Environment Articles

Environment | By Michael Dappert @ Tuesday, 9th October 2007 @ 6:12 PM

Corn to ethanol is big business. The Federal Government pays ethanol producers 50 cents for every gallon of ethanol they produce. Corn farmers are riding a boom in corn prices not seen in their lifetimes. All sorts of groups, consortiums, corporations, and communities are trying to get on the gravy train. And for what? Ethanol production, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will make us 3.7% less dependent on imported oil by the year 2017. Wow. These figures only use oil as a... more...

Environment | By Andrew Stratton @ Monday, 8th October 2007 @ 2:16 PM

Nitrogen is, of course, an essential plant nutrient - but it also can negatively affect both growth and quality of a crop and so must be carefully managed. Crops take up nitrogen that is released to the soil as a direct result of several catalysts, including atmospheric deposition ... soil organic matter mineralization ... crop residue decomposition ... and animal manure and/or inorganic fertilizer applications. A deficiency in nitrogen causes severe damage to crop yields - and c... more...

Environment | By Andrew Stratton @ Wednesday, 5th September 2007 @ 9:18 PM

A soil test allows a land owner to balance the potential impact of harm from soil contamination against the cost of undertaking a cleanup operation with the advice of a soil testing lab. Soil testing is used as part of contaminated land rehabilitation projects to determine the presence and levels of harmful substances. A site is deemed to be contaminated when areas or the entire site has toxic chemicals in the ground that are harmful to humans or the environment at levels higher than tho... more...

Environment | By Stephanie Foster @ Wednesday, 5th September 2007 @ 12:38 AM

Renting can be frustrating when you want to go green. There are a lot of things you just don't have control over. You generally don't own the appliances, can't install solar panels, etc. It gets annoying sometimes. I deal with this a lot as I do still rent. We're fortunate enough to be renting a house rather than an apartment, but there are still a lot of limitations. Start By Saving Energy Even when you can't replace that cranky old refrigerator, yo... more...

Environment | By Michael Dappert @ Tuesday, 4th September 2007 @ 9:31 AM

A couple of years ago our daughter thought we should buy a gas heated clothes dryer. Having moved into partment life during graduate school she thought having to carry the laundry out to the line was just too much work for her mother since she was getting old, or at least older. I reminded her we were only in our fifties and really not doing too bad yet, and besides, I carry the laundry baskets out to the line and back in when everything is dry. It is not her mother that does the lugging. <... more...

Environment | By Jim Corkern @ Monday, 27th August 2007 @ 3:45 AM

While there are a lot of different commercial chemicals that are used to kill mold, a lot of people do not like to use a lot of household chemicals in their homes. There is a belief that the more we use chemicals in our daily lives, the more harm they will end up doing us and since there may be some truth to this, some people have found other ways to kill mold besides the cleaners that we find in department and grocery stores. Three natural ingredients have been found to kill mol... more...

Environment | By Don Alexander @ Tuesday, 21st August 2007 @ 2:08 AM

Work is a force applied over a distance. Let us further define energy as a shifting back and forth, but never truly changing one thing: it's constancy. The first law of thermodynamics: energy is conserved. Thermodynamics is the study of the movement of heat. This law instructs us that although the kind of energy in a given system can change, the total amount can't. Energy is able to travel seamlessly through systems, yet it never changes its structure or shape. I find thi... more...

Environment | By Stephanie Foster @ Sunday, 19th August 2007 @ 12:32 AM

Going green can sound intimidating. There are so many things you should do to be green that even getting started is difficult. But that's why taking little steps makes so much more sense. You don't need to be thoroughly environmentally sensitive in a day. If you take it a step at a time you can get to where you want to be with less of a struggle. Pick something simple to start with, perhaps as simple as turning on fewer lights in the house or replacing incandescent bulbs ... more...

Environment | By Kelvin Ho @ Friday, 17th August 2007 @ 10:58 PM

It is not a secret that we humans have been destroying the environment for years. It is now that some of us are trying to make all people aware of the affects that our lack of care has had on the environment and what will happen if we do not make changes now and try to stop the progress of global warming. Our focus, or drive, is the thought of what type of world are we leaving our children. We also need to be looking at how global warming is affecting our animals now and in the future if we do n... more...

Environment | By Brandi Cummings @ Monday, 13th August 2007 @ 8:11 AM

Many of us want to be responsible citizens of the Earth. We think about the effects our lifestyles have on the environment. We are concerned about global warming. We want to ensure our children's future on this planet is one that still has clean air to breathe, an abundance of trees and wildlife, and clean water to drink. However, many of us also think that the sacrifices might be too great to "go green" in our own office. Good news. It's not as difficult as you think.more...

