apologies...

School is out and I have given up on blogging - it is too pretty to be inside stuck at a desk...
I've also been super busy and will leave for Canada in about ten minutes - where I hope to be out of touch with civilization at least until Monday!

I have decided to try and make this road trip as green as possible! It is hard to be on the road - and far from your recycling box... Fast Food, gas stations, rest areas - all have their un-green (brown?) aspects. Not to mention the gas that we will use driving two mini-vans to Canada!

I'll let you know what our group figures out!

In the meanwhile I've found this site - www.thegreenguide.com
It is from National Geographic - and pretty helpful... I recommend the Product Report on Paper.

Ciao!

Microfiber cleaning cloths

I've seen microfiber cloths in the stores for a while. Method has a series, and I bought the wood dusting cloth from them first. It works well, but I can only use it on wood surfaces.

I began the search for microfiber cloths at Target. There were the value pack, the Real Simple brand cloths, Method and Rubbermaid. I didn't see the Rubbermaid cloths until last and picked them up, ultimatly because they were the cheapest and there were two in each package. (The value pack had a good price, but without knowing if I'd like them I didn't want a whole package of cloths that I didn't want).

So - I tried out the Green cloths - for general cleaning. I use them to dust our desks, clean the counters - nothing special, but better than scratchy (not to mention the whole... I'm trying to save the world and abusing paper doesn't jive...).

The real surprise was when I tried the glass cleaning Blue cloths! It said that you can use them with or without cleaners. It recommend using just water and the cloth. It is amazing! I recommend using both clothes - one wet, then one dry. I cleaned both full glass exterior doors, all the windows I could reach, the mirrors and the real test - our dining room table top. It removed all of the fingerprints, dried on cake icing and gosh knows what else! No chemicals, just a little water, and not even a lot of elbow grease.

I am going to try the bathroom cloths next...

All in all - I definatly recomment the Blue glass and window cloths, the green ones are ok, but don't do anything that an old cotton tshirt doesn't do (and then it has a second life) except maybe it is lint-less.

At Urban Target, two clothes were $5.99 - not bad, considering a bottle of windex is around $2/bottle and you have to continually by new ones.

Was there ever any doubt...

Your Brain is Green

Of all the brain types, yours has the most balance. You are able to see all sides to most problems and are a good problem solver. You need time to work out your thoughts, but you don't get stuck in bad thinking patterns. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, philosophy, and relationships (both personal and intellectual).

What Color Is Your Brain?

Thanks to my friend - Erin (one of many Erins) for the site...

Hwy 40 Construction got you down?

Traffic Decongestion Ideas

In the May/June 2007 issue of “Good” magazine, Josh Jackson provides evidence that Americans have “become slaves to our mechanical masters.” But his story doesn’t dwell on traffic jams, high gas prices and environmental ruin. Instead, he points overseas to five examples where city planners have liberated urban dwellers from their transportation bondage. “The solutions are already out there,” Jackson writes.

Let’s face it. Hybrids will only go so far—if we add one billion more cars to global roads in the coming decades. How about these solutions, folks?

Bus Rapid Transit – Subways are expensive and only make sense for high-density areas. Instead of building a new transportation network from scratch, planners in Curtiba, Brazil, created an efficient bus network with red-light-free lanes and speedy passenger pay stations. Bogota, Colombia replicated the idea and dramatically reduced the number of cars in the city. Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogata, said, “If only children had as much public space as cars, most cities in the world would become marvelous.”

Naked Streets – Hans Monderman, a Dutch planner, came up with a counter-intuitive and revolutionary transportation planning idea: remove traffic lights and street signs. The concept of naked streets requires drivers to proceed as cautiously as pedestrians. The city of Drachten, home to 45,000 people, removed more than 80 percent of its traffic lights and more than half its road signs. One resident said, “You drive more slowly and carefully, but somehow you seem to get around town quicker.”

Bicycle Panning – In the 1970s, when planners in Copenhagen wanted to reduce the number of cars and increase bicycle use in the city, they made one small but critical decision: they placed bicycle lanes between parked cars and the sidewalk, rather than squeezing bikes between rushing traffic and parked cars. That simple adjustment made the bike lanes much safer. Today, Copenhagen is perhaps the most bicycle-friendly city in the world.

In the first year of London's scheme to charge drivers for clogging up congested areas of the city, the number of private cars entering downtown dropped by 34 percent.

Congestion Pricing – In 2003, London mayor Ken Livingston introduced congestion pricing—essentially a tax paid by drivers who clog up the city’s most congested areas, such as finance districts, government office areas, and major tourist destinations. The fee of roughly $16 per day is paid ahead of time at retail centers or the internet. No toll booths. In the first year of the scheme, the number of private cars entering downtown dropped by 34 percent, with steep increases in bus usage and the number of bicycle riders.

Intermodal Systems – In Amsterdam and Hong Kong, it has become much easier to transfer from one mode of transportation to another. For example, Amsterdam planners made their bicycle lanes into feeder systems for rail stations and provided extensive bicycle parking. In Hong Kong, high-speed rail systems link up with international air terminals and with downtown subway stations. Linking existing transportation systems with new ones increases the efficiency of transit overall.

