| Our GREEN SPACE Earth Day is celebrated annually! It is interesting how much media attention Earth Day receives each year. Let us not just celebrate the Earth one day a year. Let's start making personal improvements every day. In our GREEN SPACE here, we will add a new action each month that you can take to help heal our planet. ~~~~~~~ April 2010 Action: EARTH DAY is APRIL 22, 2010 Check out www.earthday.net for information. ~~~~~~~ January 2010 Action: Recycle Your Christmas Tree (Taken from www.simplesteps.org) "Over 30 million Christmas trees are tossed out every year in the U.S., so if you have a cut tree make sure it meets an organic end—plan ahead to recycle your tree. Many communities offer curbside pick up of trees, others have drop off locations or wood chipping services. But most communities only collect trees during a specific time period. If you miss it, your tree will wind up in a landfill where even the most natural trash is unlikely to decompose. Figure out now where and when to recycle your tree by checking with your city or local sanitation department." ~ Simplesteps.org Go to the article here for more information: Simplesteps.org ~~~~~~~ October 2009 Action: Here are some ways to save energy and money. These ideas and more are offered by Worldwatch Institute. ◦Set your thermostat a few degrees lower in the winter and a few degrees higher in the summer to save on heating and cooling costs. ◦Install compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) when your older incandescent bulbs burn out. ◦Unplug appliances when you're not using them. Or, use a "smart" power strip that senses when appliances are off and cuts "phantom" or "vampire" energy use. ◦Wash clothes in cold water whenever possible. As much as 85 percent of the energy used to machine-wash clothes goes to heating the water. ◦Use a drying rack or clothesline to save the energy otherwise used during machine drying. ~~~~~~~ June 2009 Action: 10 Environmentally Friendly Ways to Use Baking Soda 1. Be sure to keep an extra box of baking soda by your stove in case of grease or electrical fire. Scatter the powder by the handful to safely put it out. 2. Clean vegetables and fruit with baking soda. Sprinkle in water, soak and rinse the produce. 3. Clean Formica counter tops with baking soda on a damp sponge. 4. Wash out thermos bottles and coolers with baking soda and water to get rid of stale smells. 5. Run your coffee maker through its cycle with a baking soda solution. Rinse. 6. Keep your drains clean and free-flowing by putting 4 tablespoons of soda in them each week. Flush the soda down with hot water. 7. Soak your shower curtains in water and baking soda to clean them. 8. To remove strong odors from your hands, wet your hands and rub them hard with baking soda, then rinse. 9. Repel rain from windshield. Put gobs of baking soda on a dampened cloth and wipe windows inside and out. 10. Use baking soda dry with a small brush to rub canvas handbags clean. ~~~~~~~ May 2009 Action: Some simple, cheap and environmentally friendly ideas for spring cleaning include: • Rejuvenate aluminum utensils by cleaning with a paste of cream of tartar and water and then buffing with a soft cloth. • Modern stainless steel appliances and fittings often get smeared with grease and fingerprints – avoid the temptation to spray with toxic chemicals and instead wipe with a cloth dampened with undiluted white vinegar. • Commercial shoe polishes often contain noxious ingredients, so instead rub leather shoes with olive oil and a few drops of lemon juice with a thick cotton cloth, wait a few minutes then buff to a deep natural shine. • To clean copper or brass soak a cotton rag in a saucepan of boiling water into which you have tablespoon of salt and a cup of white vinegar. When the solution has cooled enough to handle rub the metal with the cloth, allow it to cool, then wipe clean. For stubborn stains sprinkle baking soda on the cloth before wiping. ~~~~~~~ April 2009 Action: EARTH DAY 2009 is on April 22! For great ideas and events going on all over the world, visit http://www.earthday.net Our church is celebrating Earth WEEK, in fact, and this includes a double feature environmental event on Friday, April 24 starting at 7:00pm. The evening begins with Margaret Wooster reading and discussing her new book Living Waters. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Chairman of Waterkeeper Alliance, writes of Ms. Wooster's book, "Living waters explores tributaries and rivers that feed and drain to Great Lakes across New York State and down the St Lawrence with an appreciation for their rich natural and cultural histories, and an awareness of their impact on the largest freshwater ecosystem in the world." Ms. Wooster is currently completing a river-based habitat assessment for Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper. Anyone who has read or heard Margaret Wooster knows this will be a very special treat with lots of interesting facts and perspectives. Following a short intermission, The Sierra Club will then introduce a film, FLOW, which focuses on the importance of water on our planet and current issues related to water, its use and distribution. Admission is free with a voluntary donation to be shared by The Sierra Club and Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper. Refreshments and spring garden items will be available. The Unitarian Universalist Church, located at 639 Main Street, Niagara Falls, NY (near the Main Street Post Office) is handicap accessible and welcomes everyone in celebrating Spring with this special event. ~~~~~~~~ March 2009 Action: This month we have a different opportunity to learn how to be green! Colin McCullough, a UU from