[litespeed]

pepercorn & allen

I get it now. Warm clothing IS way more efficient then coal fired power plants. It also helps if you simply acclimatize yourself to cooler ambient temperatures. This is not as hard as it might seem. Just turn down your thermostat over a week or two, and you will be surprised how soon you will forget the 'Jumper'.  I just checked my home thermometer and it reads 64%F.

Sitting here at the computer in a simple long sleaved shirt seems actually warm. I could do it in short sleaves.  This is nothing I have done to 'save the planet' but is simply the result of a natural inclination to efficiencies.  Also, for several years I lived in a house boat that, in Winter, could not be heated much above 55F.

It reminds me of a Mark Twain Story about moving West.  He very significantly noted how Native Americans riding on the train seemed immune to cold weather, and might even be seen without extra clothing at all.  Bare skin while the White Passengers were all huddled up in blankets.  I believe it.

[AllenG]

I live in Georgia, about an hour due east of Atlanta.
A couple of summers ago I visited Inishmore, one of the Aran islands off the coast of Ireland.
I was freezing.  The beach was filled with Norwegians splashing around in the North Atlantic. 

They were covering themselves in sunblock, I was covering myself in heavy wool.

The body can acclimate to an amazing range of temperatures. I'm sure if the Norwegians had been visiting Georgia they would have been sweltering in our 95º days. To me anything under body temp is not too bad and I'm not driven indoors until it hits about 105º or so.

[litespeed]

Allen

I live in the North Georgia Mountains not all that far from you. However, we do not suffer either the high temperatures or humidity that plague just about the entire East Coast of the US, including Atlanta [we are about 1,000 ft higher]. Many Floridians come here for the summer, and return to Florida for 'The Winter'. HA!

I spent thirteen years in the purgatory known elsewhere as Chicago Land. The North Georgia Mountains have no Winter that I can identify as such over the last decade. In fact, Chicago type Winters are actually life threatening. I commuted by train one half mile walk on each side. My closet was hung with specific coats for specific temperatures.

My best one was home made. I took a Burbery Trench coat and added an extra liner from another trench coat. Then I filled the space between the two liners with quilted ticking, sort of like the old Mao coats. It was good from about ten degrees F. above zero to about thirty below. And it looked GOOD. Not like a Michelan man. From that I worked up with outer clothing designed for about ten degree intervals.

Man, I can not tell you how wonderful life is when you only need one or two separate coats for the entire year.

PS: Here is a funny story about Chicago Land that reveals more then you really need to know about the local character. Having moved to Naperville from DC I would catch the train at the local station bound for 'Da Loop'.  Its cold as hell but I am comfy in my custom burberry and Bavarian style hat.

The train holds about 1,000 passengers, about half of whom enter from the Naperville Platform. So I am looking around me and see hundreds of passengers accumulated at the specific places where the doors will open. Almost all of them are in the regulation Chicago Winter uniform that consists of nothing more then a long wool or mohair jacket, and no hats. IMHO only good for 32 degrees or above.

I'm thinking these guys are REALLY tough, and what a wimp I must be, dressed up in a custom made rain coat just for such weather. Then the train pulls up and stops. The doors open, and the fifty or so passengers in my gaggle begin filing on.  Not ten seconds later they ALL come RUNNING out and DASH to the next car just in time. There was actual fear in some of their faces.

So. What was all this panic about? The car had lost its heating and these guys were already at their very limit just waiting to get on. I simply sat down and read the newspaper in my nearly empty car. Chicago Land. It only got worse over the years....

[AllenG]

As a child we used to have a place in Hiawassee to escape the heat.
There was a swimming hole there called, The Blue Hole.  It is called such because your lips would turn blue when you swam in it.  When we first would arrive the best you could do is wade in knee or waist deep for a few minutes.  By the end of the week we would just dive in and start splashing around. 
When I would return home the community pool would feel like bath water. I could feel myself sweating in the water.

[litespeed]

Allen - I live just a few miles from Hiawasee!  It was a deliberate choice based on lots of climate research plugged into a Lotus Spread Sheet. Basically, the local area has the best four seasons climate in the US. Perhaps the entire planet. Furthermore, the local area is awash in golf courses, spectacular lakes [I had a houseboat and ran the entire 175 mile shoreline several times], good enough restaurants and both major and minor cultural activities.

For instance, we have the world famous Campbell School of Craft arts. You can buy a $500 hand woven basket, or learn blacksmithing as well as very high level woodworking crafts and a multitude of musical workshops. Very high level stuff.

We also have a school of lapidary arts that includes gem cutting and identification. Cabachon and precious metals workshops as well as many sorts of mineral field trips. I actually found a small perfect ruby that was so good it got stolen from the field buckets!

I also belong to the local gun club that has a very good 100 yard range with a covered firing line. It has a multitude of competitive activities including Cow Boy Action Shooting, and some very good trap shooters. I got my 50 in a row badge a couple of years ago.

