Conservative estimates rank computer usage right up there with the airline industry for its harmful effect on the atmosphere, making it responsible for up to 2% of the total problem. To put your mind at ease, that doesn’t mean your household PC is all that nasty. That figure includes all the industrial server farms, government supercomputers, and college networks. Unfortunately, there are a lot more of them than you might think. Even your average grocery store has a server room somewhere in it to run the “back office” (accounts receivable and inventory control) and “front office” (cash registers and checkout system) components of its operation.

So how much damage does your average PC do? Running one 8 hours per day, five days a week, fifty weeks a year will use 400 kilowatt hours or 180,800 grams of carbon dioxide (452 grams – just shy of a pound – per hour X 2,000 hours). That sounds like a lot but when you consider that a home PC accounts for less than ten percent of the average home’s energy bill (according to MR. Electricty AKA Michael Bluejay of Michaelbluejay.com) it’s not that big of a number in the overall picture. Your water heater, furnace, and refrigerator are much bigger carbon offenders.

But as my mother always used to say “every little bit helps.” So here are some ways to go greener and keep your high-speed digital lifestyle to which you’ve become accustomed.

1.  Use the power management tools your PC manufacturer gave you!
   All modern PCs come with the ability to regulate their own power use. You can easily set your computer to enter a reduced consumption mode (sometimes called sleep or hibernation) and even power itself down completely if it remains idle for a certain length of time.
2. Unplug your machine.
   Even when it’s off, your PC uses about a Watt per hour. This is what’s known as phantom draw. The only way to cancel this out is to unplug the machine entirely.
3. Plan your day with the planet in mind.
   When you think about it, there’s really no reason to leave your PC on all the time while you’re in the other room, outside, or otherwise engaged. Also, consider doing everything you need to do once as starting up and shutting down your PC repeatedly consumes more energy than just letting it idle.
4. Avoid the next best thing.
   PCs seem to age quicker than Dorian Gray. If you buy one that’s top of the line in December and it’s outdated by July. However, resist the temptation to buy a whole new system. Manufacturing a PC is an extremely carbon intensive task. Not only that, PCs contain all sorts of toxic waste, heavy metals, and other harmful materials that we don’t need more of in landfills. When you need to upgrade, consider upgrading piecemeal, it will save you money and the environment a headache.
5. Shop smartly!
   A large number of PC manufacturers have begun to build earth friendly (or at least friendlier) computers in response to the consumer desire for products that are better for our planet. One of the first was Dell. Believe it or not, they have a whole line of Eco-Friendly computer Accessories, some of which are made with up to 70% recycled materials, contain fewer heavy metals and some, like this PC, whose cases are made out of sustainable bamboo!

Lastly, when it comes time to get rid of your old computer, think green. Does your computer still work? Could a local non-profit or school organization use your computer (or parts from your computer)? Do you have a charity-based resale shop in your area such as a Goodwill Industries retail store? Do you have anyone in your family (a young child or an older adult just learning the ropes of the computing world) that could use your old PC? Why not give your PC a second life?

One important note: when giving/selling any PC it’s best to thoroughly destroy all personal data on that computer. “Deleting” it isn’t enough. There are free software programs available that will completely overwrite any data on your hard drive, rendering your machine a blank slate, and safeguarding any potentially harmful information you wouldn’t want anyone to have. See Killdisk.com for one such example.

When your PC is broken and finally “useless” don’t just throw it away. Ecycle your old machine. Many manufacturers offer free recycling services for machines purchased through them. Your local recycling center may also have electronics recycling services available. Recently, Staples has announced that it will recycle unwanted electronics (though not TVs) for free at any of their retail outlets across the country. See Gcycle.org for more recycling options for all of your technological gadgetry!

Be smart about your used electronics, they’re not just trash.

Related articles

• Managing E-Waste: Battery and Computer Recycling (everydayhealth.com)
• Computing Your Karma: Recycling Your PC (chicagoist.com)
• Take It To The Computer Recycling Center (thinkoutsidethebin.com)

Aerosol Causes Global Warming

False.  The CFC’s made famous in aerosol cans were banned decades ago.  Aerosol cans use safe(r) propellants now so feel free to spray all day!

We don’t trust weather forecasters or climatologists

Weather men and women are not exactly the most accurate.  At least most people feel that way.  So how can we possibly trust climate scientists to predict the weather of the future when we can’t predict the weather tomorrow?

