The Eco Bloke

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Aeroplanes Leave Their Mark on Our Enviroment

So, you’re looking forward to your two weeks holiday in the summer visiting the Maldives? Well, enjoy them why you can as they are currently at threat from climate change.

There is absolutely no doubt that carbon emissions from flying are having a very real and extremely catastrophic impact on our climate and environment.

So, do you want to strike the death knell for the Maldives, or will you use your New Years Resolutions to help them fight back? And trust me they are fighting back (see the video blow).

Time to go Meat Free?

The meat production industry is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gasses in the world.

Methane and carbon are released at every part of the meat production cycle, including clearing forested land for keeping cattle and sheep, making and transporting of fertiliser, fossil fuelled farm vehicles, and all the farting and belching that all the livestock create.

The methane that is released into the atmosphere by cows alone when they fart is 23 times more dangerous to our environment than carbon. So you see – farting IS really bad for your health and the health of the planet, well from cows anyway.

On Your Bike Mate!

Evidence shows that exercise such as walking and cycling is good for your health. Both mental and physical! And driving your car produces carbon emissions. So the basis for today’s post is simple!

Will you make a commitment to yourself today to drive less and exercise more? Think about it, you will be happier, leaner and greener!

It is that simple.

Most car journeys’ are less than two miles… Most two mile journeys would be faster on a bicycle and many are even faster by foot… It all adds up!

Are you throwing away money?

Can you afford to take a crisp new £50 note each month and burn it? I thought not, but this is the amount that the average British family wastes each month on food that never gets eaten.

Think about the food cycle for one minute. Maybe that manky fruit that you chucked out last week. Usually grown in some exotic country where it is warm all year round. This fruit’s emissions are already high, even before it gets on the boat to leave to England. There is green house heating, watering, picking and packaging. All of which produces emissions of green house gasses.

Time to Get 'Turned On' by Switching Off!

This week in the run up to the 2010, I will be blogging with suggestions for you New Years Resolutions.

In this post we are going to talk about saving energy and money by cutting down your usages of electricity by switching off things that are not being used.

Here are some of the things that you can do to drastically cut your electricity usage today.

A Green Christmas is a fun Christmas!

Please post all your ‘Green’ Christmas and Boxing Day tips and suggestions below.

Let’s see how many tips we can get before Christmas Day tomorrow to help all readers have a very happy and environmentally friendly festive period.

Maybe you could help Eco Bloke to have the biggest and best list on the net!

OK, now over to you! Post your tips below.

The very merriest of Christmas wishes

Well, we made it through the first week of The Eco Bloke blog with much success! In just the past seven days we have 454 followers on Twitter and 21 fans on Facebook.

Each and every day we have had visitors from all over the world, but 77% coming from here in the UK, which is who I’m really talking to.

Over the last seven days we have discussed many interesting topics that will allow us all to cut our own personal emissions of dangerous greenhouse gasses. Here is a summery.

Bottled water con?

I was watching an Open University video clip this morning on the web and it got me thinking about today’s blog post.

Bottled water – Why?

Bottled water costs more than petrol in the UK, but yet as a nation we consume 2,000,000,000 litres a year. Why?

In many cases people can not tell the difference in the taste of bottled water or tap water, but still the bottled water industry went from being worth £1bn in 2003 to £2bn in 2008. Why?

Most of the UK’s used plastic water bottles head to landfill or incineration, but still we by them. Why?

Insulated to Perfection

Walking to the shops last night in the snow, it was interesting to see which roof-tops the snow was settling on and which it wasn’t.

Snow is a great way to see if your roof is adequately insulated or not. In the UK the recommended thickness of loft insulation is 270mm. Why not grab a ruler and go and see if your loft insulation is thick enough?

The reason that snow sits on a well insulated roof is that insulation is trapping the warm air in your house, keeping you more comfortable and saving you energy and money on your heating bills.

Shower Power!

Following on from my post If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down, I wanted to stay with the bathroom and saving water theme for today’s post.

Below is a list of 6 water saving tips for when you STINK!

1. Firstly it is a great idea to check your taps for leaks. Just one leaky tap could cost you and the planet 90 litres a week in water. How to Fix Bathroom Taps.
2. Leaving the tap running while brushing your teeth wastes 9 litres of water a minute. Use beaker to knock this wastage on the head.

A fascinating topic broke out in the comments section of a post that I wrote the other day called How would you deal with Climate Change Deniers?

The comments made by Gerry told of a technology that uses magnets to generate electricity.

This got me thinking as I had seen something on this a few months ago; however when I spoke with a few friends who dismissed the idea I completely forgot about it.

Rather than me rambling on, I think the best idea is that I post three video clips here that explain the concept of using magnets to generate electricity.

Time to go nuts for soap nuts

Do you really know what’s in your washing powder and the effect that it has on the environment when you’re done with it?

Many people don’t.

But to save yourself from worrying about it, why not GO NUTS!

SOAP NUTS that is!

I was first introduced to soap nuts when watching the BBC program – ‘It’s not easy being green’ last year.

Soap nuts are friendly to the environment as they are both natural and organic. They come from an entirely renewable source and are grown naturally in India and Nepal.

Hippo the Water Saver

Right my eco-buddies, today I am going to be covering yet another clever way to reduce your impact on the environment.

Its called ‘Selective Flushing’ and the rules are really very simple – If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down!

But no fear! If you are a bit of a snob and struggle with this one I have put an alternative at the bottom of today’s post

According to the Energy Saving Trust the average Brit uses a staggering 150 litres of water each day. And when only around two of those litres are for drinking that leaves 148 for washing and toilet flushing!

I don't need a bag!

According to our friends over at AbolishPlasticBags.org.uk plastic bag usage has fallen by 26% in just two years. No one can deny that this is a fantastic start, but it still means that a staggering 10 billion bags are still being made, used and then shipped off to landfill each and every year!

Today’s post is a challenge that I hope that you will not only take me up on, but will also share with friends, family and colleagues, so that we can continue to stop this wasteful practice together.

Are carbon emissions causing our climate to change?

I don’t want to ramble on to much in this post as I really want to hear your views on this.

I was talking to a friend, and he was saying that he was sceptical about global warming. He said, “This whole global warming thing is just a big scam to get more taxes out of us.”

So here is my question to you…

How would you deal with Climate Change Deniers?