Everyone knows that urban living is less impactful on the environment, but if you’ve lived in a city, you also know that it’s important to get your fix of open space and nature – especially in a city like New York City. That’s why projects like the High Line, where they literally took an old abandoned rail track and converted it into a gorgeous elevated park are both so interesting and so important.
I visited it when I was in NYC a month ago, and can vouch for the fact that it is amazing. It’s beautiful and unique and just fits into the urban landscape in such a seamless way.
Take a look at the High Line website for more info and photos. Also fascinating is the story about how it came to be. Take a look!
Awhile back, I had written about my love affair with SIGG bottles, which I had asserted were the superior choice when selecting a water bottle. Why? Because they were BPA (Bisphenol A) free, silly!
Well, I’m now disheartened to read that SIGG has admitted that their water-based epoxy liner contains BPA! I feel deceived and betrayed, and don’t know if I can ever purchase another SIGG product again knowing that this company has greedily soaked in profits while claiming to be the environmentally friendly choice. Now I’m left wondering what the best choice is on the market. Readers, any suggestions?
Not quite.
Earlier this year, we were thinking about possible vacation destinations, and cruising down the Mediterranean sounded like a cool idea. One of my coworkers raved about a 3 week cruise she took to Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, which compelled me to investigate further.
Just as I was starting to get excited about the prospect of taking a cruise, I came across this article in the NY Times. Basically, cruise lines are not well policed when it comes to compliance with environmental policies. For example, did you know:
- Most ships run on bunker fuel, which is the dirtiest and cheapest fuel oil
- A one-week voyage on a large ship is estimated to produce 210,000 gallons of sewage, a million gallons of gray water (runoff from sinks, baths, showers, laundry and galleys), 25,000 gallons of oily bilge water, 11,550 gallons of sewage sludge and more than 130 gallons of hazardous wastes
Until the industry changes its ways and makes significant strides in reducing its carbon footprint, I won’t be taking a cruise anytime soon.
Here’s a nice post from Lifehacker. Happy reading!
Happy Earth Week everyone!
I learned something new in the past couple of weeks. We recently closed on a house (yay!) and one of the first things I mused with our realtor about was, “should we install A/C?” The Bay Area in general has great weather, but the last few summers have had a few days here and there where temperatures were above 90 degrees, making it unbearably hot indoors as well. Today happens to be one of those days – yesterday, temperatures were almost 90 in our apartment, and today, it definitely went past the 90 F mark. It’s hard to resist the temptation to install A/C on days like this.
Anyway, our realtor mentioned installing an attic fan instead. Have you heard of these?  During the summer, the temperature in your attic can get well over 100 F. Without an attic fan, heat gets trapped, and it makes your house warmer. An attic fan helps cool down your attic, making your house much cooler. IF you also happen to have A/C running, an attic fan improves efficiency; there’s less work required by your A/C unit to cool down the house. I’ve read that it can save up to 30% on cooling costs, so in the long run, it may be cheaper for you to install one in your own home.
By the way, attic fans are electric or solar. I think they may also come in hybrid versions but I haven’t seen any so far. We’re thinking of installing the solar fan since no energy would be required to run it. Now we just need to figure out where to buy one of these and who can install it. Anyone have any recommendations?