Walmart Actually Goes Green

Well, slightly green anyway.  Walmart is acting on a promise to purchase more local produce and products and offer training to local farmers.  Now, if we can only cut down the size of those energy sucking stores from 100,000 square feet to 1,000.

Starbucks cuts down waste

They go through 3 billion cups per year.  They will not start offering special recycling containers for these cups.  Providing you finish your to-go cup in the store.

More learning to do

Only 45% of people in a new Yale poll understand that carbon dioxide traps heat from the earth’s surface.

Much more learning to do

Only 50% of people believe global warming is caused by human activities.

It’s not all bad news

An increasing number (63%) believe that global warming is happening.

Read more from the Yale Poll or check out more funky eco happenings over at Grist.org

North Dakota has a lot of one thing: oil fields.  And those oil fields needs lots of people and they pay them a lot.  This is probably due to the high risk of the job and the very high profits of the industry.

So what’s the problem?  There isn’t any housing! People walk around the town with a pocket full of money and nowhere to live.  From motels to trailer parks to campgrounds to apartments.  Everything is full and/or has a wait list.

Why is this being discussed on an environmental blog? Because we have to make economics part of the environmental discussion every day.  The truth of our society is this: corporations, governments and communities won’t truly accept a change in lifestyle until it is economically beneficial to do so.

As evidence, look at the evolution of environmentally friendly vehicles.  Green vehicles didn’t hit the market until the business model started to erode and the consumers demanded clean vehicles.  A pathetic but true fact.

Amidst heavy discussion stateside about domestic oil drilling, many opinions have surfaced.  Americans are deeply dependent on foreign oil.  That has not been much debated as the numbers support consumption.  We simply do not have enough oil drilling and processing capacity in the U.S., so we look to Middle Eastern countries to supplement our needs.  Americans consume vast amounts of oil per capita.  more so than most industrialized countries.

Whether we have enough domestic supply to meet our needs is debatable, and debated consistently.  However whether or not we have the capacity is not the dominant issue.  We must be talking about consumption and safety.  Consumption, because we will run out of oil at some point (leaving Global Warming out of the discussion for now).  Safety, because the eleven people who gave their life on that rig have been eclipsed by the continuous press coverage of the oil leak.

Estimates claim 5,000-100,000 barrels of oil/gas are being pumped into the gulf each day.  Outside of the shear ecological devastation, we must critically investigate the potential impact of this spill and others we have not yet experienced.

The dramatic cheer “drill baby drill” is but a reflection of the ignorance and short-sightedness of the protagonists of domestic oil drilling.  The truth is that the ecological, economic, social and foreign implications of domestic drilling are far too risky to warrant advancement in this field.

Further, as called for by Senator Bernie Sanders (I) of Vermont, the industry as a whole must be evaluated with the most critical eye if the industry is to be allowed to continue operations.

Many pragmatists have said oil is the bridge solution to an entirely renewable energy infrastructure.  However I ask this question: will a true clean energy paradigm shift ever happen without the people demanding change from their representatives?  The onus of control lies with you.

Image credit: Treehugger

With this as a guideline, one might conclude that if a particular word had many, often disparate meanings, then societal knowledge would suffer, creating confusion and potential chaos.

Chaos? Isn’t that a bit exaggerated?

Perhaps , but certainly relative to one’s personal experience with chaos itself, or perhaps academic study into chaos theories of combustion powerful enough to create solar systems.

Ah, but the word. That particular word. Green, that’s it. Green.

What is the first thing you think about when “green” is mentioned? Is it green technology? Lots of that going around, for quite a while now.

And, green represents the life of nature—-growth, the deep green pasture lands, the wonderful, wondrous green of Sequoia trees in Northern California. The smell of fresh, green pine trees in the Cascade Mountains. The green, green grass of home.

Then, (and now) a Green Party emerged with a real political and social agenda, and ran former Congresswomen Cynthia McKinney for President in 2008. But despite a 25 year history (excluding early efforts from New Zealand) they received a couple hundred thousand votes. That’s it. There are elected Greens, however. In Oregon, for instance, a quick glance of elected Greens gets you a couple of city councilors, a mayor,a school board member, and something else. But they cling to their concept of “green.” No special interests or favoritism. No corporatism. Not enough votes to matter, either.

People tend to tire of symbolic movements.

