GreenAnswers Blog

This Warming World: Three Ways to Increase Your Climate Impact

Submitted by nickengelfr... (808) on Tue, 08/31/2010 - 12:02pm

So you’ve replaced your lights with compact fluorescent bulbs. You’re taking public transportation or riding a bicycle whenever possible. And you’re composting and recycling whatever you possibly can. What’s the next step to have a still greater impact on the planet and the world’s climate? GreenAnswers members are always looking for ways to live lighter on the planet—and rightly so. But if you’ve already made many green lifestyle changes like those listed above, it might be time to move beyond a focus on your personal carbon footprint, and look at ways to make your ... Read more »

Safe Removal of Yard Critters: Small mammals

Submitted by natricine3 (966) on Sat, 08/28/2010 - 6:30pm

Regardless of how connected someone is to nature, you may find yourself with an unwanted yard or houseguest. Perhaps the critter is destructive to your garden or flowerbed or maybe you simply cannot bring yourself to like the organism. There are several products available that will help you remove the varmint, but many are harmful, particularly to the animal, but potentially humans. Here are some safe ways to remove pests from your home and yard without causing death. A variety of small mammals make their way into (or already live in) our yards and can cause damage to grass, flowerbeds, ... Read more »

Turtles: Which make good pets and how to care for them while considering conservation implications

Submitted by natricine3 (966) on Fri, 08/27/2010 - 1:11pm

Turtles, one type of reptile that people tend not to fear, are commonly kept as pets, especially for small children. The desire to own a turtle is obvious by the number of questions about turtles and their care that are posted to GreenAnswers each week. What species of turtle makes a good pet? How do I care for a box turtle? What is the best diet for a painted turtle? I will provide an overall of commonly kept turtle species, how to care for them, and some information on the conservation implications of keeping turtles as pets. Species of turtles kept as pets Pet turtles and tortoises are ... Read more »

Safe Removal of Yard Critters: Snakes

Submitted by natricine3 (966) on Thu, 08/26/2010 - 1:22pm

Regardless of how connected someone is to nature, you may find yourself with an unwanted yard or houseguest. Perhaps the critter is destructive to your garden or flowerbed or maybe you simply cannot bring yourself to like the organism. There are several products available that will help you remove the varmint, but many are harmful, particularly to the animal, but potentially humans. Tune in to "Safe Removal of Yard Critters" blog and learn some safe ways to remove pests from your home and yard without causing death. Snakes are one organism that many people cannot bring themselves to ... Read more »

Alternative Cleaning Solutions for an Environmentally Friendly Household

Submitted by natricine3 (966) on Wed, 08/25/2010 - 1:30pm

House cleaning is something that we only enjoy when some worse task looms ahead of us. To make matters worse, many cleaning products are harmful to people and the environment. In a day when everyone must do their part to protect the planet, it is important to find alternatives that bear in mind conservation and preservation. Did you know that with simple and cheap products already in your home you can make environmentally safe cleaning products to help make your household chores a little less daunting? The following are recipes that will allow you to create your own safe cleaning ... Read more »

Safe Removal of Yard Critters: Mosquitoes

Submitted by natricine3 (966) on Tue, 08/24/2010 - 1:36pm

Regardless of how connected someone is to nature, you may find yourself with an unwanted yard or houseguest. Perhaps the critter is destructive to your garden or flowerbed or maybe you simply cannot bring yourself to like the organism. There are several products available that will help you remove the varmint, but many are harmful, particularly to the animal, but potentially humans. Follow my "Safe Removal of Yard Critters" series and learn some safe ways to remove pests from your home and yard without causing death. Mosquitoes are members of the fly family, Diptera, and are a nuisance ... Read more »

