Kayakas!

Things are happening, don’t just ask Al Gore. Ice melting from mountains, freshwater being depleting, islands slowly sinking into the ocean. Even where I live, the suburbs of Chicago, the thunderstorms have felt more violent, stronger.  I see the weather forecasts and warnings of supercells hovering above you, always with the threat of tornadoes, higher temperatures fueling more storms. If you think that this has nothing to do with you, just wait, it will get around to you. The high correlation between higher levels of carbon dioxide and the temperature of the earth, why do they follow the same up and down trends for the past 650,000 years? Hmm…

Well, don’t panic, but do act. I hope we can start discussing things we can do to start the reversal process. Yes, maybe a reversal, if we stop it now. The earth has an amazing power of regeneration - if we give it a chance. Just like us, we get a cut or a cold, we give ourselves a chance to heal, we can be back up and running. 

So let’s start somewhere. Let’s take a look at where we live.  Whether you live in an apartment, condo, townhouse, single family home or mobile home, there’s always something you can do. I’m sure I don’t have all the answers, but I can at least get us started on some things I have noticed where my family saves on energy and resources.  Here are a few things we do and you can do immediately to save energy, resources, and a little money:

Electricity - ever hear of phantom electricity? It’s the electricity used by your VCR, computer, TV etc. even when you think it’s off, but the clock is on.  Do you really need to have them on 24 hours a day just so you have the accurate time?  Isn’t that what clocks are for? Put them on a power strip and turn the switch off on the strip when you go to bed at night and when you leave for work. If you have dogs, I’m pretty sure they’re not watching Oprah while you’re gone. I understand you could probably save $5-$10 a year on a single TV from the phantom energy savings.  Altogether, the cost of phantom electricity costs people in the U.S. somewhere around $1 billion a year.

Water - let’s look at your bathroom. Any leaks, drips? Believe it or not, leaks consume about 14% of all domestic water consumption. See if your toilet has any leaks by dropping some food coloring into your tank and wating a few hours.  If your once clear toilet bowl turns the same color as the tank, you’ve got a leak that could be costing you - maybe even 100 gallons a day! If so, get it fixed - I fix them myself with parts from Home Depot and I’m not handy at all. 

Also, even though toilets after 1994 only have tank volumes of 1.6 gallons, older tanks probably have a volume of 3.5 gallons. Got a small water or soda bottle you bought at the store? If you don’t I know where you can get one - go to the garbage dump (by the way, plastic bottles by volume are the #2 leading culprit helping add garbage to our dump sites.  We’ll get into what’s #1 as well as #3 some other time). You can fill that bottle up with tap water or sand and put it in your tank (make sure the cap is on and is sealed, of course), depending on the size of the bottle, you can displace 500 ml (around 20 oz) of freshwater each flush.  That’s less money you use in water and less energy your municipality needs to use to filter dirty water.  Think of how many times you and your family go to the bathroom a day.

Okay, one more for the day. Do you take baths? This may seem Third World to many of you, but the average bathtub can hold somewhere around 40-60 gallons. Ever think about bathing together? It has its benefits in many ways! Also, don’t just throw that old water down the drain. Invest in buckets. Depending on your own home situation, if you have a laundry room, you can use that water for your first washload of laundry. Sure it means lugging bucketloads to the washer (our laundry room is right across the hall from our bathroom, yours may not be), maybe it’s one way to get your daily exercise. Or better still, remember how we mentioned that one tankful of water in your toilet is about 1.6 gallons. According to the Hillsborough County, Florida website  (Tampa Bay area?), the average family of four flushes 20 times a day. That’s 20 x 1.6 gallons =   32 gallons a day, 224 gallons a week, 896 gallons a month, 10,752 gallons a year! You may want to think twice about that bathwater. Again, remember, it takes energy to make fresh water - the less you use, the less that has to be made and the less dirty water that is sent out to the environment.

With less and less fresh water becoming available throughout the world, some say that future wars will erupt not over oil, but fights over fresh water. Something to think about. Anyway, please let us have your thoughts out there.

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