From 830pm – 930pm (your local time). One hour. March 27. Turn off all the lights.
Sit in the dark and pray.
Enjoy the dark with someone you love.
Play board games by candle light.
Lay out a blanket on the ground, cork a bottle of wine, and watch the sky, count the stars.
How would you ideally spend one electricity-free hour of your evening?
Earth Hour, the annual event. March 27. 830-930pm.
I’m a purest. Meaning, do not take this time to play on your laptop (which has been previously charged via electricity). Do not use flashlights for reading. Do not spend the hour babbling on your cellphone.
Yes, I know the candles you burned required electricity to create (odds are), not to mention are likely made from inefficient petroleum products.
I believe, however, that the point is to be aware of living in that moment, with the planet, and consciously reducing your impact.
The hour will fly, and hopefully you can have a joyful memory from the time you took to celebrate the 2010 Earth Hour.
Sustainably yours,
Ashley Sue
PS. I opted not to use the “Dim the Lights” graphic for the annual event. Go big or go home. Why dim the lights when, really, you should just turn them off? Are you focusing on the point if you leave the TV on while your lamps are off? I do not think so. Any rebuttals?
Every month Cree has a “Cries for Help” contest where you can submit your photo of your space which much deserves an LED lighting makeover! A winner is chosen for five Cree LR6 lights!
If your space needs some lighting love, check out the contest, submit your picture, and find out how Cree is leading the LED lighting revolution.
… check out the site anyhow! You might get some chuckles and be horrified for those living and working in such crazily lit environments.
FYI, flowers are lovely and all, but incredibly eco-unfriendly. Particularly when you’re talking the scale of the Rose Bowl Parade. Doubting they are grown with much concern for toxins, not to mention the global transport for these flowers. I have no doubt by refusing to watch the parade I am making a difference, too.
On October 8, 2009, North Carolina found itself amidst two conflicting news stories of a national caliber regarding technology manufacturing:
DELL is laying off 905 employees by January 2010. Boo.
CREE is creating nearly 600 jobs in the green tech LED industry. Yay!
On Wednesday, DELL announced they are closing the North Carolina plant in Winston Salem, laying off around 600 employees in November and retaining the last 300 employees until January 2010.
Well, a huge happy holidays to you and yours, courtesy of DELL.
For the record, I want to say how opposed I was about granting DELL any tax breaks, grants, and incentives back in 2005 when North Carolina leaned over and kissed their shiny hineys in order to get the plant here. Not that “I told you so” ever does any good, but I cannot help myself.
So, here we are, four years and two days after it opens, and they announce they are closing down and leaving a thousand families without income and burdening NC with more than $3 million added in unemployment spendings.
DELL says they will repay everything paid to them by the state of North Carolina. Hmmm… did Exxon not say the same thing 20 years ago regarding the Valdez?
On the other hand, Thursday afternoon, CREE (LED Technology) held a planned press conference to announce the creation of 275 North Carolina jobs before the end of 2009, and another 300 jobs by the end of 2012.
Why do I support CREE? The North Carolina-based company has impressed me with their commitment to such a huge environmental undertaking from the beginning. Add to that how North Carolina State University has a role in CREE technology (a personal victory! They are so underrated), not to mention how our state, at 11% unemployment, needs a company who will invest in the educated and eager workforce in our state.
I support CREE because LED is significantly superior to CFL, which is known as the energy-friendly choice among mainstream America.
One LED lasts 50,000 hours and consume only 500 kilowatt hours in the course of its life. That would take 10 CFLs. Plus, trust me, I am simplifying the numerous benefits of LED.
LED lights are bright, are infinitely more reliable and warmer looking than the CFL bulbs currently living in my home. The LEDs give a true color, unlike what I get to experience now.
One LED can cost only $.16 a year to operate in your home — that is 16 cents! Thus, the initial cost may be higher than CFL or incandescent bulbs, but the savings far outweigh the initial cost difference.
LED bulbs are far more robust than CFL or incandescent bulbs. This even leaves out the fact that CFL bulbs contain mercury.
Bora and I were able to talk with CREE CEO Chuck Swoboda, Social Media Specialist Ginny Skalski, and Product Marketing Specialist Kyle Rogers. Here, Rogers walks us through a few of CREE’s current major products, as well as discusses with us a few future products for residential use.
If somehow are are asking yourself what LED and CFL light bulbs are, I wonder how you have missed that incandescent bulbs emit 80% or more energy on creating heat, thus creating an issue where you spend more money creating heat in your home than light, and then you have the costs of increasing air-cooling methods to counteract the heat in our sweltering NC summers.
Sustainably yours, Ashley Sue
For raw clips of the press conference with CREE CEO Chuck Swoboda and Governor Beverly Perdue, you can watch: Part 1 (CEO Chuck Swoboda introducing CREE and green jobs announcement) Part 2 (Governor Beverly Perdue) Part 3 (CEO Chuck Swoboda talking LED as our future)
Welcome to the 2009 North Carolina State Fair, with a new Deep Fried theme (yum) and the second annual Green NC exhibit!
In eight days, Raleigh will host the Deep Fried State Fair. I personally love the tasty, indulgent, artery-clogging, sizzling hot fun of this year’s theme. Frankly, they found a way to make our deep-fried Southern reputation and make it kinda hip (instead of the hokey themes of years past).
OurHashtag even got the NC State Fair into super-hip mode by getting an NC State Fair Deep-Fried Tweetup rocking on October 22nd. I expect to see you there. Really, can you pass this up? Western NC needs to make the trip to meet and greet with other Tweeple from across the state. This will be an awesome Tweetup experience! Get your free ticket here!
