10 Easy-to-Make Home Designs That Promote Sustainability

In a world where the environment becomes the capitalist of all human trade, a century-old debate continues to heat up – sustainability. Most of the resources we use at home are finite, and if we keep on using them; the future generations will have nothing left. That is why it is necessary for us to tap the other resources that nature provides in infinite amounts. Below are the 10 easy designs that you can use to gear your home toward sustainability. You do not just save energy but conserve energy in style.
1. Sustainable Landscaping
The quest for sustainability starts in our very home landscape. The easiest approach would be creating a compost pit to nourish our soil. Once the soil becomes healthy, we can start making vegetable patches where we can plant, grow, and harvest, fruits and vegetables of our own. Adding more trees will keep your home cool during the summer and will add more aesthetic value to our house is also a great plus.
2. Use Reclaimed Bricks
Bricks don’t just shrivel up and vanish. Most of them can last for decades and even centuries. So why use new ones if we can just gather old bricks from old homes and from already-demolished ones? Yes, there are old bricks gathered around town, and we can always have our local contractor piece the reclaimed bricks together to form house walls and apply artistic finish on its ancient surface.
3. Use Reclaimed Lumber
Trees that were uprooted and destroyed by storms and other natural disasters can still be treated and processed into a usable wood that can be applied to various home improvement projects. Wood from old chairs and other fixtures can also be reclaimed and refinished for newer purposes. That way, we can prevent the need for newer lumber, which also decreases our contributions in cutting trees down.
4. Employ Passive Design Approach to Cool or Warm Homes
Using a passive design approach in houses can significantly decrease the energy consumption for heating. It uses passive solar air to warm the entire house. According to various studies, buildings that use such design approach can mitigate their own energy consumption for a whopping 90 percent.
5. Build a Solar Water Heater
Building a solar-powered water heater of our own is one of the best things that anyone can do for sustainable living. It helps cut down energy costs, as it only relies on passive solar heat to keep water hot and well-insulated.
6. Use Low Flush Toilets
Unlike their ancient counterparts, the modern low flush toilets can save approximately four and a half gallons of water. This effectively saves a lot of money when it comes to water bills, and as far as I am concerned, saving money will always be something that I should do, on any circumstances!
7. Build a Rainwater Harvester
Rainwater can be used for bathing, cooking, and drinking. That is why it is important to save water by gathering rainwater for future use. Not only that it’s safe, it’s also free! Rainwater is also free from the contaminants that ground and surface water are always exposed to, and according to the Texas Water Development Board, rainwater can even exceed ground and surface water in terms of safety and quality.
8. Install Faucet Aerators
Faucet aerators add air to your faucet, thereby breaking the flow of water and turning it into droplets. This ingenious way of dispersing water allows to cover more surface area, which saves a considerable amount of water in any home. If you don’t believe me, even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency contends that installing faucet aerators is one of the best ways you can do to help conserve water.
9. Use a Higher Ceiling and awnings to improve ventilation
Hot air stays up. That is why it is necessary to keep our ceiling high so they can stay there during hot days. A window installed in the higher ceiling area will allow hot air to escape. Installing an awning can be beneficial too for giving protection both for rain and too much sunlight. Such design will enable the free flow of air, which will decrease the need for relying in air conditioners. Ergo, lesser electric bills!
10. Use Greywater Storage Tanks
Greywater is what remains after potable water has been used for washing purposes. Though generally dirty, it can still be used to flush toilets and nourish the topsoil. Relying on greywater can also help reduce the need to extract more freshwater, which ultimately saves clean drinking water.
In this day and age, it is necessary for us to be aware of the things we could do to help make a difference. Remember, if everyone does their part, our collective efforts will accumulate to become a world-changing one.

Source: enn.com

Go Green with Green Alternatives to Everyday Products...

Although you can't single-handedly clean up the environment, you can make choices in your everyday life that will benefit the health of the planet and your community. Simple changes, such as finding green alternatives for the everyday products you consume, can have a beneficial impact on water quality, energy use and the amount of pollution and waste you generate.

