Energy Star in the Spotlight

jkwami / / mbrown

012007.energy_star

We’ve all seen the commercials trying to sell washers and dryers to us, but lately the commercials all have one thing in common: Energy Star.

What is Energy Star?

  • Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy
  • Goal is to help Americans save money and protect the environment through energy efficient practices and appliances
  • Americans helped save $17 million and reduce greenhouse emission of 30 million cars in 2009 with the help of Energy Star.
  • Energy Star produces appliances like washers, dryers, refrigerators to light fixtures, water heaters and much more.

Although the government may have created Energy Star, before researching this topic I had no idea it was associated with the government. So how is the word being put out there about this program? One word: Advertisements

Who is Advertising?

  • Sears
  • Lowes
  • Maytag
  • General Electric
  • Whirlpool

The advertisements are hitting the airways hard, mostly with commercials. The commercials advertise lower energy and water bills. The appliances are bigger and more efficient and usually tend to be directed towards families. These commercials are effective because in this economy, everyone is trying to save their pennies. Name brands are teeming up with Energy Star to offer their customers savings. Energy Star is also making headlines in the newspapers. Energy Star appliances are recommended in helping make homes more green by the Oregonian and The Washington Post. The New York Times explains why it pays to be green.

Why should You buy Energy Star Appliances?

  • Save money on energy and water bills, not to mention a tax rebate
  • Help reduce your carbon footprint and reduce greenhouse emissions
  • Better suited for your lifestyle (bigger size, etc.)
  • Stylish stainless steal appliances with the Energy Star logo may help increase home value

So take a closer look at those advertisements next time. Are the advertisements going green to just make more green or do they stand behind the ideas? It’s a win-win either way.

Lowe’s Energy Star Commercial

Are You Ready to Bond With Nature Again?

jkwami / / mrosmarin

nature-summer-wallpaper-22

The popular push in society today is to live green. Whether it is using florescent light bulbs because they save energy or buying reusable bags for groceries, the world has moved to the green side. Going green has had such an enormous effect on our world. But what happens when we die? Will we as individuals have made a big enough dent in the green world to stop deforestation, global warming, and crumpling of the o-zone? We don’t need to worry ourselves anymore, because with green funerals, dying can be green.

There are roughly 56 million people that die worldwide each year. This means 50 million trees are cut down and used for funeral coffins and the fixes, which releases 8 million tons of carbon dioxide. By the year 2020, the percentage of mercury will increase to 25 percent from cremating because of the burning of fillings in teeth. Most people don’t realize the coffins and vaults they buy slow down the rate of decomposition.

So how do we go green when we die?  This natural process of returning to nature can be made through the preservation of the body and having a green ceremony.

  • Avoid embalming. It slows down the process of decomposition
  • Use cardboard, bamboo, or jute coffins which are biodegradable
  • Use recycled paper for programs and hymns
  • Buy flowers from local growers
  • Have people carpool to the funeral
  • Provide organic refreshments
  • Decompose of body using My Living Reef

For any other questions regarding green funerals or for more information, there is a Green Burial Council. This council is working, trying to make green burial a national standard.

It’s Trendy to Save the Environment!

jkwami / / mrosmarin

Look at our Polar Bears!

Supporting world peace and world hunger was so 5 years ago. Now, the trendy thing to support is the cause for global warming! Don’t get me wrong, there are still billions of us out there supporting numerous causes. Just look for the ‘Coexist’ and ‘Save the ta-tas stickers… on the back of our Toyota Prius’ and hybrid cars of course! This sudden kick to stop global warming has hit the United States hard and fast. But limiting the amount of oil you burn in the winter to warm up your house isn’t going to be enough to save the oh so cute polar bears our children study about in school. So what do we do and why are we even doing it?

The idea is simple. Mother Earth has been sweating up a storm, about a 1 degree F. increase, over the last 100 years. People are concerned because this temperature increase changes rainfall patterns, melts glaciers, and a bunch of other things that will increase the sea level. If we keep destroying the earth with our man made inventions, the green that we walk upon will no longer exist.