But, the green movement certainly has a valid and reliable base of support. Down deep, most of us would rather see sustainable energy projects moving forward, and the concept of recycling all products. And a reduction of reliance on fossil fuels.

Most of us understand that our society and the society of other nations have long been viciously polluting our resources—-that which will sustain us. Without it, we die. And yet, the contrived, political argument rages on. If there is a way to salute our collective stupidity, one is surely in the pipeline of production.

But green. That’s a problematic word. Ever know anyone who was “green with envy”? How about “green around the gills”?

Then, there is that nasty notion of green equating to money. “How much green you got tonight”? Greenbacks. And plenty of them. Keep them coming, the financial institutions screamed. “We need 800 billion dollars, or the house is coming down!”

Well, 800 billion later, and the house still may be coming down. We haven’t even been able to settle the first wave of mortgage foreclosures yet, and there are three to four million more set for this year. Then, likely a lot of bad commercial paper. So, this kind of green does not seem to accept the notion of sustainability. The players here simply rely on the Federal Reserve for its printing press. Thirteen trillion in national debt.

Finally, some journalistic notion possibly would be offended without the mention of green as it relates to our country’s latest medicine increasingly accepted as valuable treatment for a number of illnesses.

Yes, cannabis. Marijuana. Green bud.

Some of you older readers will remember early propaganda films like “Reefer Madness.” We have come a long way. Next will come the taxation, however, and in California, it is estimated that close to a billion dollars a year could be raised. It boggles the mind attempting to visualize a pile of marijuana which would generate that kind of income.

All in all, this blog, and all of The Hippie Magazine Network, calls for personal education and actions toward promoting projects which renew themselves. Truly, it is nothing more than common sense. Heat from the sun, power generation from the wind, wave energy. The many uses of water as yet untapped.

We can just say no to the status quo.

In that vein, Hippie Magazine also seeks to report on our fellow citizens who are elected to operate in a sensible and sustainable manner while seeking to keep the country safe. The true green politicians are the ones who seek the same kind of balance which is reflected in Nature. Acting with transparency, and pursuing no agendas other than seeking the best practices and policies for all citizens. No hypocrisy allowed.

Dream on? Maybe, but the grass is only beginning to grow in this arena.

Now you see where we’re coming from.  If you’ve got a car, even if it’s an SUV, it is more environmentally friendly to keep your car rather than purchase a new one… even if its a hybrid.

The making of a new car, hybrid or convention, is an incredibly wasteful and energy-intensive process.  From sourcing new materials like metal, plastic and fabrics, to the electricity required to assembled the vehicle, it takes a lot to make a new car.  Yes, buying cars keeps jobs, but more and more domestic car companies are shipping jobs overseas anyway.

So save your money and save the environment by driving the same care that gets you to and from work every day.

If your car breaks and you must buy a new one, a hybrid will do just fine.

Taking any number of these steps will help you transform your home into a thriving, environmentally friendly habitat.

