Clean Green - 6 natural recipes

All Purpose Cleaner
1/4 cup vinegar
4 cups warm water
Mix in a spray bottle, then add
1 tablespoon vegetable based liquid soap
(like Sun & Earth, Trader’s Joe’s brands, Seventh Generation)
25 drops of essential oil for scent -this eliminates the strong vinegar scent that can linger after use
(essential oils can be found in many scents in the natural foods section of Fred Meyers and at any natural foods market)
Shake Gently before each use         

Disinfectant
Add 30 drops of tea tree oil  to the All Purpose cleaner above.
Or
Clean surface as usual - then spray with 3% hydrogen peroxide let sit 10 minutes and wipe.

Mirrors and Glass
Distilled White Vinegar  in a spray bottle works better than any product on the market.  Simply spray surface and polish until dry with recycled paper towels. The vinegar will remove any built up residue from waxy chemical cleaners as well as fingerprints and any other grime that may have accumulated.  

Scrubbing and Scouring
Bon Ami   (commercial cleanser) is calcium carbonate with no chemicals added.
Pumice Stones work great, but not for fiberglass     
Wet pumice stone to use on porcelain, metal inside your oven, grill racks and stone surfaces

Wood Cleaning Formula
1/4 cup white distilled vinegar, 1/4 cup water, 1/2 teaspoon vegetable based liquid soap
Add a teaspoon of olive or Jojoba oil and 3 to 5 drops essential oil for scent
Mix in a bowl.  Saturate sponge; squeeze out excess and wipe wood.
Rinse sponge in warm water between washes.

Furniture Polish
1/2 cup lemon juice and 1 teaspoon olive oil
Apply to a soft cloth and rub into grain.
Remove and polish with a clean cloth.

 

Now, get out there!

Green Bugs (VW Beetles)

Back in 2004-2005, when I was looking to get a new car, I looked really hard at the New Beetles - but I could not get over that they had (at the time) no plans to produce a hybrid version of the Bug. The small car seemed, to me, to be a natural for hybrid technology. Alas, I went with my 2005 Prius and have enjoyed it greatly.

Here's a guy that didn't take "no" for an answer.

Bart Grabman, a senior at Stellar Secondary School in Anchorage, Alaska had a great idea to convert his car to electric. “We have a class called Passages, and in that course everyone’s supposed to pick a project or idea that they want to expand and do something big with, and so I thought, ‘What’s something awesome that I can do?’” Grabman recalls.
Grabman remembered a visiting speaker who had talked about converting his own truck to electric, so he decided to attempt the project himself. Grabman did research on the Internet, figured out what to get, what to do, and found a car — a cheap 1971 VW beetle.
Grabman says, “If you have a lot of money it’ll be easy.”  After a few weeks of looking, he found an electric car part kit on eBay for around $3,500. “People have been pretty supportive of the idea. I’ve gotten a lot people who have offered to help and want to help out in any way they can,” says Grabman, who has gotten some donations from the Stellar parent group and from family and friends. “But mostly I just owe my mom a lot of money right now.” But for all the costs, there are substantial benefits to owning an electric car.
But with a do-it-yourself price tag of at least $4,000, do the benefits outweigh the costs? For Grabman, the answer is an unhesitating yes.
“It’s a school project, it’s a learning project,” he says, unconcerned about whether the car will pay for itself in saved trips to the gas pump. “It’s about the process and the product, not just one or the other.”
“It’s been an interesting experience trying to figure it out, like, Oh, I guess I shouldn’t have taken that out. I didn’t really know what I was doing when I started, which is what kind of made the project so much fun. I’m not done with it, so I’m still learning a lot.”
It is rare to find a project in which the journey is as rewarding as the final result, not to mention one that helps the environment while saving you gas money. As EVs gain popularity, converting to electric may is the way of the future. (from: The Tuscaloosa News)

Finally, someone at VW paid attention, both to people like Grabman and the people clambering for Hybrid vehicles.

Even without a single hybrid vehicle (and due to a number of diesel fueled options), Volkswagen has consistently been near the top of many fuel efficiency lists. So, just imagine what would happen if the company decided to take one of their models, such as the Jetta or Beetle, and put some battery-charged hybrid goodness in. Well, a few months after announcing that they plan to put a hybrid engine in some of their compact models, V-Dub is taking all this hybrid talk a step further. Now, every upcoming VW model is scheduled to have a hybrid option, with some models hybrid-ready as early as next year.

