environmental impact
An Alternative to Lead-based Solder
Anybody with a rudimentary understanding of electronics, especially the person that habitually tinkers with and “fixes” the various appliances at home will know how regularly solder is used and needed, even more so for those in the industry.
Up till just recently though, solder wasn’t exactly a milestone of technological achievement. Rather, the basic premise behind solder has remained unchanged; it is still simply a little bit of lead (or other metal substance with a low melting point) which, after being melted, acts as an adhesive, holding together important parts of circuit. These parts being essentially an integral and regularly used component of those everyday tools like cell-phones and computers that we take for granted. Naturally, something so universal, and so small as to be oft-overlooked, is bound to have far-reaching consequences over time.
These consequences were not taken lightly by Ainissa Ramirez‘ and her team at Yale, who like many other scientists around the world had sought out a greener alternative for quite some time. Recently, the culmination of this teams research is to be published. An essential summary of the idea is that new tin-silver solder with iron particles will present a viable alternative to replace the afore-mentioned lead-based solder. But there’s more, asserts Ramirez, as “in addition to helping make the fabrication of microelectronics more environmentally responsible, these new solders have the potential to solve technological challenges.”
An App a Day…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johanl/ / CC BY 2.0
I have a consumption confession. I’ve finally jumped onto the smart-phone bandwagon after years of firmly saying I didn’t need one, didn’t want one, wouldn’t use one. Well, I did need a new phone and I’ve got to admit, I’m pretty hooked. It really is a beautiful piece of tech. Soon I had stumbled my way into the app market.
Sure enough, there, mixed in sporadically with the far more popular but much less useful applications such as the light-saber sound effects and the dunkin’ donut finders, were a few green-living focused, environmentally friendly, eco-apps.
Here is a few examples of self described “eco-apps” that are currently found on the Android Market: › Continue reading
Want To Turn A Green Leaf? Start With These 5 Things
Here are 5 steps every eco-friendly person should have under their belt, are significant starting points for those getting into it, and can have the biggest impact on reducing your individual impact on the environment.
1. Reusable Water bottle
All of the plastic, paper and disposable cups you will save with 1 reusable bottle you take everywhere. Not just for health nuts, I have seen buddies fill up their Nagane bottles at the 7-11 soda fountain before. I would recommend stainless steel for the best all purpose, all containing, non-leaching, durable and portable container. You can check out my reusable water bottle comparison article to find one that best suits your needs. This will help keep all of those pesky plastic water bottles out of our waterways and adding to the Pacific Plastic Gyre.
2. Bicycle (or just walking)
Even better than public transportation, a bicycle is the most energy efficient method or transportation we have come up with to date. Not only does it no produce any emissions, it is very easy to park, 
gives you some exercise to stay healthy, keeps you out of traffic and can be a darn good time to boot! Check out this bamboo bicycle or treadmill bicycle to really inspire you to go green!
3. Green up your cleaners.
You would be shocked at the amount of toxic chemicals you may have under your sink and in your laundry room. All of these nasty harsh chemicals make their way into the ocean and water ways through your drain, and they aren’t even necessary! Chlorine bleach, phosphates, ammonia and more poison our water killing fish and aquatic life and alter the chemistry of our water. This includes Dishwashing Detergent (both Automatic dishwasher and hand soap), Laundry Detergent, and Bathroom and household cleaners too!
4. Change your lightbulbs and buy a power strip.
CFL lightbulbs (Compact Florescent Lights) and LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) are not only immensely more energy efficient (saving you money on your electric bill), but they also last way longer (saving you money on replacement costs and hassles).
Energy cutting power strips can cut down your vampire devices from sucking energy while in their off position. Since most modern electronics aren’t really turned off, many can be using almost as much power in their off position as when the are turned on! To keep this from happening, plug like devices into a single power strip and turn the entire strip off. The savings will add up on your electric bill, and the impact we all collectively have on the environment.
Reusable Shopping Bag Choices
Shopping bags have really come a long way. Baskets turned into paper grocery bags, which then gave way to disposable plastic bags, and now up next in the evolution of the shopping vessel is the stylish reusable tote bag. A lot of cities are beginning to tax disposable plastic bags in grocery stores, and rightly so in my opinion (just see my post on the Pacific plastic trash island to see why), and with pocket size replacements that can go anywhere, there really are no more excuses.
So lets get into it:
Flip and Tumble
Material: Ripstop Nylon
Size: The size of a peach folded, carries 2x the amount of a common plastic shopping bag. (12″ x 14″ x 5″)
Cost: $7-$12 depending on quantity
Why: The smallest and easiest to crunch down to fit into your purse or backpack
They have a wide palate of colors/prints, and the single long padded handle strap allows you to shoulder the bag. Also check out their produce bags.
