Not Easy Being: 3/30/08

Let's save the planet . . . one bottle of water at a time. That's right! This week you get to start doing your little bit to keep us all (literally) above water and neck deep in trash. For the next few weeks' blogs, we will be researching to find information on how we can "go green" in at least some part of our lives. For this first blog in the series, find out what is possible (be sure to document your sources) and what you and your family can do to help save the people who live on this planet and not pass on mounds of troubles to our children and our children’s children. Be sure to explain why certain options are viable for you and your family and others are not.

To start your research, you may want to begin either at Dr. X's blog (a link is listed on my blog to the right) or at the LaGuardia Common Reading Page (a link is on the library page) or simply search "green living" and related terms in Google or Altavista, or Yahoo.

For example: I decided a year ago to try and follow Prof. Lucca in having a "paperless" classroom and have saved a LOT of paper--more than I ever would have thought of. Much more! However, there are also problems with the paperless class as we all use computers and computers use energy, so this is really the lesser of two evils. In my own personal life, I have changed a lot of things including the following:

My wife and I recycle almost everything.

I bought a glass bottle of water and use it to refill (plastic is bad for you and the environment and should be avoided).

I switched off of disposable razors and now use a more traditional one.

I use shaving soap in a cup instead of shaving cream in a can.

I now make my own beer and re-use bottles. How many teachers have you had who are also brewers? No, I do not have a still to make whisky as that would be illegal.

My wife and I now subscribe to magazines we want rather than picking them up at the news-stand (which are evil on paper waste!)

We get most of our news on the internet rather than through newspapers.

I am looking for a small travel coffee mug so I don't have to use Styrofoam or paper coffee cups.

We switched all out lights to those weird florescent ones (Our electric bill really dropped!)

I am paperless on most bills (I get them via email) and pay most bills electronically.

We try to reduce water waste whenever we can. For example, if we boil vegetables we save the water and, when it cools, use it to water plants. We have LOTS of plants. Oxygen in good, right?

We are working on a no-plastic kitchen. This will take several years, but soon I will be bringing my lunches to school in re-used glass jars. It seems a bit silly, but who watches me eat? You guys don't even know where my office is, right?

We just switched from using "antibacterial" soap for our dishes to regular dish soap. That antibacterial stuff is apparently both useless and lethal for the environment (and it works its way back into the drinking water. YUK!