My younger son Punky recently sang at his preschool's Thanksgiving concert--the theme was "diversity", of course--and afterwards, I was recruited as a food server at the fund-raising luncheon. Hardly anyone showed up during the latter part of my shift, so I went into the back and began recycling the used aluminum serving trays that were left over from the previous shifts.
From my experience last year, I knew that many of the trays would not get recycled and those that did would still be very dirty and not ready for the recycle bin.
Sure enough, the serving staff staff had stuffed about 25 used aluminum trays into a so-called recycle bag, and just as many into garbage cans in the serving area. Most of them were covered with various sauces, grease or crumbs. I took them out of the bag and garbage cans and began hand-washing them in the school's kitchen. It took about 30 minutes to clean them all. Afterwards, I piled them neatly into a 2-foot stack and took them home to be recycled. For cash, of course.
It's all about the money! Ten dollars and fifty-five cents, to be exact.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
A Bottle of Shampoo
Readers of the pseudo-No Impact Man Blog love to brag that they use things like baking powder or mint leaves to wash their hair. Not me. I use Head & Shoulders because I've got dandruff.
But I will brag about the fact that it took me six (6) years to use a single bottle (super-size) of shampoo. During the last 2-3 months, I extended my use of the nearly-empty shampoo by adding water to the bottle in order to dissolve the shampoo sludge at the bottom. Now that's Low Impact, Man!
But I will brag about the fact that it took me six (6) years to use a single bottle (super-size) of shampoo. During the last 2-3 months, I extended my use of the nearly-empty shampoo by adding water to the bottle in order to dissolve the shampoo sludge at the bottom. Now that's Low Impact, Man!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Thirty Years of Warmer Temperatures Go Poof
Alternate title: Global Warming Washes Out
by Lorne Gunter
In early September, I began noticing a string of news stories about scientists rejecting the orthodoxy on global warming. Actually, it was more like a string of guest columns and long letters to the editor since it is hard for skeptical scientists to get published in the cabal of climate journals now controlled by the Great Sanhedrin of the environmental movement.
Still, the number of climate change skeptics is growing rapidly. Because a funny thing is happening to global temperatures -- they're going down, not up.
On the same day (Sept. 5) that areas of southern Brazil were recording one of their latest winter snowfalls ever and entering what turned out to be their coldest September in a century, Brazilian meteorologist Eugenio Hackbart explained that extreme cold or snowfall events in his country have always been tied to "a negative PDO" or Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Positive PDOs -- El Ninos -- produce above-average temperatures in South America while negative ones -- La Ninas -- produce below average ones.
Dr. Hackbart also pointed out that periods of solar inactivity known as "solar minimums" magnify cold spells on his continent. So, given that August was the first month since 1913 in which no sunspot activity was recorded -- none -- and during which solar winds were at a 50-year low, he was not surprised that Brazilians were suffering (for them) a brutal cold snap. "This is no coincidence," he said as he scoffed at the notion that manmade carbon emissions had more impact than the sun and oceans on global climate.
Also in September, American Craig Loehle, a scientist who conducts computer modelling on global climate change, confirmed his earlier findings that the so-called Medieval Warm Period (MWP) of about 1,000 years ago did in fact exist and was even warmer than 20th-century temperatures.
Prior to the past decade of climate hysteria and Kyoto hype, the MWP was a given in the scientific community. Several hundred studies of tree rings, lake and ocean floor sediment, ice cores and early written records of weather -- even harvest totals and censuses --confirmed that the period from 800 AD to 1300 AD was unusually warm, particularly in Northern Europe.
But in order to prove the climate scaremongers' claim that 20th-century warming had been dangerous and unprecedented -- a result of human, not natural factors -- the MWP had to be made to disappear. So studies such as Michael Mann's "hockey stick," in which there is no MWP and global temperatures rise gradually until they jump up in the industrial age, have been adopted by the UN as proof that recent climate change necessitates a reordering of human economies and societies.
Dr. Loehle's work helps end this deception.
Don Easterbrook, a geologist at Western Washington University, says, "It's practically a slam dunk that we are in for about 30 years of global cooling," as the sun enters a particularly inactive phase. His examination of warming and cooling trends over the past four centuries shows an "almost exact correlation" between climate fluctuations and solar energy received on Earth, while showing almost "no correlation at all with CO2."
An analytical chemist who works in spectroscopy and atmospheric sensing, Michael J. Myers of Hilton Head, S. C., declared, "Man-made global warming is junk science," explaining that worldwide manmade CO2 emission each year "equals about 0.0168% of the atmosphere's CO2 concentration ... This results in a 0.00064% increase in the absorption of the sun's radiation. This is an insignificantly small number."
Other international scientists have called the manmade warming theory a "hoax," a "fraud" and simply "not credible."
While not stooping to such name-calling, weather-satellite scientists David Douglass of the University of Rochester and John Christy of the University of Alabama at Huntsville nonetheless dealt the True Believers a devastating blow last month.