1. Buy Local
2. Buy Organic
3. Buy free range/cage-free
4. Avoid packaging
5. Do your research on products
6. Insulate or additionally insulate your home
7. Drive less
8. Make your own cleaning products
9. Wash clothes in cold water
10. Get a dishwasher
11. Convert to CFL bulbs from incandescent
12. Avoid greenwashing
13. Recycle
14. Eat less meat
15. Eat no meat
16. Reuse instead of buying new
17. Use Craigslist
18. Sell that extra car
19. Ride your bike
20. Take a staycation
21. Turn your computer off
22. Cancel your newspaper delivery and read it online
23. Offset your carbon footprint
24. Rake your leaves, don’t blow them
25. Get a reel mower (and ditch the gas one)
26. Start composting
27. Repurpose old things
28. Shop at garage sales, not stores
29. Turn down the heat
30. Turn down (up) the air conditioner
31. Eliminate phantom energy waste
32. Use power strips and turn them off at night
33. Shut doors to unused rooms
34. Stop printing things you don’t absolutely need
35. Use coupons
36. Make a donation to an environmental program
37. Convert your 2 stroke engines to 4 stroke
38. Mow your lawn less
39. Start a flower garden
40. Grow your own food
41. Paint instead of renovate
42. Use low VOC paint
43. Buy energy star appliances (only when you absolutely need a new appliance)
44. Don’t buy a hybrid (huh??)
45. Telecommute
46. Buy organic dog food
47. Ditch the paper cups for coffee and bring a mug to work
48. Dry your clothes on a rack
49. Dry your clothes on a clothesline
50. Seal up your home to stop heating (and cooling) the outdoors
51. Turn your AC completely off (we need heat to survive, we don’t need cold)
52. Wrap your water heater in one of those silver blanket things
53. Install a timer on your water heater so you only have hot water when you typically need it or…
54. Install a tankless (on demand) water heater
55. Convert to electric hot water and/or heat and…
56. Install solar panels or…
57. Install a wind turbine or…
58. Buy clean energy from your utility provider
59. Get netflix (instead of driving to Blockbuster) or…
60. Even better: download your movies
61. Cancel your junk mail and extra catalogs and magazines (the mail system is incredibly inefficient)
62. Give gift certificates for birthdays and holidays instead of shipping presents
63. Give to an environmental charity instead of buying “things”
64. Only run that dishwasher when full
65. Use electricity during off-peak demand times whenever possible (avoid mornings and evenings)
66. Clear off the top of your fridge (both inside and out)
67. Fill up your freezer (it’s more efficient when full)
68. Clean your fridge’s rear-end (the coils should be clear of dust and pet hair)
69. Take the bus
70. Start or utilize a ride-sharing program
71. Work four 10 hour days instead of five 8 hour days (cuts your commute waste)
72. Stop buying bottled water – bring a water bottle of tap water
73. Buy a filter if you can’t stand the taste
74. Turn off the TV and…
75. get some exercise
76. Turn off those extra lights or…
77. Install some light timers
78. Turn off those holiday lights at night
79. Turn off those fans
80. Turn down up the refrigerator temperature
81. Host your website with a green web host
82. Print with an eco-font
83. Reuse an older cell phone or…
84. Buy a used one or…
85. Stick with the one you’ve got
86. Read by candlelight (instead of electric light)
87. Light a fire (in a fireplace or something)
88. Keep plastics out of the microwave or…
89. Ditch plastics altogether and switch to glass containers
90. Bring leftovers, don’t buy your lunch every day
91. Recycle your metal, even old electrical wire and computers (did you know you could do that??)
92. Don’t burn yard waste (let it rot… seriously)
93. Eat less (a lot of a human’s carbon footprint comes from growing, processing, preparing, cooking and *cough* disposing of food waste)
94. Don’t even think about using paper plates
95. Drink green wine
96. Don’t host a progressive party (it’s wasteful to drive lots of people from place to place)
97. Send an e-vite
98. Serve and buy seasonal food (can YOUR region grow strawberries in January?!?)
99. Join a CSA Farm (community sustained agriculture)
100. Read this blog!
101. Keep your car instead of upgrading
102. Shovel snow instead of plowing or snowblowing
103. Turn the TV OFF (we already said this once but it’s double-important)

Do you have an idea for making a green home?  Post it here as a comment.

This article is CROWD SOURCED! What does that mean?  Our goal is to grow this list, and for each item to have a link to a helpful resource.  For example, if you have a resource for #91, recycling your metal, post it here as a comment and we’ll try to create a link for you.

Sources/Additional Resources:

• The Green Guide
• Planet Green
• Treehugger
• Daily Eco Tips

Image credit: souzablog.com

Less than 20 car companies applied for $25 BILLION DOLLARS in taxpayer money managed by a certain smug group of people at DOE in order to get loans to make green cars for Americans’. This was not all of DOE that did bad things, just a private cadre of men.There was enough money to help every single one of the car companies that applied. The administrators applied their interpretations of the law in order to benefit the large lobby group-related firms and avoided every one of the “unconnected” companies.

The amount of lobby and influence money spent is in direct ratio to the amount of money awarded.

The smaller companies, due to lower overhead, could have dramatically more productive results with the money than the large burdened companies yet the money was given out based on political career advantages rather technology advantages.

All of the people that reviewed the applications had political and financial connections to GM, Ford, Chrysler and the large Detroit recipients.

Each of those smaller American companies had technology and resources that presented a strong economic threat, if they got the loans, to the large politically connected companies that did receive funds.

Some of the companies that have gotten money have backed out of making the electric cars they said they would make. But they still get to keep the money.