The local college is going from two year courses to full four years, with all the activities that brings, plus The Georgia Mountain Fair has a full roster of talent and shows. Willy Nelson performed recently. There is even a decent local independent playhouse that seats more then 500 people. 

Property taxes are about one tenth paid in Chicago, and the house itself about half price but with three or for times as much lot space. A similar view in California would add one million to the price, but you might not have good parking.

Despite all this, it is still a backwater and I miss DC. The actual biggest news in years here was that Wallmart recently opened an new store. I recently sold the boat since I had used up the lake and it got boring after about 900 miles of slow cruising. A covered slip cost a small fortune of about $200 per month. The boat wasn't worth much more then a single years slip fee anyway.

But I babble on.  I sing the merits of the place because I am a bit of a booster. Brand new never occupied houses are available for about $180K and are in plentiful supply. Most of them have two bedrooms two baths plus garage on about one acre. Come one come all! The market will eventually rebound and you will miss all the bargains! Only two hours from from the Atlanta Airport on a multi lane road!

Am I off subject.....

[litespeed]

"What are the simplest ways to "go green".

Do like I do. Don't procreate.

[ksushil970]

Go green... try to make your city clean and green.Then there is only one cure of this problem that grow more plants as one can. If everyone aware to this then this will be quite helpful to all. And make the way simple go green.

[SeanB]

I will add a simple one - use less washing powder. I use a longer cold cycle, but less than half the detergent. Clothes come out as clean, and I hang them outdoors to dry, or indoors if it is raining. I also only wash when I have a full load, so once a week. Half the detergent into the drain ( and here straight into the sea via a pipeline) and I use 45l of water extra ( 3 fills instead of 2). Now a box of washing detergent lasts for a year, not like some people who go through 3 boxes a month. Tried the tumble drier last month for the first time in years, to see if it still worked, on a cold cycle as it was raining. I also use less than half a measure of softener, lasts longer, clothes as soft and wrinkle free. To reduce ironing hang them while damp and they dry crease free, often not needing ironing.

[Don_1]

I am not normally one to agree with the 'nanny state' policies of government, but yesterday I heard a radio 'public information' broadcast which I do find myself in agreement with.

The subject of this broadcast was waste food. The UK is estimated to waste 20% of its food. If we were to buy 20% less food, that would mean 20% production cuts, which would mean a reduction in oil based fertilisers, fungicides, pesticides, transport, processing, storage, packaging etc. It would also mean a welcome reduction in the cost of each visit to the supermarket, at a time of economic difficulty.

There is, however, a waste problem created by the supermarkets. Those 'BOGOF's and other similar promotions encourage people to buy more than they need. All too often, it is cheaper to buy 3 than it is to buy 2. That's all very well where tins of beans are concerned, but not where perishables are concerned. For example, a 5kg bag of spuds retails at £4.50, two bags will cost £9.00, but buy 3 bags and you benefit from the promotional price of £10.00 for three. If Mrs Jones normally buys 3 bags a week, then that's fine. But Mrs Brown who normally buys 2 bags a week will be sorely tempted to pay the extra £1 to get a third bag, thus saving herself £3.50 on next weeks shopping. However, Mrs Brown buys one bag the following week, only to find that the extra bag she bought the previous week is now beginning to go off. Mrs Brown now finds herself throwing 3.5 kgs of that older 5 kg bag in the bin. This is supermarket induced waste.

I do realise that these promotions can be a saving for some and that the supermarket must buy in extra stock to enable the promotion. But would it not be better to simply reduce the price per bag/kilo/item, to enable those who can make use of the offer do so rather than encourage, or sometimes even force all customers, to buy more than they might require.

By coincidence, Rhod Gilbert (one of my favourite comedians around today) made this the subject of his act on the Royal Variety Performance last night.... Go here* and drag the scroll bar to 45mins to let Rhod explain and give you a laugh into the bargain, a BOGOF, I can recommend.

*May only be available to those in the UK right now, but doubtless will be on You Tube soon enough.

[techmind]

It is annoying that the smallest quantities of cream or creme-fraiche that the supermarket sells is about 3-4 times as much as I usually want. And of course it won't keep.       You can't get really small bags of peanuts from the supermarket (you have to buy some from the pub round the corner - at a similar price that the supermarket charges for the unnecessarily big packet).

Be aware that there is an oft-quoted "statistic" that about a third of the food we buy in the UK is wasted... but if you follow the source of this stat (as they did on BBC Radio 4's "More or Less") is transpires the "waste" includes meat-bones, eggshells and various other inedible parts of the food! So the reality is not quite that bad.

[Nicolas.Richards1982]

There are definetely some ways how each individuam can improve the environment by "going green". However, in many contries it has to come from the government structures first. It's interesting that for e.g. India, that is far behind Eastern countries like Russia, has developed much more projects in order to raise sustainability. The topic of sustainable development in India, particularly in urban areas, is really widely discussed. An example of such projects in India: newbielink:http://www.siemens.co.in/sustainable-development-in-india/ [nonactive]