Answers
(Los Angeles) Every now and then, the water in my brita water filter turns green at the bottom. I've cleaned the filter many times and changed the filter itself. Is my filter growing algae or something or is the filter not catching something coming out of my faucet?!!
This is the second time it's happened and I have not exceeded the lifespan of both filters. Is this green stuff going to cause me to get sick? I may have drank a cup or two without noticing.
I would guess that the green color is from copper pipes and probably not from algae unless the source is not filtering it out. Algae would only be there and green if it had a light source. It would not live without light and some food and so would be brown. Oxides of copper would be green, like an old penny, like the inside of old copper pipes which is the only material that most municipalities allow in the US for home water service. Always struck me as funny, here anyway, that the town can run PE pipe to your house, frequently from iron pipe, yet they require copper house lines with silver based soldier, no more lead (for good reason).
Carbon Dioxide used up into the air by unplugging stuff you aren#39;t using. Instead of water bottles, use Filters like Pur or Brita. Take a ...
http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculato r.aspx
This is not meant to be bragging on myself. The aforementioned question is simply one that has been asked more and more lately.
-Maintenance: I use ponies as a lawnmower. They are even more precise than a weed-eater around edges. I use their manure in my compost. Plus, there is no labor involved for mowing, and they make interesting pets.
-Energy: I have a wood-stove for heat, which is quite efficient and keeps my electricity bill below $60 in the winter, even with more electronics than I should probably have running and having Christmas lights for a month. I use the equivalent of one to two trees for heat each winter.
I now have energy saving light bulbs in almost every room (the most used rooms). I use only what lights are necessary at the moment.
-Transportation: My car can get over 30 mpg, while still performing adequately. I’ve added extra upgrades (air filter, muffler, cold air intake, etc,) that are supposed to make it more efficient. I do notice a difference in fuel consumption since the upgrades have been added (along with some slight performance bonuses).
I use tires which have the highest treadwear rating (they last a long time, even with having good traction).
-Consumables: The house has it’s own well, with it’s own pressure filter. I have a Brita filter pitcher, and use water from the well for drinking water. I use reusable bottles when it is required to have water afar (hiking and stuff).
I am starting my first garden this year. I am using my own compost from kitchen scraps, manure, leaves, etc.
-Garbage: This is my worst environmental aspect. Even though we recycle glass, aluminum, and plastic, we have no trash service so we burn our remaining garbage. I would like to build some kind of incinerator/burning pit that has at least a make-shift filter on it to reduce my air pollution.
-Influence: I have spread influence over my family. My father has bought a hydrogen generator for his truck. He requires a rather large truck for his job. My family utilizes his truck as “the family’s truck” so that it is all that is necessary for the entire family to complete big tasks. My parents also have energy saving light bulbs... not to mention that my father works for a clean energy industry.
-Future Plans: I am very interested in building a mini-windmill. If it produces enough power to nearly power my two-bedroom house, I might build a few more and make profit from them... if I can afford one at all.
Some do better in certain areas many are doing much worse...
Overall I would say you are doing exceptionally well hopefully you do try not to have to much in the burn pile though.
Oh yeah you probably already know about it but if you want some info for your windmill you might check this site
The greenish Olympics | theCLog
For all the efforts to minimize the impact of the Olympics, one big solution never gets taken seriously. So much of the environmental and financial cost of the games comes from cities trying to build facilities that suit both a massive, two-week influx of athletes and spectators and also the long-term needs of locals. So you get things like Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, built for the 1976 summer games and not paid off in full until 2006. Or the “spookily quiet, deserted” Olympic village Tom Philpott saw in Turin, Italy, two years after the games there.
The solution: Hold the Olympics in the same location every time, one spot for the summer games and one for the winter. Since the greatest concentration of athletes comes from Europe, putting the summer games in, say, Athens and the winter games somewhere in the Alps would minimize jet travel, which accounts for fully half the carbon impact of the Vancouver games.
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News
Doing it the right wayOttawa Citizen - Jan 25, 2010
On one of my tracks I say quot;A place to lay my head when I#39;m back from tour, A Brita filter so my water can be pure, like yours.quot; I smiled when I wrote it.DeHavilland (press release) (subscription) - Jan 28, 2010
However, it is interesting that, in dealing with BRITA water-carbonating machines manufactured in Maale Adumim, even though the Israelis first said that and morenbsp;raquo;