Although only some models will have the power of full hybridization behind them (with the others taking advantage of "partial hybrid" technology), Volkswagen does have plans to eventually even offer full-electric versions of its smaller cars. The company has not yet released which cars will get the full and partial hybrid treatment, nor which cars are being considered for full electric status. One thing is for sure, Volkswagen wants to make sure we still see their name near the top of every fuel efficiency list released.
(from: AutoblogGreen)

Talking the same language: U.N. Climate change debate defines jargon

from Reuters

To understand the climate change debate, it helps to understand the jargon, a mixture of "diplomatese," pundit-speak and techno-talk.

Here are some terms likely to be heard this week at a trio of U.S. meetings on global warming.

Kyoto - Short for Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement adopted in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, which sets binding targets for emission of greenhouse gases that spur global warming. Under this agreement, developed countries are to cut their emissions by an average of 5.2 percent below what they were in 1990. The United States rejects this agreement, arguing that it unfairly exempts developing countries like China and India. The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Framework - The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a 1992 agreement that the United States and 191 other countries have signed. Like Kyoto, it seeks to keep greenhouse gases from hitting a level that would interfere with climate, but has no legally binding requirements.

Greenhouse gases - Chemicals that trap the sun's heat near the Earth like a blanket. These substances include carbon dioxide, which is emitted by humans and all other creatures that breathe air. They are also emitted by coal-fired power plants and petroleum-fueled vehicles. They are not the most intense greenhouse gas -- methane is 10 times more powerful in contributing to global warming -- but carbon dioxide from fossil fuel consumption produces 82 percent of the world's human-generated greenhouse gases.

Cap and trade - Policy tool that sets limits on harmful emissions, giving allowances to affected industries and countries within these limits, or caps. Those with emissions above the cap can trade with those with emissions below it. Also known as emissions trading.

Carbon footprint - A measure of the impact of human activities on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases they produce, measured in units of carbon dioxide.

Carbon offsets - Paying to make up for carbon emissions. One example is planting trees or contributing to a wind farm to make up for the carbon dioxide emitted during air or car travel. 

U.N. climate panel - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the U.N. Environment Program, which has produced a series of reports on climate change. Their fourth assessment, released this year, said it is 90 percent probable global warming is occurring and humans contribute to it.

Bali - Indonesian city where scientists and policy makers are scheduled to gather in December to discuss how to cut climate-warming emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. The aim is to come up with a plan by 2009 so all parties have time to ratify it.

Major Economies - The world's biggest emitters of carbon dioxide. They are: the United States, China, the 25 countries of the European Union, Russia, India, Japan, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Australia and South Africa.

 

Maybe if we can not trip over terminology, we can get to the root issues and closer to solutions.

TOYOTA against the new Fuel Economy bill

from EcoGeek.org

OK, we all know the score. Toyota hit a home run with the Prius. An all-hybrid model that was more practical (though also less green) than the Honda Insight. The result has been a big green badge following Toyota wherever they go. It's hard to deny, the Prius is the green car...Toyota is the green car company.
So why are they fighting so hard against the only sensible fuel economy bill to hit congress in a decade. Very simply, the new energy bill would increase average fleet mileages to 35 mpg by 2020. With Toyota's vision of a hybrid model for every car, and plug-ins on the road in the next five years, this shouldn't be a sticking point. In fact, you think it'd be good news for them.
But they're standing by Ford, Chrysler and GM, who we expect to fight any attempt at regulation, basically helping keep America moving backward. Toyota has a Prius model in the works that can get 80 miles per gallon and they're fussing over a 35 mpg average that will be in effect more than TEN YEARS FROM NOW!

You know that I am a Prius driver (2005) and so is my wife (2001), and even though Toyota is the leader in the Gas-Electric Hybrid cars now, I am not nieve enough to expect that all their cars will be so.

The lot at the Tuscaloosa Toyota dealership (leading in Prius sales and service in Alabama), is covered up with non-hybrid automobiles - cars and trucks. Toyota is in the business of selling cars; Cars run, completely or partially, on gasoline. Like the other automakers, the vast majority of their offerings are the non-hybrid variety that would not enable them to meet the fleet average of 35 mpg.

Toyota makes good cars and has done a great job in the Prius line and I am a firm supporter, but I, too, wish they would shift from being the car company with the leading line of green/hybrid cars to being the leading green/hybrid car company with the highest fleet mpg average.

Urge Toyota to support the higher average fleet fuel economy standard by emailing the president of Toyota North America at NRDC.com.