Make Small Changes in Your Everyday Tasks

From: Kate Harrison, CEO of GreenBrideGuide.com Offers Tips for kick- starting a green lifestyle.

It may surprise you to know the EPA estimates that, despite decades of campaigning and education, only 5 percent of plastic and 22 percent of glass in this country actually gets recycled. According to Do Something (dosomething.org), an organization that educates youth about the benefits of conservation, for every ton of paper that is recycled, we save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 4,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, 7,000 gallons of water, and 60 pounds of air pollution from being released into the environment. We also save 3 cubic yards of landfill space.

You can easily conserve resources in your everyday life just by making a few small changes in and around your home.

Here are some other ways to green your day-to-day duties:

Grocery Shopping- Green your trash bags: It is so easy and inexpensive to get trash bags made from recycled or biodegradable material these days that there is little excuse not to use them. You can buy a roll at most supermarkets or online from Kokopelli's Green Market (kokogm.com). Bring your own reusable tote to the grocery store with you. Leave a few totes in the trunk of your car or stash them away in your purse for unexpected trips.

Skip the Suds-Try a green detergent such as 7th Generation which comes in a recycled cardboard bottle. You can also use a detergent designed for cold water; using cold water for each wash load saves energy, which is good for the earth, and also saves money, which is great for your wallet. Cold water detergents are formulated to fight dirt and stains just as well as their warm water counterparts.

Use a dishwasher instead of washing plates by hand. Buy an Energy Star Rated washer, only run it when it is full and skip the pre-rinse cycle.

Choose Non-Toxic Cleaning Products-For every commercial and chemical based product on the market, there is probably a greener alternative...or even a homemade substitution!

• Baking Soda: This is great for cleaning, deodorizing, softening water and scouring dishes.

• Soap: Unscented soap in liquid, flake or powder form is biodegradable and will clean just about anything.

• Lemon: A strong food acid effective against most household bacteria.

• Borax: Cleans, deodorizes, disinfects, softens water, cleans wallpaper, painted walls and floors

• White Vinegar: Cuts grease, removes mildew, odors, some stains and wax build-up.

• Washing Soda: Cuts grease, removes stains, softens water, cleans walls, tiles, sinks and tubs.

• Cornstarch: Can be used to clean windows, polish furniture, shampoo carpets and rugs.

• Citrus Solvent: Cleans paintbrushes, oil and grease and some stains.

Green Your Pet-The carbon emissions emitted from the production and transportation of your pet's food can be quite high; to offset this, look for healthy food alternatives. While organic pet food may cost a bit more, it is made with renewable resources and no pesticides or environmentally unfriendly fertilizers. Whether it comes in bottles, bags or cans, chances are that your pet's food containers can be recycled.

Scooping poop is no fun for anyone but you can make it more environmentally friendly by using biodegradable bags, which are available at most pet stores. This is an excellent alternative to using plastic bags which are nearly impossible to decompose.

Source: GreenBrideGuide.com

“eButterfly” can change a summer hobby into a scientific venture

CORVALLIS, Ore. – With the arrival of sunny summer days and creation of a new “citizen science” project called eButterfly, every seven-year-old child in the United States and Canada just gained the ability to become a working scientist.

This project, which is now online at e-butterfly.org, is one of the first of its type, and will allow everyone from children to senior citizens to record the butterflies they see or collect, build a virtual butterfly collection, share their sightings with others, and contribute to a scientific record of global change.

It’s free, and all you need to get started are a sharp eye, an interest in nature and a computer.

“We expect global changes in climate and other forces to have serious impacts on butterfly populations around the world,” said Katy Prudic, a research scientist at Oregon State University and founder and director of this project in the U.S. “There are estimates of general declines over 30 percent and localized extinctions.”

Butterflies, an important part of many ecosystems, are extremely sensitive to changes in temperature, population growth, urban sprawl, changes in land and water use, and many other forces, Prudic said. Experts have the ability with powerful computers to interpret these changes and better understand how they are affecting biodiversity – but they don’t have the manpower to gather all the data.

“What we need, and what we believe eButterfly will provide, is thousands of individuals collecting data on butterfly sightings all over the U.S. and Canada, for decades to come,” Prudic said. “This will be a wonderful opportunity for people to get involved in science, appreciate nature and our changing world, and interact with and enjoy biodiversity.”

Because the project taps into the natural interests of children, both rural and urban, who have been chasing butterflies and making collections for centuries, it also offers an entry into the world of science at a very young age, organizers say. Their contributions will be just as valuable as those of an adult hobbyist or working professional, and in the process they can learn about ecology, botany, entomology, geography, computers, data management, global change issues, and other science disciplines.

Slight changes in temperature and other climate factors, experts say, cause changes in butterfly development, migration, eating habits, and other behavior. Butterflies are also a good indicator of the availability of certain plants on which various species depend. And changes are inevitable.

“With the amount of global warming expected in the next 20 years, almost all butterfly species will move somewhat, in location or elevation,” Prudic said. “There may be winners and losers as these changes take place, and some species will struggle more than others. With the data we gather from this project we can monitor those changes and understand the impact on biodiversity.”

The new web site offers a tutorial in how to use it, and simple features such as a map that you can zoom in on, to provide exact latitude and longitudes of butterfly sightings. Experts will review entries for accuracy, and people will be encouraged to take digital photos to help verify their sightings.

Data from new sightings will be combined in this project with historical information from a century of museum collections, organizers say, to provide some historic perspective almost immediately.

This project is being developed in collaboration with the Montreal Space for Life, the University of Ottawa, the University of Alberta, and the Vermont Center for Ecostudies. A system for recording butterfly sightings in Mexico is not yet available, organizers said.

Source: OSU College of Science