It’s amazing to think that we only have 6 weeks left of living here in Southern California. After all these years of living here, it sure seems strange to be preparing to move 900 miles away. But we are excited about our new adventure in New Mexico! While I figure out how I am going to move all this stuff, check out some articles that caught my eye this week:

12 Reasons Why High Gas Prices Are GOOD For America. I especially like #4 - High gas prices are causing some Americans to rethink (or at least reduce) their attraction to “stuff.”

Peel-and-stick solar panels - Lumeta’s light-weight, adhesive photovoltaics make it easier than ever to slap solar panels up on your roof — and that’s good for all kinds of reasons. By cutting down on the time and costs of solar installation, Lumeta’s parent company, DRI, is hoping to switch on a larger section of public. The Power-Ply 380 panels can be installed in a matter of minutes and DRI estimates that their system reduces hardware costs by 70%.

We must do the right thing in our life even when it’s not convenient for us. This is called integrity. Here are several ways that we can build trust and do the right thing.

Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs: Answering the Critics. It’s interesting that every time I talk about the advantages of compact fluorescent bulbs, I see the same criticisms over and over. Thus, I though I’d spend a bit of time responding to each of them.

From Mother Earth News, 1977 - This $30 Solar Setup Heats a 30 X 40 Workshop for Five Hours or More Every Sunny Winter Day. Imagine that - 30 years ago someone had devised a virtually free solar heating system for a workshop!

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Hear me out on this one. (Ha! No pun intended. Really.) Most homes now have several cordless phones throughout the house, all using energy 24/7 in order to charge their batteries. I am willing to bet that most of these phones do not get used too often - they just sit there in their cradles sucking electricity. Would it be possible to go back to using corded phones throughout the house in the lower traffic locations while keeping cordless ones in the places that are used more often? I am thinking that the answer is yes!

We have 3 cordless telephones in our apartment - one in the living room, one in my home office, and one in our bedroom. The only place I imagine I would necessarily need a cordless version would be in the living room, as in my office I am normally sitting by it anyway and the one in our bedroom barely gets used. So I imagine that cutting down to just one “plugged-in” phone would save a little energy. We have learned to put our stuff on power strips because electronics left on standby use a considerable amount of energy, so we probably shouldn’t have phones plugged in that we rarely use. I guess a trip to the Goodwill Store is in order to try to find some cheap old corded phones!

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Now would you buy one?

I would like to, but not for that much money ($12,000). I could get a used Honda Civic for way less money that has more room and the same gas mileage.

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My wife Amy uses Alima mineral makeup, and with her last order they sent a card that outlined the top 10 cosmetic toxins to avoid and why to avoid them. I figured I would share with those of you looking for healthier and safer makeup choices!

BHA - (Butylated hydroxyanisole) Toxic to the liver, immune and nervous systems; possible carcinogen

BHT - (Butylated hydroxytoluene) Toxic to the brain, nervous, and respiratory systems; possible carcinogen and endocrine disruptor (See what I wrote before about BHT)

D & C Colorants - Toxic to nervous and reproductive systems

Eugenol - Toxic to the immune and nervous systems, endocrine disruptor

Formaldehyde - Toxic to the immune and respiratory systems; carcinogen

Nitrosamines - endocrine disruptor; possible carcinogen

P-Phenylenediamine - Toxic to the immune, respiratory, and nervous systems

Parabens - Endocrine disruptor, neurotoxic; possible carcinogen

Phthalates - Toxic to the immune, nervous, and reproductive systems

Triethanolamine - Toxic to the immune and respiratory systems; possible carcinogen

It’s amazing what they put in cosmetics that people are supposed to use on their skin!

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Even though there is a consenus around the fact that global warming is, in fact, happening, there are still a lot of people that think it is all a load of bunk. As far back as 2003, the World Meteorological Organization “highlighted record extremes in weather and climate occurring all over the world in recent weeks and linked them to climate change”. However, “The earth has warmed before” and “It’s a natural cycle” are two common things I hear from people who think that everything is going to be just fine. OK, I will play along - let’s imagine for a split second that everything is going to be just dandy, that seas are not going to rise, that animals the world over are not going extinct, and that tornadoes are not happening in the strangest places - now what? Because global warming is not* happening, should we continue to treat our planet the way we have been treating it? If we are not in danger of warming the planet beyond repair, should be just keep with the status quo? If it doesn’t matter what we do, should we even care about the health of the earth and our environment? Absolutely. And here is why:

No one wants their grandchildren to live on a planet where the water is so polluted there is nothing to drink.

No one wants their grandchildren to live on a planet where there is an island of plastic trash in the Pacific Ocean that is even bigger than the United States.

No matter what your political leanings, no matter if you believe in global warming or not, no matter if you are 15 years old or 95 years old - what we are doing to the earth is affecting not only us, but every single generation to follow…and why would we want to leave this place worse off than when we got here? I am 35 going on 36 years old next week - I know I have some time left here, so I don’t want to live in a dirty, polluted, dangerous world. But even more so than that, I plan on having children - and I surely do not want to leave them with a planet in a constant state of fighting back against what the last 100 years of human development has caused.

So no matter what you believe, believe in this - we need to help make the earth a cleaner place for ourselves and future generations. Can’t we at least agree on that and work on solutions that benefit all of us alike?

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Thanks to my friend Emily who sent along this video thinking I would find it funny…and I sure did.

Someone please give that kid his own show before the November election! Oh, and SNL - please somehow get Will Ferrell back!

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