Archive for September, 2007
I've been feeling a little discouraged lately... it seems like "environmentalism" and "going green" are becoming hotter trends, but in the grand scheme of things, not much is happening to really effect massive change on a large scale.
Take in point the No Car Day in China, which was held over the weekend. I was anxious to hear how it turned out, and learned that millions of private vehicles drove through the streets anyway, blatantly ignoring No Car Day.
What the heck...?
I was quite surprised to hear this... and also felt a little sad that people can't take one day in their life to use public transportation or walk. Is it really that hard to not drive your car for one day? If you can't even do this, how do we expect people to change their lifestyles and patterns to effect greater change?
I read a depressing article today in the SF Gate about how this summer, the sea ice in the Arctic shrank 1 million square miles more than the average melt over 25 years, an area larger than Alaska and Texas combined.Â
The cause? Global warming.
Sea ice is thinner, Arctic wildlife are getting pushed closer to extinction, and Arctic temperatures are rising faster than the global average. I found this particular quote to be most disturbing: "the stunning thing is that there's less sea ice in the Arctic now than most climate models project for 2050."
Personally, I'm not sure how we fix this. We can all continue to do our part, but it certainly feels like we need drastic change... and fast.
Here is an advertisement for "No Car Day", which is being held this Saturday - Sept 22 - in hundreds of Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai.  Residents will be forced to walk, bike or take public transportation, as roads will be closed to private cars.Â
It would be great to extend this experiment to other cities around the world...and for longer periods of time. But still, it's a good start!
Have you heard of FLOR? It's modular flooring in the form of carpeted tiles, that you can install yourself. It comes in all sorts of colors, textures and patterns, and is a fun way to mix up your flooring that is not permanent.
I've been thinking of installing some in my own home, and went to their website to get more info. Imagine my delight when I saw this:
"At FLOR, we're really proud of who we are. From our great designs, to the functionality and versatility of our product, we think FLOR is pretty cool. But more than that, we're proud of what we stand for: Mission Zeroâ„¢. Our environmental position, launched 12 years ago by our parent company, Interface, Inc., seeks to eliminate any negative impact our family of companies has on the environment by 2020.
We believe it's not just about what a product is made of, it's about how it's made. In the last 12 years, we have reduced manufacturing waste sent to landfills by 63% and our absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 56% worldwide. FLOR products bring a piece of Mission Zero into your home."
They also have this cool recycling program - if you ever want to replace your FLOR, you can easily recycle your existing FLOR materials. FLOR will come and pick up your used tiles and recyle them into new products.Â
Want to learn how you can make your house green? Or how you can start a green business? West Coast Green is having it's big show coming up this September 20th-22nd, in San Francisco.
They say, "West Coast Green is a feast of innovations, ideas and opportunities designed to expand your business, widen your vision, and stimulate your thinking with the latest, best practices and key players in green building."
If you want passes to the whole event, you'll need to shell out $450 bucks or so, but a day pass to the Saturday "Homeowners Day" is only $25. See ya'll there!