Last year Girlawhirl found out all about the history of Earth Day. But this Sunday, she really wants to celebrate! She's been enthralled and amazed by so many earthly things, from the Grand Canyon to the French Riviera, so this year she's pulled together a roundup of some of the good things that people are doing to help save this beautiful planet we call Earth…
• Americans are recycling more and more every year! Since 1990, the amount of trash the average household recycles has doubled to about one third of what it produces. Girlawhirl knows that it's easier to recycle some things – like newspapers – than others – like batteries or even plastic bags – but she's found lots of great solutions by entering her zip code and searching recycling on the earth911.org website.
• Compact fluorescent light bulbs, which consume about a quarter of the energy of incandescent bulbs, are becoming de rigueur. Cuba and Venezuela started to phase out incandescent bulbs in 2005, and this year Australia announced that it will do the same. The EU is considering it, and so are the state of California and other local governments in the US. Wal-mart has pledged to sell 100 million compact fluorescent bulbs this year, which is more than double what they sold last year. It's such an easy way to reduce carbon emissions and users benefit too: lower energy consumption means lower electric bills and the bulbs last much longer.
• Biofuels are no longer futuristic: they're here! Homeowners who use oil heat can choose a biofuel option, cars are running on cooking oil, and the demand for ethanol is stronger than the supply. Algae is even being used as both a biofuel and as a CO2 ‘scrubber.'
• Thanks to a company called Nanosolar, solar panels are now as thin as aluminum foil and can be produced in a way that finally brings the cost of solar power down to levels competitive with gas and coal. When Nanosolar finishes its new solar cell factory, it will triple US capacity.
• Mini-windmills are the size of satellite dishes and are being manufactured and marketed for individual homes that have enough open space around them and a steady supply of wind.
• Electric cars are fast and ferocious! Or at least the Tesla Roadster is. It's completely electric but can go from 0 to 60 in about four seconds. With the ability to log 250 miles between charges and operational costs of about 1¢ per mile, it's no wonder that the first production run of 100 cars was sold out in three weeks – almost a year before the cars were to be delivered.
Girlawhirl Giveaway! A copy of It's Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth Friendly Living by Crissy Trask is part of this week's Girlawhirl Giveaway! You're already registered if you've signed up once and have a girlawhirl login. Not registered? sign up.