Have you seen them yet?  The shelves of stores are beginning to fill up with them.  Green products. For this article, specifically cleaners.  I have to admit, I’m a bit skeptical of them.  All of a sudden when going green becomes the latest in popular trends they are popping up everywhere.

I have always been a great cleaner, in fact when the kids were still at home, I was probably way too anal about it.   I spent all kinds of money on every new cleaner that came out.  I wanted it clean and I wanted it to smell clean.  It liked to of drove Rick nuts.  He felt he couldn’t sit and relax as long as I was up running around doing things from sun up to sun down.  What could I say, I had an A-type personality.  We compromised and both gave in a little here and a tad there.  It took me years, but I have now conquered the A-type person in me.  Funny it began to happen as the kids moved away.  Each time one moved, I got better.  Now a-days, Rick finds his clean underwear on the couch.

Convenience and show; aren’t those the reasons we will buy the newest and best product on the shelf?  It certainly was for me!  I’m all grown up now though and frankly, I could care less.  With age comes some wisdom and that wisdom tells me to be practical and creative.  So my practical and creative side went to searching on how to clean greener. Read the complete Post.

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Earth Day is a celebration of our environment that seeks to foster awareness of our natural resources and how important they are to everyday life. The first international Earth Day was held on April 20, 1970 - the outgrowth of a student-led campus movement. Earth Day was soon embraced as a worldwide celebration of natural resources that eventually led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as well as passage of the Clean Water, Clean Air and Endangered Species acts. It is the only event celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths and nationalities.

Today we celebrate Earth Day on April 22^nd with governments, schools, businesses, churches, various groups and individuals all observing its significance for today and its message for tomorrow.

Rick and I celebrated by purchasing 2 containers for collecting our newspapers and glass. We found a recycle bin and contributed to it. We also planted new perinneals in our backyard.

Care to share what you did?

Here are some links for Earth Day

USINFO.STATE.GOV is a site produced and maintained by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs. It gives information about American life and culture and current U.S. foreign policy. This is a good site to read of the history of Earth Day.

EarthDayNetwork.net has many topics of interest including Earth Day events happening around the world.

What Will You Do for Earth Day 08? Google gives you the opportunity to share what you will or have done for Earth Day 08 and the future. Get on the map!

Kaboose is a site for parents and their children that gives content and applications to help parents plan and share their family life. See their holiday page full of various ideas for fun and learning.

Reuters has news on Earth Day activities in Washington.

Hope your Earth Day was productive!

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I ran across an article on Digg titled “Buy A Tree and Watch it Grow Thanks to Google Earth”. This tweaked my interest so I followed the link. Basically the idea is to donate $5.50 per tree to have one planted in your name in Borneo. This is to help the re-growth needed in that part of our world. The donation buys a tree, all the care and feeding needed, and the exact coordinates of the location of your tree can be seen on google earth. I tried it out and found it quite fascinating. I tend to be cautious when giving money to something I have no control over so I scrolled down to the comments at the bottom of the article and sure enough, some of the responses weren’t real positive. One commentor felt we should plant trees closer to home, another thought it lazy of a person not to plant a tree yourself and others were just skeptical. I decided the article would of been much more effective had it given the reasons for the needed trees. So in order to calm my own suspicions, I went on a search and here is what I found.

First a little history…

An undisturbed natural rain forest has little effect on the atmospheric CO2 levels, but once disturbed (deforestation) CO2 is released into the atmosphere causing world wide changes. Read the complete Post.

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Corn ethanol may become a major energy player in the future, but it will take great deal of water to keep it going.

read more | digg story

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With 620 million cars worldwide and fossil fuels running out, are biofuels the green solution to our energy needs?

read more | digg story

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So, where do we start? I’ve always been a fan of simplicity. One of the simplest things we can do is to switch our light bulbs from the typical incandescent bulb to the more efficient compact fluorescent bulb. I know the up-front costs will be a bit hard to swallow, but if you consider that a “green” bulb is about the same cost of a cup of joe these days…well, you get the point. We (Rick and I) bought our first green bulbs at our local Sams club. The cost was around $12-14 for an 8 pack. (I don’t remember the specifics at the moment.) That equals out to an average of less than $2 a bulb. A common suggestion is to “phase in” the green bulbs by first replacing the most frequently used lights in your home and go from there.

As with everything in life there are the pros and cons to consider. So let me throw some out there that I have come to know and if you have some to add, please let me know.

Let’s look first at what the “green” bulb is all about. Read the complete Post.

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Recycle, re-use, greenhouse gases, co2 offsets, composting, eco-friendly. These are just a few of the terms that we are hearing much about lately. “Going Green” is what it’s all about. You read about it in your newspapers, you see it on just about every t.v. station. Are we living in the ‘green generation’? If that be the case I certainly have some catching up to do. So I’m off on a search for common terms in the life of green. Visit the Green Glossary for a list of green terms and if you have some of your own to add, let me know!

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