegant, durable, inexpensive, and ecologically sustainable solutions to a typical floor installation. They are varied in construction, but the idea and ingredients are essentially the same across the board. Earthen (or adobe) floors are poured or compacted combinations of sand, clay, straw, and sometimes crushed rock, with pleasantly smooth surfaces resistant to wear and tear, and capable of storing heat from the sun.

There is no one way to construct an earthen floor. They are a natural option for straw bale or cob buildings, but they can even be installed on concrete slabs or preexisting wood floors, as along as the framework is strong enough to support the heavy weight of many buckets full of earthen material.

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