In order to make citizens happy, the United States government created a Climate Policy. This policy includes concepts like using voluntary based programs to reduce emissions and promote the reduction of greenhouse gas. There are companies like Energy Star, Climate Leaders, and Methane Voluntary Programs to encourage those to limit the amount of emission they produce. The concept of global warming will not have a huge effect on us, personally. However, in a few thousand years, the changes we made to reduce emission will save the green of our earth.

It’s Getting Hot in Here: Global Warming is Heating up Hollywood

jkwami / / mbrown

Global warming is one of the hottest issues in the media today. The issue is discussed heatedly in the political arena along with being a hot commodity in providing entertainment in Hollywood.

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An Inconvenient Truth

Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, this movie is based on Al Gore’s personal journey, this movie gives us facts and future predictions of global climate change. This documentary film shows us that this is no longer a political issue, but a moral one as well.

Fact or Fiction?

An Inconvenient Truth is an eye opening experience of the effects of global warming. But are the issues present in the movie accurate?

  • According to Washington Post journalist Robert J. Samuelson this movie gives us an illusion that we know enough to solve the problem. He says we can’t do much about it until we’ve discovered new technology.
  • The facts presented in the film seem to be mostly correct, according to National Geographic.
  • On the other hand, information presented by Al Gore at the recent Copenhagen climate change summit are questionable according to a New York Times article. This clouds our judgement on his accuracy during the film.

It’s up to you to believe what’s presented in the film as accurate. Unfortunately, the only thing hot in this movie is the weather.

the-day-after-tomorrow

The Day After Tomorrow

This movie may show the chilling effects of global warming, but Jake Gyllenhaal brings enough heat to the screen to satisfy the viewers. The movie captures the thrilling story of a climatologist trying to save the world and his son after abrupt climate change unleashes cataclysmic weather patterns.

Fact or Fiction?

Although filled with special effects keeping the audience sitting on the edge of their seat, could events shown in the movie be a result of global climate change?

  • According to Jeffrey Masters, Ph. D, the movie is based on scientific fact that global climate change affects weather patterns but the sudden climate shift would not cause the instant weather disasters depicted in the movie.
  • The PEW Center on Global Climate Change agrees that the extreme weather depicted in the film is not realistic.

This movie has made over the issue of global warming Hollywood-style. According to CNN and MSNBC this movie spurred many questions and concerns over the issue.

Is the Fear Justified?

  • More than 14,000 people died in France in 2003 because of a heat wave
  • 160,000 people are dying every year from extreme weather conditions, and this number is estimated to double by 2020

Climate change definitely provides Hollywood with good material that will attract viewers. Could this be our future?

Suppress the Will to Till

jkwami / / scaldwell

One very little known fact about global warming prevention is that soil plays a significant part in the process.  Simply put, soil retains carbon dioxide that would normally be in the air.  Therefore, the tilling soil may actually hurt the environment.  According to a Fairfax County document, no-till practices can be a good short-term fix for large amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

No-till farming is accomplished by high crop rotations and cover crops.

The benefits of no-till practices are:

  1. Reduced labor requirements
  2. Time savings
  3. Reduced machinery wear
  4. Fuel savings
  5. Improved long- term productivity
  6. Improved surface water quality
  7. Reduced soil erosion
  8. Greater soil moisture retention
  9. Improved water infiltration
  10. Decreased soil compaction
  11. More wildlife
  12. Reduced release of carbon gases
  13. Reduced air pollution

This video talks about how properly handled soil can help our climate change problem:

Soil & The Environment

Organic farming also prevents global warming, according to the Rodale Institute.  They say: “The key lies in the handling of organic matter (OM): because soil organic matter is primarily carbon, increases in soil OM levels will be directly correlated with carbon sequestration. While conventional farming typically depletes soil OM, organic farming builds it through the use of composted animal manures and cover crops.”

