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Easy Green Money-Saving Tip: Get a Library Card
Tweet Share on Facebook March 31, 2009 Comment (5)Recession-hit families are cutting back on extras, which may mean the end of Netflix, new books and music, magazine subscriptions and even internet service for some households. Because of this, many families are learning to turn to their neighborhood library for resources and entertainment. Tough times have been a boon for libraries, which, in addition to lending books, DVDs, CDs and magazines for free, can also provide job-search counseling and educational programs.
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What to Do for Earth Hour After the Lights Go Down
Tweet Share on Facebook March 27, 2009 Comment (5)I wrote yesterday about Earth Hour, the symbolic voluntary dimming of lights in 2,800 cities across the world in support of increased leadership in climate change. But what are participants expected to do for the one hour without light on a Saturday night? Here are a few ideas that event organizers have suggested for the 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. darkness:
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World Monuments Will Go Dark for Earth Hour, But Not in Washington, D.C.
Tweet Share on Facebook March 26, 2009 Comment (2)From 8:30 to 9:30 on Saturday night, the emblem of the city of light - the Eiffel Tower - will be shrouded in darkness. The Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx will disappear into the night. The marquee lights of Vegas and Broadway will be switched off, as will the lights of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Sydney Opera House and the Empire State Building. Ancient landmarks like the Acropolis and the Colosseum, too, will briefly lose their glimmer this weekend.
The event is Earth Hour - a rolling electricity turn-off organized by the World Wildlife Fund for which more than 2,800 cities in 83 countries have pledged their participation. Monuments, businesses and residences can turn off their lights from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. local time to send a message to world leaders for the 2009 United Nations Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December.
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Simple Green Step: Shut Down Your Computer Every Night
Tweet Share on Facebook March 25, 2009 Comment (10)As many as half of all office workers in America who use a PC don't shut it down at the end of the day - wasting $2.8 billion and 20 tons of CO2 per year, according to a recent study by 1E and the Alliance to Save Energy. According to the survey, there's a litany of excuses not to: they forget, it takes too long, they allow their computer to automatically go to sleep, or it's company policy to leave it on. Here are five good reasons to turn your PC off each night:
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10 Things You Should Know About the Tata Nano
Tweet Share on Facebook March 24, 2009 Comment (36)The tiny Tata Nano is an Indian car that's been getting huge buzz. But what do consumers need to know about this new four-passenger car - and is it green?
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Study: Urbanites are Greener than Suburbanites
Tweet Share on Facebook March 23, 2009 Comment (1)Cities thought to be centers of smog, gridlock, power-sucking high-rises and litter, and that's part of the reason that so many familes prefer the suburbs. Despite all of their perceived environmental problems, a recent study by the International Institute for Environment and Development has found that city dwellers generate far fewer CO2 emissions than folks who live in the suburbs or country.
Of the 12 cities in Asia, North America, South America and Europe that were studied, researchers found that metropolitan areas had smaller carbon footprints than the countryside, with two exceptions: "Production-oriented" cities Beijing and Shanghai, whose citizens emit more than the country's average. The cities' rank was determined by comparing the per capita emissions of residents in urban and rural areas against the national average.
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True or False: SUVs are Greener Than Scooters
Tweet Share on Facebook March 20, 2009 Comment (27)SUVs are bad, etc. etc.: this much we know. But could downgrading to a sleek scooter be worse for the environment than an SUV? This was a question posed to the Chicago Reader's Straight Dope column, on the basis that a two-stroke engine pollutes more in an hour than a car does all week. So should the smug Vespa-riding friend of the author give up and get a 4Runner? Not so fast.
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Citizen Scientists Monitor Global Warming
Tweet Share on Facebook March 19, 2009 Comment (10)Climate scientists are not omnipresent. Because there are so many places in the world and not enough scientists to observe all of them, they're asking for your help in observing signs of climate change across the world. The citizen scientist movement, writes Dan Shapley of the Daily Green, encourages ordinary Joes to observe a very specific research interest - birds, trees, flowers budding, etc. - and send their observations to a giant database to be observed by professional scientists. This helps a small number of scientists track a large amount of data that they would never be able to gather on their own. Much like citizen journalists helping large publications cover a hyper-local beat, citizen scientists are attuned to the conditions where they live. All that's needed to become one is a few minutes each day or each week to gather data and send it in.
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Is Your City's Public Transit Suffering?
Tweet Share on Facebook March 18, 2009 Comment (4)Chances are, yes. Ridership on public transportation nationwide has increased exponentially - and is now at its highest level in the past 52 years, according to the Washington Post - but transit systems are struggling to keep up. According to the American Public Transportation Association, ridership rose on 14 of the nation's subway systems (3.5 percent), 20 of 21 commuter rail systems (4.7 percent) and 20 of 26 light-rail systems (8.3 percent). The financial crisis has hit transit hard (I wrote about three systems struggling with their loans, backed by AIG, in October) in particular because many cities made financially risky deals with banks to fund their transit systems. Now, they're finding themselves with no choice other than to make drastic cuts that could leave people across America paying more for buses and subways, or worse - without service.
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5 Things That are Green on St. Patrick's Day
Tweet Share on Facebook March 17, 2009 Comment (33)Unnaturally-colored beer. Paper leprechaun hats. Plastic cups strewn everywhere. St Patrick's Day can be wasteful indeed, but that doesn't mean your celebration of it has to be. For Irish-Americans (or anyone who feels like toasting them tonight), here are five things that are green - in more way than one - for St. Patrick's Day.