Baggu Bag
Material: Ripstop Nylon
Size: Folds into a flat 5 “x 5″ pouch, carries 3x the amount of a common plastic shopping bag (15″ x 25″ x 6″)
Cost: $6.50-$8 depending on quantity
Why: Cheapest and highest capacity, but doesn’t fold as small
Wide range of sizes and colors, two wide loops for shoulder carrying. Also check out their high-capacity bags for less trips.
Envirosax
Material: Lightweight polyester, bamboo, linen and fine grade hemp
Size: Rolls into a 4″ x 1.5″ pouch, carries 2x the amount of a common plastic shopping bag (19.5″ x 16.5″ x 5″)
Cost: $7.50-$26 depending on quantity and material
Why: Wide range of materials as well as styles
Popular designs, graphics, colors and styles for children as well as diverse materials make Envirosax worth checking out.
Etsy Find:
Material: Recycled/Re-used T-shirt
Size: 16″ x 17 1/2″ with a 3″ gusset – roll up secured with an elastic band
Cost: $24 custom orders accepted
Why: Unique, no new materials used, great example of reuse.
Very cool look, fully lined and handcrafted. Etsy is going to have many one-off, custom and unique bags to select from.
Carbon Trading Scams – Who are you paying to reduce your footprint?
Ever bought a plane ticket and seen the little banner that says ‘offset your carbon emissions here’, or seen a company claim to be ‘carbon neutral’? More often than not, they are buying carbon credits.
Carbon footprints are all the rage right now, so much so that a whole new industry is being built on carbon credits or carbon offsetting as companies attempt to reduce their carbon emissions to look more green. I liken this to a way for people to make money off of the environmental movement by making a commodity out of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and trading it on the open market. And its not just Carbon Dioxide, just about every harmful emission is traded to some extent. This is ridiculous in so many ways it makes my head spin.
This can be great for small, specialized use, such as paying extra on your electric bill to use [and pay for the production of more] renewable energy sources such as wind farms, but as so often happens, it has been abused.
Since there is no regulating body or standard, anything from a dead mango grove to your backyard garden can be traded on the market for a profit. From oil companies generating electricity from illegal natural gas flaring in Nigeria (and thus claiming $1.5 million in offset credits a year), to chemical companies building $5 million incinerators to claim $500 million worth of destroyed HFCs (that they created).
Where it really hits the fan for me is how it can justify people living the same way they always have, with a huge carbon footprint, they only have to buy their way out of it and can be ‘carbon neutral’. I liken it to buying a ticket into heaven by paying for absolution rather than changing ones behavior, by paying into the system, one is supporting the renewable energy movement, and therefore gets a wash.
Chris Jordan – Environmental Awareness Photographer
I have always been fascinated with photography, its ability to tell a story in a single frame. Sustainable and environmental photography hardly ever gets its place in the spotlight, mainly because the images can be so graphic or disturbing that nobody wants to put them on their wall at home. Chris Jordan may be one of the only exceptions in this case as he is known for impactful, but artful photographic montages.
Chris Jordan has been on my radar for some time now, even before his photographs of millions of plastic bottles. Being a photographer myself (West|LaCount Photography) and given we both live in Seattle, WA – word gets around. His popularity has grown since converting what were once only statistics and numbers into visual representations so our minds can better quantify our impacts.
His latest photographic adventure, Midway – Message from the Gyre, is one of my favorites. Traveling to Midway Atoll, one of the remotest islands on earth, he set to show us how far reaching our impacts can be. Located in the North Pacific, halfway between the U.S. and Asia, he tells a story- a story of plastic. Home to over 1.5 million birds including colonies of Albatross, Frigate birds, Boobies, and Terns; it is also near the apex of the Pacific Garbage Patch.
“The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.”
How Long Does it Take to Biodegrade?
I talk a lot about biodegradable items, biodegradable soaps, and even biodegradable diaper services, but what does ‘biodegrade’ even mean?
In our effort to keep from burying ourselves in trash and waste since we are still very much a ‘disposable’ society, how can we reduce our impacts (other than the obvious re-use of materials?) By making everything biodegradable! Bio-degradation happens to just about everything on the planet to some degree, so lets put things into context, shall we? I’ve collected information on many of the most commonly used items, including so called biodegradable items to really put things in perspective.
An Apple Core
In a landfill: Never*
In a backyard compost: 2 weeks
In an industrial composter: days
In the ocean: 8 weeks
Your Starbucks Coffee Paper Cup
In a landfill: Never*
In a backyard compost: One Month
In an industrial composter:
In the ocean: 6 Weeks
A Biodegradable Bio-Plastic Cup
In a landfill: Never*
In a backyard compost: Unknown
In an industrial composter: Less than 3 months
In the ocean: Unknown
› Continue reading
5 Seemingly Gross Ways to Go Green
1. Don’t use toilet seat covers
Strange as it may sound, but these wafer-thin little pieces of paper do nothing for your touche. While they give you a feel-good barrier between you and a public toilet, it is basically only that. According to Dr. Sherry Marts, scientific director of the Society for Women’s Health Research, “It’s OK to sit down. Most organisms that cause STDs will not survive for long on a toilet seat.” When you really think about it, when else has a piece of paper that thin ever saved you from anything?
