Sustainable Energy Is Possible In Our Lifetime

In recent years, the push for sustainable energy has gotten stronger. More and more companies and private citizens are coming to find that not only is sustainable and renewable energy possible, it is absolutely affordable and easily implemented. In fact, Stanford University has just invested more into the advancement of solar energy than any other university combined!

The seven types of sustainable energy, according to the Department of Energy are as follows:

• Solar - capturing radiant energy from sunlight and converting it to heat, electricity, or hot water.
• Wind - capturing wind energy and converting it to electricity.
• Hydroelectric - Water flows through a dam's turbines and converts to electricity (also known as pump storage hydropower).
• Geothermal - heat that is captured from the core of the earth that can be converted to energy.
• Ocean - there are actually two types of energy derived from the ocean: thermal energy that relies on warm surface water to generate energy and mechanical energy which uses the natural ebbs and flows of the ocean to produce energy.
• Hydrogen - when hydrogen is separated from other elements, it can be used for fuel and electricity.
• BioMass - organic matter from recently living plants and/or organisms can be converted to energy (ie; firewood).

With so many options available it's unbelievable that we haven't already implemented them for everything. Iceland is leading the way right now with 90% of their energy being sustainable energy, along with Sweden, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, the UK, Germany, Uruguay, Denmark. Progress is slowly making its way in America as well, fortunately, as new hope is coming to previously decaying coal communities. This study points out that many coal communities are expected to become the leaders in producing sustainable energy instead of coal. This will bring very much needed jobs and opportunities to these presently declining communities. New jobs for lawyers like Douglas Healey who specialize in environmental law are becoming more and more prevalent as more big businesses are looking for answers on how to effectively and legally implement new green technology. More and more consumers are happily switching to green options and in my opinion, the world is more than ready. As more and more people realize that it really is possible to find viable, sustainable energy sources, the present as well as the future can be beautifully green!

What do you think about sustainable energy? How are you adding green options to your lifestyle?

Eco Friendly Toothbrushes Do Exist

I am a child of the 70s. I am aware that ages me, since when have I cared about my age? My mother was a teenager in the 60s. As you can imagine, I have been aware of eco friendly products from pretty much the beginning of my life. 

My parents used cloth diapers. We used cloth towels/rags instead of paper towels and napkins. We had recycling bins before they were mandatory. As more and more eco friendly products became available, the more choices we had to buy and buy we did! As I grew older, I tried to implement these things into my everyday life.

My current pet peeve is plastic. I have been trying for years to reduce our plastic use in our household. Why?

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Pretty gross, huh? That's the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and it's basically plastics and microplastics that are just swirling around in a trash vortex in the Pacific Ocean. According to Columbia University, it takes about twenty years for plastics to decompose. That's already half of my life! It really motivated me to try my best to eradicate plastics as much as possible.

I came across news of the soon to be launched MyEcoKiss.com in my wanderings and I am so very excited! Finally, I can stop side-eyeing my toothbrush.

Me = 1
Plastics = 0

MyEcoKiss works in tandem with B1G1.com to not only bring you biodegradable bamboo handle toothbrushes, every time a purchase is made fresh water is provided to those in need. As you can imagine, I was over the moon! I'm pretty sure it's not usual for someone to get excited over toothbrushes, but I'm out for the fast death of plastics and this is one of the few things I can do to hasten that. 

I ordered the regular bristles, but they do come with charcoal bristles. I wasn't sure how a bamboo toothbrush was going to feel, but I was pleasantly surprised that it really wasn't that different from a regular toothbrush. I was expecting a "woody" type of taste but I didn't get that at all. I really like the handle much better than plastic ones. Four come in a package and at $10.97 it's not any different in price than buying four plastic toothbrushes.

Luckily for you, it will be even cheaper! Since I was so excited about my purchase (die, plastics, die!), I was given the opportunity to offer all of my readers a discount! All you have to do is enter the code EcoSteph12 during checkout for 12% off!

It is a little thing, but little things can often make a huge impact. 

I'm coming for you, plastics.

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Do you have any tips on how to reduce, reuse, and recycle? I would love to hear them!