For nearly 30 years, Professor Christy has been in charge of NASA's eight weather satellites that take more than 300,000 temperature readings daily around the globe. In a paper co-written with Dr. Douglass, he concludes that while manmade emissions may be having a slight impact, "variations in global temperatures since 1978 ... cannot be attributed to carbon dioxide."
Moreover, while the chart below was not produced by Douglass and Christy, it was produced using their data and it clearly shows that in the past four years -- the period corresponding to reduced solar activity -- all of the rise in global temperatures since 1979 has disappeared.
It may be that more global warming doubters are surfacing because there just isn't any global warming.
by Lorne Gunter
In early September, I began noticing a string of news stories about scientists rejecting the orthodoxy on global warming. Actually, it was more like a string of guest columns and long letters to the editor since it is hard for skeptical scientists to get published in the cabal of climate journals now controlled by the Great Sanhedrin of the environmental movement.
Still, the number of climate change skeptics is growing rapidly. Because a funny thing is happening to global temperatures -- they're going down, not up.
On the same day (Sept. 5) that areas of southern Brazil were recording one of their latest winter snowfalls ever and entering what turned out to be their coldest September in a century, Brazilian meteorologist Eugenio Hackbart explained that extreme cold or snowfall events in his country have always been tied to "a negative PDO" or Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Positive PDOs -- El Ninos -- produce above-average temperatures in South America while negative ones -- La Ninas -- produce below average ones.
Dr. Hackbart also pointed out that periods of solar inactivity known as "solar minimums" magnify cold spells on his continent. So, given that August was the first month since 1913 in which no sunspot activity was recorded -- none -- and during which solar winds were at a 50-year low, he was not surprised that Brazilians were suffering (for them) a brutal cold snap. "This is no coincidence," he said as he scoffed at the notion that manmade carbon emissions had more impact than the sun and oceans on global climate.
Also in September, American Craig Loehle, a scientist who conducts computer modelling on global climate change, confirmed his earlier findings that the so-called Medieval Warm Period (MWP) of about 1,000 years ago did in fact exist and was even warmer than 20th-century temperatures.
Prior to the past decade of climate hysteria and Kyoto hype, the MWP was a given in the scientific community. Several hundred studies of tree rings, lake and ocean floor sediment, ice cores and early written records of weather -- even harvest totals and censuses --confirmed that the period from 800 AD to 1300 AD was unusually warm, particularly in Northern Europe.
But in order to prove the climate scaremongers' claim that 20th-century warming had been dangerous and unprecedented -- a result of human, not natural factors -- the MWP had to be made to disappear. So studies such as Michael Mann's "hockey stick," in which there is no MWP and global temperatures rise gradually until they jump up in the industrial age, have been adopted by the UN as proof that recent climate change necessitates a reordering of human economies and societies.
Dr. Loehle's work helps end this deception.
Don Easterbrook, a geologist at Western Washington University, says, "It's practically a slam dunk that we are in for about 30 years of global cooling," as the sun enters a particularly inactive phase. His examination of warming and cooling trends over the past four centuries shows an "almost exact correlation" between climate fluctuations and solar energy received on Earth, while showing almost "no correlation at all with CO2."
An analytical chemist who works in spectroscopy and atmospheric sensing, Michael J. Myers of Hilton Head, S. C., declared, "Man-made global warming is junk science," explaining that worldwide manmade CO2 emission each year "equals about 0.0168% of the atmosphere's CO2 concentration ... This results in a 0.00064% increase in the absorption of the sun's radiation. This is an insignificantly small number."
Other international scientists have called the manmade warming theory a "hoax," a "fraud" and simply "not credible."
While not stooping to such name-calling, weather-satellite scientists David Douglass of the University of Rochester and John Christy of the University of Alabama at Huntsville nonetheless dealt the True Believers a devastating blow last month.
For nearly 30 years, Professor Christy has been in charge of NASA's eight weather satellites that take more than 300,000 temperature readings daily around the globe. In a paper co-written with Dr. Douglass, he concludes that while manmade emissions may be having a slight impact, "variations in global temperatures since 1978 ... cannot be attributed to carbon dioxide."
Moreover, while the chart below was not produced by Douglass and Christy, it was produced using their data and it clearly shows that in the past four years -- the period corresponding to reduced solar activity -- all of the rise in global temperatures since 1979 has disappeared.
