GroovyGreen.com – Start Today :: Save Tomorrow

Greenzer has an article up comparing the use of water bottles to water filters and reusable drinking bottles.

Greenzer by the way, is a one stop shopping location for earth friendly goods. They have the most comprehensive listing of earth friendly things I’ve seen.

If you are looking for earth friendly gear check out Eco-Gear.

How about a recycled wind storage device? See Storvino.

Vegan Fashion online is an interesting place to check for your Vegan clothing needs.

Kyle at GreenwithaGun has an idea for a new currency tied to the carbon you emit.

From the article:

I have decided to create a new currency, the Carbon. You can spend it and earn it, but cannot exchange it between people, because it’s a transaction between you and the Earth. The symbol for the carbon currency is ¢. In earlier times, currencies were physical commodities, or their value was tied to them. For example, the British Pound was called a “pound” because it was set as equivalent to a pound of silver, and around an ounce of gold. This made it easy to know what you could get for a pound, and what it was really worth. So I have set ¢1.00 as worth 1.00kg of carbon dioxide equivalent in greenhouse terms. 1kg methane, for example is worth about ¢23, since it has a greater effect on the climate than does carbon dioxide

It sounds like an interesting idea. Obviously there isn’t real meat to it politically, but we can make the move informally. All change starts by people making change doesn’t it? Does anyone know McCain or Obama’s e-mail addresses?

Let me know what you think. Good idea or idea from a madman?

Image courtesy of True Health.org

I don’t live in a particularly ‘foggy’ location, but for others, misty mornings or evenings are a regular occurrence. Harnessing this moisture for drinking water is something I’ve seen talked about via DIY sites and magazines — but this is the first modern product that looks to seriously get the job done.

Created by Alon Alex Gross — this fog collector was designed to specifically collect drinking water in arid and semi-arid regions. According to Ecofriend, it usese a “2 meter mesh surface which can collect up to 10 liters of water in 24 hours. It can be used at any time of day and needs to be facing the direction of the wind for maximum effect.”

Gross also developed a dew collector that can net you about 1.5 litres of water per night. Jump here to take a look at additional photos. No word yet on price for either products — or if we’ll even see them available at local outdoor shops — but here’s to hoping that Gross takes the idea that much further.

These are all the ingredients needed to make your own freezer jam.  My gram and I took 2 quarts of strawberries, two packages of certo, 4 tablespoons of lemon juice a giant bag of sugar (8 cups!) – and turned them into 12 containers of deliciousness.

Click more to find out how.

Read more »

From CNN:

For months, the 23-year-old singer-guitarist had been budgeting money and booking show dates for Something Fierce’s third tour, but skyrocketing gas prices have put the brakes on those plans.

“Once I ran the numbers, it was a ‘there’s no (expletive) way’ kind of moment,” Garcia said. After much hand-wringing and grumbling from bookers who’d scheduled the band to play, Garcia canceled the tour.

Cramming into a rusty, creaky van and playing dive bars and house parties is a summer ritual for many young musicians and ambitious independent bands trying to get exposure, make a living and maybe build a solid future in music.

But like everything else that requires lengthy time on the road, filling up at $4 a gallon or more is taking a toll.

On the grass-roots level, cost has always been a concern for touring bands. But the nearly $2,500 in gas Garcia and his two bandmates would have had to pay just to make it to Vancouver, Canada, and back was too much to overcome.

Yeah, yeah, I know there’s youtube and myspace and iTunes and all of that good stuff now, but that doesn’t compare to seeing a band live.  How will young upstarts make a name for themselves?

Some of my most fond memories in college were at a dive music bar called Broadway Joe’s in Buffalo, NY.  Bands came in from all over the East Coast, and all over the country for that matter.  The band moe. who has made quite a name for themselves in the jamband scene, used to open up for bands there.  A sample setlist:

10/30/92 Broadway Joe’s – Buffalo, NY

Opening for Sonic Garden

That Country Tune, Spine Of A Dog, Timmy Tucker, Dr. Graffenburg > Havah Negilah, Long Island Girls Rule > Sensory Deprivation Bank > Y.O.Y.

Apparently the band was wearing space helmets throughout this entire gig.

Yes, there are more pressing issues, like continuing to feed the world…  But sometimes you realize something else that your kids are going to miss out on (like touring independent bands) and it makes you real sad.

Yesterday, after I vented a bit on the lack of rain barrel options at Big Box stores, a reader tipped us off to a very interesting issue in her state of Colorado. Rain barrels there, you see, are outlawed. Colorado state law mandates that any water falling from the air is not yours. In fact, according to their site, its already been “legally allocated” — so, you don’t actually have any rights when it comes to using precipitation that falls on your property. Here’s the exact wording:

Colorado Water Law requires that precipitation fall to the ground, run off and into the river of the watershed where it fell. Because rights to water are legally allocated in this state, an individual may not capture and use water to which he/she does not have a right. We must remember also that rain barrels don’t help much in a drought because a drought by its very nature supplies little in the way of snow or rain.

Additionally, any and all water that comes from tap may only be used once. “Denver water customers are not permitted to take their bath or laundry water (commonly referred to as gray water) and dump it on their outdoor plants or garden.” Even if that said water is ecologically-friendly?

We’re not alone in thinking this is a stupid law. Last summer, The Colorado Springs Gazette said the following:

“The rain barrel is the bong of the Colorado garden. It’s legal to sell one. It’s legal to own one. It’s just not legal to use it for its intended purpose. Meanwhile, when rain does fall, the torrential flood caused by water running off a few thousand acres of roofs, roads and parking lots erodes downstream ranches, undercuts city sewer pipes and really makes Pueblo mad.

