Change the World Wednesday – 9th Jul

I’ve had a few days off, more than I realised.

An inspiration problem with a sprinkle of lethargy and a cup of laziness also played their part.

Then there was football (soccer) on Tuesday with a catastrophic loss for Brazil, 7-1 against Germany which put me out for yesterday (moping).

You can read what’s up on my recent posts on Life is but a Labyrinth. Like the news about my guava saga.

Apart from my guava, there hasn’t really been anything ‘green’ to summarise for the week.

So I’m Changing my World on Thursday this week.

On with this week’s CTWW, brought to you at 3:30am, with the help of a lot of coffee…

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Greening the Kitchen…

This week, go into your kitchen and look for at least one way to make it greener. You might choose to do something simple like add an aerator to the faucet, convert to cloth towels instead of paper, replace a light bulb with a CFL or LED, or unplug an appliance (especially those with clocks). Maybe you are in the market for new cookware, dishes, etc. and could look for green options. Does your kitchen need paint? Perhaps you grab a brush and use non-VOC colors. You might even be considering a kitchen remodel and could search out the most appropriate Eco-friendly cabinets, counter tops, flooring, etc. The idea, this week, is to look around your kitchen and make a green improvement.

 

Well,  first up, my kitchen light blew out two weeks ago. It was my second last incandescent bulb. Replaced it with a 9w CFL; just the bathroom bulb to go.

In the news, Brazil’s new laws about incandescent light bulbs take effect this year. Basically, they are no manufacturing, no imports, no sales.

The only appliances I have in the kitchen are the fridge, the stove (gas, but electric start, standby and lights) and the blender.

The fridge, by necessity is always plugged in, the stove is never plugged in and the blender, while it remains plugged in, it doesn’t use standby power. I light my stove with the flints from my old cigarette lighters; an old lighter can light the stove for 6+ months after the gas has finished.

The kitchen does need painting, but that’s a long way down the ‘To Do’ list.

My pride and joy

I have two bought items in my kitchen, the rest are second-hand, off the street or donated. The small counter I only considered the price; shop demo reduced from R$250 to 99, there was no green consideration.

The stove is a new five-burner and I did check the power rating over various models before I bought it, it was top-of-the-line A. I got the stainless model for easier cleaning.

My fridge was second-hand, I got it from an ex-student who was moving. R$200 for a R$999 model; it was one year old and hardly used (he was a bachelor and kept his water cold and didn’t cook), green options were considered, because it replaced the power-hungry inefficient beast that I had.

So yes, when I buy, generally I consider price first, then green factors, although the stove was a ‘want this’ and the price was considered, but the ‘green’ came first.

Because of my scroogish instincts, and the fact that I rent. I am not considering a re-model.

I look around my kitchen and all I see are the dishes sneering at me from the sink…

So, do I meet this week’s CTWW in general term?

I think so.

 

Change the World Wednesday – 25th Jun

Goiaba branca

My first goiaba branca (white guava).

The tree only produced two, but it was late in its first season. I am hopeful for next summer.

White guava are less flavoured than the traditional pinky ones, and they have a short window between ripe and rotten.

Ate it for breakfast this morning.

As for my ‘normal’ guava, I am eating them daily as they ripen.

Exciting news!

My bricks

I have a new brick.

You may remember from a few CTWWs back that I have bricks in my kitchen, which is a bit like having bats in the belfry, but with more purpose.

I am going to try to remove some of the partitions and line them with cardboard to accommodate my knives better and prevent the cutting edge from grating against the harshness of the brick.

Most of you know, that one of my hidden talents is a chef. As a chef, I take good care of my knives and they are finely honed; it doesn’t take much to knock the edge off.

Further good news. I have only one incandescent light bulb left in the house. I changed the kitchen one yesterday (after four days of procrastinating in the dark) to a CFL. A story about that on my EIMDBPFPR post.

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So, what do we have for CTWW this week?

Discovering Nature

This week, go outside and spend some time. Perhaps take a leisurely stroll down a hiking trail or sit in a park. If you have a yard, find a comfortable spot and look at the world around you. Take your time and relish the experience. The idea, here, is to discover and appreciate the natural world around us … to see what we usually miss … to marvel at earth’s inhabitants.