Personal Care Products

Everyday products such as soaps, toothpastes, cosmetics and hair care items, often contain chemicals that, when washed off during showers and baths, enter the waste-water stream and can pollute the waterways. When purchasing personal care items, read labels carefully. Products with "natural," organic" or "hypoallergenic," on the labels can be misleading, since there little regulation on the use of these terms. Look for products that list fewer ingredients, and ingredients with names that can be pronounced. Green alternatives include avoiding products with synthetic fragrances, and trying to use fewer personal care products overall. (See Reference 1) You can even make many of your own personal care products with natural ingredients. For example, substitute natural, oil-based soaps for commercial shampoos and rinse your hair with plain cider vinegar. Make your own lotions from essential oils and other natural ingredients, such as aloe vera, shea butter and jojoba.

Home Cleaning Products

Homes now contain up to 10 times more pollution than is found outdoors, much of it from the use of cleaning products. In addition to the health risks, these chemical cleaners also harm the environment in their manufacture, use and disposal. (See Reference 2.) Green alternatives to chemical cleaning products are often found in the kitchen. For example, the U.S. EPA's guide to safer cleaning recommends using 4 tablespoons of baking soda to one quart of water for an all-purpose kitchen and bath cleaner. Substitute 2 tablespoons of baking soda and 2 tablespoons of borax for automatic dishwasher soap. To clean carpets, sprinkle with a mixture of 1 cup of borax and 2 cups of cornmeal, and allow it to stand an hour before vacuuming. Clean hard-surface floors with 1/2 cup of white vinegar in 1/2 gallon of water. (See Reference 3.)

Disposable Paper Goods

Paper and cardboard make up almost 33 percent of solid wastes in landfills, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (See Reference 4.) Cut down on your landfill contribution with greener options for everyday paper products. Opt for cloth napkins over paper napkins, and substitute washable plates and cups for disposable ones. Instead of using paper towels, wipe up spills with re-usable cleaning cloths, and dry windows with clean, lint-free cloths that can be laundered. Carry your work or school lunches in fabric bags rather than disposable paper brown bags. Buy recycled copy paper instead of new, and then use both sides before shredding it and adding it to your compost pile. Instead of buying note pads and drawing paper for children, save junk mail for jotting down notes and paper craft projects.

Food Products

Much of the food Americans eat each day is grown, processed and packaged long distances from their homes. For example, produce may travel as much as 1,500 miles from grower to table. (See Reference 5.) Long “food miles” contribute to fossil-fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. Green options for many of your everyday grocery store purchases include buying local food whenever possible, shopping farmers’ markets and eating vegetables and fruit when in season. You may be able to shop for beef, free-range chicken and dairy products from growers in your area as well. Organizations such as Local Harvest provide searchable databases for each state and city in the U.S. to help your find nearby food resources in your community and to help you reduce your own "food miles." (See Reference 6).

References

• The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics: Protect Your Health
• Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Environmental Protection: Green Ways to Do Dirty Jobs
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Safer Cleaning
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Municipal Solid Waste in the United States
• Land Stewardship Project: Racking up the Food Miles
• Local Harvest: Real Food, Real Farmers, Real Community
• World Watch Institute: China Watch: Plastic Bag Ban Trumps Market and Consumer Efforts

Resources

• The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics: DIY Recipes
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Safer Cleaning
• Sustainable Table

Source: homeguides.sfgate.com   Bt Burn McKay

The Ugly Animal Preservation Society

Panda's get way too much attention.

At least, that's the observation that's behind The Ugly Animal Preservation Society - a tongue-in-cheek, yet crucially important new initiative to broaden the idea of what we value and which species we care to save.

This is a theme that Chris touched on just the other day, exploring how anthropomorphism might help humans to empathize with animals, that have so far not made it to the "must save because it's so cute" list. After all, from the mini-beasties in our soils to the weird and wonderful life under the sea, most of the animal kingdom is, at first glance at least, pretty far removed from us humans.

