As always art imitates life… or is it the other way around? They come so close any more that it is hard to tell which came first. While watching the new “Simpson’s Movie” I realized that sometimes the best way to get a point across is to exaggerate it. Before you read any further, I would like disclose that this article may include spoilers if you have not seen the movie yet. 

In the movie there were many warnings of destroying the planet. With one family and humor they were able to capture different angles of the debate on global warming. Lisa as always is trying to make the world a better place and represents the activists. She spends her time trying to educate people on the failure of their ways and how it will affect future generations. But that analogy is easy. In the movie Lisa warns Springfield if they don’t change their ways that they will destroy the environment. To this the residents just scoffed as if it did not concern them until Lisa stated that the water they had been drinking through the night was from their very polluted lake near by. This got their attention and helped them understand the immediacy of the problem. This is the exaggeration that I was speaking of. You cannot show someone an issue and have them respect it unless you can show them how it will directly affect them. 

Homer is the ignorant (not stupid) everyday person that does not really have a preference as to what is right or wrong. He just does what is easiest. This category is probably the category that contains most of the population. These people do not really have any idea that things they do can affect the environment and as so destroy their environment without knowing it. Burning plastic cups in a bonfire, throwing garbage out the window while driving, and making 40 copies of a power point presentation instead of e-mailing it to the attendees. In “The Simpson’s Movie” Homer was sitting in line to have his hazardous waste to be taken care of properly, when he hears that there is a doughnut sale, instead of waiting he does the easy thing… well according to him it is easier… he drives through many pylons and a fence and throws his trash into the lake. This dumping is the final straw for the lake and starts the beginning of the end for Springfield. The government traps Springfield in a bubble because they are “the most polluted city in the world.” They are locked in the bubble so that they cannot spread their filth to the rest of the planet. 

Don’t let your town get trapped in a bubble, find your own analogies and see how humor can help make a point of a very real problem go see the movie. 

-LINKS-

Ignorant Definition

I have just received the new iPod Classic 160 GB. I have had little time to run experiments on battery life and I am currently converting video to run the video tests. As I stated before I will be comparing a little differently. I will be comparing a 60 GB iPod Photo to the new 160 GB iPod Classic to help those who have not gotten a new iPod in a while whether it is worth the upgrade. Today I am going to go over the quality of the packaging and the interface. 

One area that Apple really succeeds in that no one ever realizes is the packaging. They have continuously made the packaging smaller and use less material. Many people are not like me and they throw away the box the second they get their iPod, so it is good to know that there will be less packaging going into landfills. You could fit about three iPod Classic boxes into one of the iPod Photo boxes. This means that when iPods are shipped from the factory they take up less space and they can ship more iPods with fewer emissions. Really even the shipping box that the iPod Classic shipped in barely compares to the iPod Photos retail box. 

The iPod has always strived to be the most easily controlled media player on the market. With the iPod Photo it intuitively began to skip between the letters of the alphabet while scrolling fast, but it was hard to see where you had ended up and when you stopped and started, it would go song by song again. A new feature I found with the iPod Classic is that when it starts to skip through the letters of the alphabet it shows which letter it is on. As long as you are still touching the wheel and you have gotten to the letter switching speed it will stay in that mode. For example you start in the letter A but you need to go to the letter S for “Smashing Pumpkins” you would scroll fast until it begins showing the letter that you are on, on the screen. Then you can slow down and go letter by letter until you get to the letter S and if you accidentally go to the letter T then you can easily just back up. 

Another thing that the new iPod does is show you animated images of what menu option you currently have selected, so if you are over music it will start to show album art that is in your music collection on the right pane of the interface. Also when in the album view it shows a picture of the album and tells you how many songs are in the album, which can be helpful. I have also noticed that the new iPod Classic is much thinner than the iPod Photo. One last obvious thing, the new iPod Classic has a much bigger screen made for playing video. Many people already know some of these things from the last iPod refresh. 

Here are some pictures comparing the boxes to each other along with the shipping box compared to the old iPod Photo retail box. 

-Pictures-

We have on several occasions on this site promoted the use of compact flourescent light bulbs. And for good reason; they use far less energy than an incandescent bulb and last much longer. However, as we’ve also mentioned they do contain small amounts of mercury which is damaging to the environment. Luckily, some companies have made it easy to recycle these bulbs so that the mercury can be removed and used in future fluorescent bulbs. Sylvania, a maker of CFL’s, is one such company that offers a simple solution for recycling them. You purchase a kit on their website and fill it up with old, used CFL bulbs and then simply use the prepaid shipping label that comes with it to send it back. This allows you to avoid spending time looking for a local place that recycles them and you don’t even have to leave your home. They sell the kit for consumers which can fit about 12 small bulbs or 8 medium to large ones for $15. At first thought, you may think that spending the extra money to recycle these doesn’t seem to fit with our philosophy of saving money here at Greener Thinking. However, even adding in the extra cost of recycling these CFL’s, they still save you a lot of money in energy costs in the long run. 

