With the massive oil spill that just occurred along the Gulf Coast, energy sources and solutions have been thrust into the limelight. Environmentalists are sharing a little “I told you so” in reference to oil drilling and political right wingers try to downplay the significance of this spill in the hopes that oil drilling will continue unhindered. As one local man said to me recently… “it is shame what happened but I would rather have oil spills if the alternative is that I pay more than $3.00 a gallon for gas.” Never mind the devastation to people’s property and businesses that live along the Gulf Coast and who cares about the loss of marine life right?

For many people this oil spill is just confirmation of what they have been saying all along… oil is soooo 5 minutes ago! If anything, these events should tell us we need to bite the bullet and invest in alternative energy NOW.. even it means we pay a little more at the pump and even if it means we have to look at wind turbines in our “back yard”.

A wind spill might mess up your hair, a solar spill might give you a tan, but an oil spill… yeah there is no upside to that is there? We need to find another alternative and the “Drill Baby Drill” people need to go away and shut up… AFTER they volunteer at the front lines for oil spill clean-up of course!

Wind, solar, and geothermal energy are probably terms your are familiar with. You have likely read about them in several places.  But you may not know about the pros and cons, the costs both fiscally and environmentally, the potential savings, and other details. Here are some of the basics about these types of alternative energy.

1. Wind Energy

Wind is a renewable energy source. Even though it comes and goes, it can’t be used up.This makes it an attractive choice for homeowners, and is considered a viable means by which entire communities can be supplied with electricity. The wind’s energy is harnessed by rotating blades of various shapes and sizes (wind turbines). Wind power is not without its downside, though. Here is a brief description of the basics of wind power and its pros and cons.

Cons:
* You have to have flat, windy terrain for wind turbines to work
* Equipment and set-up can be very expensive (this is especially true for the construction of large wind farms)
* Turbines must be maintained by professionals or a well-educated homeowner
* Large turbines can be noisy and harmful to flying creatures

Pros:
* Wind is a renewable, clean energy source
* Your utility costs will go down significantly as you supplement your home’s power with wind-generated energy
* You can have a small wind turbine on your own property if there are no restrictions. Home wind turbine kits are not very expensive and are widely available
* Homeowners with property in “wind fertile” areas can make a lot of money allowing wind turbine companies to place equipment on their property. I heard of one Texas man that gets $300,000 annually, simply for allowing wind turbines to operate on his land!

2. Solar Energy

The invention of solar panels makes this renewable energy source very flexible. Solar energy can power small items like iPods or cell phone chargers, or they can meet the energy needs of entire households and even communities.

Cons:
* Solar energy can only be collected when the sun is shining
* Solar panels can be tricky to install on your home
* The materials used to create some solar panels and cells can be harmful to the environment.

Pros:
* Solar energy is clean and renewable
* Batteries can be used to store extra power for use when the sun is not shining
* New companies are emerging that allow you to “rent” the solar equipment in exchange for letting them sell excess energy produced… a win, win for all.

3. Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy makes use of the earth’s cooler (in summer) and warmer (in winter) temperatures. Geothermal heat pumps circulate liquid under the earth’s surface to be cooled or warmed depending on the season.

Cons:
* A great deal of digging and construction is necessary to install a geothermal heating and cooling system

Pros:
* Once again, this is a renewable source of energy that is clean
* You will be “off the grid” and not subject to power company rate-hikes
* Government financial aid and tax rebates may be available to help finance your upgrade

Generally speaking, all of the above have certain pros and cons associated with them. The trick will be to find the right balance and to to divert more funding to advancing the technology in each of these areas. Installation of alternative energy systems needs to be done by professionals, which can get pricey. The upside is that our children can get in on the ground floor by becoming engineers and installation experts and make a great, green future for themselves and for humanity. Your property and location can make or break your own energy plans. Depending on where you live, you may have no choice but to remain on the grid but even you can push your township to use clean energy instead of fossil fuels. The more pressure we put on them, the faster it will happen. You won’t need to worry as much about power company rate-hikes breaking your budget because wind and solar supplies are renewable. This is no doubt why energy companies don’t want green energy to take over our power grids.

These three represent the major players in alternative energy and the more we educate ourselves about them and pursue them, the easier it will be to realize the dream of getting rid of dirty energy sources that only provide short term solutions with a side helping of long term devastation.

A fun and energizing video for Monday morning about plastic of all things. Now if only they would show videos like this in schools, on big screens before movies, and an on public TVs…

Check out my article: 5 Easy Steps to Reduce Plastic in Our Lives

Another evening, another great movie. Two nights ago I was flipping through channels and saw that the movie Addicted to Plastic was airing on the Sundance Channel so hubby and I sat down to watch it together. We both loved it.

It is basically a documentary style film that exposes how the average American is "addicted" to plastic. It also spans 12 countries and 5 continents to find out where plastic comes from, what is made with it, where it goes after its useful life, why it may be poisoning us and our oceans, and what we can do about it. I have to give BullFrog Films big props because it was a VERY interesting film.

Everyone should watch this film to get an idea of how much plastic is in our oceans… it was mind boggling. There were so many scenes that made me so angry about how people are trashing something so beautiful and let me tell you.. this movie might make you reconsider ever eating fish again.

