Earth Day 40 Years Later

With the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day behind us, here are a few quick tips to help you in the months ahead.

Give Up Plastic (and Paper) Bags - Cost: $1
Neither paper nor plastic is a good choice. Twelve million barrels of oil were used to make the 88.5 billion plastic bags consumed in the United States last year. And it takes four times more energy to make paper bags. The best choice is reusable shopping bags.

Give Up Hot Water (At Least in the Clothes Washer) - Cost: $0
Did you know that only 10% of the energy used by a typical washing machine powers the motor? About 90% of the energy is used to heat the water, and most clothes will come clean in cold water. So switch your washing machine's temperature setting. For heavily soiled clothing, change it from hot to warm, but otherwise try to wash and rinse most of your clothing in cold water.

Give Up Paper Towels - Cost: $7
No matter how you look at it, paper towels create waste. Try some reusable microfiber towels, which grip dirt and dust like a magnet, even when they get wet. When you are finished with them, wash and reuse them again and again. When you absolutely must have use disposable towels, look for recycled products. If every household in the US replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels with 100 percent recycled ones, we could save 544,000 trees.

You don’t need to give it all up at once. Just reduce and make progress in the right direction.

How to treat our earth

Scripture gives insight - By Bishop Richard Wills Jr.

The first mandate given to humanity in Genesis after God created and pronounced creation good was for humans to take dominion over it and rule over it wisely. As stewards of God's creation, we must care for all the earth and place the value of creation over the temptations of power and greed.

Read more . . .

Optimize Computer Energy Settings and Save 50%

Think of All The Money You'll Save! Did you know that 90% of desktop computers are not optimized for energy efficiency?

It's simple to utilize the power management settings on your machine, and according to Intel, it can save you over 400-kilowatt hours annually. That's a savings of about $40 - $80 each year.

Within Windows head on down to the "start" menu, from there, you'll want to click on "settings" and then "control panel." It's now time to double click on "power management." Oh-la-la. Now, under where it says "power schemes," choose "always on" from the drop-down list. Below the "settings for always on power scheme" tab, look for two drop-down lists, labeled "turn off monitor" and "turn off hard disks," respectively. From each list select the amount of time you want your computer to wait before entering energy savings mode.

Here's another hot tip. Did you know that, in addition to looking groovy and taking up way less desk space, the new LCD monitors are good for about 100 KWH/year of electricity savings? OK, so that's not going to save the whales, but if you need a new monitor, it's a good excuse to upgrade.

Oh yeah: Some of you are on Macs. It's even easier (of course) to implement these settings. Just go to the Apple pull-down menu, select "system preferences" and then "energy saver." It's all in there. You're on a Mac; you can figure it out.

Read more at: www.thedailygreen.com

Earth Care – Save a Buck, Save the World

You don’t need to go broke to go green. In fact, you can help the planet and your budget at the same time.

Unplug - When you leave a microwave, a television or any other appliance with standby power plugged in, it's draining electricity. Combined those things can consume as much as 10% of the electricity in your home. Grouping things into a power strip by room so that when you go to bed or leave town, you can flip the strip off, cutting power completely.

Make the switch - Replacing standard light bulbs with those squiggly compact fluorescent ones will cut consumption by 75% and last up to 10 times longer. A six pack will save you $200 over their lifetime.

Get off the bottle – If you don't like the taste of tap water, or maybe you don't trust it, install a filter for your drinking water. Filters will cost you less than 20 cents for a gallon of water. You’ll save $1 a bottle or about $4 per case.

Making a few changes in the way you household runs is easy and can save you money. It can also help save our planet.

Read more at Money Magazine . . .

Tips for Green Holiday Giving

Is anything more wonderful than finding the perfect gift for someone, or receiving the present that’s just what you needed? How about gift-giving accompanied by the knowledge that your gift is also a gift for the planet? There’s more to green giving than just switching to the stuff with the “green” label. Here are some pointers for finding the right gifts that make everyone happy.

• Be sure your gift will get used. A gift that the receiver does not use is simply wasted.
• Give a consumable gift. The gift will not be left unused in the corner of their closet.
• Share a piece of yourself. Offer your services.
• Make a gift of any service. You will still reduce material consumption.
• Give a gift where it is needed on behalf of someone better off. Improve another family by the gift of a llama or a sheep on their behalf.
• Buy a local gift. A gift made or grown locally you have discovered right here.

Gifts are wonderful expressions of friendship. Just keep in mind the true meaning of Christmas, and that is so much more important than gift giving.

For more ideas>>

United Methodists take 'going green' to new levels

NEW YORK (UMNS) — United Methodists are "going green" at levels far beyond recycling church bulletins and eliminating Styrofoam cups at coffee hour. Throughout the country, congregations and communities are setting new standards of stewardship, said Tyler Edgar, assistant director of climate change and energy for the Eco-Justice Program of the National Council of Churches. "Churches are supporting huge local gardens that donate the produce to low-income families, erecting wind turbines reminiscent of the three crosses and engaging in local energy and sustainability initiatives that have the potential to define their communities in the coming years."
Read full story»

Plastic Bags!

In various places all over this country, people are waking up to the problem of plastics bags—namely that they are ubiquitous, end up in trees and water ways, and just about never break down. News of taxes or bans on plastic bags is spreading, and some people, who are trying to be more earth friendly or who want to prepare for the inevitable in their communities, are attempting to go plastic bag-less. That means you have to remember to bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store and actually use them.

Why are plastic bags so bad? Four to five trillion plastic bags are manufactured each year. Americans use over 380 billion polyethylene bags per year. Americans throw away approximately 100 billion polyethylene bags per year. Of those 100 trillion plastic bags, 1% is recycled. It takes 1000 years for polyethylene bags to break down.

So what can you do?

• Consider carrying your own reusable shopping bags. Just in time for the holidays, Target will give customers a 5 cent discount for every reusable bag they use to pack their purchases.
  
• If you do take home plastic bags from the store, be sure to recycle it! Every major grocery store has a bin up front for you to drop off your plastic bags, no matter where you received them.

Please remember, “All creation is the Lord’s, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it.” - Excerpted from the current UMC Social Principle, “The Natural World.”