World Oceans: Why They Matter and How to Help Them

Submitted by nickengelfr... (808) on Mon, 08/16/2010 - 12:09pm

This year, scientists completed what is probably the most ambitious project ever launched to increase humankind's knowledge of the oceans. The World Ocean Census- a ten-year-long study that began at the start of the twenty-first century - brought researchers from around the world together to gather as much information as possible about life in the oceans, with an emphasis on 25 regions selected for in-depth study. Data collected during the World Ocean Census will likely take scientists months or years to process in full, but already the project has compiled the most complete ... Read more »

GreenAnswers To Host LiveOAK News Feed

Submitted by TeamGreen (96) on Fri, 08/13/2010 - 5:22pm

In an effort to provide the GreenAnswers community with cutting edge environmental news and editorial, we are now hosting a real-time news feed from LiveOAK Media. LiveOAK is a leading network of green blogs that focuses on energy, the environment and sustainable living. The LiveOAK network includes the popular sites Earth & Industry, ecopolitology, greenUPGRADER, and Crisp Green. Clicking on a link in the LiveOAK news feed will take you to that particular article on the LiveOAK network. Once you finish reading the article, you will notice there is a GreenAnswers "Ask a Question" ... Read more »

This Warming World: Fixing the Climate Without a Climate Bill

Submitted by nickengelfr... (808) on Mon, 08/02/2010 - 10:55pm

For well over a year now, environmental and energy groups and their allies in the US government have been trying to pass a comprehensive climate and clean energy law at the federal level. In summer of 2009, the House of Representatives passed a bill that at least made a first start at addressing these issues. Yet for such a bill to become law it also must make it through the US Senate - and this summer the Senate failed yet again to pass any type of climate bill. The Senate has missed a huge opportunity, and anyone who cares about curbing global warming should be ... Read more »

Insects: How They Help and Why We Need Them

Submitted by nickengelfr... (808) on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 4:32pm

Comprising more known species than all other animals put together, insects are a true evolutionary success story. These six-legged invertebrates have colonized almost every land and freshwater habitat on Earth, and are vital to the functioning of hundreds of ecosystems. Yet the important roles played by insects often go overlooked, and insect conservation rarely receives the level of media attention given to larger, flashier animal species. This post examines just a few of the essential services we get from insects. It turns out that even species normally thought of ... Read more »

This Warming World: Saving Forests for the Climate

Submitted by nickengelfr... (808) on Sun, 07/25/2010 - 2:05pm

The most widely talked about source of global warming pollution is the burning of fossil fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas. This makes sense: carbon emissions from fossil fuels are indeed the leading cause of global warming, and curbing the use of fossil fuels around the world is the most important step that could be taken to prevent disastrous changes in the planet's climate. At the same time though, there are other human activities that also make a significant contribution to global warming, and need to be taken into account when planning how best to mitigate the effects ... Read more »

Green Improvement Ideas for Your Home

Submitted by crystalg (969) on Wed, 07/21/2010 - 5:57pm

Many questions have come up on GreenAnswers about eco-friendly products and suggestions for a greener lifestyle. I’m here to give you a better idea about how you can make little changes in your daily routine that will help out the environment. We've covered how to green your morning routine and make your work day greener, so now I would like to go over some green home improvement ideas, products, and even apps for those tech-savvy people with the latest phones. Home improvement Solar panels and wind turbines can be installed for home use, but they can be expensive. The idea is that it will ... Read more »

This Warming World: The Carbon Tax Debate

Submitted by nickengelfr... (808) on Thu, 07/15/2010 - 11:39pm

If you pay any attention at all to news about climate politics in the United States, you've probably heard the term "carbon tax" thrown around a lot. In some circles, the words carbon tax conjure up images of a government policy that would force ordinary people to pay an unnecessary fee for using electricity or driving a car. At other times, a carbon tax is held up as a way to hold corporations accountable for the pollution they spew into the air, and a useful tool for shifting the US toward a clean energy economy that will ultimately be better for everyone. So what ... Read more »

