There is a movement in the making, now reaching across the globe. The mission is GREEN and we can all do it so easily. Here are some ideas on how you too can be greener. Every month there will be new ideas for you and your family that will give you great ideas to accomplish your own Green goals.
Get involved… "Greener just feels better! I'm just doing my part. And It was easy to do!And the best part, It saves me some money too!" Please click on our links and support a Slap You Green .com
If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an Energy Star qualified light bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes in a year!
I want to encourage you to purchase higher quality Compact Fluorescent bulbs than just searching out the cheapest thing out there. Granted purchasing ANY CFL lamp is a great thing to do for the environment and I encourage you to do so, of course. But based on my own experience with CFL lamps, there is a difference. The main difference is in the light quality with the cheaper products out there which can leave people discouraged. The bulbs we have listed for you here are full-spectrum lights which provide a much better quality of light emission with better lumen ranges and a fuller color spectrum. They can last as long as 13 incandescent bulbs and burn around 25% to 30% of the power used by incandescent bulbs! When you add this all up, you can save as much as $50 a bulb throughout its burn life!!! Now that is getting greener!
Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFL) use up to 75% less electricity than their incandescent predecessors, and since electric power plants generate CO2 emissions by burning coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Using compact fluorescent light bulbs also accounts for 75%less CO2 emissions than incandescent light bulbs. Not only will compact fluorescent light bulbs save you money on your electric bill each month, they are also a great way to lower your carbon footprint, which as a result, helps reduce the effects of global warming.
Most environmental groups sing the praises of compact fluorescent light bulbs and have begun to encourage their widespread use in order to help slow the effects of global warming. Imagine if every US household replaced six 60-watt incandescent light bulbs with 13-watt compact fluorescent light bulbs, it would be equivalent to taking 3,188,894 cars off the road - for good!!!! Now that's an impact!
World and domestic leaders are starting to get involved as well. Australia has gone as far as outlawing incandescent light bulbs all together, and states like California, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Rhode Island are trying to do the same. In 2007, the US singed an energy bill that contains a provision that mandates phasing out incandescent light bulbs over the next 4 to 12 years. And if you want to try a few of the best compact fluorescent bulbs out then go herefor the best in CFL bulbs today.
A big source of waste is the approximately 6 per cent of the electricity used in typical homes by devices that consume power even when turned off.
Energy experts have dubbed this waste phantom load. The most common culprits are VCRs, which constantly draw six or seven watts to run their electric clocks or instant-on features, along with answering machines, lights and telephones with the big cube-like plugs.
—Martin Mittelstaedt, "Slow down the meter to save on power bills," The Globe and Mail, November 26, 2003
Phantom loads: Hidden energy loads, such as the clock on a coffee maker, video recorders on standby, computers, and television instant-on features, can result in high energy bills.
The consumption from these hidden phantom loads in the United States is said to equal the electricity use of Greece, Peru, and Vietnam combined. When an appliance is not in use, switch it off at the wall.
—"Energy savers the real stars," The Christchurch Press, September 11, 2001
How about this?
Take a coffee mug to work with you, and use it instead of a paper or Styrofoam cup. From the store, on the way to work, or in the break room at the office, the extra cups make a difference.
Did you know?
If coffee drinkers, just here in the US, used reusable mugs for coffee every day, it would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 7 million pounds EVERY DAY!!!
Impact Factor for using a Coffee mug?
Product
CO2 emissions to produce disposable cups
CO2 Emissions = to What?
Disposable coffee cups
3500 Tons / Yr
Average driving of 1000 cars for 1 year
Some Tasteful Facts About Poly-Styrene
THE MYTH OF “STYROFOAM CUPS”
Does styrene from foam cups and containers leach into food? Let's clear up something: Styrofoam cups cannot possibly be a problem in this regard—Styrofoam cups do not exist! "How can that be?" you say, "I just drank from one this morning!"
Nope. You most likely drank from a polystyrene cup. Styrofoam is a trademarked material made by the Dow Chemical Company—and they don't make cups, plates, egg trays, or other types of food packaging from it! To quote them directly: "Next time you get a cup of java to go, remember, you can't drink coffee from a STYROFOAM cup—because there is no such thing!"
All day long in our fast-paced modern world, coffee gets poured into foam cups. Double-decker mega-burgers get plopped into foam clamshells. Restaurant leftovers get put into "doggie bags"—usually foam food containers.
Most foam cups and containers are made out of polystyrene, and therein lies the rubber biscuit. The basic chemical component of the material (styrene) has the potential to leach into your food and then into you. This article discusses the probability of this happening and the potential health effects.
HEALTH EFFECTS OF STYRENE
Studies suggest that styrene mimics estrogen in the body and can therefore disrupt normal hormone functions, possibly contributing to thyroid problems, menstrual irregularities, and other hormone-related problems, as well as breast cancer and prostate cancer. The estrogenicity of styrene is thought to be comparable to that of Bisphenol A, another potent estrogen mimic from the world of plastics.
Long-term exposure to small quantities of styrene is also suspected of causing:
low platelet counts or hemoglobin values;
chromosomal and lymphatic abnormalities;
neurotoxic effects due to accumulation of styrene in the tissues of the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves, resulting in fatigue, nervousness, difficulty sleeping, and other acute or chronic health problems associated with the nervous system.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer lists styrene as a possible human carcinogen, though this conclusion is primarily based on studies of workers in styrene-related chemical plants. The Vallombrosa Consensus Statement on Environmental Contaminants and Human Fertility Compromise includes styrene on its list of contaminants of possible concern, noting that even weak estrogen mimics can combine with other such chemicals to have negative effects even when the chemicals are individually present at levels that would have no impact. On the positive side, a 2005 expert panel convened by the National Institutes of Health concluded that there is negligible concern for developmental toxicity in embryos and babies.