Simon Watt, biologist and comedian, is harnessing what has always been a useful tool for the more aesthetically challenged among us—humor. Recruiting a troupe of comedians/scientists and scientists/comedians, Watt and his team are each championing a specific species, and then asking their audience to select a favorite for their region.

Aesthetically challenged animals need love too.

To know more about the campaign go to:

www.uglyanimalsoc.com

Source: http://www.treehugger.com

10 things to do to help save the planet

Start Today!!!

10 things to do to help save the planet

1. Plant a tree
   A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime
2. Change a light bulb
   Replacing one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
3. Walk, bike, carpool or take the transit
   You’ll save one pound of carbon dioxide for every mile you don’t drive!
4. Recycle
   You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide per year by recycling just half of your household waste.
5. Check your tires
   Keeping your tires inflated properly can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
6. Use less hot water
   It takes a lot of energy to heat water. Use less hot water by installing a low-flow showerhead (350 pounds of CO2 per year), and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds of CO2 per year).
7. Avoid products with a lot of packaging
   You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.
8. Adjust your thermostat
   Moving your thermostat just 2 degrees in winter and 2 degrees in summer could save 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
9. Turn off electronic devices
   Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo, and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
10. SPREAD THE WORD!

Source: Al Gore www.climatecrisis.net

 

Top Predators Key to Extinctions as Planet Warms

Global warming may cause more extinctions than predicted if scientists fail to account for interactions among species in their models, Yale and UConn researchers argue in Science.

"Currently, most models predicting the effects of climate change treat species separately and focus only on climatic and environmental drivers," said Phoebe Zarnetske, the study's primary author and a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. "But we know that species don't exist in a vacuum. They interact with each other in ways that deeply affect their viability."

Zarnetske said the complexity of "species interaction networks" discourages their inclusion in models predicting the effects of climate change. Using the single-species, or "climate envelope," approach, researchers have predicted that 15 percent to 37 percent of species will be faced with extinction by 2050.
But research has shown that top consumers -- predators and herbivores -- have an especially strong effect on many other species. In a warming world, these species are "biotic multipliers," increasing the extinction risk and altering the ranges of many other species in the food web.

"Climate change is likely to have strong effects on top consumers. As a result, these effects can ripple through an entire food web, multiplying extinction risks along the way," said Dave Skelly, a co-author of the study and professor of ecology at Yale.

The paper argues that focusing on these biotic multipliers and their interactions with other species is a promising way to improve predictions of the effects of climate change, and recent studies support this idea. On Isle Royale, an island in Lake Superior, rising winter temperatures and a disease outbreak caused wolf populations to decline and the number of moose to surge, leading to a decline in balsam fir trees. Studies in the rocky intertidal of the North American Pacific Coast show that higher temperatures altered the ranges of mussel species and their interaction with sea stars, their top predators, resulting in lower species diversity. And in Arctic Greenland, studies show that without caribou and muskoxen as top herbivores, higher temperatures can lead to decreased diversity in tundra plants and, in turn, affect many other species dependent on them.

"Species interactions are necessary for life on Earth. We rely on fisheries, timber, agriculture, medicine and a variety of other ecosystem services that result from intact species interactions," said Zarnetske. "Humans have already altered these important species interactions, and climate change is predicted to alter them further. Incorporating these interactions into models is crucial to informed management decisions that protect biodiversity and the services it provides."

Multispecies models with species interactions, according to the paper, would enable tracking of the biotic multipliers by following how changes in the abundance of target species, such as top consumers, alter the composition of communities of species. But there needs to be more data.

"Collecting this type of high-resolution biodiversity data will not be easy. However, insights from such data could provide us with the ability to predict and thus avoid some of the negative effects of climate change on biodiversity," said Mark Urban, a co-author and an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com

Deep Sea Volcanic Action

Submarine volcanoes are underwater fissures in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt. They are estimated to account for 75% of annual magma output. The vast majority are located near areas of tectonic plate movement, known as ocean ridges. Although most are located in the depths of seas and oceans, some also exist in shallow water, which can spew material into the air during an eruption. Hydrothermal vents, sites of abundant biological activity, are commonly found near submarine volcanoes. The first scientists to witness exploding rock and molten lava from a deep sea volcano, seen during a 2009 expedition, report that the eruption was near a tear in the Earth's crust that is mimicking the birth of a subduction zone. Scientists on the expedition collected boninite, a rare, chemically distinct lava that accompanies the formation of Earth's subduction zones.