Here is a list of additional info on recycling CFL’s… 
Lamp Recycling 
EPA 
Earth 911 

-LINKS-

Compact Flourescent Light Bulbs 
Sylvania 
RecyclePak 
Lamp Recycling 
EPA 
Earth 911

Invented over 206 years ago, the light bulb has gone through many changes. From its early beginnings with a battery and a carbon short circuit to todays standard of not caring what the heck is in the socket and just knowing that when you flip a switch you will be able to see the remote for the T.V. Oh what luxuries we have come to know. 

As some of our readers may know, Greener Thinking recently had an interview with a local news paper and in it I had described how I had converted my entire house to compact Florescent bulbs. I did not, however, have the opportunity to go into great detail about the advantages and disadvantages. 

One of the problems you will find when using compact florescent bulbs is that they take a few minutes to come to full brightness. Some of the newer ones do not take quite as long. Another issue can be that the compact florescent bulbs are not the same shape as a normal bulb so they do not fit into all of the same places. One of the biggest issues with compact florescent bulbs is that they contain a small amount of mercury. This is an issue because it makes it difficult to dispose of the bulbs. You should definitely look into a recycle outlet that can handle these bulbs when choosing to replace the bulbs in your home. Some companies like GE and Philips only use trace amounts of mercury in the manufacturing of these bulbs. Another issue is that upfront cost will be more. And the biggest drawback of them all is that your “Easy Bake Oven” brownies will never cook with a compact florescent bulb. Due to the fact that there is less energy lost to the friction of electricity, compact florescent bulbs will never get hot enough to cook your tiny brown cakes of goodness. 

There are also reasons why using florescent bulbs is good and very helpful. Where your “Easy Bake Oven” gets the short end of the stick your electricity bill will definitely be happier. An average 60-Watt equivalent bulb uses around 14 Watts of electricity. This means that you can run around four compact florescent bulbs with the same amount of electricity as an incandescent one. Another bonus is that a compact florescent bulb lasts around 10 times longer than the average incandescent. I started the conversion in my house to florescent bulbs about 3 years ago and during that time I have not needed to replaced a single florescent bulb, but I have steadily replaced all of the dead incandescent bulbs until there were no more. It is much nicer not to worry about changing the light bulbs in your house every 8 months or so. One other thing that makes compact florescent bulbs nice is that they are built to fit into the same sockets as a regular bulb. This means you can replace just about any incandescent bulb with a florescent one. They are getting smaller and smaller as time goes by which also makes it easier to fit them into smaller fixtures. Finally, over the life of the bulb you will save money and electricity due to the more efficient design of compact florescent bulbs and that is a win-win for the Greener Thinking philosophy. 

Compact Florescent Bulbs Cheat Sheet 

Pros

• Much less electricity to give off the same amount of light
• Last much longer than regular bulbs
• Fits into the same socket as an Incandescent
• Cheaper over the life of the bulb

Cons:

• Use Mercury
• Take a couple of seconds to get to max brightness
• The shape can sometimes get in the way of smaller fixtures
• The upfront cost is more

      Paper or plastic? We’ve all been asked that before at the grocery store, but how much thought have you ever really put into how that decision effected the environment. To be honest, I never really thought too much about my decision because I reuse the plastic bags for other purposes at home, so I have always chosen plastic. Whenever it has crossed my mind which choice was better, I never could really tell because they both seemed like they have their own pros and cons. So, when I had to stop at the local grocery store called VG’s on my way home today for some things and the guy asked me, “Paper or plastic?”, I made my usual choice. The difference this time was that I noticed a message that had been printed on the side of the bag that read as follows: 

      “I am made from recycled materials. I am made from at least 50% post-industrial waste. I reduce road traffic. One truck can carry 2 million bags like me. Fourteen trucks are needed to carry 2 million paper sacks. I’m cleaner. Producing me generates fewer pollutants than producing paper bags: 70% less air pollutants and 98% less water pollutants. I use less energy. Making me involves a quarter of the energy used for a paper bag. I help save trees. My material is created from plentiful natural gas rather than ever more valuable trees or oil. If you bring me back and reuse me, VG’s will give you $.03 or just bring me back and VG’s will recycle me.” 