A Warming Economy

jkwami / / tflemming

“The politicization of science is tantamount to killing it.” – Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham.

As my fellow writers have noted, there is a lot of media attention concerning global warming/climate change initiatives at the policy level. Carbon emission regulations, mandated offset programs, etc. the list goes on. But, is forcing companies and peoples alike to change by way of law the quickest, best solution?

Free-market Philosophies:
Interestingly enough, most of the Constitution framers were libertarians, free-market thinkers. However, there is a problem with that old mindset. As the book Natural Capitalism notes: Up until very recently, capitalism has not recognized that our natural resources are limited. Fortunately, that mindset is changing, and people have begun adopting new, more sustainable ideas for living and business.

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Government regulation issues:
Free markets rely on people being convinced of the importance of an issue and using their creativity to fix it. Wedding science to politics not only makes people frustrated; as Cunningham suggests, it causes science to lose credibility when people look to it to solve all their problems. Gerard Baker reports for TimesOnline that policies forcing change on the issue will “allow enterprise to be choked to death in a panic of suffocating regulations.”

What are the solutions?
Some have adopted trading Carbon Credits like money. In such a market, companies either gain credits by lowering carbon emissions, or they pay other companies to decrease their emissions (carbon offsets). Clearly, programs like this require some government setup – but not micromanagement. Take for example the offset issue in Europe. The U.N. wants to force companies to be less dependent on offsets, but Italian energy giant Fulvio Conti argues that $100 dollars spent on carbon dioxide abatement technologies in China is much more economic than doing so in Europe.

Government or Free-market? You decide.

Is It Hot Enough For Ya?

jkwami / / klattimore

 global_warming_by_teabing

Wonder why it’s a little colder than usual in the winter? Why it’s a little too hot in the summer? The answer is global warming and climate change. Global warming and climate change are two subjects that have become major issues in the world today. Yet, many do not know the facts behind the emergence of global warming and climate change which may lead some to be skeptics.

 Global warming and climate change are due to an average increase in the temperature of the atmosphere near the Earth’s surface and in the troposphere, which can contribute to changes in global climate patterns and increase in greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases lead to warming in the Earth’s climate leading to global warming. However, some regions may experience cooling or wetter weather.

 Effects of Climate Change

  • More extreme weather patterns, super storms
  • More hurricanes
  • Longer dry spells or intense rains
  • Dramatic increase in greenhouse gases
  • Massive extinction of species will aggravate the environmental crisis

 What Can You Do?

  • Seal and insulate your home
  • Use green power which is environment friendly electricity generated by renewable energy
  • REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

 Global warming and climate change effect people, plants, and animals and protecting the environment from access greenhouse gases and pollution will insure that we have a better world for the next generation

 More information on Global Warming

The Cycles of Recycling

jkwami / / tflemming

The History of Recycling, especially its relationship with the media is a story that is full of changing perceptions. Recycling has progressed significantly since the Chang Dynasty of China began recycling bronze into weapons in 200 B.C., then again, so has the mass media. Here are some of the highlights of their rocky relationship during the last 100 years:

Phase 1: Recycle or Bust!

In 1907 Cosmopolitan Magazine ran an article extolling the manner in which “even/ possible substances we use and throw away come back as new and different material – a wonderful cycle of transformation.

1916-1918: Due to shortages of raw materials during World War I, the federal government creates the Waste Reclamation Service with the motto “Don’t Waste Waste – Save It.”

Phase 2: Use it or Lose It

1955: Life magazine ran a two-page article glorifying the idea that single-use items are necessities of a modern lifestyle. Ease and convenience become the two most desirable qualities in product marketing. A negative side-effect: parks, forests. and highways are littered with trash.

1961: Sam Yorty successfully runs for mayor Los Angeles, promising the eradication of recycling

Phase 3: A Re-commitment

1970: In response to the excess trash being accumulated from plastics, the first Earth Day focuses attention on environmental concerns. Also, recycling’s chasing arrows logo is introduced and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is created.

