More on Living the Green Life

I have written, several times in the past, about the importance of living the “green life”. We were especially affected in the past few years in the Atlanta area with an extreme water shortage. Not the problem this year as you may have noticed lately the Atlanta area has begun a cycle of too much water causing floods and massive destruction of homes and businesses in areas where there have never been flood problems before. So the old adage “feast or famine” could easily be restated as either “drought or flood”. Human nature always prevails to result in us being unhappy wither way. The reality is, though, that our world is changing regarding weather, natural resources and economic forces and for years many of us have kept our heads in the sand ignoring the long term possibilities. Well the chickens are coming home to roost and more and more of us as beginning to come to the realization that we must start conserving our resources and living more of a green life. Personally I got my first lesson some 15 years ago when my oldest son decided to leave a high paying job, living the good life, to sell everything and move to a small farm in central Tennessee. His property had an old house on it that I am told (because I wasn’t allowed to actually come see the place for fear of a nervous breakdown) you could see light through the cracks in the walls, he had to use and outhouse, cooked on a wood stove, had no telephone, running water nor electric power because of its remoteness and even yet today has no availability of a TV signal. He gardened and raised much of his own food, worked with a food bank to glean farmer’s fields and to coordinate the U.S. WIC program to distribute milk, cheese and other products to the needy in his county. Today he has a small electrical service to provide refrigeration and to run minimum lighting and a microwave. He has blocked all the holes to make the house airtight tapped a spring and run water to his house. He still uses the outhouse and still cooks on the wood stove. More importantly I have finally conceded that he is happy and doing what he thinks is appropriate for his life and for what little of society that he affects
An article on AOL’s “Walletpop” this past weekend brought to mind things that we can all do more easily than you think to live a greener life without going to the extremes that my son did. According to the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), there are lots of reasons to go green:
• Lowers energy consumption
• Reduces operating costs in the home by increasing efficiency
• Conserves natural resources
• Increases the value of the home
• Improves indoor air quality and in turn, overall health
• Reduces waste and emissions
• Lowers pollution causing less harm to the environment
• Increases productivity of occupants
• Improves quality of life and raises comfort
• Saves money The same article points out the Top Ten Ways to Implement Green Into Your Home. Green remodeling can be done in small ways and doesn't necessarily have to encompass the entire home. It's easy to pick and choose elements that fit each particular homeowner.
• Use non-toxic paints and sealants
• Install programmable thermostats
• Invest in energy efficient appliances (Energy Star)
• Install natural flooring (bamboo is a prime choice)
• Use local building materials
• Choose natural fiber rugs and materials
• Select recycled material roof shingles and tiles
• Specify energy efficient lighting (compact fluorescents)
• Insulate your hot water lines
• Landscape with native plants None of these things are expensive to implement and can certainly be done in a staged scheduled fashion.To read the NARI complete article go to:
http://www.nari.org/homeowners/tips/greenremodeling.asp

No you don’t have to pitch out the stove and start taking cold showers from the spring nor trot out to the outhouse in the middle of the night. No I still stay at the local motel rather than enjoy my son’s hospitality when I go to visit but it makes me no less proud of his achievements and conviction, but the reality is that we all have to start doing our own little sacrifices to start conserving what we have left in our natural resources and to better our taxed economic situations.