Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Earth Day Open Thread?

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–recycling work paper through a co-worker who takes it to his son’s school.

–replacing two drafty windows and making plans to replace more.

For the next year my goals are:

–farmer’s markets (for the environment and my health)

–look into composting

–maybe get around to rain barrels

A week or so ago, I discovered the Planet Green channel. Cool stuff. Yesterday I saw a show where they were working through ways to rebuild mangrove forests using a helicopter and dropping seedlings over large areas. I find the shows on their not only interesting, but inspirational. I plan to watch more of it.

What about you, BMGers? Add anything to you life to make things better? Plan to in the coming year?

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    • Go one step further and contact SunRun now!

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      p>SunRun is established in California and just launched in Massachusetts.  The basic idea is that you put some money down (~$1000), then SunRun installs a PV system on your house, and sells you the electricity at or below what you’re paying now, and does all the maintenance.  And that price is pretty much guaranteed to rise much slower than grid prices, so you’ll gain long-term.

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      p>It sounds almost too good to be true, but it’s not.  It’s all about the right incentives and the right financing; MA has good enough incentives (and high retail electricity prices), and SunRun has the financing.

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      p>I’m not affiliated with SunRun; I just went to high school with it’s President’s husband, and I’ve been following the company closely- it’s the approach that is really going to get solar off the ground.

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      p>Call 1.877.SUN.MOJO. Seriously!

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      p>

  2. to continue to fight for rail service across the state, to help reduce the number of cars on the road which adds to congestion and traffic jams which add to pollution in the air. A beautiful, functional, accessible, convenient, rail service to carry passengers here, there, and everywhere, with connecting bus service and shuttle buses to key locations once a person arrives at a rail stop. Pedestrian friendly streets so once a person arrives near their destination, they can walk the rest of the way, getting healthy exercise and fresh air.  
    Oh, what a glorious dream!  : )

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    p>I also love the idea of solar energy, have it in mind for my house in the future, and our town has been looking into making the town offices solarly energized.  

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    p>Tree planting is another great thing I love to do, could just go around and plant trees everywhere.

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    p>Picking up trash.  Gyod, I HATE trash.  We live right off of Rte 32 and it is amazing how many McDonalds bags, Dunkin Donuts cups, etc. are off on the side of the road. It is really disgusting.  I can’t even imagine throwing trash out the window of my car.  How can people do that?  So I will carry on with picking up other people’s trash.

    • I hear you on that one, live. I find my self picking up more scraps of paper and plastic recently. Last fall I was following a car from which a passenger launched a super sized McD’s cup. I was actually stunned. Used to be very common to see it when I was young, but hardly ever see it now, thankfully. Smokers are the worst. I’d donate to build a smoker’s lounge in a prominent place if I could get a bunch of smokers to commit to never throwing wrappers out their car window or never leave butts around.

      • Ours is this Saturday. Great activity for youngsters to get involved and become aware.  

  3. Notify all four credit bureaus with one phone call that you don’t want credit card applications by mail.

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    p>1-888-5-OPTOUT is an automated service run jointly by the four main credit bureaus. With one phone call you can opt out of pre-screened mailings from all four bureaus.

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    p>   1. Call 1-888-5-OPTOUT.
      2. Select option 2 to skip a message about an internet email (described below).
      3. Select option 2 to opt out of mailings permanently. Be careful, because option 1 only opts you out for two years.
      4. Follow the prompts to enter your phone number, name, zip code, address, and social security number.

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    p>I think this is still correct… careful on the automated options though…

    • I just called and if you pick 2 immediately you will continue en Español. So do listen to the options.

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      p>You can also do the exact same thing on the web, which is what I did. If you want a permanent opt-out, they need to mail you a form and you send it back in. You can do a five-year opt-out on line.

    • Sign up for Tonic MailStopper (formerly known as GreenDimes) to drastically cut back on all junk mail.

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      p>The difference from stomv’s suggestion (which I would do as well) is that this covers more stuff, but it ain’t free. $20 to get your name taken off of 6500 direct marketers’ lists and reduce your junkmail by 90%.

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      p>The rest of Tonic‘s site looks to be worth checking out as well.

      • Forgot to mention, when you sign up for MailStopper, they’ll plant five trees as well as cut back on your paper consumption.

      • I got rid of a lot of my junk mail signing up at a couple “do not mail” places that were free or cheap (I think $1), but of course, over time junk creeps back in (like, one time I ordered from a garden catalog, since then, I get like four different company’s catalogs as that company must have sold our name and address).

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        p>Still, we get almost NO credit card offers, nor other types of junk mail, it was definitely worth doing. I shred anything at all with our name and address so this cuts down on shredding time too.