Environment | By simon jones @ Friday, 3rd August 2007 @ 1:00 PM

Millions of inkjet cartridges are currently sold in the UK each year with over a billion cartridges being sold worldwide. According to available statistics, only around 30 percent to 40 percent of printer cartridges are currently being remanufactured or recycled so we are left with the question, what happens to the rest. Unfortunately, they are most likely to end up in landfill sites and this is definitely not the right answer. Landfill Each and every one of us produces waste; thi... more...

Environment | By Jim Corkern @ Thursday, 26th July 2007 @ 11:42 AM

A lot of people, including insurance companies, would like you to think that mold isn't as dangerous to your health as all the media hype would have you believe, but actually mold is just as harmful as people say that it is. Mold has been around longer than human beings have, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't cause us problems both medically and financially. If anyone tries to tell you that mold isn't going to cause any damage to your health, you might want to t... more...

Environment | By Roger Munns @ Tuesday, 24th July 2007 @ 1:00 AM

When Prince Albert became Monaco's Sovereign two years ago he soon set a path that would show him to be a leader among leaders for the environment movement. In an effort to encourage more people to leave their cars at home and use public transport - not easy in a country that has the highest density of millionaire's in the world - bus fares were cut to a Euro for a single journey, and a year later figures show bus usage has risen 17 per cent. Prince Albert visited the Nor... more...

Environment | By Andrew Bicknell @ Friday, 20th July 2007 @ 2:09 PM

Bio Diesel fuel is a diesel equivalent, processed fuel derived from biological sources, such as vegetable oils, which can be used in unmodified diesel engine vehicles. It can also be used as a heating fuel in domestic and commercial boilers. There are a number of naturally occurring and renewable resources it can be refined from including algae, vegetable oils, animal fats or recycled restaurant greases. It can also be processed where ever the raw materials to make it exist. Bio diesel fu... more...

Environment | By Stephanie Foster @ Friday, 20th July 2007 @ 12:37 AM

It's a wonderful time to decide to be more environmentally friendly in your buying decisions. There are many products available and the prices are getting better. But where people often fall short of their green goals is in really thinking about the environment. Do you really need to make that purchase right now? Buying green is a great way to feel good about what you're buying. You're buying products that were made in a manner that is less harmful to the environment... more...

Environment | By Michael Stollery @ Tuesday, 17th July 2007 @ 1:29 PM

The first rule in business is make money, sell for more than your costs and create value, keep yourself cash flow positive and you will not go far wrong. With this guiding capitalist principle in mind, recycling and adopting a environmentally green strategy has commonly been regarded as dead money that provides no return or business benefit. In this article we will be taking a brief look at the business sense that should be driving you to adopt a cleaner, greener approach and reduce your busin... more...

Environment | By Michael Dappert @ Tuesday, 10th July 2007 @ 2:21 PM

Imagine this, every home in the US with solar panels on the roof. Each one feeding power into the national power grid. Or, industrious individuals producing biodiesel out on their suburban or rural homesteads. How about wind generators on buildings in cities making power and sending it all into the grid. Historically energy has been produced by big enterprises that build big facilities to generate power and then sell the power to the consumer. Maybe it made sense at one time but it n... more...

Environment | By Pat Carpenter @ Friday, 6th July 2007 @ 4:24 PM

"Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink," or so the saying goes. Texas knows this well, with large swaths subject to extreme heat and drought inland, and non-potable salt water down in the Gulf. There may be water, but no one can drink it without treating it first. East Texas is richer in water resources than the rest of the state, but even this area experiences shortages, resulting in citizens voluntarily, and sometimes involuntary, rationing. Cities like Houston, D... more...

Environment | By Pat Carpenter @ Thursday, 5th July 2007 @ 5:20 PM

The dramatic rise in oil prices over the past few years has generated a lot of attention for alternative fuels and alternatively powered vehicles. Environmentalists hail it as the beginning of a revolution and a natural consequence of using non-renewable resources with abandon. The public health benefits that would result from a major increase in those using alternative fuels is almost immeasurable. Even Texas, second only to Alaska in the amount of oil produced per year, has biodiesel stations ... more...

Environment | By Stephanie Foster @ Thursday, 5th July 2007 @ 1:09 AM

Recycling is one of the things people think of first when they think about being environmentally friendly. In some ways that's a pity, as reduce and reuse really should come first, but recycling is nonetheless important, and one of the easiest for the government to encourage both individuals and businesses to do. Recycling has improved greatly these past several years, but it's still not great. Far more could be recycled, especially when it comes to paper. It is still easier in ... more...