Category Archives: Green Ideas

Trying to be optimistic despite the discouraging news from the latest Pew Poll on climate change.  I wish people would get their heads out of the sand (or other places) on this issue.

But here’s the thing, the actions that we (as individuals, as a nation, as a global community) can take to prevent climate change are good actions to take regardless of WHY we take them.

Colin Beavan, AKA No Impact Man, wrote eloquently about this in his post, “What I’d say if I was wrong about climate change.”

You can click on the link to see the original post, but here are a few of my favorites:

• I am glad the millions of children who suffer from asthma can now breathe easier thanks to the fact that we aren’t pumping the air full of toxins from our exhaust pipes and smokestacks.
• I am glad we’ve stopped building suburbs, which make people unhappy and [thanks to the happy suburbanites who wrote in] are designed for cars not people, and instead build villages where people can have strong community bonds that help make life fulfilling.
• I am glad we developed local, fresh food systems that care not just about filling bellies but what we put in those bellies.
• The list goes on and on, but in short, I am glad that we have embraced the opportunities presented by the crisis of climate change in order to improve our society in ways we should have done anyway.

Happy International Day of Climate Action!  What action are you taking?

Sunday night we bought a heating pad to ease the aches and pains of being hit by an SUV.  I also think it may help lower our energy use this winter.  Matthew can use the heating pad and we can set the thermostat down near my desired temperature.

Responsible consumer that I am, I opened the instruction manual and started to skim the warnings.  This one caught my eye:

“Do not use on insensitive skin.”

Don’t you just hate it when your skin is insensitive?  How callous and thoughtless of it!

Is it greener to wash dishes by hand or machine?

When I was five, we moved into a house with a dishwasher.  A nonfunctional dishwasher.  We used it to store snacks.  My parents were not worried about this — from their viewpoint, they had three very functional dishwashers, or would, once some of them grew up a bit.  I never minded this task much, but my youngest sister thought it was horrible.  Once she reached functional dishwasher age, a “real dishwasher” occupied the top spot on her wish list for both Christmas and birthdays.

So, what’s the answer?

Because there are many factors, there may not be one right answer, so here are some things for you to consider.

To wash dishes efficiently, have a sink full.  Washing a single dish or just a few dishes, whether by hand or machine, will always use more water, energy, and soap per dish than a full load.

If by hand:

• Use a tub (or large pan or bowl) for rinse water instead of constantly running a stream of hot water.
• Wash least dirty dishes first so the wash water stays clean longer.

If by machine:

• If you are buying a dishwasher, look for one with the Energy Star rating.
• Only run the dishwasher when you have a full load.
• Most newer dishwashers are very powerful, so despite what you may have done in the past, you do not have to rinse dishes before washing; just scrape off excess food and load.
• If you have an older dishwasher and need to pre-rinse the dishes, fill the sink or a pan or bowl with water to use for all of the dishes.
• Do NOT use any of the extra settings, like high-temp wash or heated dry.  These just waste energy.
• When the cycle is finished, open the dishwasher and pull out the racks to let the dishes air dry. Open the dishwasher just as the cycle ends, when all of the dishes are still hot; they will air dry very quickly.

For either:

• Look for environmentally friendly dish detergents.
• Be lazy.  Is your plate from lunch clean but for a few breadcrumbs?  Brush them off and use the same plate for dinner — no washing required!