Palm | Kelapa Sawit

Summer 2011 Multimedia Capstone Class Website

IT'S COMING! The summer 2011 multimedia capstone class is preparing to launch its WEBSITE about preserving diversity. It’s loaded with information, fun stuff for kids, ideas, and solutions for what you can do to preserve biodiversity in the world and in your own backyard.

Here’s a sneak peek!

Five Things You Can Do to Preserve Biodiversity

1. Recycle grey water. It’s not just for flushing down the sink. You can use the grey water in your home to water your garden. What is grey water? It can be the water from your humidifier, water from the pasta pot, or when you steam corn-on-the-cob.

2. Do you know how much greenhouse gas you are emitting? Use the EPA’s Household Emissions Calculator to find out.

3. Grow vegetables in your own garden. Make sure to freeze, or can enough for the winter months. Did you know that August 13 is National Can-it-Forward Day? Check out all the fun events!

4. Buy air-conditioning and refrigeration units using refrigerant, which emits limited CFCs into our air. And while you are at, up the air conditioner temperature by two degrees. Lowers energy and saves $$$.

5. Plan, plan, plan. When running errands try to get everything you need in close proximity, and in only one trip. Also gives you more time to spend in your vegetable garden!

Tell us some of the ideas you have to preserve biodiversity. Comment here or visit the EcoMerge Facebook page to post your idea. And while you're at it, Like us!

Posted by Renee Castillo

Wasted energy is a topic I am very familiar with but conserving energy is one I am not as informed about. Over the past few weeks I have noticed my everyday tasks that are victims of phantom energy and I had never even thought about or paid attention to. I have a bad habit of leaving my computer on overnight, falling asleep with the TV on, leaving lights on in an empty room and less obvious habits such as not unplugging the coffee maker, cell phone charger and other such items.
I thought it would be a good idea to check out Energy Star’s website and see if there was any energy saving techniques I could pick up. I browsed the products page and clicked on battery charges. I learned that energy efficient battery charges are able to save 1 billion kilowatt hours of energy per year, which amounts to more than $100 million, each year, in America alone. The energy efficient battery chargers also prevent more than 1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is the equivalent of emissions produced from 150,000 cars. Americans have approximately 230 million products at their disposal that use battery charging systems and 11% of the national electric bill is from those systems. It is surprising how much energy is wasted from such a tiny unit and when we have a simple solution available to us. I guess the main reason is that we are uneducated about our everyday wasteful habits. I recommend you check out Energy Star’s website: http://www.energystar.gov/ and learn how you can save money and energy. It is difficult to be completely committed to energy conservation but if everyone makes small efforts towards reducing their own waste, it will add up to a big savings.