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Let There Be Light

When you’re on your next camping adventure, you could have a connection to someone recovering from a natural disaster halfway across the world. How? With light. Light Makes a Difference After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, architecture graduate students Anna Stork and Andrea Shreshta noticed something illuminating. When a natural disaster strikes, relief takes the form of the most essential items: food, water, shelter, and medical supplies. While these items are critical, one of the first things to go during a natural disaster is electricity, leaving victims in the dark. Anna and Andrea considered the dark and dangerous conditions at night. To light their tents and shelters, people resorted to candles and kerosene lanterns, both hazardous in close quarters. They...

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Earth Day Every Day

It’s April 22nd, the day that over 193 countries celebrate conservation and environmental protection. But how did it all begin? The way most activism begins: with a disaster. The Beginning The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970 in response to many major environmental disasters at the time. With the publication of Rachel Carson’s A Silent Spring in 1962, a watershed moment began, initiating a shared consciousness for human impact on our planet. But it took almost a decade to turn that consciousness into a movement. When a devastating oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara killed nearly 3,500 seabirds and marine wildlife in 1969, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson decided to channel the public outcry into a...

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The Wonders of Worm Poop

If you’re an avid backyard gardener, chances are you’ve encountered a few creepy-crawly creatures while tending your crop, but did you know you can farm these guys too? That’s right, worms can be farmed for use in fertilizing through a process called vermicomposting.   Vermi-what? Vermicomposting, also called vermiculture or worm farming, is a composting process using worms to break down food waste creating nutrient-rich castings, a fancy term for worm poo,  that can then be used as fertilizer in your garden.   Not Your Average Earthworm Before you go digging up those big, slimy guys in your backyard, think twice. Vermicomposting can’t be done with just any earthworm; it takes some special guys to do the job.  Worm farmers...

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Garden Landscape Ideas With Solar Power

Gardens are beautiful. They can give your home an attractive outlook, and beautify your immediate surroundings while also providing the environment the nutrients its need to keep our lives in balance. Adding solar power is not only great for the environment, but has become extremely affordable. Creating a beautiful garden takes a lot of work, and you want to make sure it can be admired in the light and the dark. Without the proper plan for some garden lighting you are cutting the beauty of your garden short. We believe it is essential to keep your yards and garden areas illuminated at all times. Wondering how? We have devised a solution to that question. If you are wondering how you...

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How to Add a Wind Turbine Generator to Your Home or Business

Wind turbine generators are quickly becoming a cost effective way to provide electricity for your home, business, barn, or shop building. Apart from falling costs wind energy offers the sustainability we should strive for as a society. While the notion of installing a wind turbine may seem difficult, we've compiled an easy to follow guide to describe the process of starting your own project. Certain factors need to be considered before installing a wind turbine at your home or business. Various factors involved include the location, choosing the correct size of turbine and tower after carefully analyzing the turbine’s annual output energy, and making a decision of whether to connect the turbine to the grid or leave it off grid. For wind...

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Wind Energy

Benefits of Personal Wind Power: An On or Off Grid Solution

The Need for Energy Imagine you wake up on a cold Monday morning and you are finding it difficult to get up; you can barely feel your legs! You gather some strength and then you find a way to wobble into the bathroom. As you glance into the mirror it dawns on you the lights are off. You flip the light switch and nothing happens, so you repeatably flick it up and down, to no avail. Then on top of that the sink has no warm water, nothing in the fridge is chilled, and the microwave oven won’t turn on to warm up your Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich. A terrible start to your day, right? The need for energy in our day to...

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1 comment Renewable Energy, Wind Energy

Benefits of Using Solar Powered Charging Banks For Camping

Sometimes we need a break from the nerve wrecking and tough routine of our busy lives. Getting away to a pristine place for camping can be the best choice for refreshing your mind. So take a break and let your body recover from the fatigue of daily stresses. You know that mobile phones and other such gadgets are now a great part of our life. Wherever you go, your smart phone is always with you, and nowadays we cannot live a single day without our phones as we need to stay connected with the world and our loved ones. The use of electronic devices in any camping activity can never be ignored and these devices need a power source to be charged....

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How Do Solar Panels Work?

How Solar Panels Work In a bid to create energy sources that are sustainable and safe to use, scientists have continued to come up with different ways to efficiently extract useful energy from natural occurring sources. One of these forms of energy is solar energy. It’s main source being the sun, solar energy provides a renewable source of power that is clean and safe. To gain useful energy, the sun’s energy through radiation is captured and converted into electrical energy for domestic and industrial uses. The sun produces photons that hit the earth in about 8 1/2 minutes. These photons can generate electricity when they hit the cells of a solar panel. A solar panel is a photo voltaic cell...

