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Written by Joanna Hoang   
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Wednesday, 29 December 2010

2010 in Review

As the year 2010 comes to an end, it is time to start looking forward to what the New Year holds in store for us and to reflect on the past year! Perhaps we can make some New Year’s resolutions as well! ☺

Green Highlights of 2010:

Sustainability Efforts:
  • High-speed Train Network—Ever since the Obama administration set aside eight million dollars in stimulus money for high speed trains in 2009, the project has been proceeding on into 2010 and many estimate that we will have a high speed train network in effect by 2025.1 This will reduce the number of cars on the road and increase the number of jobs in the United States.

    High-speed Train Network 2

  • Plastic Bag Ban: Although California voted against an all state plastic bag ban, the city of San Jose has recently passed a city wide plastic bag ban following San Francisco’s lead.3 This is good for the environment because by reducing the number of plastic bags purchased, we are also reducing oil usage and waste in our landfills and waterways. Importantly, other cities in California are considering the ban of plastic bags, as well as other states and cities!4 For more information on the downsides of plastic to our environment, check out: "Great Pacific Garbage Patch".
  • Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction—At the United Nations Summit on Climate Change in 2009, many major countries made a pledge for a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emission levels. In particular, Japan committed to submitting a bill to fight global warming.5 The bill previously failed to pass, but Japan’s leaders have decided to bring it back, which is a great step towards reducing global greenhouse gas emissions!6
Products:
  • Hydros Bottle—Two young entrepreneurs have come up with a new versatile product this year, the hydros bottle. This ottle is a water bottle with an activated carbon filter at the top that filters your water in about twenty seconds into a portable water bottle that you can carry around conveniently and drink. When you run out simply fill it with tap or fountain water that you find! Compared to the pitcher style filters, this will get used more in the long run when we go out. Better yet, a portion of the funds go toward the development of water filters for third world countries!7

    Hydros Bottle 8


  • YoGen Hand Charger—This device allows you to charge up your cell phones simply through hand power… No electricity! You will also get an upper body work out, no gym required☺ Reduce your energy usage by charging your mobile devices this way. Find your inner child with this yoyo and charge up that cell phone!9
    YoGen Hand Charger 10
Ten Resolutions for 2011: In light of global efforts, here are some personal resolutions or goals each of us can make for the following year! Or even better, if you’re already doing them, continue following them into 2011 and get your friends and family on board!

  1. Quit the plastic/paper bag habit and start using your reusable canvas bags, ALL the time.
  2. Carry around a reusable water bottle with you everywhere and use it! (Hydros, Nalgene, KleenKanteen, etc.) Quit your reliance on disposable water bottles and cups!
  3. Take shorter showers and conserve water.
  4. Wash your laundry using cold water. Your clothes will still get clean and you will save water and energy.
  5. Hang your clothes up to dry instead of using your dryer—save money and energy.
  6. Use alternative modes of transportation. Try walking more often, or get on your bike, skateboard, or even a scooter! When traveling farther away try using public transportation or carpooling.
  7. Carry around your own containers when you go out to eat in case you want to bring home leftovers. Do not allow the restaurants to package your food in those Styrofoam containers! Even when ordering takeout, instruct them to use your container instead!
  8. Go on a diet—reduce unnecessary consumption and you can become healthier as our planet becomes healthier too!
  9. Not only should you recycle, you should also try to reduce. When grocery shopping, choose items with less or compostable packing to help reduce the amount of trash going to our landfills. Please please please start composting! For ideas and help composting at home: "Home Composting", "Make Your Own Compost", "How to Build a Composting Toilet".
  10. Many people do not end up keeping their New Year Resolutions. Make one of your resolutions to keep all of them for at least a year or more! Happy New Year!!!
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1 http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/ff_fasttrack/2/
2 Id.
3 http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_16859889?nclick_check=1
4 Id.
5 http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100928f1.html
6 Id.
7 https://hydrosbottle.com/
8 http://www.go-green.ae/uploads/hydros.jpg
9 http://www.yogenstore.com/; http://www.amazon.com/Yogen-Charger-Nokia-Micro-USB-Clear/dp/B003LPUTS4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292608178&sr=8-1
10 Id.




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Green Facts

  • A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.

  • Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.

  • Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.

  • You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.

  • Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.

  • American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.

  • An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!

  • Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.

  • Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

  • A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.

  • Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.

  • Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.

  • Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.

  • Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.

  • One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.

  • Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.

  • Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.

  • Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.

  • Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.

  • Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months

  • For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.

  • Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.

  • A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

  • In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.

  • 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.

  • It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.

  • You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.

  • 77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.

  • If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.

  • Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.

  • You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.

  • Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.

  • Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

  • A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

  • States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.

  • The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.

  • In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

  • Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.

  • Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.