Apt. A comment I made on another blog during the week, that “I don’t have a smartphone, so I am always looking up and around as I walk.”

Oblivious to his surroundings

People have become so enamored with their cellphones, iPhones, Smartphones, etc that they walk around with the eyes on their little touch screens and miss the marvels that surround them.

Up, around, down; there are marvels big and small everywhere.

People have forgotten how to appreciate nature.

Not only IT appliances, but the stress of day to day living, rushing here, rushing there, panicking because the boss wants that report before lunch; directs our attention away from nature.

The praça, park outside my gate

When I walk to the gate, I stop and look at my plants, check the acerola bush for any signs of blossom, any guava ready to be picked, is there a new shoot growing in the compost, how are my chillies ripening…

You see interesting things

Outside the gate, I look around me, I look for possible plants growing on the roadside to take home, I see insects and birds, lizards sunbathing; sometimes I stop merely to marvel at things.

Other times, I just sit in the park across from my gate, Clorinha comes with me and romps in the bushes or sits beside me on the bench for a stroke.

We need to take time out, not only to see what’s around or above us, but to de-stress.

I spend a lot of my day sitting right here, where I am now; a ten minute sit in the park with a fresh coffee and cigarette, I return with a new vigor, inspiration, enthusiasm.

Nature is the great leveler; it brings us back to earth. It stops our egos in their tracks and puts things in perspective.

It reminds us of our place in the scheme…

 

Change the World Wednesday – 12th Mar

Cloro was a great one for licking his nuts, apparently, he kept them in good working order…

I am crazy. It’s 2am and I’m at the keyboard with a tankard of iced sparkling mineral water, it’s too early for coffee; and too hot (I’m sweating). But don’t expect me to stay up and finish this, it’s just until I get sleepy again… then it will be crash until coffee.

I am still catless, but apparently not for long. You’ll have to read Legacy to find out why.

Carnaval is well in the past, back to work. The garis (street sweepers) and council have reached an agreement and are back to work.

My PC is still behaving like a PC should, so it seems as though my troubles are over for the present, despite the fact that it looks like a gutted box beside me with its blinking lights.

I like the lights blinking on and in the PC, they’re a comfort, they indicate that things are as they should be.

I had an interesting conversation with a fregües (regular) at the bar during the week. He uses disposable cups for his beer, which I think is totally crass.

The terrible convenience

The bar has them for the kids who buy soda to drink in the praça (park) and some of the regulars have taken to using them for beer.

I challenged him on it. He just considered a convenience. When I asked him how many barrels of oil would be wasted in his lifetime just for his convenience, he replied, “guilty as charged.” Now this guy is no fool, he’s a maritime engineer, but even for educated Brazilian, it’s hard to get the message across. The next time I saw him at the bar… yes, he was still using a disposable cup.

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On with this week’s CTWW. It’s a good one and I can get right into it.

If you haven’t already done so, replace at least one incandescent light bulb with a CFL or LED bulb.

 

OR … If you have switched all your bulbs to Eco-friendly varieties, please conduct a brief analysis of your home furnishings. Are items sustainable and Eco-friendly, made from materials like bamboo, cork, or recycled content? Were they made locally? How many pieces are second hand? Do any items contain foam (cushions, pads, etc.) which typically are treated with fire retardants (toxic chemicals)? Has anything been varnished or finished with lacquers (both contain harmful pollutants)? Do you have wood furniture? If so, do you know where the wood came from and whether or not the trees were sustainably grown? The idea, here, is to start thinking about the sustainability of our furnishings and raise our awareness on the types of items we should both support and avoid.

Part One I am in the process of changing over, as much as I was against CFLs initially, because of disposal and breakage problems, I have had to toe the line, because in Brazil this year incandescent light bulbs will become illegal, to make and to sell.

I would prefer LEDs, but I haven’t found them in our part of town yet, we do live out in the styx a bit when it comes to innovation. You see people think that Rio stops after you have passed the posh suburbs of Barra da Tijuca and Recreio, once you go over the hill Grota Funda (now you can go through it, we’ve got a tunnel) the world ends. But I will keep looking.