Boninite is a mafic extrusive rock high in both magnesium and silica, formed typically during the early stages of subduction. The rock is named for its occurrence in the Izu-Bonin arc south of Japan.

Nobody has ever collected fresh boninite and scientists never had the opportunity to monitor its eruption before, said Joseph Resing, University of Washington oceanographer and lead author of an online article on the findings in Nature Geoscience. Earth’s current subduction zones are continually evolving but most formed 5 million to 200 million years ago. Scientists have only been able to study boninite collected from long-dead, relic volcanoes millions of years old.

Resing was chief scientist on the expedition, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation, that pinpointed the location of the West Mata volcano, erupting 4,000 feet below the surface. West Mata is a submarine volcano located 120 miles southwest of the Samoas. The volcano is currently the deepest erupting submarine volcano in the ocean, and the first to ever be filmed erupting.

At subduction zones the oceanic crust on one tectonic plate slides beneath another, producing abundant volcanism and contributing heat, gases and mineral-laden fluids to ocean waters. Scientists have long studied the impact of subduction zones on geological and geochemical cycles. To puzzle out how subduction zones form and evolve they study inactive contemporary marine volcanos that do not produce boninite and they collect and study boninite lavas collected on land and examine cores collected from the deep sea.

"West Mata lies above the subducting Pacific plate and is part of the rapidly expanding Lau Basin, which is bounded by Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. The large bend at the northern end of the Tonga trench produces a tear in the Pacific plate and creates unusual lavas that usually only form at very young subduction zones." Riesing said.

Conditions are right for boninite to form, there’s lots of seawater released from subducting rock that mixes into relatively shallow mantle that has previously melted, causing the mantle to remelt at high temperatures. Boninite lavas are believed to be among the hottest from volcanoes that erupt on Earth.

"What makes this exciting is how uncommon these eruptions of boninite are, both now and in the past. Locked within the boninite is critical information about the rates and magnitudes of subduction-zone magmatism and global geochemical cycles." Rubin said.

The scientists writing in Nature Geoscience think the release of gaseous water, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide from the slab is the reason the eruption was so explosive. No one realized such energetic eruptions happened so deep, Resing says. Streams of red and gold lava 35 feet long shot through the water and lava-skinned bubbles some three feet across emerged.

West Mata, which the scientists estimate has been erupting for at least three years, and eight other elongated volcanoes that overlap each other in the northeast Lau Basin sit within one of the most magmatically active areas on Earth, Resing says.

"Observing the eruption in real time was a rare and special opportunity because we know so little about how submarine volcanic activity behaves. This is one of only a handful of glimpses of the process we’ve had to date and is the first time we’ve actually observed natural submarine earthlight from the glowing magma." Embley said.

Source: www.enn.com

The Former East/West Germany Barrier Now a Nature Reserve

After the second world war, Germany was divided into east and west. Between the two, the communist masters of East Germany erected an imposing barrier along the 870 border to keep people both in and out. But rather being a single fence or wall, the barrier was also a wide strip outfitted with minefields, bunkers, watch towers, and sand pits. Now that Germany has been reunited, this strip of land running 870 miles along the old border is a long, continuous, undeveloped property. In the end, the Soviets had not built a barrier, but a nature preserve.
Over twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the former "Death Strip" where so many people died trying to flee to the freer West Germany, has taken on a new meaning. It is uniquely valuable because it runs the entire length of Germany, and acts as a wildlife corridor. While most of German ecosystems are squeezed by agriculture, roadways, and cities, the strip has remained undeveloped for over 60 years. It is teeming with European otter, storks, frogs, eagles, and many other endangered and non-endangered wildlife.


