Eco Green Facts

Archive for February, 2011

By Unknown

Everyone is talking about ‘going green’. But what does going green mean? Essentially, that means that you are taking steps to lessen the impact your life and lifestyle has on the earth. We are in very blunt terms, killing our planet. It didn’t start with you or me, but you and I are only contributing to the problem now.

Even if you are doing all you can, you will inevitably come across someone who spouts out some ‘green’ term and you might want to know what they are talking about and not look like a dweeb. To understand all the lingo that is out there about going green, here are some basic definitions of terms you will come across:

Carbon dioxide emissions: Fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas emit carbon dioxide gas. You heat your home, drive a car, take a hot shower; you put carbon dioxide into the air. Another common way you will see carbon dioxide is as CO2.

Compost: Taking yard, kitchen vegetable matter, and gardening organic materials and putting them in a place where they can decompose. Compost is used mostly as mulch in a garden or to boost dirt in a garden.

Climate change: A world-wide change in temperatures and weather patterns.

Fossil fuels: Fossilized plants and animals that have become fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas.

Energy Star: An energy efficiency rating that the EPA gives to home electronics and appliances. These appliances and electronics are more efficient than ones without an energy star rating.

Carbon neutral: A person who has effectively negated their effect on the environment with carbon emissions and any other greenhouse gasses.

Greenhouse gasses: Those gasses such as carbon dioxide, methane, fluorinated gases, and nitrous oxide. These are the main gasses that contribute to global warming.

Global warming: The increase of temperatures around the world caused by an excessive amount of greenhouse gasses that are forced by the atmosphere to stay close to earth and hence cause the earth’s temperatures to rise.

Organic: In order to be labeled organic in the United States, any product needs to meet very strict requirements with the FDA. When food is involved, organic means that the food had been grown without artificial fertilizers or chemical pesticides.

Petroleum: Petroleum is also known as crude oil, and is a natural occurring fossil fuel. Being a nonrenewable resource, there is only so much of it in the world for us to use.

Some of these terms may seem obvious, but are key to understanding the concept of going green. What does going green mean? It means taking into account what you and yours do in your everyday life and the footprint you leave on this planet.

I have been writing since I was a little girl. I find that I like to write about a variety of current topics and popular subjects regarding everyday life. My interest recently involves remodeling a part of our basement for an in-law suite and began looking for a ventless washer dryer combo for a limited space situation until we can install a permanent laundry room. I discovered that there are a lot of choices when it comes to selecting a mini washer dryer to solve a limited laundry space problem.

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