A while back, I saw this great article by Raleigh Eco News regarding how “the quality of Falls Lake — Raleigh’s main water supply — is suffering while officials with the power to do something are failing to act”.
Reading it reminded me how ill I am that Raleigh renegged on their garbage disposal ban.
Why do I feel they should be banned? Well, I do not feel like these sorts of kitchen scraps belong washed down our drain. Besides killing your plumbing (yes, most of the people I know have to get their disposal repaired or unclogged, which we have never done since we toss our scraps), composting is the optimal option.
Plus, I see all the time that people who rely on their garbage disposal (usually absent-mindedly even) also are regulars at pouring grease and cooking juices down their drain, which is actually illegal in many states because of pollution. Don’t believe that many people feel that way? Just look at this one forum and how people tug-of-war over being able to.
Next time you have potatoes and squash to peel, grease to empty, and plates to scrape off, head to your compost bin or trash bag.
At the beginning of next week, I should be posting a contest to win a $50 Earth Fare gift card! Yay! Who doesn’t adore Earth Fare’s delectable, healthy, conscientious grocer selection and body care?! I know I have been thrilled to familiarize myself with Earth Fare! So keep an eye out for that NEXT WEEK!
Until then, for today (Friday, 26 June 2009), you can print out this coupon to visit your local Earth Fare and receive a FREE PRE-MADE DELI SANDWICH! I personally am excited for the coupon, so feel free to bump into me at Earth Fare!
Also, I attended the third annual Mountain Green Conference at Warren Wilson College ~ and I have a true plethora of information to share. From sealing your thermal envelope of your house, reducing air leaks and drafts, greener automechanics, building science, owls, local foods, beekeeping, the groundbreaking historic measures of WWC, NASCAR, and some generally nifty (albeit common sense) knowledge, posts are coming!
Bonus: posts of my Pisgah National Forest retreat will be coming too!
Lastly, HUGELY, I will spend part of this weekend and next week doing a MASSIVE overhaul of this website layout. I have a lot of issues with the functionality and aesthetics of this theme, so I will be designing a CSS to make it better suited for (g)g and my purposes. So get excited about that ~ I am! This is LONG overdue change!
According to this post, another recent Gallup Poll shows that the majority of Americans believe global warming threats are greatly exaggerated. People ask me about this constantly.
A friend and mentor on Twitter pointed out that polls can be “useless” and “confusing”. That is true. The mere wording of a question can greatly alter how people respond to it. The source also has to be considered because, as I have heard many times, anyone can find the result they want if they try.
I can easily see where Americans would feel that environmental issues need to be overlooked for now if it could mean saving our flailing economy. Too many Americans are in daily survival mode. Spending large amounts of money and time on more expensive alternative energies, organic foods, and other “green” endeavors seems unjustified to many.
If you couple the “economy v. environment” debate with the “is global warming a farce?” debate, you can truly see why people would choose economic stability initiatives at the sacrifice of environmental efforts.
These either/or arguments are short-sighted and highly deficient, however, and stem from a mix of media chaos and one-way thinking.
Traditional news media love to propogate/slam global warming, economic fears, and right-wing/left-wing rhetoric. If we stay afraid, if we pit against each other, if we only hear the extreme perspectives, we will cling to the news media for more information that confirms what we want confirmed.
Feeling that the economy can only be saved at the sacrifice of the environment or that the environment will only be saved at the sacrifice of a sound economy is simply a lack of knowledge regarding history and economics.
Whether you personally want economic stability, a healthy family, farmers who are paid well, a thriving city life and career, or a lush yard in the country, each of these comes down to environmental welfare.
While moving into a “green” lifestyle or environmentally-minded decisions requires cost analysis and consideration, the forethought to know saving a dime right now can cost us exponentially in the near future is what will thrive in the new economy.
Capitalism will reward careful thought and implementation of environmentalism in the economy.
So decide if you actually need to watch that extra half-hour of news media, consider the source of the information you receive, take a giant breath in, exhale, and know somehow, someway, we can all be OK, including our environment.
In honor of Earth Day, I figure I should share a completely beautiful and inspiring video of David Gottfried and Van Jones discussing what we are working toward and how this transformation is happening.
You could certainly say I am drinking the Van Jones kool-aid. After all, he’s beautiful, he’s a humanitarian, he’s intelligent, he’s positive, he’s insistent. Why would I fight that?
Truly, take a few minutes to fall captive to the video on urban renewal and environmental progress for a new world.
And take a minute to smile. Take a deep, rejuvenating breath, exhale, and smile.
In the quaint, beautiful North Carolina city of Durham, an incredibly inspirational couple lives off the grid in an effort to have The Carbon-Free Home. This couple, the Hrens, released a book in 2008 named “The Carbon-Free Home”, which is a practical, easy-to-use guide for 36 different remodeling projects that will help you reduce your own carbon footprint.
Sunday, 17 May 2009, the Hren’s invite you to an OPEN HOUSE from 10am-4pm. From edible landscaping from their housemates of Bountiful Backyards to their exciting renewable energy installations, you are guaranteed to walk away with fun, creative ideas on how you can save both the planet and your wallet!
What? You are questioning how legit these cats are and why you want to spend your Saturday at their house? Simply check out all of the media coverage of the Hren’s book and lifestyle (including a full-hour radio interview on The State of Things, magazine coverage in Ode and Preservation magazines, and more).
