If you go to the Canadian Tire website you might find some info there on these systems and how they are set up.  The store has a very informative brochure which I will snail mail you if you send me your address.

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"Over straight and crooked miles
Falling out of favour or embraced
Wondering where was love...
It hadn't happened yet"
~Ron Sexsmith~

Nearest to all things
Patiently waiting
So let the angels sing
Silently weeping

Thanks Ann...I just sent you a PM. 

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"There's one in every crowd, for crying out loud,
why was it always turning out be me"

This link to a Chatelaine article just came in my email. I thought I'd share. Little things we can all do to make changes. http://www.chatelaine.com/english/life/article.jsp?content=20070111_161509_7280

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...then curl up by the fire and sleep for awhile,
it's the grooviest thing, it's the perfect dream ~ The Cure

One man's 'ridiculous' is another man's 'Yabba-dabba-doo' ~ Charlie on Two & a Half Men

Keep it simple

That article had some great suggestions...the lunch one made me think as well, I guess a lot of waste can be accumulated in school lunches. Baggies and plastic forks and spoons and such, tin foil or plastic wrap. Teaching children to recycle now or be aware of the environmental impact of trash should be important to parents to establish good habits for adulthood.

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"There's one in every crowd, for crying out loud,
why was it always turning out be me"

ann:

Did you know these things can be hooked up so that any excess power you produce goes back into the "electrical grid" and your utility company will re-imburse you for the power that you are supplying them?

For residents of Ontario who would like to find out more about the above, click on this link:  http://www.powerauthority.on.ca/sop/ (in Ontario, it's called the Standard Offer Program).

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The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.

I learned something cool todya that I didn't know. Egg shells can be used in gardens to keep pests away. It's a non-toxic approach to pest control. Also vinegar can be used to kill unwanted grass in driveways and sidewalks.

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"There's one in every crowd, for crying out loud,
why was it always turning out be me"

 

  Gotta read this thread through. Tomorrow maybe, but this week for sure.

  Man, that is neat about the eggshells. Who knew? Okay. some of you....

  As for Gore, I think he should be commended for his efforts and probably voted

in, if he runs, to martial a more global plan. One thing has me wondering though.

 On this french show which works to root out truths through frank, face-to-face

 interviews, an aside was written that Gore's electricity bill at his private home

 was over $30,000/ yr. or mth, but probably the former. Gotta belive this is just

a rumour but if it isn't. Do as I say, not as I do again? Anyone set me straight?

  But, I fully agree with the intent of this thread and will add what I can to help.

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To be or not to be is NOT the question!

Rather, is it your will to be here, or to be elsewhere?

Gobo:

 On this french show which works to root out truths through frank, face-to-face

 interviews, an aside was written that Gore's electricity bill at his private home

 was over $30,000/ yr. or mth, but probably the former. Gotta belive this is just

a rumour but if it isn't. Do as I say, not as I do again?

I'll address this one... there are a lot of naysayers out there.  There are a lot of folks, some of them paid by oil interests, that tried very hard to convince the public that the climate crisis was just a fabrication.  These naysayers have lost that argument.  So now they come up with something else:  since they couldn't discredit the science behind the climate crisis, they will try to discredit the folks presenting the science.

Last week, Dr. David Suzuki was on a cross-country Cdn tour.  He got flak in Winnipeg because he is not using a bio-fuelled bus.  Dr. Suzuki does have someone on board the tour to calculate all of the carbon they are emitting during the tour, and then he will neutralize those emissions by buying carbon offsets.  Yes, I believe him.  I'd rather put my faith in him, rather than in Tim Ball, of "Friends Of Science", whose little Canadian organization is being funded by Alberta oil interests.

Getting back to Al Gore... yes, he lives in a big house.  But he purchases green power for his electricity (similar to Bullfrog Power).  And he purchases carbon offsets.  Furthermore, whoever obtained his spending amount on electricity did so illegally.  Because Al Gore's personal purchases are not a matter of public record.  My electricity bill for the year is no one's business but mine.  Same goes for yours, Gobo, it's your business.

Where does Québec's electricity come from?  How about investigating Hydro-Québec and their environmental record?  For all we know, they fund that show whose goal is to "root out truths".  And the producers of this show, instead of offering tips as others in this thread have done, can think of nothing better to do than to discredit someone who has spent the past 25 years warning folks that our actions are causing our environmental doom.  Whom would you rather believe?

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The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.

