I go through the material I find there, to look for things that I think deserve wider dissemination. So this page is powered by Yahoo! Answers. — Zana)

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Does anyone have suggestions or a link that can guide me on what I can do?

I already recycle my bottles and cans. I no longer buy styrofoam cups. I’ve heard that it’s better to use cloth towels rather than paper towels.

I am looking for simple things that I can do.

This article came from: I have become very interested in green living? at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

Description
You’ve read the stories and watched the documentaries. So you’re convinced–burning fossil fuels leads to global climate change; supplies of fossil fuels are diminishing in quantity and increasing in price. You’ve fretted and worried, but still go through your day consuming some quantity of non-renewable fossil fuels to accomplish nearly every task (and you may not even realize it). You want to do something besides worry but you are unsure where to begin.

Read this book–then grab your handsaw, tape measure, and drill, and get started!

A life powered by the sun is waiting for you. Meant as a guide for renovating existing homes, this book gives you the hands-on knowledge necessary to kick the fossil fuel habit, with projects small and large listed by skill, time, cost, and energy saved.

For every aspect of your life currently powered by fossil fuels, we offer alternatives you can accomplish yourself to get started using renewable and sustainable sources of power.

Inspired by their own determination to wean themselves completely from fossil fuels, Rebekah and Stephen Hren provide a map for others interested in the path to producing all their own energy and living a fossil fuel-free life.

It shows first how to reduce energy consumption as much as possible, then how to retrofit an existing home in order to obtain all heating and cooling, all cooking and refrigeration, and all hot water and electricity from renewable sources.

The Hrens also provide advice on renewable methods of transportation and home gardening, as poor choices about food and mobility often negate hard-won gains in the home.

Like many today, the Hrens felt they had a moral obligation to mitigate humankind’s contribution to the ravages of pollution, including global warming as a result of fossil fuel addiction. In this book, the Hrens offer practical approaches that fit into anyone’s budget, and can be done over time as a way to wean oneself from fossil fuel dependency.

The Carbon-Free Home: 36 Remodeling Projects to Help Kick the Fossil-Fuel Habit

This article came from: The Carbon-Free Home at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

Sift together into a mixing bowl:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 T baking powder
1 t salt, or less
6 T carob powder

Add
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup oil or melted butter
1 cup milk (or water)
2 t vanilla

Mix well. If you wish, stir in
1 cup nuts or sunflower seeds

Spread the batter evenly in a large baking pan.

In a bowl, combine
½ cup honey
¼ cup carob powder
3 cups very hot water

Stir well and pour over the batter; during cooking, it will sink to the bottom and form a pudding. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, or until cake feels done to the touch.

This article came from: Carob Pudding Cake at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

I sift through the material I find there, looking for things that I think deserve wider distribution. So this page is powered by Yahoo! Answers. — Zana)

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How is the good way to motivate other people to keep on green living, and tell them why it is crucial?

That’s just what I wanna ask, please share with me, what your idea(s) is, thanks..

This article came from: How to motivate other people? at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

Description

“The Human-Powered Home is a level-headed book which focuses on informing and entertaining. There is no utopian hyperbole, just useful facts and anecdotes that provide the foundation necessary to take appropriate action. Dean has produced an accessible primer for novices in the area of people power as well as a book that is thorough enough to benefit even experienced tinkerers. – Joel Gillespie, Momentum Magazine

“Tamara Dean, author of The Human Powered Home, doesn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea. Creating one’s own power is not an easy undertaking. But it can be very energizing. The bicycle is the real hero in the book. There are photos and descriptions of dozens of jury-rigged devices, built to do everything from wash clothes to make soap to power laptops. While it’s a thorough guide for confident do-it-yourselfers, the book also details how pedal and treadle power can make life-changing differences globally.” – Marsha Walton, Mother Nature Network

What if I could harness this energy? An unusual question for anyone putting in a long stint on a treadmill perhaps, yet human power is a very old, practical, and empowering alternative to fossil fuels. Replacing motors with muscles can be considered a political act—an act of self-sufficiency that gains you independence.

The Human-Powered Home is a one-of-a-kind compendium of human- powered devices gathered from a unique collection of experts. Enthusiasts point to the advantages of human power:

• Portable and available on-demand
• Close connection to the process or product offers more control
• Improved health and fitness
• The satisfaction of being able to make do with what is available

This book discusses the science and history of human power and examines the common elements of human-powered devices. It offers plans for making specific devices, grouped by area of use, and features dozens of individuals who share technical details and photos of their inventions.