This article is from HybridCars.com - copyright 2007. On this website you can compare hybrid cars and look at fuel efficiency, consumer pics, a buying guide, incentives and the technology present... I do work about 35 miles away from my home in St Louis... I wish that public transportation were better here - It would take me FOUR HOURS round trip from my house to my work by mass transit what I could drive in an hour. Not exactly an incentive to not drive my car. As my co-worker put it, "Why don't you just take a job in Cape Girardeau!" I wonder how I can get the mayor to enact some of these things, hmmm. One blog at a time, Erin, one blog at a time!

PS - After the week of rain we've had here (and for those of us in this area in 1993, the river is a little too high for comfort!) I am finally able to hang my clothes out to dry! I'm about to wash my sheets and comfortor and hang them outside...

In case you are too lazy...

to head to conservation international's site, here are some great tips for saving the world while at work...

	1. Turn off the lights. Remember to hit the switch on your way out for that well-deserved lunch break. The energy savings from 10 million employees turning off unneeded lights for 30 minutes a day is enough to illuminate 50 million square feet of office space.
	2. Get off mailing lists. The last thing you need is another office supply catalog or credit card offer on your desk. Before tossing out junk mail, call the company’s toll-free service number and ask that your name be removed from the mailing list. Have online retailers e-mail you instead. Almost half of all catalogs are never opened, yet nearly 62 million trees are destroyed and 28 billion gallons of water are used to produce them every year.
	3. Put your monitor to sleep. Whether it shows off your vacation photos or a cool 3D animation, a computer screen saver is not at all designed for energy efficiency. It’s intended to save your screen from “burn in,” not to save energy. Because monitors are responsible for more than one-third of a computer’s energy consumption – even with screen savers – the best way to conserve energy is to set the monitor to sleep or power off when you’re away for an extended period. If you’re gone for 5-10 minutes, enjoy one of CI’s screen savers. Any longer than that, put the monitor to sleep.
	4. Use the stairs. Your brain gets exercise all day, why not exercise your body? Get your heart pumping by taking the stairs instead of the elevator. It’s good for your health, and it saves electricity.
	5. Make your printer’s toner last. Being cheap is a first date no-no, but it’s okay to be frugal at the office. When printing rough drafts or documents for internal purposes, change the printer’s settings to economy mode and avoid color if possible. Econo-mode uses up to 50 percent less toner and prints twice as many pages as other higher quality settings. Duplex printing also uses half the amount of paper.
	6. Provide incentives for commuters. Free food and a year-end bonus are nice perks, but to really make workers happy, help ease their daily commute. The government rewards businesses that encourage their staff to carpool, bicycle, or walk to work under the Commuter Choice Program. Telecommuting and flexible work hours can also save employers by reducing absences and job retention costs.
	7. Recycle and reuse paper. Americans toss out about 35 million tons of paper each year. Buck the trend and start recycling – not only standard white printer paper, but all of the magazines, manila folders, and colored post-it notes that decorate your space. If it tears, it can be recycled. Recycled paper manufacturing generates 74 percent less air pollution, and saves trees, water, and energy. To salvage papers that are printed on one side only, flip them over and use for incoming faxes.
	8. Purchase 100 percent post-consumer waste, chlorine-free paper. Take note when buying paper – the higher the percentage of post-consumer waste, the larger the amount of recycled material is contained in the paper stock. This means that 100 percent post-consumer waste paper is made entirely from recycled products. Also, chlorine used for bleaching is one of the biggest polluters in the paper-making process. Choose non-chlorinated paper, which has the same quality as the bleached variety.
	9. Recycle and reuse office supplies. Do as Mom says and clean your plate, literally. Washing and reusing the plastic dishes and cutlery you get with take-away food is an easy way to cut down on waste at work. Better yet, pack your lunch in reusable containers and pocket your hard-earned dollars! Skip the paper (or worse, Styrofoam) cups and refill your travel mug at the nearby coffee shop instead. It may even get you a discount. Besides aluminum cans and glass bottles, there are many other supplies stashed in and around your desk that are recyclable, such as batteries, printer cartridges, DVDs, CDs, and more.
	10. Curb phantom electricity. Many appliances still consume energy even when turned off. Items left plugged into the wall, such as a cell phone charger or laptop adapter, can leak more than 20 watts of power. In the United States alone, “phantom electricity” emits roughly 12 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Avoid this by plugging office equipment into a power strip and turning it off at night and on weekends.

I'm a 58!

Discover your Eco-Footprint with Conservation International's quiz.

The site is pretty cool - send ecards, calculate your carbon output, find "everyday actions" for you to save the world, too. They have a few corporate sponsors to help you put your money where your mouth is... Starbucks and ebay are two of the sponsors who donate a % of profit to Conservation International.

Enjoy -

I'm baaack...

The semester is over!
And there was great rejoicing...

I still have to go to class this week, but no more papers are due!

I recently finished a paper for my Catholic Social Teaching class titled "The Integrity of Creation: Catholic Social Teaching's Best Kept Secret" It was a great paper to write, a little painful, but it made me realize the lack of understanding of so many, of how poverty, lack of human dignity and the destruction of our environment are so connected! The Church seems to "understand" this, yet it often doesn't explicitly say so... harumph!

So - I have found a cool site or two that I found while procrastinating! If you are intersted in CST and what the Church teaches try these sites, they are great starting places!

www.osjspm.org - St Paul Archdiocese Office of Social Justice

www.usccb.org - Unites States Conference of Catholic Bishops - search the site for CST and then find Integrity of Creation under the topics... Good stuff there, too.


OK - that is as political or religious as it is gonna get here! If you wish to discuss CST further, contact me and we can talk!