I don't know either way, but could you imagine paying that much per month.  OUCH!!!!

(50 more minutes, oooh this day has been frustrating ) By chance is there a full moon?

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"There's one in every crowd, for crying out loud,
why was it always turning out be me"

For more on Al Gore's electricity usage, and opinions on both sides, you can visit http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-6162631.html

But I find it very interesting that this *** storm surfaced the week before Scooter Libby's verdict.  We're all so busy now talking about Al Gore's electricity usage that no one is talking about the shame in the White House, that a CIA agent's name was leaked for no other reason than to get revenge on said agent's husband.  I'm talking about Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson, and how Cheney was mad as hell that Joe Wilson returned from Iraq and said that there were no WMDs in that country.

 Edited on March 7, 3 P.M.:

From the Guardian UK:  http://environment.guardian.co.uk/ethicalliving/story/0,,2023839,00.html

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The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.

ann:

If you go to the Canadian Tire website you might find some info there on these systems and how they are set up.  The store has a very informative brochure which I will snail mail you if you send me your address.

Here the link for Canadian Tire's green energy products: http://www.advancegreen.ca/en/index.php?icid=MK_AG2007_EN_MBDLP

And here is the link on how to achieve off grid power generation http://www2.canadiantire.ca/CTenglish/pdf/solutions_guide_en.pdf  (Ann, this may be the flier you mentioned in an earlier post.)

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The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.

Excellent links Therese and very good points made as well.  To repeat what I said in the Academy Awards thread, there's nothing wrong with using electricity - it's how it's produced that is causing the problem.  Attempts to control global warming using conservation methods are important, but only by changing the main methods by which electricity is produced, will we see any shift in the big picture imho. 

Coal-fired plants to produce electrity = big carbon dioxide emissions

Internal-combustion engine (over 220 million cars in North America alone) = big carbon dioxide emissions

Water, wind and solar created electicity = very little or no carbon dioxide emissions

Electric or hybrid fuelled cars = no carbon dioxide emissions or much less than a gas-only engine.

PS (That is the link to the Cdn Tire brochure I mentioned earlier.)  Therese you are the true "Blue Rod-Eco" fan.

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"Over straight and crooked miles
Falling out of favour or embraced
Wondering where was love...
It hadn't happened yet"
~Ron Sexsmith~

Nearest to all things
Patiently waiting
So let the angels sing
Silently weeping

Awww Ann... that's very sweet, thank you   And I couldn't agree with you more on what you said about electricity usage.

Here's something that will make you smile... when I was 17, I gave a presentation to my graduating high school class on the dangers of nuclear power (that was 31 years ago!).

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The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.

Haha Therese, when I was sixteen or seventeen I wrote a letter to the Hamilton Spectator about the depletion of cod stocks in the Atlantic because of an article that I'd read which was written by scientists and which warned of that danger.  People used to scoff at the idea that cod fishery wouldn't always be around if they kept pulling cod out of the ocean at the rate they were capable of at the time.  Just for a larf, I am going to see if I can find that letter.

People/governments listened to the scientists regarding the depletion of the ozone layer and fortunately, the ozone layer largely repaired itself after CFCs were banned for their ozone-damaging effects.

Steven Hawking, one of the most brilliant minds of our century was quoted in a Toronto Star article (that was printed right around the time of the Jim Cuddy Band's Revival recording), as saying that humans are making the planet uninhabitable.  I don't wonder where he is getting his info from.

Maybe it's time people sat up and listened to the scientists again.

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"Over straight and crooked miles
Falling out of favour or embraced
Wondering where was love...
It hadn't happened yet"
~Ron Sexsmith~

Nearest to all things
Patiently waiting
So let the angels sing
Silently weeping

I had a look at the Academy Awards thread and noticed that Ray (NYCBRFAN) had a comment about ethanol.

I read an article in the Toronto Star a couple of weeks ago that talked about cellulosic ethanol.  I couldn't find the link to the article but here is a link that has some info about cellulosic ethanol:  http://www.harvestcleanenergy.org/enews/enews_0505/enews_0505_Cellulosic_Ethanol.htm

What I like about cellulosic ethanol is that it can be made from plant waste.  Converting waste into resource was a main tenet of "The Ecology of Commerce" by Paul Hawken.

A crop that can be grown for cellulosic ethanol is switchgrass.  Here are a few links about it:  http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/switgrs.html

http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/home/switchgrass/ 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switchgrass (this link offers pros and cons of switchgrass for fuel)

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The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.