Part Two (This will have to wait until the real morning, you know with coffee and daylight)

Daylight √

Coffee √

Okay, we’re ready to continue…

At the start of summer I made a big purchase; not a thing I do often. I bought two new fans.

Now fans here in Brazil, and probably everywhere, are big on plastic.

You can see them in all the stores.

In my efforts to avoid plastic, it was a criteria that I set myself.

I found what I was looking for a nearly all metal model.

One was an upright, the other on a tube base for a table.

The only visible plastic is the name plate on the front, the blades and the small clips to hold the front grill in place.

So yes, I consider the environment when I buy.

Now as for the rest of my furnishings.

In the living room, I have two new items, a coffee table and a bookcase stand; both are made of wood. But the wood is a composite type, which I consider more ecological that real wood because it is usually made from recycled wood.

Everything else is second hand and some is just boxes, like my beer box.

Oh, there is another one on the other side of the TV for my wine bottle candle holders.

My sofas, 3 & 2 seat, were rescued from the street as discards by a neighbour, they have foam in them, actually they had foam in them, there is not as much as there should be. But to compensate for this, the one I use most is covered by a camp mattress and a blanket and the cushion is an old doubled over pillow.

So rather than rushing out and buying new stuff, I make do with what’s available. When I do, I do consider the environment as well as the cost, because I can be a real Scrooge.

Saturday Satire

Saturday Satire

Change the World Wednesday – 19th Oct

Well, the week has flown by, I didn’t even get to post a Monday Moaning this week. Sorry about that, I do like to start the week off with a moan.

Last weeks CTWW post, almost had me convinced. I had previously been dead set against CFLs in the past, but I do try so hard to be a little greenish in my life, and I decided to cast my reservations to the wind and begin a slow replacement of the incandescent light bulbs, one as a trial, then others as they burn out.

But then I had a comment from a reader that jerked me back to reality and the myriad of reasons why CFLs should be avoided at all costs, you can read about that on Rather Frightening.

Here’s a quick demonstration that shows you that there is something definitely not right with CFLs.

Look at the two reflected spectra on the CD surface. The right is an incandescent light source, the left, a CFL.

Notice how the CFL has three ‘hot spots’ at the extremes of the spectrum. Ultra-violet and infra red. I am not an expert, but here’s the story from q-re-s.com, read it, it explains why the light from CFLs will never equal the light from incandescents.

Looks like we don’t yet have all the answers, and have shown that by flying off half cocked with CFLs. You know what? I can see the writing on the wall. It won’t be too far in the future when CFLs are banned (Germany has already legislated against CFLs in certain applications) and we have to replace with solution of the moment, be it LEDs or OLEDS or Super Dooper Non-carbon emmitting candles. Guess who gets to benefit? If you guessed you, then you are dead wrong… once again the corporations will reap their ill-gotten gains at your expense and gullibility.

Well, that got a bit long-winded…

This week’s Change the World Wednesday:

This week, find one way to lower the environmental impact of your pet.

OR …
If you don’t have a pet, suggest ways that we can protect wild animals.

Will have to wait. It’s 3:30am, and I am going back to bed…

Up again, got coffee.

Meow Meow when she was a kitteh...

At the moment I don’t have a pet. My last two, Meow Meow and da Meow were poisoned here in the praça (park) where I live.

How do you make a pet eco-friendly?

Well, I guess the major problem with pets is poop. Both used my compost heap. I used to put a small square of sand (collected from the street) next to the compost and when it got too soiled, I just turned it into the compost and got more sand. A few years ago when I had Pexote and Pivete, our two dogs, their poop was scooped off the lawn and straight into the compost.

Okay, that deals with what comes out, but what about what goes in?

I don’t buy (or didn’t) dry pet food, nor the canned stuff. I stopped that when I read about how they manufacture it and how the corporations control what advice your vet gives about such products. The vets say it’s good for your pet because the corporations dictate (by way of donations and funding) what the universities teach them to say.