Get On Your Way to a Greener Work Day

Submitted by crystalg (969) on Tue, 07/13/2010 - 5:44pm

Many questions have come up on GreenAnswers about eco-friendly products and suggestions for a greener lifestyle. I’m here to give you a better idea about how you can make little changes in your daily routine that will help out the environment. Now that we've covered how to green your morning routine, it's on to the next part of the day: work.TransportationFor many people, their transportation method to work is in need of a green upgrade. However, your choices here are limited based on how far you are from your job, your town, and your budget. Here are some suggestions: Bike or walk The ... Read more »

This Warming World: President Obama's Climate Report Card

Submitted by nickengelfr... (808) on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 12:39pm

The United States has pumped more carbon into the atmosphere than any other country in the world. Yet despite the increasingly urgent warnings from scientists, federal policymakers in the US have for years declined to do anything serious about the threat of global warming. By the time President Barack Obama took office, presidents belonging to both political parties had been postponing action on global warming for at least two decades. Many concerned US citizens hoped the Obama administration would move to quickly reduce carbon emissions and make the US a global leader on ... Read more »

Coal Power in the US: Soon to be a Thing of the Past?

Submitted by nickengelfr... (808) on Thu, 07/08/2010 - 12:00pm

Coal is the dirtiest and most polluting of the three major fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas). Yet it's also the most abundant fossil fuel in the United States, and provides about half the electricity used in this country. Coal is responsible for over 30% of US global warming emissions - and a much larger percentage if you look only at emissions from the generation of electricity. Partly for these reasons, the coal industry has received more and more scrutiny from environmental organizations over the last several years. Unsurprisingly, GreenAnswers members have lots ... Read more »

How To Green Your Morning Routine

Submitted by crystalg (969) on Wed, 07/07/2010 - 10:52am

Many questions have come up on GreenAnswers about eco-friendly products and suggestions for a greener lifestyle. I’m here to give you a better idea about how you can make little changes in your daily routine that will help out the environment. This post will start at the beginning- your morning routine! What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? For many, it’s get a cup of coffee! Whether you are an occasional coffee drinker or rely on it to help you function, coffee is the first thing you can adjust to be more eco-friendly. We recently talked about bird friendly coffee on the ... Read more »

This Warming World: The Climate Change You Can Feel

Submitted by nickengelfr... (808) on Thu, 07/01/2010 - 12:47am

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has focused the attention of thousands of people on the dangers of our addiction to fossil fuels, and it's easy to see why. The toxic slick spreading over the Gulf and washing up onto nearby coastlines is highly visible, with an serious and immediate impact on the local environment and economy. Yet it's important to remember that the oil and other fossil fuels that never are spilled, that are safely transported and burned for fuel, are causing problems just as serious or more so than the oil spill in the Gulf. Though less easily visible ... Read more »

Bacteria: the good the bad and the ugly

Submitted by GreenBean (2136) on Wed, 06/23/2010 - 12:46pm

Where and when was bacteria discovered? Anton van Leeuwenhoek is credited with first witnessing and describing bacteria. A Dutch tradesman, he learned to grind lenses and make microscopes. Leeuwenhoek is thought to have been inspired by Robert Hooke, another early scientist who pictorially cataloged his observations through microscopes in his book Micrographia. On September 17th, 1683 Leeuwenhoek wrote about something he called “animalcules” after looking at tooth plaque through one of the more than 500 microscopes he built himself. Since this discovery, bacteria ... Read more »

BPA: Chemical of Concern

Submitted by panacea88 (712) on Mon, 06/21/2010 - 2:08pm

We live in an exciting time of scientific discovery. It seems like there are new advancements every day and most involve the development of synthetic chemical compounds. These chemicals help to treat and cure disease, produce and transport food and make the many products we use in a single day. Sometimes we find that a chemical compound developed to solve one problem may cause new problems and even impact human health. From saran wrap to baby bottles, BPA is one compound that has recently been under fire for its safety. Image: Fifthandflume I heard of a chemical ... Read more »