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Mom's List of Things That Are NOT Green
Some ideas just don't help. Check this list
to make sure you aren't doing something that
is either not worth doing or possibly counterproductive.
Some of these may seem a little 'tongue-in-cheek',
but I'm just giving you something to think
about. This is a list of things to not worry about! Does your Mom love you or what?
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Cars:
Unless you drive a lot more than average,
replacing your old gas guzzler with a nice
shiny new high-mileage vehicle won't help
the environment in the short term. Unless
it's wrecked, someone else will start driving
your old gas hog. Getting a more efficient
car is a good idea, and it will help eventually
down the line, but to do this "to help
the environment" won't have an effect
for years. Get the most efficient car you
can and keep bugging your lawmakers to stop
the 'bigger is better" mentality. Now,
if you were to send your old car to the crusher...that would help!
Another myth from the mechanic is how much
gasoline is saved with a new oil and air filter. I can't track any difference, and I can't
find someone who can. 
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Doing "Just ONE Thing":
I have seen TV ads and web sites dedicated
to doing "just one thing" to go
Green. They tell us if 200 million people
did just one thing we would save, bla, bla,
bla. Well, that ain't gonna happen. Going
Green involves changing our life styles with
not just one step, but one step at a time. Some of these steps may take a generation
to change, but "just one" isn't
going to get us there unless there's a next step.  
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Electricity:
I hear much about "phantom power"
which is the electricity used by all the
little battery chargers, printers, scanners,
TV's and those things that you think are
"off" but are really still drawing
a little power. I found that to be very little, especially when you have mostly
Energy Star rated devices. After unplugging
things to make sure they didn't use any power, I was disappointed that there was
almost no savings. Instead, I was inconvenienced
by remotes that wouldn't work and electronic
gear that took too long to warm up. 
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Ethanol (Biofuels):
This is not yet the ideal replacement for
high-priced oil. If producers make products
like ethanol and take food production facilities
off line, we're only hurting ourselves. We
need to find larger sources of waste products
to turn into biofuels. In Brazil they switched
to ethanol-type fuels because of all the
organic matter available, supposedly from
deforestation. They didn't need to switch
from food production. Corn squeezin's, No...corn
stalks, Yes. 
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Light Bulbs:
There are a few light fixtures in your house
where Compact Florescent Lights won't help.
A room that you go in for just a few seconds,
like a pantry or closet, is still a good
place for a good old fashioned incandescent
light bulb. The florescent may not fire up
fast enough, and the short time the light
is on isn't enough to gain the benefits of
florescent savings. Actually, florescents
require a short burst of energy to get started
which means they are less efficient than
incandescent when used for less than a minute.
This is a good place to use up all those
old bulbs that are piling up in the basement.

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Manual Transmission:
Automatic transmissions in new cars are more
efficient than before, and they now shift
more efficiently than manually shifting.
The only people who can do better with a
manual transmission are those who always
pay attention to the exact time to shift.
They do save you money in the initial purchase,
but I have replaced more clutches than automatic
transmissions.
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Switching to a Laptop:
I found a web site that recommends switching
your computer to a laptop because it uses
less energy than a desktop. I don't agree.
Your desktop can be set to go to sleep and
other options that use less energy. But even
more important, laptops use rather large
and potentially polluting batteries. Users
typically buy a new battery every year or
so and toss the old one in the trash. Desktops
are more readily recycled and won't add as many toxic metals to the
landfill.  
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