The story I read of one vet who rebelled against pet food after having one of the dogs under his care become an epileptic, losing it’s fur, etc. He changed the dog to a diet of raw bones, yup, just raw bones and within two weeks the epileptic fits had stopped and the dog’s coat had begun to shine. He was working on the basis that that’s what dogs ate before humans started messing with their dietary needs. Since then all the animals he sees, he recommends a change back to raw bones and meat. The owners report that their pets become different animals, more active, healthier growth, lose their bad breath and fat ones lose weight and look like dogs instead of barrels on legs.

If your pet food comes like this, go and talk to your butcher about bones

I just put “processed pet food is bad” into Google hoping I could find the story, but it produced such a plethora of results, there wasn’t a hope of finding that particular one. You do it and have a browse. The first page of results has NOTHING good to say about processed pet food.

Another aspect of pets, fleas and such. When I had the cats, I couldn’t afford fancy flea powders at R$10 (about $7) a throw, I used a little sodium bicarb, rubbed that in and the fleas decided my cats weren’t such a good host.

I never used detergents or soaps or shampoos with my animals, just the garden hose and a good rub both for cats and dogs.

That’s about it, I guess. Not much, but I am interested to see what others have to say.

Good challenge.

 

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Rather Frightening

Are CFLs that safe?

Earlier in the week in my Change the World Wednesday post, I took the challenge to replace my incandescent light bulbs with CFLs as they expire.

I had previously resisted. Firstly because I had tried them in the past, seven years ago, and their purported longer life didn’t prove to be all that correct. Secondly, the frequencies of UV and electromagnetic radiation they emitted were harmful.

A comment left on my post, has also caused me to explore the ‘benefits’ again.

I found a wealth of information here, and it seems that the UV danger is from being in close proximity to the light source, bedside or reading lamps, but UV filters should be employed because CFLs do not have them. We know enough about UV radiation to know that it is harmful to the skin, especially those with sensitive skin.

Carbon Footprint

Then there is this consideration: “It may surprise many people to know that CFLs increase a consumer’s carbon footprint in a ‘cradle to grave’ analysis. Full costs to manufacture, operate and safely dispose of a CFL have never been disclosed to the public.” And…

Electro-Polluters

“CFLs emit electromagnetic radiation, a type of energy that can make people very sick. Many people have reported skin rashes and irritation due to ultra-violet (UV) radiation. Radio frequency radiation is even more of a concern.  The effects of exposure to radio frequency radiation, as well as to high voltage spikes and transients, are known to cause illness, are virtually ignored by environmental groups and green building consultants alike.”

Source: The Dark Side Of CFLs Read the full story, it tells of how the corporations are again making their profits via governments not doing the right things.

CFL vs Incandescent

While some countries are preparing to ban, or have already banned incandescent lightbulbs in favour of fluorescent or CFLs; there are others, New Zealand and Germany who have done an about turn on their bans and lifted them; and in the case of the latter introduced restrictions and prohibitions as to where CFLs can and cannot be used.

General Electric was researching HEIs but then this:

“GE Consumer & Industrial and GE Global Research have suspended the development of the high-efficiency incandescent lamp (HEI) to place greater focus and investment on what we believe will be the ultimate in energy efficient lighting — light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).”

Source: Environmental Leader Read more

All this can be tied up with this: “the problem that politicians wants incandescent bulbs phased out faster than the industry can deliver alternatives.” From EV as well.

So it all boils down to corporations and politicians, money and corruption; that we are only being told half-truths… again!

Oops!

The Final Straw

What happens if you break a CFL while installing or removing?

The clean up bill can run to $2,000… shocked?

Read this: The CFL mercury nightmare

Conclusion

Having recanted my original views, I am about to do so again. All the evidence to the contrary that I have been faced with affirms my original doubts.

Oh, and we haven’t even discussed the safe disposal of CFLs. I have searched and at the time of writing I can find no programme here in Brazil; one of the countries banning incandescent lightbulbs. We are talking millions (Brazil’s population is 180 million) of homes, many more millions of CFLs and no where to dump the mercury.