Top Green Summer Tips
Steppin’ light
Find local activities with low environmental impacts like a trip to the local park, woods, zoo, ballgame, or beach with friends to relax. Time spent with friends and family can be a great way to catch up and have fun. Picking up that new book you’ve been meaning to read while lounging on the deck is another great way to pass the time and leave a smaller footprint behind. The Deathly Hallows ought to keep you busy for a little while. Once you’ve gotten out of the city, check out below: How to Green Your Outdoor Sports.
Cool and Easy
Air conditioning can offer much-needed respite from the heat and can make sweaty nights bearable, but be sensitive to overuse. Turning up the thermostat a few degrees on your AC is a great way to save tons of cash while making the planet a cooler place at the same time.
Up in your grill
Love to BBQ? Propane burns much cleaner than either wood or charcoal briquettes. If you can’t resist charcoal, try a natural product like those produced by Cowboy Charcoal—(http://www.cowboycharcoal.com/) much cleaner than your traditional briquettes. Of course, when you’re done grilling, use natural cleaning products such as SoyClean (http://www.soyclean.biz/) organic grill cleaner to keep your summer as chemical-free as possible. Tests show it’s just as tough on grime as traditional cleaners, but won’t leave that chemical residue behind to leach into your next burger or grilled tomato. Plus, if you want to give your neighbours something to gossip about, try a solar over from a company like Solar Cookers International—grill.
The local roundup
Buy food locally. Farmers markets are great places to shop, and ensure that the veggies you’re eating hot off the grill or mixed in a salad haven’t traveled thousands of miles just to reach your plate. That cuts down on the use of fossil fuels, which leads to significantly reduced levels of pollution and resource depletion over your typical tomato bought at the local supermarket. Websites like Local Harvest (http://www.localharvest.org/)can help you find one in your area, even if you’ve never seen one in your life.
The green plate special
Use reusable dishes rather than plastics or Styrofoam. If you absolutely must use disposables, make sure to pick up compostable varieties beforehand to put in the compost bin when you’re through. For more, check out Where to Get This Stuff below.
Greenie bikini
You don’t have to go so far as wearing a biodegradable or solar bikini to make your summer accoutrements more sustainable. Look for eco-friendly products like clothing, swimsuits, sandals, towels, and skin care. Each of them is a step in the right direction, and you might just fall in love with a product or style you never knew existed. Lots more to learn at How to Green Your Wardrobe. (below)
Charge!
Pick up a solar backpack or device like the Freeloader or the Solio to take with you on day trips. That way, whether you’re at the beach or on the go you’ll be able to run and recharge a wide range of portable devices on solar energy. Save a buck by cutting out the electric company and giving your re-chargeables the solar power they deserve.
No poison, please
Remember those carefree days of running alongside the DDT truck as it sprayed the happy townspeople and iced all the bugs? Well, we’re a little smarter now, so use products like garlic barrier to ward off mosquitoes. Traditional products certainly do the job, but they can end up turning your backyard into a deathtrap for every other kind of living thing that drops by for a visit. That means birds, butterflies, ladybugs, and even the family dog gets an unhealthy dose. Not to mention yourself, the kids, the neighbors’ kids, and even your bratty nephew who lives down the block. Make sure to apply it when you think it won’t rain for several days, and the garlic alternative should treat you right. Planting rosemary is a natural and low-tech way to block skeeters. Then there are always the big guns like the Mosquito Magnet. (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/11/mosquito_magnet.php)
Wet and wise
Water usage levels are a big deal throughout much of the U.S. and the summer drought season can really make things tough. Be certain to watch what you use, water plants only when necessary, and take a few minutes to install a low-flow showerhead. They’re simple steps that can make a big difference. For more, check out How to Green Your Water. (below)
The greener road
Have to travel long distances to arrive at your dream destination this summer? Consider making it by road or rail rather than by plane, but be sure to offset your carbon emissions no matter what mode of transportation you choose. Companies and non-profit groups like Terrapass, Climate Care, MyClimate, Native Energy, and American Forests all offer ways to offset the damage done when you pick up and travel to places unknown. Our guide for How to Go Green: Carbon Offsets is a great launch pad. (below)
How to Go Green: Outdoor Sports-by Warren Mclaren
We love our wild, outdoor places. The problem is, we're loving them to death. Flying to visit the distant ones is contributing carbon dioxide to the ever-growing greenhouse gas overload; all the clobber we take with us demands greater extraction of diminishing resources both to manufacturer and to reach us in our homes; and when we arrive at our beloved open-air domains, our combined weight is directly impacting already fragile ecosystems. Take, for instance, the mountains.
