The Green Week in Review

In the news – A pair (hopefully a breeding pair) of Giant Pandas are given to the people of Hong Kong to mark the anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China.

In the LOCAL (as in right here, in my home…) news, I got the oil in the car changed to some super duper turbo gas saving stuff, and had the tires inflated to the proper PSI. I’ve learned that I am not as smart as a second grader. Nine year old Savannah Walters studied the Arctic ice caps and figured out that by having tires inflated to the proper pressure, Americans could save lots of fossil fuel. Pump 'em UP! Says With properly inflated tires...

1. Americans could save 4 million gallons of gas each day.
2. Americans could save hundreds of dollars each year on gas and extend the life of their tires by 25%.
3. Americans could all breathe cleaner air because we’d be burning less gas.
4. Americans would be able to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge forever!

And that’s just for starters, kids. How simple is that? Get the pressure checked on your tires, and make a contribution to the environment. Who knew being greener was so easy.

The power bill arrived, and I giggled like Jerry "The King" Lawler . It appears that I’ve managed to reduce my carbon footprint by another 10 KWH per day from last year. So, I offset my impact on the environment by contributing to carbonfund.org and I feel better. The gas bill also reflected savings, both personally and environmentally. I attribute the reduction to my lowering the thermostat (again) on the water heater, not using the dryer at all, and baking in the solar oven.

Also in this week’s mail, my http://www.shaklee.com/ Shaklee Get Clean Deluxe kit arrived. The Oprah special cost me $55.00. The same amount of “cleaning” supplies (read – caustic chemicals that suck the life out of everything they ever touched and will continue to touch for a half life of about a billion years) is valued at about $2000.00. As an added incentive I read this-

When you buy the Get Clean Starter Kit instead of the stuff you probably buy:

• You keep 108 pounds of packaging waste out of landfills
• You eliminate 248 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions

Get Clean products offer cleaning choices that are Green, and here's why:

• Sustainably sourced natural ingredients
• Biodegradable surfactants
• Recyclable packaging
• Recyclable wipes
• Recyclable dryer sheets
• No chlorine bleach
• No volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
• No phosphates
• No nitrates
• No borates
• No animal testing

I spent a good deal of Saturday cleaning house and I have to shout out how clean it smells. I can’t vouch for the dryer sheets yet, although I applaud that they are recyclable. Instead, I continue to use the hybrid dryer. See Project Laundry for details on creating your own work of art, sustainable hybrid clothes dryer. No load too large, no risk of fire, no dryer sheets to buy.

And with that, I leave you to attend the Green Thumb Festival. I’ll report back later.

Ciao Greenbaby