My husband loved the industrial aspects of the show and the innovations in plant based plastics and ways to upcycle plastics. I liked how he got see other people (besides me) talk about the toxic effects of plastic and the leaching of chemicals. It was nice that they specifically mentioned two of the ones I am always telling him about… BPA and Phthalates. There was a really annoying scientist on there talking about how the risks were so tiny that people are blowing things about of proportion and I started arguing with the TV screen, which my husband thought was hilarious of course.

At one point in the movie the narrator wakes up on the floor with only a sheet for a bed, he gets up and walks through an empty house and brushes his teeth with baking soda and a stick. It was quite funny and meant to demonstrate that getting rid of our favorite products is not a good option but I actually liked the house with next to nothing in it… I kept thinking how lovely and easy it would be to maintain. I would want a bed though, LOL.

It was a great movie and impressed upon me even more that we need to do more to reduce the plastic in our life. It also motivated me to buy some of the aluminum garbage grabbers and pair them with resusable bags so that we can collect garbage whenever we visit our local waterways, lakes, rivers, and creeks. If everyone had some clean up gear when they went out for a day at the lake we could do a lot to clean things up. My kids will think it is great fun to spend a portion of the day looking for garbage… heck they already walk around picking up garbage in the gutters of our neighborhood streets. Its hard to tell how much garbage we generate when we have everyone else's garbage in there too!

When you have the time check out Addicted to Plastic. It is airing again on March 7 on Sundance. Hubby has already set it to record because he wants to watch again.

Am I the last green blogger to see this? Probably. But thanks to Netflix… yeah I must be the last person to try Netflix too… I am catching up on all those green documentaries I have been wanting to see and for dirt cheap I might add. Netflix rocks!

Anyway, Food Inc is a documentary about our food, where it comes from, the true cost, why junk foods seems to cost less than the good stuff, and why looking at our food chain can be a terrifying experience. Factory farms and Monsanto are the stuff of nightmares I tell you.. I was agitated for days after watching it. Here were some of the main things I got out of it:

Monsanto is dark side of the force all the way. In the documentary we follow an elderly gentleman who runs a seed cleaning business that is being sued by Monsanto. He has to PROVE his innocence rather than them prove his guilt. Whereas he used to be one of 3 cleaners that existed in every county in his state, Monsanto has now sued and run every single one out if business in the entire state, save 3. Monsanto also regularly sues other companies that sell seeds, even though they have no basis for a lawsuit.. they bankrupt the companies with legal fees before a verdict can even be reached. At this rate Monsanto will be the one and only company you will ever be able to get seeds from in the future and since they have been allowed to patent seeds you will be sued for millions if you save any of their seeds. It was seriously scary enough for me to immediately start Googling places to get heirloom seeds and this year I WILL be saving seeds. My grandkids might need them!!

A mother whose child died from ecoli from a hamburger meat at a factory farm cannot tell the name of the company who sold the tainted meat or she will be convicted of a felony. The story of her son’s death had me bawling… bring the tissues. He died a painful, horrific death as a result of an irresponsible industry and yet every year the the government makes it harder for us to to grow/raise our own food.

Veggie Libel laws exist in several states.. aka if you speak badly about food products you can be sued. In Colorado it is a felony even. If your apples made you sick or you were sold tainted beef you are not allowed to talk about it because that can cause “harm” to the producer. Remember Oprah was sued in a 6 year court battle because she said on TV that she could not stomach eating hamburgers due to mad cow disease. Talking bad about hamburgers is a “crime”. How can the free market be free if you can’t speak out (good or bad) about the products you buy?

Instead of changing their products to meet consumer demands when certain ingredients fall out of favor… these corporations opt to use their politician friends to pass laws so that the companies are not required to label those ingredients anymore.

Junk foods are subsidized by our government so that the costs can stay cheap. This is why you see a family buy two hamburgers at McDonalds for their kids instead of buying some veggies. If you add health and environmental impact though, those foods are not so cheap.

If you decide to boycott an unethical company you may be out of luck because that one company likely owns 10 other companies that make the same product under a different brand name so that you never know it is the exact same company. Those same companies are also buying up organic food and natural products companies left and right. Tom’s of Maine is now owned by Colgate and Burt’s Bess is owned by Clorox. The company you love to hate may now be the owner of some of your favorite products and if you continue to buy you are funding their bad behavior.

Food Inc. movie gets a big A+ for me for being interesting, thought provoking, and incredibly important. I highly recommend it!

I am super excited about a new movie being released on Earth Day. The kids and I have been seeing in-theatre trailers for months and we plan on spending a portion of Earth Day in theatres this year.

This movie is the first release from the new Disneynature label. Earth is narrated by James Earl Jones, and tells the remarkable story of three animal families and their amazing journey across the planet we all share.  Directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the acclaimed creative team behind the Emmy Award-winning “Planet Earth” series combine forces again to bring this epic adventure to the big screen, beginning Earth Day 2009.  

I am a big fan of Disney films already so I love that they are combining some of my favorite things into one awesome package…movies, family fun, and the environment. And is it just me or does everyone get crazy goosebumps whenever they hear James Earl Jones??? Plus, Disneynature recently announced that it will plant a tree in the highly endangered Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest in honor of every person who sees the film its first week.

We will let you know our thoughts of the movie on Earth Day but until then
you can enjoy a piece of it at home. Check out the official trailer before you go. It rocks!