"There is no other area in Germany that has been largely undisturbed for such a long time," says Dieter Leupold, a biologist with the German branch of Friends of the Earth. After the Berlin Wall came down, Friends of the Earth in Bavaria petitioned for a "Green Belt" project. They declared it the "ecological backbone of Central Europe." They also fought for other stretches of wildlife through Germany.

Now, the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation has established over 20 large protected areas along the old East/West German border. Some groups have even suggests stretching the green belt the entire length of the old Iron Curtain, from Finland to the Black Sea.

However, when the Berlin Wall fell, many just wanted to develop this new land to erase the stigma of the "Death Strip." Farmers wanted to expand their agriculture, and people wanted to develop cities and roads to connect the united Germany. Keeping the strip of land wild required a serious effort on the part of conservationists. So they sent teams of scientists, such as ornithologists, botanists, and entomologists to inventory the ecosystem and document its value. They found over 1,000 species identified as endangered on Germany's Red List. These findings enabled the establishment of green zones along the border.

Friends of the Earth is still working to expand on the Green strip. More nature preserves have been established in connection to it in an attempt to create a wildlife network throughout Germany. In the event that a farm has encroached onto the strip, the group has worked around it, simply diverting the corridor from the former East/West line. The wildlife does not care about old political borders anyway.

For more information: http://www.europeangreenbelt.org/indoor.html

Decline of the Southern Skua in the Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean near the coast of South America, is home to several unique indigenous bird species. One of them, Catharacta Antarctica, also known as the Southern Skua or the Falklands Skua, is in serious decline. Over the past five years, their population has gone down almost 50 percent. The exact reasons are unknown, but some experts suspect the decline is due to low breeding success and increased competition for resources. Some fear that the problems with the skua are linked with an unhealthy Patagonian marine ecosystem.

The Falkland Skua is a subspecies of the Great Skua, a carnivorous gull-like species. It lives on the Falkland Islands and travels north when not breeding. It feeds on fish, small mammals, and eggs. Often, it scavenges for carrion and employs kleptoparasitism, which means it saves energy by stealing food from another predator. They nest on the ground because the Falklands have no native trees, only grasses and shrubs.


Two surveys of the skuas nesting on New Island, home of the largest population to west of the Falkland main islands. The surveys were conducted in 2004 and 2009 by Dr. Paulo Catry of the Museum of Natural History in Lisbon, Portugal as well as other researchers from Portugal and the UK. "Although brown skuas have been the subject of many studies, virtually nothing has been done on the Falklands subspecies," says Dr Catry.

The surveys, spaced five years apart, showed a dramatic decline of 47.5% on New Island. This has caused worry because the Falkland Skua has a long life span. Such a dramatic change in so short a time means the situation is extremely abnormal.

One theory is that the decline is due to low breeding success which affects the birth rate. Typically, the Falkland Skua has a high rate of breeding success. Each breeding pair raise one chick a year on average. The researchers found that the new rate on New Island is only 0.28 chicks per year. This is despite the fact that other nesting seabirds on New Island have not shown similar declines in breeding rates.

A higher death rate of adult Skuas is suspected of compounding the low birth rate. Dr. Catry's team believes the species may be struggling to compete with another avian predator, the Striated Caracara, a.k.a. the Johnny Rook, which feeds on the same prey. Part of the Falconidae family, this bird is extremely aggressive, attacking everything from baby lambs to sick sheep. It will even steal red pieces of clothing hanging out to dry because they are the same color as meat. The Johnny Rook is a formidable foe for the Skua and a thorn in the side of Falkland sheep farmers.

The greatest fear, however, is that the Skua decline is related to a decline in the marine ecosystem. "Falkland skuas are top predators of marine ecosystems. They will take fish, squid, crustaceans, and they are also important predators of other seabirds," says Dr Catry. "If something is not well with them, it may mean that something is not well with the rich Patagonian shelf ecosystem."

The study has been published in the journal, Polar Biology.

Source: http://www.enn.com/