The Section 136 Law was created by the lobbyists for GM, Ford & Chrysler when they saw that they were about to go bankrupt and wanted to tap into additional taxpayer dollars by claiming the money was going to be used for electric cars in order to win rapid support for Section 136 by tugging at heartstrings. In retrospect, the money mostly went to gasoline car projects.

Some of the companies that got the money have already wasted more money than other companies applied for as their total request.

Some of the companies that got taxpayer loan money are not even American companies and/or are doing their manufacturing offshore with non-American employees.

The decision about who would get money was made in 2008 by a private group who then pretended there was a lengthy review throughout 2009 but in fact, the money was pre-wired for a select few.

All of the things that the rejected small companies (who did not pay lobby fees) were rejected for, were the same things that the insider big companies were doing.

We settled on a different idea.  We looked back on 2008 year in reviews to compare between then and now.  We asked: How far have we come? Are we where we hoped to be? Is our slope of innovation steep enough?  There are so many more questions to ask but these were enough to get started.

1. T. Boone Pickens was getting some press.  His plan is still out there: to use our domestic wind resources to power the country.  Although this hasn’t happened yet, it is catching on as a realistic idea.  But coming from a man who made his billions from the oil industry – can’t we rely on anyone else?
2. Big money was getting pumped into solar.  From unconventional solar installations to micro-solar applications on your roof, we saw big investments in solar.  This hasn’t come to fruition yet either, but solar is steadily growing in terms of infrastructure and capacity.  As we invest more and more in this renewable energy source, we predict the U.S. will reach the solar tipping point in 2010.
3. President Obama had just picked a green technology expert to lead us into the next decade.  Steven Chu, an alternative energy and green tech guru was picked to lead the U.S. into the future of renewable energy policy.  We have yet to see sweeping changes in this area.  To be fair, the Administration has been focused on healthcare and the horrific mess in the Middle East.
4. Flexible computer displays promised to put energy-efficient computers in every hand.  The race for the $100 laptop was similar to the race for the smallest, most mobile and flexible computers.  Flexible displays promised to put more mobile devices in people’s hands – thus limiting the reliance on big, energy-sucking desktop computers.  This also hasn’t happened yet, but would be great to see in the near future.  Our prediction: the price is (and will remain) too high for the average consumer for some time.
5. Cloud Computing was going to take the CPU out of your computer.  The idea of cloud computing is amazingly simple. It would decentralize your files, your computing power, etc. and only place minimal components in your hands.  This would lighten the energy load of your computer and allow you to access files and computing power from virtually anywhere.  This has not come to reality just yet.  Some companies are still pushing the idea, including Google.  Maybe in 2010?
6. President Obama was poised to change the U.S.’s position in the world of climate change. We were set to become the leader in progressive energy policy. From Ecollo.com we saw this prediction for 2009 “Speaking of the U.S. government, President-elect Barack Obama could turn the country into climate change leaders by the end of the year, says the Globe and Mail. The columnist for the paper also predicts that the price of oil is now reasonable enough to implement a cap-and-trade and that climate change will be the – for lack of a better word – hot topic of 2009.”  This has not happened and Copenhagen was a giant disappointment.
7. The Huffington Post predicted the United States Government could make bottled water a thing of the past.  Again, the Government has failed us.
8. JetsonGreen.com predicted the non-green would perish.  This is partly true.  We have certainly seen an increase in the number of green products available.  Although some of these are greenwashing, there are many companies innovating and inventing like crazy to keep up with consumer demand for environmentally friendly products.  The economic down-turn helped with this, but we would love to see the next evolution of this movement be to de-consumerization (I think we just made that word up).  Rather than buying more eco-friendly products, should we just buy less products?

So we ask, have we made the progress we hoped to make?  Have we grown in environmental courage like we planned?  We have made tons of progress and many eco innovations.  However, we put entirely too much faith in our world leaders to make the changes the majority of us are asking for.

What we hope to learn from the minimal progress made in 2009 is that real change begins at the bottom.  Originating with the people, lasting and effective change happens when citizens collect themselves to identify a need and offer a solution.

Sources:

• www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/the-top-10-gree/
• www.ecostreet.com/blog/eco-technology/2008/01/16/2008s-most-desirable-eco-gadgets
• www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-feldman/frameshop-10-phrases-that_b_154276.html
• www.ecollo.com/post/2009/01/Green-predictions-for-2009.aspx
• www.jetsongreen.com/2009/01/seven-green-tre.html

Image Credit: JetsonGreen