  4. I spent part of my earth day meeting with the town administrator for Hopedale, which is yet another in a long list of communities that has money in the Renewable Energy Trust that they didn’t know about.  I’m going around to area towns to let them know about this money – one of the suggested uses for the funds is to mount a campaign to get more residents to sign up to Green Start, which ends up putting more money in the town’s account at the RET.  I’ll be putting coupons  for my services in those mailers – wish me luck!

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    p>Once my web site is up and running, I’ll be advertising here with BlogAds as well…

    • There’s money available in my community, but not much. Not very many people signed up. Might have to make one of my Earth Day Resolutions spreading the word about this in my community.

      • I put it into a spreadsheet, combining two PDF files, and then resorted it to find those towns that have a balance and haven’t touched it.  I found 202 towns with ove $1 million in unspent funds – from a low of Fitchburg, with just $10 to a high of Beverly, with almost $92,000!  In my town, we have over $9,000, and I’m working with our Board of Selectmen to get an energy committee together so we can access the funds and get some projects done.

    • of funds available and disbursed, as of January 1, by town (PDF):
      http://www.masstech.org/CleanE…

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      p>The Selectmen of my town knew nothing about the almost $30K sitting there waiting until I emailed them. Make sure your town officials know about this money.  

  6. If shame is a motivator, slap an “Ask me about the size of my penis” bumpersticker on every parked Hummer you see.
  7. Instead of killing weekend commuter-rail service, shut down the Mass Pike on Saturdays and Sundays.  The Turnpike Authority would save 2/7 of their operating expenses, and the air would be cleaner — as Sweet Baby James would say — “from Stockbridge to Boston”.
  8. Modern fuel-injected engines mean that no automobile should be left idling for more than 30 seconds.  If you see someone sitting in a car with the engine running, look concerned, and ask, “Is everything OK?  Your engine is still running, and I thought it was a suicide attempt.”  (Many people don’t know that there’s a state anti-idling law, although the limit is five minutes, during which time one Escalade could asphyxiate everyone in a one-block radius.)
  9. Take whatever money is being proposed to bail out the auto industry, figure out how many 2010 Honda Insights that would buy, and crush that many SUVs — in gross-vehicle-weight order — into scrap metal.  At that point, we would instantly have achieved independence from foreign oil.  Give coupons to the former owners of those SUVs for the first American production car to get 50mpg whenever it comes out.  Sit back and watch how fast the U.S. auto industry reconfigures itself.

    10. <

    p>I would go on, but there’s a torch-carrying mob approaching…

  10. fix them instead.

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    p>It is much cheaper, and will save you as much if not more energy, as well as not creating more trash for the dump.

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    p>Among other things, your wood window is made with is old growth lumber, un-available today.

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    p>A tight single pane window with a storm that fits is a better insulator than a new vinyl replacement window. And cheaper, and it can be repaired. The replacement window, when it breaks, as it will in 15-20 years, will be junk. NOT GREEN.

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    p>for more, goggle: New England Window Restoration Alliance, and look for “Top Ten Reasons to Restore and Repair Wood Windows”.

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    p>Jane the architect

  11. What we do now:
    – Compost (much to Mr. Lynne’s chagrin)
    – rain barrels (still working out the best way to utilize them)
    – Recycle EVERYthing our town allows us to, plastic #1-7, cans, and paper/chipboard/cardboard.
    – Grow our own garden
    – What we don’t grow, we get at the farmer’s market in Lowell
    – Of course, promoting green choices on my blog
    – Mr. Lynne commutes to Boston by train, we barely drive

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    p>What we are/will be doing:
    – Taking part in Lowell’s Getting to Zero contest (if we win, we’ll be doing a LOT! like PV, new efficient boiler, etc)
    – Fixing all the air leaks in the house that the door blower test we got through the Getting to Zero contest showed us, even if we don’t win.
    – Grow an indoor garden for real next winter (including foodstuffs and herbs). We have a really sunny, warm, four season sun room in the house that is mostly used right now for storage, a waste!
    – Maybe insulating our basement, which is finished and uninsulated right now. I didn’t know that concrete was such a terrible insulator, but I do now!

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    p>That’s all the stuff I can think of right now…

    • I don’t mind composting, once it’s outside!  I grew up with composting.

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      p>”Grow an indoor garden for real next winter.”
      If we have room after I buy timpani. đŸ˜‰

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      p>”I didn’t know that concrete was such a terrible insulator.”
      Not necessarily.

      <

      p>

      • Somebody call up C.O.P.S. so they can film this.  Oh wait… you mean they’re simply disagreeing politely.  BORE-RING.

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