Grinningplanet, 2005
Now, let's take a look at Green House Gases. This graph compares CO2 (=1) with CH4 and N2O
Molecular Name
Carbon Dioxide
Methane
Nitrous Oxide
Molecule
CO2
CH4
N2O
Atmospheric absorption takes how long?
Centuries
12 years
114 years
Heat trapping ability
CO2=1
CO2 x28
CO2 X 216
And what about all of the gases put together? How long till it is absorbed?
50% - Is removed by the atmosphere within 30 years.
70% - Removal takes a few centuries.
90% - The remaining 20% takes millennia.
Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Working Group 1, Table 2-14
We understand -
Setting Clean Energy Priorities is Complex For Big Business,
Why don't we list the 10 major means of producing electricity or reducing electric loads today. They are demand-side management, oil, gas, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and ocean power for producing electricity. Setting clean energy priorities is not simply arranging these technologies and fuels in some
priority or order. We criticize some of these choices and exemplify others depending on our current perspective, business application or philosophical position in the market during these times. Thus, you can see the complexities that weigh on us.
Consider this example: Suppose you must decide on how to best allocate Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFLs). Or incentives for conventional hybrid automobiles, and a demonstration program for new plug-in hybrid automobiles. And then, suppose that you are interested in allocating these three measures in a way that would reduce the greatest amount of carbon – although there would certainly be other considerations. Since it is generally assumed that these measures reduce energy use and therefore carbon, then a reasonable approach might be to divide the measures equally?
Clean energy choices in the real world are complex decisions for big businesses. Even a utility manager has to consider cost, energy reliabilities, carbon footprint, availability, time constraints, public approval, and many other factors. So really, choosing the best energy projects to reduce carbon can vary significant to us all. Support our political leaders who consider the environment. If only because time is of the essence now.
But for us, masters of our own casltes, it is as easy and replacing a bulb here and there. Sealing up our cracks around our doors and windows. Recycling our waiste, and maybe even changing the things we buy to support a greener footprint. It's easy!
What if you heard someone say, "My Ice Cap is melting!" Most would think, "Oh no!, hurry up and drink it!"
Well, "YOUR ICE CAP IS MELTING!!!" And the effects are being analyzed daily. Rising Oceans, weather patterns shifting, wild fires, droughts, flooding, heat waves, hurricanes, tornadoes, record heat, and this list goes on and on. All species are being affected, not just us.
I just read that the Caribbean Monk Seal just made the extinct species list this year... So very sad to loose a species from human impact.
The Latest on the ICE melt
August 10, 2008
Figure 1. Daily Arctic sea ice extent for September 23, 2008, was 4.59 million square kilometers (1.77 million square miles). The orange line shows the 1979 to 2000 average extent for that day. The black cross indicates the geographic North Pole. Sea Ice Index data. About the data.
—Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center
September 23, 2008
Figure 2. Arctic sea ice extent on September 23, 2008, was 4.59 million square kilometers (1.77 million square miles), an increase of 77,000 square kilometers (30,000 square miles) above the minimum extent of 4.52 million square kilometers (1.74 million square miles) measured last week
It is melting away rapidly. This shows shrinkage since 1979 of sea ice in the Arctic Region as well as Greenland.
Last figures from the 2007 National Climate Data Center forecast that there is less than 30 years until it is melted away. And that number keeps shrinking as well. There was a report in Jan 08' stating we had 22 years until melt out. The last one in June stated 12 years until the ice is gone. You think there is a pattern here? The time is now, to do your part. Even if it's screwing in one light bulb...that is something. :)
A note to the hard-headed past:
The data and science behind the ice melting is being scrutinized by many different sources because our planet is poised to enter a warming period by some measure during this era. And those who state that the ice would have melted anyway, as it has in the past. "Yes", they say, "that's what it does" . It melts and then it freezes again. And they are right, that's exactly what it did way back when. Well, take a moment and just realize that nothing today could have ever been as it were in the past. We are talking about the last mini-ice age here. Wasn't that 12000 years ago??? Hello, a lot has changed since then. Because of our population tripling globally in the last century our CO2 emissions are bountifully increasing already proving to have influenced global warming factors and changing weather patterns today. Our world has never experienced something of this magnitude, right? So spare me any "tree-hugger", hater comments please. The time is now to make changes for the environment. Simply, that is our mission here. And no measure on improvements is too small. Please get involved. Instill greener thinking into your family and children for our future. Thank you, SYG.
We're drowning up here, can you please try and help change things???
Another relative point?
The amount of oil it takes in one year to produce plastic bottles for drinks in America could fuel 100,000 automobiles for that same year! Please start recycling your plastic goods today.
You Can Learn How To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint And Help Reverse The Effects Of Global Warming. Keeping My Earth Green Is A Three Part Series That That Will Enlighten You And Your Family To The Facts And Fixes To Help Preserve Our Mother Earth.
For a great book titled, Keeping My Earth Green, by Diane Steck Click Here!I really think you will enjoy it.
Building blocks for a healthier planet 
Take a coffee mug to work with you, and use it instead of a paper or Styrofoam cup. From the store, on the way to work, or in the break room at the office, the extra cups make a difference.
until it is melted away. And that number keeps shrinking as well. There was a report in Jan 08' stating we had 22 years until melt out. The last one in June stated 12 years until the ice is gone. You think there is a pattern here? The time is now, to do your part. Even if it's screwing in one 
of Power is key!!!