It may be that more global warming doubters are surfacing because there just isn't any global warming.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Dave Chameides Gets It
This guy gets it:
For the past 9 months, Dave Chameides has been filling his basement with every single thing he would ordinarily recycle or toss into the trash. For his scientific/social experiment Chameides keeps a running tally of his waste and documents it for all the world to see courtesy of his blog.Yes, Dave. It's all about saving money! Check it out: http://365daysoftrash.blogspot.com/
The steps he takes to conserve are practical measures that save money, he noted. Coffee shops often give him a discount for using his own cup, for instance, and never buying bottled water saves him an estimated $600 a year. Another thing he’s eliminated from his waste stream is single-use plastic bags, which are clogging landfills and contaminating the ocean and its marine life.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Water Usage Report: July-August 2008
We just received our water bill for the two-month period ending in August 2008, and I am pleased to announce that we have reduced our water usage by 25% versus the prior year. Due to a drought, the local water utility (EBMUD) had imposed voluntary water restrictions whose primary effect would be to impose heavy fines on households not cutting back on their water usage by at least 20%.
For the record, our water usage during the period went from 400 gallons per day, down to 300. We achieved this in the following manner:
1) I reduced the watering of our lawn from 8 minutes down to 6 minutes per day, and completely eliminated watering the left-hand side of our backyard.
2) I only flush the toilet after Russell, Punky and I all pee in sequence.
3) I run the dishwasher only once a month.
4) I bathe only every other day (yeah, I know its gross). This now applies to everyone in our family.
5) Jenny no longer leaves the faucet running when she brushes her teeth.
6) I no longer wash the cars.
My thanks to everyone in our household for their cooperation.
For the record, our water usage during the period went from 400 gallons per day, down to 300. We achieved this in the following manner:
1) I reduced the watering of our lawn from 8 minutes down to 6 minutes per day, and completely eliminated watering the left-hand side of our backyard.
2) I only flush the toilet after Russell, Punky and I all pee in sequence.
3) I run the dishwasher only once a month.
4) I bathe only every other day (yeah, I know its gross). This now applies to everyone in our family.
5) Jenny no longer leaves the faucet running when she brushes her teeth.
6) I no longer wash the cars.
My thanks to everyone in our household for their cooperation.
I Bought A "New" TV (for $20)
We've been a one TV family since the beginning. Our TV is a 20-inch Mitsubishi that I bought back in 1989. I still have the original remote control, although the only numbers that still work are 0, 1, 4, 7 and 9. Luckily, the volume and channel up/down buttons still work.
On weeknights, Jenny can usually be found in the living room watching her favorite Chinese and Korean soap operas. With only one TV, this leaves Russell and Punky with the option of watching their favorite videos on either my computer or on the portable DVD player with a 7-inch screen. I'm in no mood to see the Brewster Boys break another computer or ruin their eyes staring at a 7-inch screen, so I broke down this weekend and bought a used 13-inch Panasonic TV/VCR combo.
Originally, I went to WalMart to see what they had on sale, and the lowest priced TV they offered was $250, an LCD model. They no longer sell CRT-type TVs. So I went shopping on Craigslist and found a nice used model for sale. Now, I need to buy a used Nintendo 64 and Pokemon Stadium game for the boys.
Cross-posted at my "Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio" blog.
On weeknights, Jenny can usually be found in the living room watching her favorite Chinese and Korean soap operas. With only one TV, this leaves Russell and Punky with the option of watching their favorite videos on either my computer or on the portable DVD player with a 7-inch screen. I'm in no mood to see the Brewster Boys break another computer or ruin their eyes staring at a 7-inch screen, so I broke down this weekend and bought a used 13-inch Panasonic TV/VCR combo.
Originally, I went to WalMart to see what they had on sale, and the lowest priced TV they offered was $250, an LCD model. They no longer sell CRT-type TVs. So I went shopping on Craigslist and found a nice used model for sale. Now, I need to buy a used Nintendo 64 and Pokemon Stadium game for the boys.
Cross-posted at my "Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio" blog.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Recycling Bags Is Tough
I'm posting some thoughts on recycling bags because the same thing happens to us every week. Namely, we go shoppng and either forget to bring bags or do not have enough on hand. It is difficult to remember to bring shopping bags with us every time we go out shopping, especially when we take the kids out. I estimate that we bring enough bags with us about 80% of the time we go shopping.
As a result of our forgetfulness, we still acquire some 3-4 plastic bags every week. Although I use about 1 plastic bag a week for garbage, this means we have a net accumulation of about 100-150 plastic bags per year. Not good.
My favorite strategy to combat this bag shortage is to store a set of bags in each car at all times. Typically, this means checking once every few weeks to see that the bag supply in the car is ample. But the payoff is two-fold:
1) I get 3 to 10 cents off at the supermarket for every bag I recycle
2) Our house does not drown in shopping bags
As a result of our forgetfulness, we still acquire some 3-4 plastic bags every week. Although I use about 1 plastic bag a week for garbage, this means we have a net accumulation of about 100-150 plastic bags per year. Not good.
My favorite strategy to combat this bag shortage is to store a set of bags in each car at all times. Typically, this means checking once every few weeks to see that the bag supply in the car is ample. But the payoff is two-fold:
1) I get 3 to 10 cents off at the supermarket for every bag I recycle
2) Our house does not drown in shopping bags
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