How much good would it do? I haven’t been able to find any definitive answer, but I would feel comfortable throwing out a number in the area of 50,000 trees a year.
2. Wash your hair less
Ask your hairstylist about this one, and you may be surprised what they tell you! Washing your hair everyday can actually be damaging and cause it to start out dry and quickly become greasy. Slowly begin to extend periods between washing so your scalp and hair can adjust until you reach 2-3 washings a month. Soap seems harmless enough, but with the amount we use and dump in our waterways today, it can be downright harmful to those little fishes. Given all that is in shampoo these days, I wouldn’t want to drink it.
3. Pee in the shower or outside in your garden
I’m sure we are going to ruffle some feathers with this one, but we are going to emphasize that urine is sterile! By reliving yourself in the shower, you are saving a toilet flush and the urine is going to the same place anyway (unless you have a specific greywater system, even better.) If you choose to pee outside, you are replenishing nature! Be sure to dilute it with water and hit different spots in your garden or it could be a bit too much fertilizer for your plants (try peeing directly on your compost if you have one to enhance it.)
› Continue reading
Organic Foods and Produce – Better For You?
There has always been an air of skepticism about the nutritional value of organic foods, are they better for you? I believe the question is aimed incorrectly or perhaps is the wrong question altogether. Factory farms, much of the food industry and even comedians Penn and Teller have all asked the question and now they have some firepower with a recent review published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The article concludes:
“On the basis of a systematic review of studies of satisfactory quality, there is no evidence of a difference in nutrient quality between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs. The small differences in nutrient content detected are biologically plausible and mostly relate to differences in production methods.”
I have a few bones to pick with this study. One, the research used many old studies, from 1980 or earlier which may have flawed methodology since many studies performed since then have showed clear nutritional differences between the different growing methods*. Secondly, the study doesn’t look at differences in certain antioxidants and polyphenols – the new hot nutrients as of late (just look at the new Rice Krispies box) which are much higher in organically grown foods. The biggest of all is: does any of this really matter?
Margaret Southern makes a good point when she asks: “Isn’t it more about what’s not in the food than what is?” Not only that but how does the farming technique impact the land, water and communities near it? We don’t live in the time of family farming anymore, where individual farmers and their families cared about the land and the food they grew.
Cash for Clunkers – Eco Friendly or Environmental Mistake?
There has been a lot of news about the Car Allowance Rebate System or ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program, but the real question is will this benefit the environment? Conceived as a two-birds-with-one-stone program to boost our economy and remove older polluting cars from our roads, but is it working? The real answer is that we don’t know yet.
The original program developed by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and Senator Susan M. Collins, Republican of Maine, required bigger improvements in MPG to qualify. Luckily it seems “the good judgment of the American people” has proved to exceed even the original requirements.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the average mileage of new vehicles purchased through the program is 9.6 miles per gallon higher than for the vehicles traded in for scrap. Buyers of new cars and trucks that get 10 mpg better than their trade-ins get the $4,500 rebate. People whose cars get between 4 mpg and 10 mpg better fuel efficiency qualify for a smaller $3,500 rebate.
-Associated Press
We should stop and recognize, however, that Miles Per Gallon (MPG) is not a very good indicator of actual fuel efficiency, especially at higher numbers. Look at the table below, and you can see that if you traded a car that got 40 mpg in for one that got 50 mpg, you would qualify for the higher rebate, however, it would be less efficient (less of an environmental impact) than moving from a 20 mpg car to a 25 mpg car.
Eco Friendly Golf Course? Justin Timberlake’s Mirimichi
Goes to show that there are varying degrees of sustainability. The worlds first ‘Eco-Friendly Golf Course’ is opening tomorrow (July 25th, 2009) in Memphis, Tennessee. A brainchild of singer and green celeb Justin Timberlake, the Mirimichi Golf Course is the first golf course in the US to receive the Audubon International’s Classic Sanctuary certification and hopes to gain Platinum LEED certification by opening day.
The former Woodstock Hills Golf Course was purchased by the Justin Timberlake, an avid golfer, in hopes of saving it from development. Feeling that it was “such a landmark for the community” and being the first place he had ever hit a golf ball, he was able to “scoop it and save it.”
Long considered a blight on nature and wilderness due to the intense water use, fertilization, and runoff, golf courses have also been criticized for their lack of native habitat. Mirimichi seeks to change all of that with rainwater irrigation, native landscaping, and a new Natural Resource Management Center featuring state-of-the-art biodegradable treatment of rinse water. It even features native grass areas which frame the holes and reduce the mowable acreage of the course.
“Creating an eco-friendly course was a priority throughout the renovations,” said Greg King, director of golf, Mirimichi. “We wanted to create a world-class golf experience that protected and enhanced nature’s canvas.”
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