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The Importance of Sustainability and Sustainable Development

How Sustainable Energy Impacts the Environment Energy greatly affects the environment in multiple ways; the air, land, water and almost everything around us. Every living human being uses at least one form of energy and that is just putting it mildly. The electricity we consume, the rays from the sun, the gas our automobiles consume are all forms of energy. One of the greatest problems facing mankind today is finding the most efficient and sustainable forms of energy to stick to. It is no news that energy affects climate change and can be a serious pollutant in the environment. For different world economies, choosing the kind of energy to invest in will depend largely on its sustainability. Sustainable energy is...

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Sustainable Energy

Winter Composting Tips

Composting During Winter Composting can be pretty easy to go about during summer or autumn, but what happens when the winter comes? The freezing weather condition can make it a little more difficult to produce or store compost during winter. The benefits of keeping sustainable products in form of active compost during the winter include fertilizer for spring planting and can act as a source of heat for greenhouse. As winter approaches, some people might decide to send their scraps to a municipal composting facility. Some others might create some kind of indoor shelter to help with keeping the compost warm. Amazingly, there are tips and techniques to go by for storing your compost during the winter season, this all...

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1 comment Composting

Easy Ways to Lessen Your Environmental Impact in 2018

Not very long ago, the world was bitterly divided by the debate about climate change, but thank goodness those dark days are firmly behind us. The world is more aware, more enlightened about the terrible effects on the environment some of our activities cause, but we still have some ways to go. Taking care of the environment is often mistaken even by those who accept its reality as a sole responsibility of governments around the world. People take their day-to-day activities and the lasting impact it has on the environment for granted. Often you will get a puzzled look when you suggest to someone that their activities might be as bad long-term to what some of the worst environment polluters...

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5 'Must See' Climate Change Documentaries to Watch in 2018

The whole world has woken to the stark reality that faces humanity and all other living beings on this planet. Climate change is no longer a myth to most of us, it’s a reality that we must all band together to face, with the Paris agreement encapsulating humanity’s resolve to confront this impending menace and avoid its worst possible consequences. It hasn’t always been like this though, just over a decade ago, we were bitterly divided over the reality of climate change, but the turning point in the battle of ideas was soon to come with the release of the iconic “An Inconvenient truth” by Al Gore, a movie that would change the momentum of the debate. It was to...

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Climate Change, Global Warming

Tips to Limit Your Holiday Waste

Americans throw away 25% more trash during the holidays than at any other time of year. Where does it come from? In total, families in the U.S. send 2.65 billion Christmas cards each year (picture a ten-story building, with each floor the size of a football field, full to the brim with seasons’ greetings). If each family sent just one less card, 50,000 cubic yards of paper would be saved. If each family wrapped just three presents in reused materials, the paper saved could cover 45,000 football fields. What if each family reused just 2 feet of ribbon? That would save 38,000 miles of ribbon, enough to tie a bow around the entire planet! Want to give the gift of...

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How Solar Power Will Keep You Safe When Electricity Can Not

Despite forecasters informing people of incoming storms days or even weeks before striking, it’s virtually impossible to predict exactly how much damage will be done. In the time it takes people to prepare for an impending disaster, a storm could already have arrived. The results of under preparedness can be devastating. In 2016, the US experienced a record 15 natural disasters, totaling nearly $46 billion in damage. And this number only accounts for those particular events, not even taking into account the ones that just impact local communities. However, even the ones that don't make national news can be enough to leave homes and businesses without electricity or running water for weeks. Homes on the grid are more susceptible to...

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Save the Environment, Save Money: Why Outdoor Solar Lighting is a Bright Idea!

As climate change and environmental conservation become increasingly popular topics to see on the morning news, it's no surprise sustainable energy seems to be illuminating the future. Whether you're using wind, water, or the sun to light up your home or business, the benefits of sustainable practices are numerous. Specifically, the U.S. seems to have taken a particular liking to solar power. In 2016 alone, the market for solar power grew by 95% from the year before. So, what’s the big appeal of going solar? Here are a few reasons that just might flip a switch in your mind. Outdoor solar lighting not only saves energy in the environment, but it also keeps money in the buyer’s wallet. After the...

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