It’s gotten so bad that the city is taxing us all — excuse me, feeing us all — to pay for $295 million in stormwater projects. So wouldn’t it make sense to save a little rain when it falls, keep it from barreling down Fountain Creek, and use it when needed? Of course it would.”

So, to the people of Colorado, I’m sorry you have to deal with such inane laws. Not having any rights in the first place to something that freely falls over your head just seems bizarre.

Anyone out there actively breaking this law because it’s lame? Anyone ever seen it enforced?

Popphoto has published a good comparison of rechargable AA batteries, testing them on digital cameras to see which were able to hold the biggest charge and which performed the best.  They were also compared by charger type and against traditional "disposable" batteries* .

It’s uncertain whether these values will translate into optimal performance for your gadget or flashlight, but click the photo or link above to check out their results.

*Please don’t throw away batteries.  Check with your trash/recycling hauler or local stores, many of which now will take your dead batteries in free of charge (no pun intended!).

I caught a quick blurb in Syracuse.com about how Governor Patterson and the State Legislature have come to an agreement about providing grants to home owners and builders who include energy efficiency and other green building techniques in their plans.  Apparently this will also be applicable to retrofitting homes as well.  NYSERDA will move from providing low interest loans for green building to actually providing grants.

I’ve been waiting to see if more details will be announced, but so far all I’ve found is the same press release reported on by several news outlets.

ALBANY – Governor David Paterson Sunday announced that the Legislature has agreed to pass one of his signature initiatives – legislation that will encourage the construction of new homes and the renovation of existing homes to meet “green building” standards. The bill authorizes the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to create a program that will provide financial incentives to New Yorkers who “go green.”

Energy and water use in residential buildings have significant impacts on the environment, making incentives a worthy investment for New Yorkers. Nationwide, residential buildings account for about 22 percent of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, and 74 percent of water use. Homeowners and builders who take advantage of these new incentives will help reduce the energy, carbon and environmental footprints of homes.

The amount of the grants will be based on a number of considerations, including the size and type of the residential structure. While New York has incentives in place to promote green buildings in the commercial sector, this is the first program that will provide these incentives for the residential sector.

NYSERDA will develop program guidelines, such as standards and criteria for eligibility, application procedures, awards and award levels, inspection procedures, documentation and compliance requirements, and training and qualification procedures for builders and technicians.

The program will include incentives aimed such things as:

- Sustainability measures relating to energy conservation and efficiency
- Water conservation
- Indoor air quality
- Use of nontoxic and renewable building products
- Natural resources conservation

Combined with this energy efficiency program from National Grid , many New Yorkers will be able to reap the benefit of subsidies to increase their energy efficiency, upgrade their HVAC, and build green.

National Grid estimated the programs would help customers save $350 million over the lifetime of their new, energy-efficient equipment, which ranges from six years for compact fluorescent bulbs to 25 years for Energy Star windows.

At the same time, the programs would advance the state’s goal of reducing energy usage 15 percent by 2015 to help prevent climate change, said Tim Stout, National Grid’s vice president of energy efficiency.

"As a company, we are committed to assisting our customers with their energy costs and to addressing climate change," Stout said. "Our cost-effective energy efficiency programs are a way to do both at once."

A few weeks back, I wrote an article detailing my desire to pick up a rain barrel to save some water for my garden. Living in the Northeast makes one rather immune to all the issues experienced by those living in drought-prone areas — particularly the hard-hit Southwest.

I posed a question then to those living in these areas as to whether or not their “big box” stores* like Home Depot and Lowes carried rain water cachment systems. The general response was fairly negative — though some reasearch of my own has discovered efforts by these chains to offer some support; whether through instructions (Lowe’s instructions were great — but they’re gone now) on how to create rain barrels using in-store items or pre-assembled kits.

The problem, however, is that availability or support on this level varies from store to store. There isn’t a real company-wide initiative to stock or have on hand pre-assembled rain barrels. Try going to either Home Depot’s or Lowe’s online stores, type in “rain barrel”, and see what you get. Nothing. (Interestingly, go to Home Depot’s Canadian site, and you at least get the option to purchase a “Rain Barrel Pump”.)

Not stocking pre-assembled rain barrel kits is in my opinion a fault in the judgment of big box stores — especially in those areas where water conservation is championed on a daily basis. Most people I know are not DIY individuals — in fact, we’ve been raised to expect everything pre-assembled and ready to go. Patience for such projects is hard to find — and it would be much easier to plop fully functional barrel under a spout than spend an afternoon drilling, gluing, and placing A into B.

Plus, let’s be honest, people have a certain degree of aesthetics when it comes to how their homes look on the outside — especially in suburban America. Buying a garbage can and retrofitting it into a rain barrel might not pass muster with a majority of people bent on homes straight out of Better Homes and Gardens. The pre-assembled kits that are out there — or coming — are much more attractive. Personally, I could care less on the looks, but I’m assuming that I’m in the minority on that.

So, what to do? Well, if you live in those areas, try to pressure your stores into carrying more rain barrels for the masses. That, or shop locally. I’ve found many local stores carrying rain barrels where other chains will not. But in terms of pushing water conservation to the masses, it’s your Lowes and Home Depots that ultimately may have the largest impact. Let’s hope it doesn’t take another year of drought to communicate that idea.

* Not to just pick on Home Depot and Lowes, Walmart and Target also do not carry said product.

I came across this website through a friend, and thought that it was a really interesting idea. Watch the video below, then check out their website: carrotmob.org

Seems like a great idea to me, harnessing the power of consumers to improve a business’s energy efficiency. I’d love to see the follow up video to see how the upgrades went and how much energy (and $) were being saved.

As I understand the posts there, it seems like they are making it a real go of it as a “business”. I’ll be curious to see how it all works out. I just like the idea of organizing a group of people to shop at a particular store to help them make changes they might not normally have made.