Going Green in Comfort

In 12 years, my daughter will be 19. Another round of midterms will be just weeks away, and for the first time, my daughter and her peers will be old enough to vote. But if we haven't acted by then to limit global warming to a 1.5 degree Celsius temperature increase, there will likely be little those new voters can do to alter what could be a very bleak future, according to the U.N. report on climate change released Oct. 6, 2018. Even at a 1.5-degree increase, we'd have problems — and already do at the current 1-degree increase. The effects can be felt not just in extreme weather, but in crop yields, heat-related deaths, flooding, and more. But those negative impacts increase rapidly as the world heats up, even by a fraction of a degree, the report shows. The Guardian compiled a graphic showing the impacts and threats by degree, based on the U.N. report, that shows coral reefs already are at high to very high risk. (Scroll down on the previous link to "Rising Tem...

The headlines on climate change over the past couple of weeks have been down-right depressing. Have you missed it? Here are just a few links I recommend. From the New Yorker: The dire warnings from the United Nations' latest climate-change report From CNN: What the new report on climate change expects from you Opinion from The Boston Globe: Climate change: A crisis that can't be ignored From Vox: 4 big takeaways from the UN's alarming climate change report You know that old phrase, "Don't sh*t where you eat"? Well, we've been doing it in spades, and we're already seeing the negative impacts. According to the science outlined in the articles above, we are on course to do serious damage to our food supply and our homes. With the U.S. midterms less than a month away, I urge everyone concerned about the course we're on to get out and vote for the candidate most likely to support protecting our environment. It's the greenest action ...

FreeRangeStock.com My iPhone 6s has had a few problems lately. The battery seems to run down a lot faster, and occasionally, the phone locks up and I have to reboot it. For now, those are both problems I can live with. But I have a feeling I might need to start thinking about getting a new one soon. I'm so glad to see that these days, there are tons of places to recycle a smartphone. That wasn't always the case. But now, I can drop a used phone off at Best Buy or other locations, or I can mail it to several websites for a little extra cash. There's even an ATM machine at our local mall that I can drop it in and get a like $15 back. I just love that so many places are making recycling outdated technology simpler!

( Merelize / FreeRangeStock.com ) I need to buy lemons, lot of lemons, for the thorough cleaning my home desperately needs. I've for a long time that people use lemons to clean, but I didn't realize how powerful they can be. According to an article on GreenAmerica.com, lemon juice can cut grease . I had no idea. The same site lists a bunch of other natural cleaners I already knew about — like vinegar, baking soda, club soda, hydrogen peroxide, and borax — but also a few that surprised me, including: Corn meal to soak up spills on a carpet. Olive oil as a furniture polish. Some essential oils may have antibacterial and antifungal properties. " Get Things Clean the Natural Way ," a post on the Better Homes & Gardens website, adds a few more natural cleaners: Salt as an abrasive cleaner.  Microfiber cloths to remove germs. Do you have more tips for green cleaning? Please share in the comments below.

(Image from Pixabay) "That's wasteful." I heard my mom say those two words when I was a kid more times than I could count. Now, I find myself saying it to my own daughter. My husband reminds her to turn off the light whenever she leaves a room, and she needs lots of reminders. I have been tackling how much water she uses at bath time. When she first started taking a bath by herself, my daughter was pretty good with the amount of water she used, but at some point, my husband and I noticed that we've been hearing her start and stop the water more than once. Who knows how long she had been doing that before we noticed? Judging by the size of our water bills, I'd say it was probably four months. So I asked her about it. It turns out she was running fresh water for three reasons: To rinse herself off. Apparently, she had been using so much soap that the water was too soapy to rinse herself. To rinse out the tub. Her dad is usually the first o...

I've been rinsing and saving food cans for more than a year. We FINALLY have accrued enough to make taking them in for recycling worth the drive to the recycling center. We buy only a can or two per shopping trip, so they've been really slow to add up. I'm also in the mood for doing a whole lot of house cleaning and getting rid of a lot of stuff we no longer use. Perhaps I'll be able to find more recyclable metal around the house while I'm at it, though I doubt it. I think most of what I'll be getting rid of will be clothing and toys my daughter has outgrown. We do have a bunch of modem/routers, which for some reason, back when we had DSL cable never seemed to work for more than six months or so straight, so this will be my chance to drop those off as well.

Oatmeal for breakfast © Sugar0607 |  Dreamstime Stock Photos  &  Stock Free Images I'm on the hunt for grab-n-go breakfasts that meet the following criteria: Require no cooking to save on electricity. Are healthful. Can be made using all eco-friendly, organic ingredients. Because I bought a big tub of oatmeal a few months back that I've never opened, I figured oatmeal recipes were a good place to start. So I googled ideas on grab-n-go, no-cook oatmeal, and found quite a few out there that say to just let oatmeal soak overnight, then just grab it on your way out the door the next day. So for the past few days, that's been my breakfast: A bowl of oatmeal soaked overnight in water (many recipes call for yogurt or milk, but I'm trying to avoid sugars, so I just opt for water). I toss in a few pecans and chia seeds, and dig in. I was surprised to find I like it. I really didn't expect to. (Though I recommend stirring in some salt.) To vary...