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By now, we all should have made some changes in our lives to help the environment. But just in case you um.. "forgot", then use tomorrow as an excuse to replace some of those house bulbs with compact florescent or LED bulbs, switch to an Earth-friendly laundry detergent (http://www.supereco.com/detergent/kirkland-signature-laundry-detergent/ - broken link), turn off the lights when you're not in a room, take public transit if/when you can, etc.
The compact florescent bulbs are now being made with much less mercury in their bases than the older models. The next generation should have zero or next to zero (proper disposal is needed, but they last just about forever). The newer LED bulbs have an "instant on bright" feature so the proper model of them can now be used in outdoor motion sensor security lights (unlike the florescents when are better for "always on" lighting). They are even working on panel type lights that are flat, so one day you could have an entire wall of your home that glows a pure white light and only uses a couple of watts of power.
The "green" thoughts are now mainstream, and most folks at least have tossed the idea that it's just extremist hippie types who participate in stuff like this. Most of us don't need to go off the grid or live on home-made granola - we can all make simple changes to our lifestyle and product choices to made a cumulatively large difference. If you need a specific "Earth Day" to spur you on - use April 22 then to do it.
There is this guy that I sorta know who is investing money in oil drilling in his back yard. What a sucker! Green is where all the green money is at. Even that multi-billion dollar oil guy down in Texas realizes this and is pushing green techology so he can make more billions of dollars.
Plus you can save money on some of your bills by going Green.
I agree. I have floresent lights in my kitchen and hallways but my wife hates the with a passion when i try putting them in the bathroom or the bedroom because it detects all the "flaws" and blemishes because it's nothing like natural light, she doesn't like the white light.
So we mix florecent lights with the regular bulbs in the bedrooms and living room fans. (instead of 2 regular bulbs in each fan we have 1 with 1 floresent)
And during the day we don't even use lights, not even in the bathroom because there's a good sized window in there already. (I hate when people turn on the light during the day in the bathroom). We use as much natural light as possible though during the day. so it's only at night where we use lights.
Another thing is to have a window fan which is made up of 2 fans which one spews in fresh air and the other spews out the stale stuffy air inside. (instead of wasting electricity using the ceiling fan or the plug-in fan that stirs around the same air)
But one thing i'm guilty of is not taking the transit. My wife and daughter do but I drive the little 6 miles both ways.
**People, if you see trash on city sidewalks or parks, or anywhere, throw it out. Don't just think it's not yours because no one owns it anymore, and it's your earth too**
If you don't like the fluorescent bulbs, there are two options:
1) They are coming out with "natural light" fluorescent bulbs (or something like that) which supposedly get rid of that odd color glow the older ones have. I've seen some of them at Sam's Club that advertise it, but haven't used up my old ones yet to try them out. Supposedly according to the guy who works there, they put out a light that's similar to normal bulbs.
2) LED bulbs put out a completely different type of light. Some folks say it's a bit more blue-ish than regular light, other folks can't tell. Depends on the eyes seeing it. Right now, the LED bulbs at Sams and Costco are just the new ones you can use in security lights outdoors, and also "accent lights" that aim up or down like sconces, wall lights, ceiling fans, etc and not for lamps with shades... they haven't made them where the light goes out in all directions like a regular bulb yet. But they use like 1.5 watts per light, so for those specific types of fixtures, they're great.
For earth day, I walked on the side of the road and picked up the litter. I found alot of beer bottles and empty cigarette packs. I have no regret in doing so. I felt like I needed to do my part in cleaning up. With that said, I am reminded of how reckless many people can be. As for fluorescent bulbs, I was given a fluorescent bulb and I made use of it.
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