Massachusetts, has written us and would like to visit us. Colin says: We're a UU family from central Massachusetts planning to embark soon on our cross-country eco-video series for kids about renewable energy and sustainable living. We're coming through Niagara Falls on Thursday, June 25 and would like to come visit the church on our way through. Here's some information about our project: in May/June 2009, our family will be crossing the U.S. in our vegetable-oil powered VW Beetle to film an eco-video series for kids about renewable energy and sustainable living. We'll be distributing our video series free to schools nationally, with the mission of inspiring and empowering kids to create a renewable and sustainable future. Our nationally award-winning eco-videos, starring 9-year-old Carrick, have been seen by over 200,000 people, and our upcoming eco-video series is our attempt to bring the message of sustainability to a much larger audience. Kids need to see what a sustainable future can look like, and they need to hear it from someone their own age! You can find out more about our cross-country eco-video project at our website, www.OurRenewableNation.org. ~~~~~~~ February 2009 Action: Install a real-time electricity cost monitor in your home. A real-time electricity cost monitor is an easy-to-use device that allows you to observe power costs as they happen. You can also estimate trends and be alerted to excessive and costly power consumption. Just place it in a convenient location and you’ll see how you use your electricity and be motivated to conserve. You can use these at home and in small businesses. • Consumers often pay no attention to electricity costs until paying the monthly bill. This monitor will change that! • Visit any of these three sites for examples of monitors: The Energy Detective Power Cost Monitor Cent-a-meter ~~~~~~~ January 2009 Action: The next time you register for a new product or fill in any form, if there is a box to request information, only check it if it's for e-mail. Don't subscribe to any more printed junk mail! Almost 2/3 of the mail USPS brings to American homes is junk mail and most of it goes straight into the trash. Do your little bit to stop it. ~~~~~~~ December 2008 Action: David Suzuki says that there are many things that each of us can do - but they seem like just a drop in the bucket - and they are - but there are 6.5 billion of us and we can fill any bucket if we try! So each person—just pick up one piece of litter and dispose of it properly each day and then don't add any litter!!! See what Oscar the Grouch has to say at HERE. ~~~~~~~ November 2008 Action: Do a slow thaw! Plan ahead so you don't need to use a microwave to defrost frozen food. Ideally, let the food thaw in the fridge overnight. Its chilliness will leave less work for the fridge to do and, of course, save electricity. ~~~~~~~ October 2008 Action: Low cost reading! Newspapers and magazines tend to be read only once and then discarded. Try listening to the radio or browsing on-line or reading the freebies at cafés and libraries. You can also share with others by buying a paper, having your coffee and leaving the paper behind for others. ~~~~~~~ September 2008 Action: Economic pressure creates pain and inspires creativity! Do you think you can reduce your auto fuel consumption by 1/3 or more? Well you can! And the main ingredient is you. Well, more accurately, your attitude! What is hypermiling? According to a fantastic story in the Washington Post, it is a method of increasing your gas mileage by making skillful changes in the way you drive, allowing you to save gas and thereby have an easier time withstanding rising gas prices. Hypermiling : Six Steps To Decrease Your Fuel Consumption 1st: (Most important) Know what you're doing. Record your gas mileage. 2nd: Do you drive aggressively and not know it? 3rd: How long are you sitting still at red lights? 4th: Keep moving in traffic congestion. 5th: Slowly accelerate after stops. 6th: Your cruise control saves gas (but not the way you might think). Learn more Read about it - What is Hypermiling? Watch Video clips: CBC National News segment on Hypermiling Listen to Randal a hypermiler who gets over 120 mpg! How To Be A Hypermiler July 2008 action: Click the link below for a Powerpoint presentation on: No More Plastic Bags! June 2008 action: Bring your own grocery bags to the store. Most supermarkets even sell durable, handled reusable bags for shopping. This saves the environment from countless paper and plastic bags being used. May 2008 action: Runny nose? Use a handkerchief rather than paper tissues to blow your nose. Not only will this save tress, but the organic cotton will be kinder to your nose than the wood fibers in the paper tissues. |
Our Green Space
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| First Unitarian Universalist Church Of Niagara 639 Main Street, Niagara Falls, NY |
The Butterfly Effect
The butterfly effect is the idea in meteorology that the flapping of a butterfly's wing will create a disturbance that, in the chaotic motion of
the atmosphere, will become amplified eventually to change the large scale atmospheric motion, so that the long term behavior
becomes impossible to forecast. A corollary might be: the effects of many small actions can affect the whole environment.
The butterfly effect is the idea in meteorology that the flapping of a butterfly's wing will create a disturbance that, in the chaotic motion of
the atmosphere, will become amplified eventually to change the large scale atmospheric motion, so that the long term behavior
becomes impossible to forecast. A corollary might be: the effects of many small actions can affect the whole environment.