1980: Per capita production of waste reaches 8 pounds per day, up from 5 pounds in 1970

1990’s: More stringent standards for waste use are adopted by governments.

Phase 4?: Re-Design-cycles?

Biological and Technical Cycles

More recently, the book Cradle2Cradle argues that our current philosophy is flawed because our industrial processes produce hybrid “monsters” of man-made and biological goods which don’t actually recycle but down-cycle into less useful materials.

The authors suggest implementing technical and biological production cycles in which a material is either completely biodegradable or completely man-made for industry.

A “Com-Post”

jkwami / / scaldwell

According to biosolids.com, composting is a process in which solid organic materials are broken down by micro-organisms in the presence of oxygen. Biosolids are mixed with sawdust, wood chips or other organic material. High temperatures generated during this process kill harmful micro-organisms. A rich, soil-like product is the end result.

Composting is something that can be done easily in your own backyard, as Laura Kelly explains in this YouTube video: Backyard composting for vegetable garden

According to the Sierra Magazine, composting can be an easy way to help control global warming. The article says, “In the oxygen-deprived environment of a landfill, rotting food produces methane, a gas with 72 times the global-warming potential of carbon dioxide. Landfills are the largest human-made source of methane emissions in the United States, with a greenhouse-gas impact equal to one-fifth of that produced by the nation’s coal-fired power plants.  ‘While we’re working on getting cars off the road and shutting down coal plants, composting is the fastest, easiest, cheapest way to deal with greenhouse-gas emissions right now’, says Linda Christopher, executive director of The Grassroots Recycling Network.”

Scientific Blogging adds to this issue of global warming saying, “Applying organic fertilizers, such as those resulting from composting, to agricultural land could increase the amount of carbon stored in these soils and contribute significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, according to new research published in a special issue of Waste Management & Research.”
Composting is a very easy way to fertilize a garden or yard while reducing amount of waste in landfills and helping the problem of global warming.  Why shouldn’t you do it?

I Want YOU to Recycle

jkwami / / mbrown

recycling

Remember learning about the three R’s in elementary school? Remember reading books such as the Great Trash Bash? Remember watching television shows like Sesame Street and learning the importance of recycling? Through educational books and television shows is how most kids learn about the importance of recycling. But now that we are grown up, what are the real benefits of recycling and how are some practical ways to apply the education we learned about in elementary school?


Top 10 Reasons to Recycle (According to the EPA and the National Recycling Coalition)

1.Recycling reduces the need for landfilling and incineration

2. It saves energy

3. Conserves natural energy such as water and timber

4. Decreases emissions of greenhouse gases

5.  Protects and expands U.S. Manufacturing jobs

6. Increases U.S. Competiveness

7. Protects wildlife

8. Reduces waste

9. Good for the environment

10. Helps sustain the environment for future generations!


So we know recycling is both beneficial and useful. Numerous publications, such as Recycling Today magazine help inform consumers about the latest issues concerning recycling. The media also informs citizens on steps companies are taking in helping recycle. For example, according to Greentech Enterprise, Sony launched Greenfill, a place where consumers can bring their old electronics and recycle them. This positive press helps to encourage citizens to recycle on a daily basis.


So What Can YOU Do as a Furman Student?

  • Look for the blue recycling bins in the Dining Hall and PalaDen to dispose of plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and paper
  • Ask your RA about putting a recycling bin in your room
  • Dispose of recyclable items in the marked bins by the dumpsters!
  • Buy recycled products

What do I recycle?

The NRC says the top 5 items to recycle are:

1. Aluminum

2. PET plastic bottles

3. Newspaper

4. Corrugated cardboard

5. Steel cans


All of the recycled items at Furman are collected every week and transported to the recycling center where distributers can sort them and give them to manufacturers who can turn them into useful products.

It’s so easy a caveman could do it! So start recycling!!