Greening the Environment

Environmental Tips & Tricks

Last week we discussed whether burning wood is harmful to the environment and the alternatives. This week let’s discuss the other culprit associated with your fireplace, energy loss.

Sixty-five percent, or approximately 100 million homes, in North America are constructed with wood or gas burning fireplaces. Unfortunately there are negative side effects that the fireplace brings to a home especially during the winter home-heating season. Fireplaces are energy losers.

Read on to find out more and what you can do about it.

Researchers have studied this to determine the amount of heat loss through a fireplace, and the results are amazing. One research study showed that an open damper on an unused fireplace in a well-insulated house can raise overall heating-energy consumption by 30 percent.

A recent study showed that for many consumers, their heating bills may be more than $500 higher per winter due to the air leakage and wasted energy caused by fireplaces.

Why does a home with a fireplace have higher heating bills?
Hot air rises. Your heated air leaks out any exit it can find, and when warm heated air is drawn out of your home, cold outside air is drawn in to make up for it. The fireplace is like a giant straw sucking the heated air from your house.

An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add a fireplace draftstopper. A fireplace draftstopper is an inflatable pillow that seals the damper, eliminating any air leaks. The pillow is removed whenever the fireplace is used, then reinserted after.

Ways That Global Warming Can Change the World

If you enjoy reading your local newspaper or if you enjoy getting your news from the television, you likely know all about global warming. Global warming is an issue that is widely discussed, as well as issue that is widely debated. Although you may have an idea as to what global warming is, you may be wondering the impact that it will have on our planet. If so, you will want to continue reading on. A few of the many ways that global warming can change the world, and not for the better, are outlined below.

One of the most well known and publicized dangers of global warming is that of drastic weather changes. Although it is important to know that global warming may result in erratic changes with the weather, you may be curious as to what type of changes you can expect to see. For starters, you can expect to see warmer temperatures. Since the earth’s temperature is gradually rising, you will also likely notice a rise in temperatures on the ground as well.

With that in mind, it is also important to remember that colder temperatures are not uncommon either with global warming. When it comes to global warning, the process is actually used to describe changes in weather patterns, not necessarily individual events. And, as previously stated global warming can result in erratic weather changes. This means that just because it snows or is chilly in the north, it doesn’t mean that global warming is a lie or an untrue myth.

Returning back to weather, another one of the many ways that global warming can change the world is with flooding. It is said that global warming is causing a rise in sea level. Yes, this is true to some extent. Due to an increase in the earth’s temperature, many ice masses and glaciers are starting to shift and melt. This is what raises the sea level. If the sea level continues to rise as expected, flooding may have a huge negative consequence on the environment. If many coastal areas flood as predicted, this would make many coastal areas unlivable. This may result in a loss of money and property for those already residing in these areas.

In keeping with flooding, it is important to take a close look at all of the coastal areas in the world. If sea level were to continue rising and reach levels that are being predicted by many scientists, meteorologists, and computer models, millions of individuals would become coastal evacuees. Technically speaking, these individuals will become refugees. This is likely to cause a huge strain on the environment and land that wasn’t impacted by global warming and flooding, as well as the economy.

Another one of the many ways that global warming may change the world, as long as everything goes as predicted, is with health and wellbeing. As previously stated, global warming will cause the weather, as well as temperatures to change. What does this mean? It means that many insects and other forms of wildlife will suffer from confusion. Many will migrate to areas farther north, south, east, or west, depending on the location. Many of these animals, such as mosquitoes and mice, are known as disease carriers. In this aspect, global warming can cause an unprecedented spread of illness. This can be dangerous especially if the diseases spread were previously unfamiliar to the area.

The above mentioned ways are just a few of the many ways that global warming can change the world. Unfortunately, as previously stated, there is little good that global warming can do for us, the weather, the economy, and the planet in general, especially overtime. For that reason, if you would like to help prevent global warming from becoming a crisis, both now and in the future, you will want to do your part. You can start by limiting the amount of unnecessary energy you use in your home. The good news is that this approach will also help to lower your electric bill.

Analyzing the benefits of solar energy

We all know that using solar energy is a good thing to do. We have heard, and there are quite a number of them, all about the benefits of solar energy and we can’t agree why we can’t turn this alternative form of energy source to a primary one. But despite the advantages, solar power has yet to fully make it in the mainstream. Let’s go back and discuss a couple of the advantages of solar energy and see why keep going back to fossil fuels for energy resource.

In the long run, solar power saves money. Initial costs of installation and operations may be more expensive that other energy forms but after settling the expenses, you have an energy resource that is free. Nobody charges for using sunlight, right? The return of investment can also be shorter depending on how much energy you use. You won’t spend too much on maintenance either plus those photovoltaic cells can last for 15 to 20 years. There are no mechanical or moving parts to oil and maintain nor are there parts that need to be replaced yearly.

Of course solar power is environmental friendly. First its renewable not like fossil fuels which according to studies will be gone in four to five decades. The process of converting energy to usable electricity does not involve the release of toxic chemicals which can harm the environment. Carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide, lead, and mercury emissions will be a memory of the past when everyone goes solar. Relying on the sun for power also helps reduce global warming.

Aside from the toxic wastes and pollutants, using solar power will limit other aspects of the energy industry like hazards of working with and transporting oil or natural gas. Also, other health risks are present in the use of other fuels like kerosene and candles which are still popular in third world countries. With solar energy, these risks will be minimized if not totally eliminated.

The use of solar panels is also good for remote areas where providing basic electricity services is troublesome if not totally impossible at all. Solar energy can be transported to far flung villages and once installed they can be left alone for years with little or without maintenance. Communities in Asian countries have successfully installed solar panels in their community and have been enjoying the benefits of clean and reliable power for years.

For a poor country, producing electricity through solar energy can mean independence from oil producing countries which controls the supply and prices of oil. With such independence, new policies on energy can be created which will maximize the benefit for its citizens. Countries will also not be wary on natural disasters which hampers delivery of oil. With this new found independence, countries can invest its national budget on other programs aside from purchasing oil from foreign sources.

There are several disadvantages of using solar power and one of which is the costs. But thinking about it in the long run, you’ll see that the benefits of solar energy outweigh the disadvantages. Plus, with the current development in the field of science and technology, solar power is becoming more and more convenient and it would not be surprising to find solar energy as a primary source of power in the next few years.

Environmental Tips & Tricks

Does burning wood contribute to global warming?  A good question and the answer is… not significantly.

Global warming is almost entirely caused by the burning of fossil fuels, that releases CO2 into the atmosphere that otherwise would never be there.  Burning wood speeds up, by some decades, the release of  CO2 captured in trees that would be released anyway when the tree died and rotted.

Clear-cutting and/or burning forests down does contribute to global warming though, mainly because it reduces the number of living trees that can take up CO2.

If you want to use your fireplace occasionally, burn artificial fireplace logs made from recycled wood waste from lumber milling.  Look for manufactured logs that contain no paraffin, a petroleum product that emits toxins into the air when burned.