For those who want to apply their own ingenuity, or for those who have never heard of human-powered machines, this book is an excellent reference. For those who are beginning to understand the importance of a life of reduced dependency on fossil fuels, this book could be a catalyst for change.

Tamara Dean is a technical and environmental writer who lives in Wisconsin, where she and her partner David human-power their grain mill, blender, coffee grinder, and assorted electrical gadgets.

The Human-Powered Home: Choosing Muscles Over Motors

This article came from: The Human-Powered Home: Choosing Muscles Over Motors at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

Electric Bicycles – Green Transportation

By Alejandro Chacon

Electric bicycles are one of the greenest forms of transportation there is.Green Electric bicycles are becoming more widely accepted, as the Consumer Product Safety Commission has recently classified electric bicycles as bicycles, provided the top assisted speeds do not exceed 20 mph, total propulsive power does not exceed 1 Hp, and the vehicle includes fully functional pedals. Green Electric bicycles are the new way to get around. Green Electric bicycles are a fantastic method of transportation that allows you to get where you need to be in a fast, efficient and eco-friendly manner. An electrical bicycle offers you a lot more than freedom of movement.

Electric Folding Bicycle

Folding bikes come in a wide range of sizes and with a variety of features. Folding bikes are also especially convenient in cities and college dorms where space is an issue. Green Electric folding bikes present an excellent way for one to commute, as they provide all of the advantages of portability coupled with the benefit of electric assistance. A folding bike is a bike that is designed so that when not in use it can be folded into a much more compact size. Due to the nature of their folding mechanisms there is absolutely no risk of a bike collapsing while in motion we have made it a point to mention this as this is a legitimate concern experienced by those new to folding bikes; for those that are experienced, well, they share our confidence.

Electric Scooter

There are many different manufactures and styles of scooters with different characteristics. Motorized kick scooters are usually larger than non-motorized ones. Scooters had somewhat larger motors, but none of them produced more than one horsepower (746W). And are cheaper and less polluting than most conventional scooters and mopeds. Somebody may argue that the scooter still use the fuel indirectly (electricity). Silent Scooter brings affordable, high quality street-legal, green electric bicycles to America. Motorized scooters usually have hand brakes and often have larger, pneumatic rubber tires; and some have pedestal seats. Power scooters rely on multiple batteries and can weigh up to 90 kg (200 pounds). Lots of electric scooters, for example, are outfitted with nonfunctioning pedals and with speed-limiting devices designed for easy removal after purchase.

Batteries

Batteries and hub motor are positioned to lower the center of gravity, minimize rotational steering inertia and provide optimal balance about the steering axis. Batteries and bicycles can be used at very low temperatures. Green Electric bicycles use rechargeable batteries, electric motors and some form of control. Battery systems in use include lead-acid, NiCd, NiMH and Li-ion batteries. 90% of bikes today use sealed lead acid batteries, which cost about $45 to $99 to replace. An e-bike battery can be fully charged from a regular electrical outlet in less than 4 hours, costing less than 3 cents per charge.

Cost

About $25 worth of energy from a wall plug gets you 5,000 miles of travel at a fraction of the cost of gas vehicles, not to mention, a lot more fashionable. Charging the battery takes about four hours and costs just a few cents. Nevertheless, experts are optimistic that the green electric bikes will ultimately prevail because of the adverse environmental and health effects of automobiles and the rising cost of petroleum products. Green Electric bicycles cost about $5 worth of electricity a year. Bicycle. Battery costs are going down steadily with increasing demand. An electric bike costs anywhere $800 to $2000, depending on features. Did you know that riding an Green Electric Bicycle only costs Pennies per charge?

Electric Bicycles Green Transportation
By Alejandro Chacon
http://www.gogreenelectricbicycle.com/electric-bicycles/

We offer only electric bicycles, mopeds, scooters, ATVs, utvs, pocket bikes, sea scooters and helmets. Unlike other web sites that offer both gas and electric products. We want to maintain and help keep our environment clean and green even if it’s only one bike at a time. For the best deals on are all electric line up go to http://www.gogreenelectricbicycle.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alejandro_Chacon

http://EzineArticles.com/?Electric-Bicycles—Green-Transportation&id=3304249

This article came from: Electric Bicycles and Scooters at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

I go through the material I find there, looking for things that I think deserve wider dissemination. So this page is powered by Yahoo! Answers. — Zana)

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Green Living: How exactly can I start living green?