"Like the earth's oceans and rainforests, mountains are crucial to life. Mountains are the source of freshwater for half of humanity. They are storehouses of genetic diversity that help feed the world. Yet, mountains are under threat from climate change, overexploitation and environmental degradation. Mountain people are among the world’s poorest and hungriest: a disproportionate number of the world’s 840 million chronically undernourished people live in mountain areas." Although covering only 3% of the earth’s surface, they contain an astonishing 10,000 species of plants, the highest biodiversity per unit area of any ecosystem in the world. They are also critically important to millions of people in the lowlands as sources of fresh water for drinking, agriculture, and hydropower.
So, in this guide we consider outdoor adventure sports such as surfing, sailing, kayaking, skiing, snowboarding, backpacking and camping to see how they might be made greener. (For the most part, we'll leave biking for a whole separate guide.)
How to Go Green: Wardrobe
Here's the irony: fashion is ephemeral, while fabric and pollution are not. After all of the inspiration, image-making, and excitement pass, the clothes remain in wardrobes everywhere. Pouf skirts. Acid-washed denim. M. C. Hammer pants. They're out there still, in closets, thrift stores, and land fills.
Eco-savvy fashion choices mean not only reducing post-consumer refuse, but also pre-consumer waste and pollution. After its origins on the farm, forest, or oil field, that jacket spent some time morphing into its present form. What chemicals were used to grow it? Were the dyes safe?
As more designers and manufacturers create with eco-concerns in mind, it's easier to find satisfying answers. Through smart wardrobe management and consumer choices, you can cut down on closet clutter, support clean industry, and look fabulous. Our tips will help you navigate all of the terminology and find the best ways to green your wardrobe.
How to Go Green: Water
There is no resource more precious than water. There is also no resource that is misused, abused, misallocated, and misunderstood the way water is. Safe drinking water, healthy and intact natural ecosystems, and a stable food supply are a few of the things at stake as our water supply is put under greater and greater stress.
The picture might look grim, but opportunities to be more efficient abound. Many people have had water-saving etiquette pumped into them at one point or another, so hopefully we can make a good case for conserving the stuff with practical, everyday water-saving strategies as well as some more high-tech approaches.
How to Go Green: Carbon Offsets
Newspapers, radio, television, magazines, blogs, podcasts, in fact any media you can think of, has awoken to the issue of climate change or global warming. When mainstream publications, the likes of Sports Illustrated, Main Street Magazine and Vanity Fair, cover the topic you know there is something going on. Not to mention that a documentary full of graphs, statistics and grainy photos of glaciers can scoop up an Oscar. And thousands of eminent scientists, the world over, sign a document concurring that there was 90 percent certainty that the planet has a temperature and it is a human induced fever. To reduce the patient's prognosis of increased convulsions; such as hurricanes, droughts, floods, heat waves, etc; experimental treatments are underway.
Carbon offsets: a tool to fight global warming
One of these is carbon offsets. Carbon dioxide, a significant greenhouse gas, is emitted into the atmosphere as a result our intensive use of fossil fuels like oil and coal. In simplistic terms this is 'bad'. One means of doing ‘good’ is by paying to balance (or offset) the equation, by funding projects that reduce our emissions of carbon (and other greenhouse gases). If only it were as simple as it sounds.
As seen in the August issue of Main Street Magazine
