As stated plenty of times before, Greener Thinking has been designed to help people save the environment while also making money. It finally looks as though a city is putting the pieces together to make a concept that will change how people think. Boston is taking on two challenges, waste management and energy production, and it is hoping to come out on top financially. 

Many people know that compost can create heat through the decomposition of the organic materials. Many people also know that this same process gives off methane. Few people have ever tried to harness these unique characteristics and also make money with it. Boston is developing the idea to use this energy to their advantage, creating electricity and heating buildings. They will also be able to sell the resulting fertilizer for a profit. Another great advantage to this plan is the new job market it will create. Boston says that this will create new jobs that include microbiologists and soil chemists. 

This new business of turning garbage into green gold will bring jobs, produce electricity, and make money. Once Boston embarks on this new adventure and others cities start to see the results I am sure they will find that its actually very easy being green. 

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National Public Radio

We have now been added to the world of RSS. If you would like to get our RSS Feed you can click on the orange Feed icon next to the “Greener Thinking” title. This new world of RSS will allow you to stay up-to-date on all of our great articles. 

For those who don’t know what RSS is, I will tell you. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Now you look at me and say, “…and…”. Well it gives you the ability, if you have an RSS reader such as the latest Internet Explorer, FireFox, Opera, or Safari web browsers, to automatically get updates when we post a new article. This will give you the ability to keep up on all the new things that can save you money or give you ideas on keeping pollution in check. 

RSS Feeds were one of our biggest requests. You keep us going, and we want to keep you coming back therefore we will keep you happy.

As I’m sitting here watching an interesting show on The History Channel called Journey to 10,000 B.C., I notice there is a new show that they keep showing commercials for. You can tell they are really trying to push it since there is an ad for it every few minutes. Heck, they even have a little countdown in the upper-left corner of the screen letting you know how long is left until the premiere of this new series. So, what is this amazing new series so groundbreaking they don’t want anyone to miss? Ax-Men… Yes, you read that right, and no, it’s not a typo… Ax-Men. And no, it’s not about a group of super-hero mutants with a bald guy in a wheel chair and another guy with retractable-blades in his hands. It’s actually a show about everyday, average guys that go around cutting down trees. I mean, I haven’t heard about a show that sounds this exciting since “Ice Road Truckers” first aired (c’mon, what’s not exciting about guys that drive around in trucks all day?!?). I can’t really imagine what could make this Ax-Men show worth watching, so I hope The History Channel doesn’t have too much riding on its success. However, it isn’t the ridiculousness of the show that really bothers me, but how the commercials presented these “Ax-Men”. The impression I got from the ads was that they want to portray these men as heroes that we should all respect or something. I mean, if they wanted to do a show about men in the U.S. military and their daily struggles, I can understand and appreciate that (not to mention it would seem a lot more watchable), but I can’t see how they expect, with everything that is currently going on in the world, people to see these loggers as heroes. I’m sure we all do still use products made from paper on a daily basis, but that doesn’t make it ok or entertaining to see the trees cut down. I’ll admit, I have not yet seen the show, but I am very surprised that The History Channel is even putting a show like this on the air. 

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The History Channel 
Ax-Men 
Ice Road Truckers

With new environmentally-friendly products being developed at an amazing pace and sales of these products rising exponentially, it makes you wonder why. I mean, you would think the answer would be obvious. The planet is in dire need of any help we can give it, so people are doing their best to help out, right? Well, according to a recent poll by the New York Times, 57% of the people that buy the (arguably) environmentally-friendly Toyota Prius, buy it because it “Makes a statement about me”. In other words, they buy it because they want to advertise how environmentally-friendly they are or maybe even see it as a status symbol and want to show that they can afford the often times more expensive “green” products. Among other top responses were “Distinctive Styling” and “Other Incentives”. It’s not until the fifth most popular answer until you get to “Lower Emissions”, which I would have expected to be a close second to “Higher Fuel Economy” (which was third most popular). This poll shocked me when I first saw it, but then it dawned on me. I read somewhere that many actors and actresses, such as Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio, have started driving hybrids to show off their greener side. Apparently, this must have started a trend where people want to associate themselves with these stars and attempt to emulate them. It’s somewhat disappointing in our society when you see the results of this poll, but whatever will inspire people to help the planet is ok with me. I just hope and will work to ensure that it’s not a just passing fad with little results. 

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New York Times Poll