Start Simple.

Then slowly list more advanced things I could do.

This article came from: Green Living: How exactly can I start living green? at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

Description
Holy Cows and Hog Heaven is written by an honest-to-goodness-dirt-under-the-fingernails, optimistic clean good farmer. His goal is to:

* Empower food buyers to pursue positive alternatives to the industrialized food system.

* Bring clean food farmers and their patrons into a teamwork relationship.

* Marry the best of western technology with the soul of eastern ethics.

* Educate food buyers about productions.

* Create a food system that enhances nature’s ecology for future generations.

Holy Cows And Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer’s Guide To Farm Friendly Food

This article came from: Holy Cows And Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer’s Guide To Farm Friendly Food at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

It does take a little planning. Most evenings, I spend a few minutes considering what we might eat the next day. Often there is a container of leftovers from something Kelly or I have concocted,  and if we don’t have them for lunch, we’ll have them for dinner.

If it looks like we’ll be cooking something for dinner the next day, then I consider my beans and grains. Usually I’ll get a feeling of a bean or a grain that I feel like starting with, and then I will decide what else to use.

The beans that I cook with the most often are black turtle beans, pintos, Anasazis, lentils, split peas (not really a bean but who cares?), and garbanzos.

In the grain department, my usual choices are rice (short, medium, or long grain brown rice or white Basmati), quinoa, pasta (made from spelt or rice flour because of my wheat allergy), corn, and millet (tends to be dry, best in soups).

I also look at my vegetables, to consider what we’ll have and to see if anything needs to be used up.

So from these humble ingredients come a wide variety of possibilities. Be sure to cook the beans till they are quite soft, as this enhances both their flavor and their digestibility.

Seasoning with herbs and spices adds a lot to the dish. Spices, such as chili powder or curry, can be added early in the cooking process, but herbs should just go in within the last half-hour or so, as their flavors tend to get lost if you cook them too long.

Here are three of the dishes I often make from beans, grains, veggies, and flavorings. I make enough for at least two meals for the two of us. Sprouts are good on top of these.

Black beans, Quinoa, and Corn

This is an all-American dish, as all of the main ingredients are from the New World. Out of season for fresh corn, I would use canned corn in this concoction. Serve it with fresh or bottled salsa. It can be made thick enough  to go into tortillas.

Stir-fried Veggies with Vice and Tofu

The quintessential hippie dish, and I’m still happily making it after all these years. I stir-fry the veggies in a large pan  – often with ginger and garlic – and then add the tofu near the end. I make the rice by itself. Leftovers usually get mixed up together if the proportions seem about right.

Another variation I do sometimes is to cut the tofu into small squares and marinate it in tamari (a.k.a. soy sauce). Then I cook it separately in a different frying pan, till the tamari has mostly evaporated and the tofu is dark brown on the outside. To serve, start with rice in the bottom of the bowl, then pile on the veggies, then the tofu. This is good with sesame or sunflower seeds sprinkled on it. Not for people on a low-salt diet!

Curried Split Pea and Millet Soup

I soak the split peas overnight (or you can pour several cups of boiling water over a cup of split peas and let it sit for two or three hours). I like to cook the split peas for a good long while by themselves, to be sure they are plenty soft. (They are more apt to create foam in cooking than beans are, and hence aren’t recommended for pressure cooking.)

Then I add whatever veggies are on hand (cauliflower is a favorite) plus pre-soaked millet. I usually make a big batch of this soup, starting out with about a cup of dried split peas and about a cup of dried millet. I tend to have a liberal hand with the curry powder, and to balance that, will throw in a handful of raisins or some fresh or dried apple. Because millet has a tendency to absorb seemingly unlimited amounts of water, leftovers of this dish are often thick enough to serve the next day on bread or tortillas.

There are so many things you can do with beans and rice.

This article came from: Beans and Rice at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.

I go through the material I find there, looking for things that I think deserve wider circulation. So this page is powered by Yahoo! Answers. — Zana)

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What are some basic starts for green living, starting at home?

can you list at least ten things please, if not than fewer,
Thanks!

This article came from: Starting at home? at Simple Living, Sustainable Living.