Willits Wildlife Rehab Team

Archive for the ‘Outdoor Recreation’ Category

Each spring, as Americans head for the great outdoors, millions of volunteers rally for the nation’s largest annual community improvement program. It’s a great way to enjoy some fresh air, spend quality time with the family, meet new friends and make a difference in your community’s environment. Over 15,000 communities across the nation are rallying to clean up, green up and fix up their neighborhoods. Their combined efforts preserve America’s natural beauty for all to enjoy.

Keeping America beautiful does not have to be a daunting task; there are many ways to lend a hand. People can get involved by joining in one or more of the 30,000 Great American Cleanup activities taking place throughout all 50 states through the end of May. Anytime of the year, you can follow these five steps for combating litter, reducing waste and beautifying communities:

• Recycle. Find out how to recycle in your area and do your part. Also, try to “complete the loop” by purchasing recycled products whenever possible.

• Reuse the products you can. There are hundreds of uses for everyday items such as plastic grocery bags, food and beverage containers or scrap paper.

• Properly dispose of cigarette butts. If you smoke, carry a personal ashtray and always use public ashtrays when smoking outdoors. Quitting smoking is good for both your health and the environment.

• Create a beautiful green space by planting trees, flowers and shrubs in an area in need of improvement in your community.

• Teach a child about personal responsibility, the environment and recycling. It’s important that future generations understand and respect the environment. Hands-on community improvement events like the Great American Cleanup are a great way to spend some time with the kids.

America’s companies are also dedicated to supporting and sponsoring the efforts for the 2006 Great American Cleanup. The 2006 Great American Cleanup National Sponsors are American Honda Motor Company, Inc., Firestone Complete Auto Care™ TiresPlus®, GLAD® ForceFlex® Trash Bags from The Glad Products Company, Pepsi-Cola Company, SAM’S CLUB®, Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, Sparkle® Paper Towels from Georgia-Pacific Corporation, Troy-Bilt®, Waste Management, Inc. and the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. Educational Partner: Rubber Manufacturers Association.

The trend toward homes that are powered by alternative energy sources, ranging from wind turbines and solar collection cells to hydrogen fuel cells and biomass gases, is one that needs to continue into the 21st century and beyond. We have great need of becoming more energy independent, and not having to rely on the supplying of fossil fuels from unstable nations who are often hostile to us and our interests. But even beyond this factor, we as individuals need to get “off the grid” and also stop having to be so reliant on government-lobbying giant oil corporations who, while they are not really involved in any covert conspiracy, nevertheless have a stranglehold on people when it comes to heating their homes (and if not through oil, then heat usually supplied by grid-driven electricity, another stranglehold).

As Remi Wilkinson, Senior Analyst with Carbon Free, puts it, inevitably, the growth of distributed generation will lead to the restructuring of the retail electricity market and the generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure. The power providers may have to diversify their business to make up for revenues lost through household energy microgeneration. She is referring to the conclusions by a group of UK analysts, herself included among them, who call themselves Carbon Free. Carbon Free has been studying the ever-growing trend toward alternative energy-using homes in England and the West. This trend is being driven by ever-more government recommendation and sometimes backing of alternative energy research and development, the rising cost of oil and other fossil fuels, concern about environmental degradation, and desires to be energy independent. Carbon Free concludes that, assuming traditional energy prices remain at their current level or rise, microgeneration (meeting all of one’s home’s energy needs by installing alternative energy technology such as solar panels or wind turbines) will become to home energy supply what the Internet became to home communications and data gathering, and eventually this will have deep effects on the businesses of the existing energy supply companies.

Carbon Free’s analyses also show that energy companies themselves have jumped in on the game and seek to leverage microgeneration to their own advantage for opening up new markets for themselves. Carbon Free cites the example of electricity companies (in the UK) reporting that they are seriously researching and developing ideas for new geothermal energy facilities, as these companies see geothermal energy production as a highly profitable wave of the future. Another conclusion of Carbon Free is that solar energy hot water heating technology is an efficient technology for reducing home water heating costs in the long run, although it is initially quite expensive to install. However, solar power is not yet cost-effective for corporations, as they require too much in the way of specialized plumbing to implement solar energy hot water heating. Lastly, Carbon Free tells us that installing wind turbines is an efficient way of reducing home electricity costs, while also being more independent. However, again this is initially a very expensive thing to have installed, and companies would do well to begin slashing their prices on these devices or they could find themselves losing market share.