The Green Book Is Fantastic--You've Just Got To Get It/Read It/Give It To A Friend

[orleans]

it's by elizabeth rogers and thomas kostigan
it's little, easy to read and has around 500 tips on ways to help us live more eco friendly such as:

"Televisions
If you're planning to upgrade your television to a flat screen, you can save roughly 275 kilowatt-hours of energy and $25 per year by choosing a thirty-two-inch LCD panel over an equal-size plasma screen. If five in one hundred households made this choice, the total energy saved could power each of the 266 million televisions owned in the United States through forty straight hours of the next Twilight Zone marathon." page 93

"Holiday Lights
When you replace your holiday lights, you can save significant money and energy by choosing LED (light-emitting diode) types. Three one-hundred-light strands of LED bulbs running for five hours every day between Thanksgiving and New Year's will use on average only 3 kilowatt hours--an energy cost of only thirty cents. For the same period of time, large incandescent bulbs will spin your meter at a rate of 472 kilowatt hours and to the tune of nearly $60. With a one-hundred-thousand-hour life span, your new LED holiday lights could last until the next century." page 84

"Candles
Because paraffin wax candles are made from petroleum and release the equivalent of diesel exhaust when burned, you can save fossil fuel resources, improve your indoor air quality, and reduce your exposure to carcinogens by choosing 100 percent beeswax or soy candles. These candles are not only made from renewable resources, but burn 90 percent cleaner and at least 50 percent longer than conventional paraffin candles. The crude oil used to make just one sixteen-ounce paraffin candle contains enough energy to power a sixty-watt light bulb for one hundred hours. If just one in a hundred households replaced an eight-ounce petroleum-based candle with a soy or beeswax candle, the energy saved could keep the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center lit 24/7 from Thanksgiving until the Fourth of July." page 82

"Water Bottles
Use and refill a single water bottle, thermos, or canteen when you travel. The average person in the United States drinks eight ounces of bottled water per day. Considering that plastic is derived from petroleum, it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil annually to satisfy America's demand for bottled water. If this oil were converted to gasoline, the total could fuel five hundred thousand station wagons to take their families on coast-to-coast road trips." page 32

i highly recommend this little green book and just wanted to share my discovery of it with DU.

on edit: here is the website for the book:
http://www.readthegreenbook.com/

[silverweb]

1. More info:

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Book-Everyday-Saving-Planet/dp/0307381358

Looks like a great gift for oneself and for others, well worth the price.

[BlooInBloo]

2. The more green books you buy, the more trees get killed, and the worse....

... global warming is.

[KitchenWitch]

3. Oh the irony.

:hi:

[BlooInBloo]

4. They started it! Telling me I can't eat beef or wear cotton!

[KitchenWitch]

5. Yah, I hear ya!

Uff Da!

[orleans]

6. "they"? "they"? (sounds like conspiracy theory stuff to me)

besides, what's wrong with cotton? and organic cotton?

"Fabric
Consider buying clothes made from organic cotton. The purchase of one T-shirt and a pair of jeans made from 100 percent organic cotton eliminates at least 150 grams of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides from the environment. If one out of every five Americans purchased a 100 percent organic T-shirt instead of one made from conventionally grown U.S. cotton, nearly fifty thousand tons of agrochemicals would be prevented from polluting U.S. freshwater bodies, ecosystems, and wardrobes." pages 72/73

[BlooInBloo]

7. I know RIGHT??? lol!

[orleans]

8. .

[quiet.american]

9. I love candles and had no idea about their effect on the environment.

Thanks for sharing this.

[Lex]

10. Soy candles burn really evenly and nicely. I prefer them now

and I didn't even know they were better for the environment than paraffin candles.

[quiet.american]

11. Thanks -- are they widely available? Or do you order them online? n/t

[Lex]

12. I've found them at Target, World Market, Pier One, and a locally owned

store that sells candles and such.

They are fairly widely available and on the bottom are marked "soy candle" in some way.

:hi:

[quiet.american]

15. Thanks, Lex! Cheers. n/t

[orleans]

13. i buy "beanpod candles" at a local gift store

and they are wonderful!

here is the manufactures website, they have a store locater if you put in your zip code.
http://www.beanpodcandle.com/beanpod/

my favorite fragrance is EARTHLY EMBRACE

it's wonderful!

and the wicks are lead free too!

[quiet.american]

16. Thanks, orleans -- and thanks for posting about this. n/t

[bleedingheart]

14. beeswax candles are pricier but very nice...bayberries make candle wax too

althought typically bee wax is added...

[quiet.american]

17. I didn't know that about bayberries, either -- looking at candles in a whole other way. :) n/t

[Breeze54]

20. They last longer and are easy to make too!

Make a Simple Rolled Beeswax Candle

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/projectsforbeginners/ss/ssrolledbw1.htm

Beeswax candles are really wonderful. A light, warm glow and a wonderful sweet scent
make them true delights. And rolled beeswax candles are about the easiest candles to make.
Since the wax isn't melted, you don't need a melt pot or stove to make them.

A great project for kids!

Here's what you'll need:

* Some beeswax sheets (they usually come in about 8" x 16" sheets
* Some primed wick appropriate for a 1" candle
* A matt knife, sharp knife or razor blade (I use a small kitchen paring knife.)
* A suitable cutting surface

1. Assemble Your Materials
2. Cut the Wick to Size
3. Start Rolling the Candle
4. Continue Rolling - Slow and Straight
5. Finish Rolling the Candle

Beeswax Sheets $1.65 per sheet, come in multiple colors
http://www.glorybeefoods.com/gbf/Shop_List.cfm?PC=4&PSC=74&ProductCat_Name=Beeswax%20Sheets&Token=4.156.144.204:{ts_2007-08-02_10:25:39}-745822

[quiet.american]

21. Great, thank you. I think I've found another hobby. :) n/t

[JNelson6563]

18. Great thread all!

I love these threads that I learn so much from! Thanks fellow DUers!

Julie

[Breeze54]

19. I heard about this book on The Today Show and I'm glad

you reminded me about it! It sounded like a very good,
easy to read guide, with simple and great suggestions!

Thanks! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

K & R

[orleans]

22. where can you buy sheets of beeswax? do craft stores sell them?

and the same with a wick?

i heard they burn quicker than the soy, but apparently they are fun to make. i remember watching martha stewart (or someone) rolling up a couple of these candles. it looked yummy/fun.

[Breeze54]

23. I posted a link for supplies up a few posts. ;-)

My SIL loves them and she says they burn slower than regular store bought wax candles and last longer!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1493385&mesg_id=1497082