      So, this not only made me glad that I have been choosing plastic bags all along, but also impressed me that the store was putting this message out to their shoppers along with the incentive to reuse the bags on their next visit. Soon, I hope that most people will begin recycling or reusing their bags or even bringing cloth bags with them to the store to shop with. The first step is to get the message out though, which I’m very impressed to see stores starting to do. 

-LINKS-

VG’s Food and Pharmacy 
The Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment (ILEA)

      Enjoy travel? Ever stay at a hotel? Ever heard of a eco-Hotels? For those of you interested in vacationing or even those who have some say in where business trips are set to stay, the eco-Hotel is the right choice if you care to improve the environment. 

There are quite a few categories of such areas of the hospitality industry… these being hotels and resorts that conserve ecologically significant habitats, green hotels that reduce, recycle, minimize waste, and conserve water, sustainable hotels that harvest food from gardens on the hotel property or obtain part or all of their power from renewable energy, hotels that encourage community involvement such as guests participating in trail clearing, and hotels that offer some form of environmental education to their guests. 

Each type of eco-Hotel is far from a stay with Tarzan’s house . With modern amenities, and some receiving high guest ratings, there really is no reason to not book a room. Hotels realize that the public wants to see an awareness of environment in today’s commercial industries. Hotels going green is just another step in that awareness. Whether the hotel industry really cares about going green is another concept all together… but one they never forget, is going green… financially! Either way, it is a win win situation on the whole. 

For more information on a couple of these types eco-hotels, search the net or check out: http://www.yourhomeplanet.com/Case_Studies/EcoHotels/ 

-LINKS-

eco-Hotels
house
http://www.yourhomeplanet.com/Case_Studies/EcoHotels/

How do we go about eliminating the problem of having an over-abundance of garbage in landfills all over the country, while at the same time, filling demand for an ever-increasing need for energy? Geoplasma, an Atlanta based company that describes itself as a “waste destruction and energy company”, uses a process called plasma arc to heat garbage to extremely high temperatures (approximately as hot as the surface of the sun) and separate the different components of the waste and use what is known as syngas to produce electricity. The other byproducts can be used for a variety of different things from brick pavers to scrap metal. 

Waste disposal is a huge problem in the world and here in the U.S. especially, so any environmentally friendly solution is a good one. But, one where it gets rid of the trash, while creating relatively clean energy sounds too good to be true! Geoplasma is currently building a new plant in Saint Lucie County, Florida that will destroy 3000 tons of waste, while producing 160 megawatts of electricity every day. If successful, these types of plants should become increasingly common and hopefully soon could not only make a big impact on the world’s waste disposal problem, but reduce our dependency on non-renewable energies. 

-Links- 

Geoplasma 
Discover Magazine

      When comparing hotel prices, the difference between a $50.00 room and a $500.00 room could be quite staggering… unless you’re a trucker. Considering the amenities many truck drivers have in their trucks these days, many save money by spending the night in their trucks… but were you aware of EXCESS IDLING laws? Receiving a citation in this department could cost $500.00 and only goes up from there. To run their “hotels on wheels”, drivers need to keep an idle engine so they can keep their batteries charged, but with such imposing regulations, it seems a near-impossible task. Because of this, idle reduction devices have seen a dramatic growth in sales in recent years.

Currently, with the price of diesel being around $2.50, auxiliary power units (APU’s) can pay for themselves in about two years. However, weight and initial installation costs drive many truckers away… rigs included. Though there are some other alternative systems which are available that are much more weight and pocket friendly.

FUEL FIRED HEATERS - Run pumps & Blowers 

They consume very little electricity and use as little as 0.03 gallons/hour at a low setting and less than 0.1 gallons on a high setting, producing about 11,000 BTU’s/hour. 

TRUCK STOP ELECTRIFICATION

A parking space with clean, filtered hot or cold air, cable t.v., internet, and access to shore power for $1.85/hour or less. 

ON BOARD ELECTRIFICATION - (Basically, an internal for of truck stop electrification)

Uses deep cycle batteries and an inverter and can power lighting and various accessories. 

COLD STORAGE - Maintains temperatures in already cooled cabs. 

Chills or freezes a special liquid mixture to remove heat from air blown over them when the engine is turned off. 

HYBRID SYSTEMS - Combines many of the above technologies to achieve the most efficiency per task. 

Creates an optimal solution for an individual driver’s needs. 

As you can see, there are many options out there, with new ones being marketed all the time. So keep informed at Greenerthinking.com, and research what’s available to help you meet your needs before investing in any idle-reduction system. The only thing you’ll be missing out on, is a couple of bars of soap, and perhaps a complimentary mint.