Envriomental disscussion and tips to save our planet

**sknut70** · March 16th, 2009

We are doing a lot better with the forestry thing as well. at least in the Northeast US. I belong to the Appalachian mountain club, and have been reading about the conservation efforts. They have worked out with the paper companies in Maine to keep the forest a running farming forest as well as working with other organizations to conserve the Maine forest.

however, the deforestation of Africa and the Amazon is a real hurt to us right now .

the longer summers, the shortened winters, the change the hatching of certain bugs, which changes the diet of certain birds which changes eco systems all over the place.

a little ripple like changing the date of a caterpillar hatching could lead to extinction of a certain bird, which could lead to the over population of pests. mosquitoes carry more diseases now, at least in my area.

brownmouse · March 16th, 2009

Originally Posted by poisonbat

I know I will catch flack for this but here it goes. Christmas Trees... It is horrible to chop down these beautiful trees for 2 weeks of Human pleasure just to be dumped on the curb brown and dead at the end of the holiday.

It is pine tree Armageddon. Especially the Majestic tree in Times Square. This tree is usually around 65-100 years old and is decorated for simple human pleasure and then discarded when it has finally been drained of it's life.

Ok I am off my soap box now.

Yeah- I know how you feel. If it makes you feel any better the majority of Christmas trees grow super fast. Also you can get a live one and then donate it to a park. And, one last plus, the dead trees make great squirrel homes during the winter. Any better?

**cunninghamair** · March 16th, 2009

I recycle religiously and just bought a Kindle!

**JayneH** · March 16th, 2009

It is Earth Hour on Saturday 28th March 2009 at 8.30pm in your local time zone.
Just switch off all electrical appliances and light switches for one hour.
http://www.earthhour.org/about/ is the link if you want to check it out. We do it here every year.

I have a worm farm in the back yard for all kitchen scraps.
for lawn scraps I have a compost heap down the back of the property.
All tree prunings and heging gets put through a shredder and put back into the garden as mulch.
Only use free range eggs and buy free range chickens.
Air con only goes on at the end of the day once the sun has gone down and switches off automatically 1 hour after going to bed. We dont need air con when we're asleep

We have solar hot water and am hoping to get a solar power system on some time this year so we can provide electricity back to the grid in off peak times.
Only plant native plants so no watering required.
I could go on......

**sknut70** · March 17th, 2009

buying a christmas tree from a tree farm is more earth friendly than buying the plastic things. The tree farm does not chop down forests, and the plastic things end up in landfills.I am terribly guilty however. I bought a plastic thing last year. sigh.. I could not deal with the pine needles I would continue to find through out the year.

Geothermal engery is a great way to heat your home. It is a large cost initially, but in the US, there are programs where you get reimbursed for some of the costs. also, you make alot of electricity. people can actually make more electricity than they need and they sell it back to the Electric company. that is a great money saver. I dont have it but I sure would like to.